A petition to delay in-person classes rapidly spread to Nova Southeastern University students prior to the start of the fall semester, following the Dec. 30 statement made by President George Hanbury about the Omicron variant.
The statement read, “NSU will resume all classes in their regularly scheduled format in January (including in-person, hybrid, and online). However, to add an extra layer of protection against community spread of the virus, and with an abundance of caution, we will be requiring face masks not only in all NSU indoor facilities, but outdoor locations as well, regardless of vaccination status.”
The petition was created on change.org and was directed to President Hanbury. The petition reads “As [COVID-19] cases continues to rise, NSU students are becoming more concerned as to why the university is continuing with in-person learning… However, our neighboring school, The University of Miami, is going virtual for the first few weeks to eliminate the spread of Omicron amongst their campus. The threat of the newest variant is not the only concern on the students’ minds. Transportation is becoming less accessible via aircraft because airports are facing cancelations due to multiple circumstances. It is largely known that majority of the student body is not from Florida, and many students are already rescheduling flights… please sign this petition to encourage NSU to go virtual until the cases slow and it is safe to return.”
Despite having over 400 signatures, the university started the semester as planned. NSU sophomore biology major, Danielle Grossfeld, signed the petition and expressed her concern for the current conditions on campus.
“I was in a GroupMe for one of my previous classes and somebody from that chat sent the link. I really agreed with [the petition] and I was really happy that someone decided to do that because I think it’s really important as students for us to get our voices out,” Grossfeld said.
Grossfeld also mentioned that though there is a mask mandate, there seems to be a lack of enforcement.
“They have this mask mandate, but I see people every day, anytime I go somewhere with no mask on, somebody should be enforcing it,” she explained.
Though NSU students have expressed concern, Beth Welmaker, the executive director of environment health and safety, said that the daily COVID-19 count has decreased since the start of the semester.
Welmaker shared the daily COVID-19 case reporting numbers to show the trend of the data. She discussed that she looks at the daily reported numbers to see what direction the trend is going in. Before the start of school on Jan. 1, 46 people reported that they had COVID-19. On Jan. 13, 28 people reported that day that they had COVID-19, and on Jan. 19, 25 people reported that they had COVID-19.
“We’ve been consistently going down… Jan. 3 I had the most cases reported but most of those cases were telling me, ‘Hey, when I was on break, I got [COVID-19].’ These were not people who currently had COVID-19,” said Welmaker.
Welmaker emphasized the fact that the university is monitoring cases closely and has resources like case managers to aid students with COVID-19.
“Student medical provides testing for anyone who is exposed or is exhibiting symptoms, we now have student medical at the Commons,” Welmaker said.
For COVID-19 updates with the university visit https://www.nova.edu/coronavirus/index.html .
