Word on the Street: How do Cal Poly students feel about COVID-19 protocols on campus?
By Sophie Corbett
This fall quarter, Cal Poly’s campus looks almost as normal as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic with most classes, events and activities being held in person. Still, the university has many precautions in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
One of these precautions is requiring all students to get a COVID-19 vaccination. However, this requirement does allow for religious and medical exemptions. In a campus-wide email sent out on September 20, Cal Poly President Armstrong reported that 93% of Cal Poly students are fully vaccinated.
“That’s really good. That’s a lot higher than I expected it to be,” environmental engineering freshman Faynor said.
Cal Poly is also requiring students to wear masks indoors at all times and everyday students must fill out a self-screener to report symptoms and potential exposure. If students are cleared to access campus, they will then be presented a ‘campus pass’ with a green smiley face on it. The campus pass is theoretically required to enter all classrooms and to access other in-person services on campus. It’s up to professors to enforce mask wearing and check campus passes.
According to some students, not all professors do enforce these protocols.
“It’s certainly a mix depending on the professor, but I’ve found that it’s an even split,” biomedical engineering senior Kaisei Tokita said.
Biology freshman Christina Benitez has had a different experience with professors enforcing COVID-19 guidelines.
“Our mask goes below our nose and they’re always telling us to put it back on,” Benitez said.
While Benitez said she feels relatively safe with the COVID-19 protocols in place, there are some aspects of being back in person that are a little concerning.
“It is kind of strange when we have to gather around and we’re in big groups but I mean other than that everybody’s safe,” Benitez said.
So far there have been no COVID-19 outbreaks linked to in person classes at Cal Poly.
