MACON, Ga. — Caitlyn Patton isn't too thrilled about returning to Mercer's campus to finish her last semester of graduate school during a pandemic.
"This pandemic is adding a whole other level to an already incredibly stressful situation," Patton said.
She feels regulating social distancing guidelines is unrealistic in college environments.
"You've got two sides to it. You have the people who are going to be socially distant, following the rules, wearing the masks, doing screenings just wanting to get their education, and then you've got the people who are not going to follow that strictly and they're putting a lot of trust in the students," Patton said.
University leaders told students who didn't feel comfortable returning on campus that they could transfer or take a gap year.
Chief of Staff Larry Brumley says they followed what most students wanted.
"Very few students have chosen to sit out this semester. We'll have final enrollment numbers later this fall, but the vast majority of our students who we're expecting are here," Brumley said.
They're adding about 1,000 new undergraduates this semester. A big part of Mercer's reopening plans was requiring all undergraduate students to get tested for COVID-19 before returning.
"They had the choice of getting their test at home and submitting it before they arrived on campus or as they arrived on campus or they could be tested here at Mercer and a little over half of those students, those 3,400 students chose to be tested here at Mercer," Brumley said.
He says they've been doing hundreds of tests a day for several days now and will continue throughout the semester.
"We're going to be testing and really working to stay on top of this," Brumley said.
Brumley says they have plenty of space ready for students who test positive and need to quarantine. They also have the choice of going home as well, until they're cleared to come back to class.
Brumley says they plan to release their COVID-19 case count this week.