‘We feel like we’re going back to high school.’ Cal Poly students head home sad and unsure

Parents and on-campus Cal Poly students rushed to carry their personal belongings to cars parked wherever there was space on Thursday, a stark contrasting to the warm and welcome move-in day that took place only five months ago.

“I said goodbye to her and we ceremoniously dropped her off in the dorms and there was a bunch of (Week of Welcome) leaders pushing carts around, all joyful and positive. And all that’s gone,” said Todd Shadbourne, a dad who was picking up his business first-year administration major daughter. ”Now, it’s get your kid out of here and go home. So that makes me really sad for everybody. “

Students are packing up and heading home, unsure what a spring quarter of online learning will look like and when they’ll be back in San Luis Obispo with friends as the coronavirus scare brought on-campus classes to a halt.

“We just were not ready for it to be cut this short, but obviously the circumstances are what they are,” Abby Bassford, a first-year nutrition major, said Wednesday as she loaded her last bin into the truck that would drive her home. “I was trying to be as optimistic as possible, and each update that came, I wasn’t really accepting the fact that I was going to move out until they said the words.”

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to increase in San Luis Obispo County, and President Jeffrey Armstrong on Monday urged students who live on campus to return home.

“We are now strongly encouraging students to plan on attending the spring quarter virtually from their permanent home residences,” Armstrong said in Monday’s email. “However, those who feel safer at the university, those who have no other housing options and/or those who may have limited access to technology and the internet, are welcome to remain on campus.”

Although the rapid change in plans caused some confusion, students like first-year aerospace engineering major Matthew Bornhorst said they knew the school could not have predicted this.

“It’s a big change,” Bornhorst said. “I know its hard especially for the people in charge. Its a completely new situation, we haven’t had anything like this. I don’t fault them for not knowing exactly what to do.”

Many students moving home

Students who have the option to live off-campus, like graphic communications major Christine Curulla, said she will be moving from the apartments in Poly Canyon Village to a sub-lease in San Luis Obispo because she wants to maintain structure.

“I feel like I’ll be much more productive because it will be a lot more self-reliant next quarter since its online, and if I went home I wouldn’t be as productive with my time.”

For freshmen living on campus, that is not really an option — as was the case for business major Nicole Mazzeo, who had to coordinate flights back home to Portland amid finals and move-out.

“I talked with a lot of my friends and we feel like it’s going back to high school, like its reverting back from something you try to move on from,” Mazzeo said. “Not that high school was bad, but there is a reason you go away to college to grow.”

Students understood the reasoning for the decision and were coming to terms with the reality of the next few months.

“We’re OK with doing it because it’s safer, but it’s not happy time for sure. It’s gonna be not as fun for sure. It’s not gonna be what I want,” Bassford said. “And if it’s an option to come back, my roommates and I are like, we’re going to come back. ... It’s going to be different, especially doing college work at home.”

Jeaz Ier, a mechanical engineering major, said completing coursework online will be particularly difficult for students who have hands-on courses.

“It’s gonna be tough, with labs and stuff. We have a lot of physics labs, chem labs. I don’t know how they’ll manage that,” he said.

Business major John Sklobar said he would miss being on campus.

“It’s tough. I really do enjoy the school environment. I like coming to class and doing that,” he said.

Business major Casey Hamilton said most everyone was taking the university’s advice and heading home.

“It’s kind of crazy. It feels like it’s not real,” she said. “It feels like a book or a movie.”

While packing up their car along Grand Avenue, one mother, Brenda Moscoso, said her son Zachary wanted to stay at first, but she felt it was best that he go home because other students may not take the virus as seriously as they need to.

“I’m a teacher, and they just closed my school down for 5 weeks. And so I’m like, ‘This is really serious, we need to get you home,’” Moscoso said near the dorm pick-up zone on Wednesday.

The sudden change wasn’t only disappointing for younger students.

For seniors wrapping up their Cal Poly careers, the switch to online classes means more than just a quarter away from campus. It also means a postponed graduation.

“I was definitely upset because this was something I was looking forward to since I knew I was going to college, especially as a first-generation student,” political science major Rosa Lopez said. “It feels bittersweet, but I know that is what needed to be done.”

“I don’t think it is mutually exclusive: We could still be upset and recognize it is the right thing to do,” Lopez said.

Refunds for housing, dining and parking

A prorated refund will be issued to all Cal Poly students who leave the residence halls at any point in the quarter, according to the university. Along with housing, dining and spring parking permits also will be refunded.

The amount refunded will depend on when people leave. Although students may leave at any time in the quarter and receive money back, the university is asking that they notify University Housing by April 6 if possible.

According to university spokesman Matt Lazier, there is no timeline in place for refunds yet.

“The university just received guidance yesterday from the CSU and is working to operationalize it on campus over the next few days,” Lazier wrote in an email to The Tribune.

The university said students do not have to move all of their belongings by April 6 and can return in mid-May to retrieve them if they have already left.

Lazier said they are asking students to wait until mid-May to minimize travel and “mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19.

Cal Poly is also asking students who will stay on campus to notify the university. University Housing and Dining facilities and the University Union will remain open. Some on-campus dining venues, like 805 Kitchen and The Avenue, have transitioned to a take-out format.

“We understand this latest guidance may be alarming and may inconvenience many, but these are rapidly evolving times and we must respond by making unprecedented decisions to do all we can to protect our entire campus community,” Armstrong’s email read. “Your welfare is our first and primary priority.”