On Oct. 5, course listings for spring registration were made available to Florida State University students. Naturally, students immediately began adding courses to their carts in preparation for the chaos that would ensue the following week when registration opened. Given the restrictions put in place for the fall semester, most courses being offered were strictly remote.
With the coronavirus being highly prevalent during the start of the fall semester, this trend to keep classes online was to be expected. Not to mention, many students are not living on campus, or even in Tallahassee but rather at home, giving more reason to have a remote spring semester. Shockingly, on Oct. 7 students received an email announcing that the 10 person-meeting policy was now being bumped up to 50. At this point, students could come to one conclusion: more in-person classes for the spring semester.
Whether or not the existence of the pandemic is a hindrance to daily life or a genuine problem to be taken seriously is strongly debated amongst FSU students. Many of these arguments rise within the FSU student-sanctioned Facebook groups. Although, with the decrease in positive COVID-19 tests at FSU, many may see the administration’s choice to loosen up guidelines and restrictions in terms of gatherings as reasonable.
Coupled with this announcement, registration was pushed back to Oct. 26 in order to add more face-to-face classes and make the necessary adjustments. There is much speculation surrounding Florida State’s decision to offer more in-person classes for spring. Of course, some students note that using Zoom is a much different learning experience, and would much rather see the fruits of their labor via in-person classes. This too would justify the administration’s push towards an in-person spring as they may want to assist student needs as much as possible. After all, college does indeed come with a hefty price tag. Moreover, numbers are going down, and there are seeing fewer COVID-19 cases every week. Another aspect to consider, as mentioned by FSU staff and professors, is that in order to maintain funding, FSU must keep the classroom utilization rate at 80 percent.
Students with pre-determined living arrangements for spring are lucky in the sense that if any of the courses they were looking to take end up switching from remote to in-person, they have the solution to attend classes as necessary. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many others. There have been several instances in which students are worried about living arrangements, the fees that are added to online courses and what case numbers will look like come spring semester.
The decision to make arrangements for more face-to-face classes in spring is surely a hot topic of debate, and students will see what their prospective schedules may look like come Oct. 26. For the most current updates regarding Florida State University’s academic calendar, click here.
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