ISU Students beginning to feel Unsafe

Photo courtesy to ISU Facebook page

NORMAL, Ill.- With a 8.2 % positivity rate in McLean County and organizations being shut down, students at Illinois State are not only feeling the pressures of turning in assignments but the pressure of not getting sick.

ISU freshman Rebecca Slywczuk came to ISU in high hopes, her sister is an alum and she decided to come because of her dorm-life experience.

“I did feel safe on campus, when I was coming here. With President Ditez’s email, the protocols he put in place and watching the Instagram videos about what the food court and the one entrance doorways,” said Slywczuk. “Watching that and being prepared made me feel safe going into it.”

“Now being here, I feel like there are rumors going around, ‘Oh, there’s positive cases here, positive cases there, and I feel like students haven’t really gotten any numbers of students who have it here. I’m getting a little nervous,” said Slywczuk.

However, Slywczuk did say she felt more safe with the new testing center that was made available last week, and with ISU’s new dashboard, Slywczuk and other students may being to feel a bit more at peace with exact numbers of who and just how many are infected.

Another student and senior at ISU Abby Panozzo is feeling nervous and stressed as the cases rise to a total of 1236 cases, today Aug. 26, 2020.

“My school work and my job come first, I’m not a typical college student. I am very cautious, I don’t go out as much as other people,” said Panozzo.

Panozzo and her roommates are beginning to feel stressed out, now that rumors have circulated about conformed cases in her apartment community. One of Panozzo’s roommates is in healthcare so they all have to take extra measures to ensure safety.

“It is interesting to see what people put first and what they don’t really care about,” said Panozzo. “I’m very nervous being back here, sometimes I wish I was back home where things have calmed down. You just have to be very cautious.”