As students deal with painstaking hours in front of a computer screen, ending days with strained eyes, the news of undergraduate courses returning to campus by late October may seem like a saving grace. However, despite Chapman’s commitment to protocols and the eagerness of many to return to Chapman’s beautiful campus, it simply is not time to go back.

From a publicity and marketing standpoint, a return to Chapman sounds rather smart. Being the school that handled a worldwide pandemic creates nationwide exposure, leading to a possible increase in recruitment – this may sound like a formula for success. On the downside, jumping the gun in a way that risks student and faculty safety could lead to immense backlash and crippling lawsuits. Take for instance the University of North Carolina, which is being sued by staff and faculty following an attempt to reopen campus despite surging COVID-19 cases.  

 Although Orange County may be inching out of the red and into the orange zone in terms of COVID-19 restrictions, 209 new cases and six deaths were reported Oct. 2 alone. Even if Chapman is able to bring students back to the classroom in a safe manner, non-socially distanced interactions, unintentional physical contact and even parties are inevitable outside the classrooms. Schools all over the nation, including Florida State University, the University of California, Berkeley and even Merrimack College (with less than half the student population of Chapman) haven’t found success in suppressing parties or social gatherings that further spread the coronavirus. Holding every individual student accountable would serve as a near-impossible task to achieve for Chapman staff and faculty.

We cannot treat colleges returning to campus on a case-by-case basis. It only takes one asymptomatic case to spread nationwide. So it won’t be until the country, much less Orange County, has seen zero new reported COVID-19 cases for two weeks or more that I, as well many teachers, feel it will be truly safe to return. 

Many are calling for courses that require a physical presence to return first, like Rinker Health Science students at Chapman or those engaged in fields related to biochemistry, physics, engineering and performing arts. We should not prioritize these classes without a nation-wide standardized protocol.

Students today tend to hold an egocentric, competitive belief that, “Others are developing their skills while I’m falling behind.” We must remember that this pandemic has us all in the same boat and not returning to in-person classes won’t play a monumental role in your career. The year 2020 will be marked with a small asterisk symbol next to it that employers, on any scale, will understand and sympathize with.

As a first-year student, I would prefer my initial experiences at Chapman to be of utmost normality. I’ve already begun my college life behind a screen, but I’d rather it continue that way than spend it behind a mask, six feet away from my nearest peer and have a swab up my nose on a daily basis.

No matter the situation, I feel as though I wouldn’t get a true Chapman experience attending lectures at 25% room capacity, deprived of football games, parties and club events. That’s not to mention the students who will opt-out of returning to campus due to lack of housing, familial pressures or any additional restricting factors. From a social perspective, it’s quite possible any friendships I’m hoping to make in my first year will be found in the students that remain at home.

Put the eagerness on pause and reconsider the idea of returning to campus for a time when safety is a guarantee, not a coin toss.