Hilltop Views (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 2, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 3, 2021 Page: 2 of 12
twelve pages : ill. ; page 12 x 12 in. Scanned from physical pages.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3,2021 | HILLTOPVIEWSONLINE.COM
21 NEWS
Spring break cancelled, replaced by four scattered wellness days
By LEIDY JAIMES
COVID-19 yields multiple structural changes to Munday Library
By MILO CORTESE
Garrison
spring,
study,"
said.
This
MATT MADD / FLICKR
On wellness days, students are advised to take care of themselves by getting outside or
staying off of devices. There are four scheduled wellness days to replace spring break.
I
MILO CORTESE/HILLTOP VIEWS
There are little to no students present in the library these days. All of the
resources offered by the Munday Library can now be found online.
g
J
m
li
7
S B
mu
IH
4
days off during the semester.
“We actually saw this happen on
campus during the fall semester
with regard to [the] Labor Day
holiday, in which that number of
students who had to quarantine
spiked in the period after Labor
Day, and it seemed to be very
much connected to the Labor Day
weekend in the days off.” Dr. Prall
said.
Using previously examined data,
the medical advisors consulting the
university on their response to the
pandemic concluded that the longer
breaks are health and safety risks.
Despite this, not all schools
implemented such precautions.
The University of Texas at Austin
will have spring break as previously
scheduled and the spring calendar
will remain the same as previous
years. Texas A&M has reduced
spring break to one day, Fri. March
29, to minimize extensive travel.
doing things [on campus] and with
everything going on, it’s more of a
hassle to go out and be in public,"
Jones said.
Zoe Garrison, a junior, used the
library her first two years, but now
that she has no in-person classes,
she’s never on campus anymore.“I
loved going to the library to
___ study...but with
COVID-19, I
just stay home to
being able to offer [library
Since its opening in 2013, the services] ...we've been rolling with
Munday Library has been a social the punches and have adapted to the
center for students on campus, but circumstances as they’ve evolved.”
when CO VID-19 became a threat As the Fall 2020 semester came
in the spring semester of 2020, around, the library used the
students went home and a slew of summer to prepare for the return of
new health regulations followed, students, however limited _
As one of the social centerpoints that number would be.
of campus, the library had to adjust Some changes have come
“That proposal was approved
by the taskforce as part of its
recommendation to intersperse
these wellness days periodically
throughout the spring semesters
such that every three to four weeks,
we have either [a] wellness day
or a holiday,” Dr. Prall said. “We
were able to incorporate one of the
services regardless of the pandemic.
Hannah Jones, a sophomore,
utilized the library often during her
freshman year, but since her return
to campus this fall, she hasn't been
back. "I was told by someone that it
was closed my first semester back.
I know that it’s open this semester
but not a lot of people are out
r
-,a
68585
8228.
BMDhe
" -aa
the building to use the library as a
physical space but we continued
wellness days prior to final exams to
the spring, which actually honored
a proposal that came forward from
the students last year, in which they
hoped to introduce what was called
a “dead day" prior to [the] final
exam period.”
Instead of a full week of spring
break, St. Edward's will have three
wellness days throughout the
spring semester. Thursday, Feb. 11
marked the first wellness day and
is followed by one on Wednesday,
March 10, and another on April
10, the Friday before finals. The
semester will end as scheduled on
May 3.
Holy Thursday on April 10 is also
affected by the schedule changes, in
which classes after 4p.m. will be
cancelled. Easter break is shortened
to Good Friday on April 2 and
classes plan to resume on Monday,
April 5.
rapidly. to the library: there is
As campus closed, the fate of a mask requirement,
the library remained unknown, social-distancing orders,
By coincidence, the library had no help desk, no study
been in the process of digitizing its rooms and a reduction
paper collection to offer a broader in hours. The library
selection of books for students, has evolved from one of
Interim Library Director Casey the main social centers
Gibbs recalled, “Largely, we were on campus to an online
able to offer our services in an student resource. It has
uninterrupted fashion, obviously maintained its ability to
people could no longer come into provide helpful student
C O V I D - 1 9
precautions will
remain in full effect,
but the library will
remain accessible
online. Looking
towards the fall
however, these
regulations may
The taskforce formed in late-
August and wrapped up work
in September 2020. They
recommended the president
introduce wellness days into the
spring calendar, but the idea of
wellness days actually originated
in part from the feedback that they
received from SGA.
The Student Success Center
announced that spring break will
be replaced by wellness days this
semester, but what are wellness
days and where did this decision
come from?
According to Provost Vice
President for Academic Affairs,
Andrew Prall, it was a decision
suggested by SGA and overall
approval stemmed from
CO VID-19 mitigation efforts.
What became immediately
clear to the COVID-19 taskforce
while looking at available data
— which included faculty, staff
across campus in different areas in
different divisions and a student
representative that was selected
by student government — that
incidents of CO VID-19 will spike
and they tend to spike anytime that
you have two or more consecutive
change due to the updated Biden
Administration's vaccine rollout,
which estimates they will have over
300 million Americans vaccinated
by the end of July. St. Edward’s
announced that the majority of
students will be on campus in the
fall and Gibbs is optimistic about
what that means for the library. “In
terms of where we’re allocating our
resources, we're banking on there
being many more students in the
building, for more hours and those
students having more services and
resources available to them, that’s
our top priority right now.”
In the fall of 2021, the Munday
Library will be much more
accessible to the student body, both
those there physically and virtually.
For more updates on library hours
and events, follow the Munday
Library on Twitter or Instagram.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Hilltop Views (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 2, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 3, 2021, newspaper, March 3, 2021; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1523504/m1/2/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting St. Edward’s University.