by Meghan Dhawan
Student Voice Editor
As we settle down, a little over 10 days into moving in on campus, so much has happened.
Students had to download the Campus Clear App, and have to track our symptoms for COVID-19 daily. We had to download the Mobile Order Dining App to pick up meals from the dining hall. Best of all, our Grubhub dollars finally started working.
In terms of events, there haven’t been many. We’ve had the opportunity to have our first two on-campus movie screenings — “Grease” (1978) and “The Notebook” (2004). We even had our first Stuff-a-Bear event, which was in-person and brought back a sense of familiarity in terms of what the campus used to be in the past.
This year, college students around the world, including the students of FDU, were informed that we could no longer relish in the excitement of move-in day as it used to be. No more friendly Resident Assistants welcoming us back and providing us bins for our heavy fridges. The familiarity of walking to classes with your friends and sharing the crazy stories that happened over the summer is missing. The dining hall, The Grill, and the parking lots are mostly barren with nobody in sight.
The incoming freshmen sadly had to miss out on some of the amazing experiences at FDU, such as Freshman Move-In Day, club fairs, Meet the Greeks and meeting new people during in-person classes. While these are things to look forward to, especially as freshmen, there are opportunities for them, as well as the rest of the students currently living on campus, to explore.
You can still walk around campus and get a feel for what classes might be like, brush up your knowledge of the school and attend trivia or movie nights on Zoom with the other students. You can do your homework outside on the library lawn, and have that be the background for your next virtual class. If all else fails, you can explore nearby Morristown, or visit the cute mom-and-pop shops the town has to offer — while practicing social-distancing rules, of course.
While this is far from the situation we signed up for when moving on campus, we must do our part to keep each other safe and healthy. We have the privilege of living on campus during a global pandemic, so we must take this opportunity to care for everyone we come across, starting with our friends. Encourage each other to wear a mask and keep hand sanitizers with you at all times. You can even bring a “COVID-19 bag” full of safety items if you really want to be cautious. Remember to take care of yourselves and watch out for others on campus.
We’re here for almost two more months, so let’s make sure we don’t get sent home!
The Pillar 