DeKalb Times

College students are prioritizing safety as they try to find out if classes will resume online in the fall or if they can go back to campuses.

Students at Northern Illinois University (NIU) can return to the DeKalb campus in August, but some classes at the university will still be taught online, the Daily Illini reported. NIU will schedule in-person classes with small numbers of students plus the online classes.

University of Illinois students still don’t know if the campus will reopen.

“If we are doing remote learning again, I want to know soon so I know how to prepare,” Alexie Talsted, a junior, told the Daily Illini.

Political science Ph.D. student Stephen Mullins told the paper that he doesn’t think he’ll get the opportunity to attend classes in person. He wants to see measures like contact tracing adopted for student’s safety.

“How do you guarantee somebody will quarantine themselves? If a student tests positive, will they be forced to go home in the middle of the semester?” Mullins told the Daily Illini.

Reducing class sizes will make it difficult for students who already have a tough time getting a place in core classes with a big demand such as computer science courses.

“Will those students lose those spots?” Mullins told Daily Illini.

Students are also raising concern of the tuition costs with online classes.

“In my mind, there is no logic in paying the tuition for online classes. I can just take the same classes at Parkland for cheaper. To me, all online classes are the same,” Talsted told the Daily Illini. 

Parkland College is a community college in Champaign.

“Safety has to be the biggest priority,” Mullins told the Daily Illini. “That will get students to believe that it is, in fact, worth it to continue paying the prices.”