Ringling College of Art and Design will soon be a ghost town. SNN’s Annette Gutierrez spent Thursday on campus.
“It does seem kind of disappointing,” Senior, Samuel Kim, said. “And we’re stressing out more about stuff that we were going to do at the end of our semester here, instead of just working on our senior projects and our thesis.”
Many students are packing things to go home, but some are traveling a lot farther than others.
“I’m heading back to Lakeland, Florida,” Freshman, Calvin Callins Jr. said.
“I’m going to be driving up north to Stamford to like live with my family,” Kim said. “It’s going to be a rough nine hours, but I’m ready to take the leap now, I guess.”
International student, Julyi Chen, says she’s going back to China.
“Cause my parents wants me to go back,” Chen said. “And they say like the coronavirus situation in China is much more stable than the United States.”
Chen says her flight is set to leave on March 28. But, in the meantime, she’s rooming with her friend.
While Chen is able to go home, not everyone can.
“We have a process in place,” Ringling College Dean of Students, Tammy Walsh, said. “We’ve got about 297 international students and we’ve had about 60 appeals because of where their home countries are, and the inability to get home.”
Walsh says they’re working to help students with special circumstances.
“The ones that are appealing would be housed on our campus; we have a variety of different types of housing facilities,” Walsh said.
The college is keeping dining open for students to pick up food as well.
While accommodations are being made, the whole process is inconvenient.
“Especially cause I’m a film major,” Callins said. “Not only are we moving out, but we have to go to online classes, and that’s not what we signed up for.”
“Getting our things together in a short amount of time is pressure on you,” Kim said. “And the fact that we’re not going to be able to use our resources here at school is also putting another strain on us as well.”
“It feels unreal, I didn’t expect this,” Chen said.
Even though the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented, the faculty and students understand EVERYONE is going through it.
“It’s going to be a long road, but we can get through this,” Callins said.
“We are going to get through this,” Walsh said.
As far as graduation goes, Walsh says they’re evaluating the options. She’s they will plan a way to celebrate the achievements of their seniors.
