The current juniors don’t have it much better. They experienced a little bit of a normal year, but all that changed after spring break. Fest season, most of spring classes and spring finals week were all taken away from the juniors. Since then, they have not experienced normalcy as university students.
The current seniors are the only class currently at Ohio University who have experienced an actual, full year of college. This is going to create an interesting dynamic at OU this year.
There are not going to be a lot of students that feel like they have a decent amount of experience with or on campus. There will be two classes that have no clue, one class with a little bit of an idea and one class that knows, but it has been so long since they needed to know.
I imagine there will be a bit more confused students than usual at the locations of certain buildings. There will be a lot more students than in previous years doing group work on floors of the library where being quiet is an unspoken rule. There will be a lot of people who don’t know what the question “Open or closed?” means at a bar. There will be a lot of people who struggle to get up Jeff Hill – we’ve all lost the stamina we once had for it or have never gotten a chance to build it up.
It would have been impossible to predict that this is where we would be back during spring break of 2020. There have been a lot of changes in the past year that all have set off a chain reaction, but this is one most people did not consider. There will be – essentially – three classes of freshmen at Ohio University this year.
The aspect of the college experience that this will likely impact the most is the social scene. A lot of students right now aren’t totally aware of all of the social etiquette that comes with a college social life. This is something that comes with time and experience, something that a lot of current bobcats haven’t had.
Mikayla Rochelle is a graduate student studying public administration at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Tell Mikayla by tweeting her at @mikayla_roch.