LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of Louisville started offering free COVID-19 testing to students, staff, and faculty Monday.
School starts at the university on August 17.
Students we talked to on campus say they’re not too worried about COVID-19 and are just excited to be back.
“It feels unreal, I’m surprised we are back personally, but I just go with the flow,” Hayley Benson said. The freshman will start her college experience in a different way than any other class has before.
Benson does have some concerns about COVID-19, but like many other students is happy to be on campus.
“To a certain extent, I was cooped up in my house and it feels good getting back to normalcy,” junior Andrew Peters said.
The university is offering virtual classes and hybrid classes.
Some students have expressed they don’t want to go to in-person classes, and they don’t have to.
For those that do, University President Dr. Neeli Bendapudi says the university has made sure a structured classroom is a safe place to be.
“We also want to make sure those students that we hear from, who say for a number of reasons, that they do better if they’re in-person and have that structure, then we want to be able to provide that,” Dr. Bendapudi said.
Dr. Bendapudi says being in a classroom in a structured environment is actually one of the safest places students can be.
“The real danger is when you don’t have that structure and people are outside,” Dr. Bendapudi said. “You don’t know what’s going on.”
The university offers testing on campus, but Dr. Bendapudi says that can offer a false sense of security and research shows the safest thing to do is social distance, have good hygiene and wear a mask.
“I want to make it so that it’s just not a cool thing to do to walk around without a mask,” Dr. Bendapudi said. “That’s not what we do as Cardinals.”
She also says college life is about learning to be a responsible part of a community, something senior Erica Reed knows is important.
“If anyone needs a mask, I’ll carry extra in case,” Reed said.
Reed wants to do her part to keep campus safe.
“Help with social distancing, carry extra hand sanitizer, you know, help with the community and all of that,” Reed said.
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