Adhered to Social Distancing

By Brooke Greene / Staff writer

The signs are seemingly on every door.

“This room has been adhered to to meet the social distancing requirements.”

Or, at least, that is what the sheet of paper says in all the classrooms on campus. Some students have complained or acknowledged the obvious lack of social distancing among some of the classrooms at Hutchinson Community College, more so downstairs in the Parker Student Union than any other building.

“I have noticed this in most of my classes. In several of my classes, people sit next to each other and move around the room often,” said Emma Wright, Little River. “It doesn’t concern me since there are no positive cases on campus. If they are wanting to be socially distanced, they need to apply it everywhere, not just where it’s easiest.”

Smaller rooms inevitably leave less space to place students, while the large ones offer an adequate amount of space to breathe comfortably. With this conflict, words of distaste, and insecurity in the minds of students’ as their safety fluctuates when they are forced to go from large classrooms, such as the Justice Theater in Shears Technology Center or Waldo Auditorium in Lockman Hall, to the basement classrooms of the student union with too-close-for-comfort numbers of bodies in the room.

“There is some distance from side to side but not with the row in front or behind in the classes in the science hall,” said Jace Losew, Hutchinson sophomore. “The overall scare is definitely lower. I think that the entirety of dealing with the virus is not too bad. At least people are informed on what to do, unlike last spring.”

Experience has been a saving grace this semester. Students seem more at ease now that they know what to expect and understand what they need to do if they get sick or encounter someone who has been sick or exposed. It has proven to be an unfortunate, but essential educational benefit to all of us.

“We are further apart than we would have been otherwise, and since we all wear our masks, I’m not too concerned about it,” said Hunter Spoon, Yates Center, who has recovered from COVID-19 himself.

While some students feel unsafe with the seating being insufficient in many of the classrooms, it does go to show that HutchCC has maintained a relatively safe start to the semester with no positive cases as of presstime. This means the students, faculty and staff are doing something right.

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