Last semester, I wrote about how COVID-19 restrictions prevented students from taking full advantage of the Drop/Add period. We could not always sit in on classes we were not yet enrolled in due to capacity limits in classrooms that were not up to the discretion of teachers. With no way to know what the class environment was truly like, how could we be expected to make a decision on which courses to take? This semester’s Drop/Add was, arguably, an even worse experience, as we had to deal with these same complications, in addition to others brought about by the recent omicron outbreak.

Halfway through winter break, President Michael Roth ’78 emailed the University community explaining that the spring semester would be delayed by one week due to the severe rise in COVID-19 cases, and that the first two days of class—Thursday, Jan. 27 and Friday, Jan. 28—would be held entirely on Zoom. There was, however, a silver lining to come out of this altered schedule and subsequent shift to virtual learning for the first two days of classes. This semester, students were able to go to Zoom meetings for courses they were not enrolled in. Unfortunately, not every professor provided the link to their classes, and not every course benefited from the shift to Zoom. And besides, going to Zoom school regardless of if you were enrolled or not does not necessarily help you get a feel for the class environment.

The first week of in-person classes came with severe social distancing requirements. Essentially, in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we could go inside if we needed to access these spaces, but classes in which we were not enrolled did not qualify as necessary indoor time. We were once again operating under capacity requirements and a heightened campus alert level. While I enjoyed being in-person for my classes, I felt helpless in regards to the Drop/Add requests I had made, since I could not physically be there, and Zoom was no longer available. The campus alert level was finally lowered to green on Monday, Feb. 7, meaning more freedoms were returned, like social gatherings and indoor seating options. Still, this meant that there were only two days left before Drop/Add ended, which did not seem like an adequate amount of time for unregistered students to sit in on classes before finalizing their schedules. Additionally, classes were now more or less in full swing, and therefore this would make it harder to catch up after switching into a new class.

I would like to make it clear that I don’t disagree with the two virtual days and the week of minimal indoor activities. I believe that these were the safest options for everyone. However, there have now been two consecutive semesters where the Drop/Add period’s potential has been inhibited by COVID-19. My proposed solution, should the pandemic continue to affect future semesters, is for the Drop/Add period to be extended for at least one week after strict social distancing. This would give students the ability to actually go to classes they are interested in and the time to change their schedule if need be. While I certainly hope that COVID-19 will no longer be a concern in the fall, I wonder what the University plans to do to support its students so that they can get the most out of Drop/Add.

Josh Ehrlich can be reached at jehrlich@wesleyan.edu.