UCF students move forward
Move-in weekend moves forward despite concerns
Move-in weekends at the University of Central Florida are typically characterized by packed parking lots and families exploring campus with their incoming students. But a drive around Gemini Boulevard on Saturday showed the opposite as protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19 thinned the group of otherwise excited students and parents.
As students arrived, they had to check in at Garage C around the north end of campus, where attendants tested them for coronavirus, the results of which are expected in 48 hours. They were then given a kit that included facemasks.
Amanda Craig, a Burnett Honors College freshman majoring in environmental studies who is living in the Towers complex, said she will take five classes this semester — all online except band. She said she had taken as many precautions as possible to avoid catching the virus and hope others follow suit.
“The pandemic has me a little worried, but [UCF] tested us and I trust that other people will wear their mask and take this seriously,” Craig said. “At the end of the day, I still have to live my life and go to school and take care of my things.”
Box after box, bag after bag, Craig was accompanied by her mother Joyce Craig and her boyfriend Paul Copeland, who is set to move in a couple of weeks. She unpacked her clothes and collection of knickknacks, like a popcorn machine and pencil cups shaped like recycling bins, readying her Towers apartment into her new home for the year.
To do that, like other students, Craig had to set an appointment before arrival to avoid crowding. More than 600 students signed up to move in this weekend, and when they do, they have to undergo “relative quarantine,” university officials said.
While they didn’t specify what that means, Craig said she was told students are required to stay in their apartments and only leave for necessities until they receive the results of their COVID-19 tests. She also said on-campus housing complexes are limiting use of common rooms and restricting visitors, too.
It’s unclear how UCF plans to enforce those protocols, but they are part of a $4.6 million effort to reopen campus, with thousands of new hand sanitizer stations set to be installed, Plexiglas panels in university offices and ventilation system upgrades.
Craig said the apparent attention to detail to avoid the spread of the virus — cases have surpassed 450 at UCF — was taken as “a good sign” to go to UCF, just an hour and a half from her hometown of Vero Beach.
“This isn’t how I imagined it’d be when I went off to college, and as things took a turn for the worse and my graduation got canceled, I was thinking there was no hope to even go,” she said.
Mother Joyce Craig, who made trips from the Towers apartment to the parking garage to bring Amanda’s belongings as she organized her room, said she’s glad she can help usher her daughter into her newest chapter. Donning a facemask with a smile drawn in blue marker, she hopes the incoming freshman’s opportunities to enjoy college life aren’t hindered by the pandemic.
“Right now, I’m happy she’s finally getting to go to college,” Joyce Craig said. “They’ve denied all the privileges of being a senior in high school, but to see her here and with a smile on her face — that’s great.”