This Fall 2020 semester at Saint Michael's College has been impacted with a large outbreak of COVID-19 on campus, beginning the week of 10/19. The overall mental health of the student body had been suffering even before the ongoing outbreak. Throughout the semester, many students struggled to adapt to hybrid and virtual classes. Some professors fell for the illusion of students having more free-time due to the pandemic and therefore assigned heavier workloads. Students have been unable to visit with their families. Long before the outbreak, the St Mike's student body largely felt isolated and confused. All of these feelings and effects were amplified when 9 students received positive test results for COVID-19, marking the beginning of a 3+ week long outbreak.

Communications from Saint Mike's in regard to their plan have been inconsistent, to say the least. On Thursday, 10/22 at nearly 9:00am, nearly 30 minutes into class for many students, we received an email informing us of new positive COVID-19 cases and that classes would be entirely virtual for the rest of that week, beginning immediately. Since then, the number of positive cases has only risen. Hundreds of students were quarantined. The rest were kept in limbo in terms of whether or not our classes would ever meet in person again. The decision to switch to remote learning for the rest of the semester was not announced until 11/2. Prior to this announcement, we were only kept informed of virtual learning for a few days ahead of us.

With this announcement came other restrictions. Students were informed that the dining hall would be take-out only for the rest of the semester. We were informed that no gatherings, indoors or out, would be allowed and that we cannot visit friends in other rooms, suites, apartments, or houses, even within the same building. Fines of $250 were implemented for those who risk a visit to a friend's room, or stand too close to a friend outside. While these restrictions can be understood given the circumstances and importance of stopping COVID-19 from spreading further, many students have been left wondering why we hadn't been given the option to go home and/or go permanently remote long before these restrictions were necessary.

Students at St Mike's are feeling more isolated and alone than ever. The stress level of the student body is exponentially high and many students have reported feeling anxious, frustrated, alone, stressed, and sad. Many students are moving out. Many don't have the ability to move out early but desperately want to go home. Many are in quarantine and isolation. Our workloads have not decreased. None of the events over this semester have been conducive to our mental health, let alone our academic performances. Nearly every student I have spoken to on this issue has reported that their grades have declined this semester.

Last Spring, Saint Michael's College gave students the opportunity of pass/fail grading due to the disruption caused by the pandemic. Has this semester not been more turbulent than that of last Spring? For many students, our grades this semester have not accurately reflected our full academic abilities.

We urge Saint Michael's College to consider implementing opt-in pass/fail grading for the current semester.