Similar to this academic year, summer classes at Marquette will be conducted in a hybrid setting. Students have the option to enroll in classes that best fit their schedule, whether that be online or in person.
Although this summer is predicted to be hybrid, Marquette will return to a fully in person semester next fall.
Chima Korieh, associate professor of history, said he chose to conduct his classes online in the summer to provide students with more flexibility in their schedules regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has, in a way, made it really much more necessary to find other ways of delivery, so we have more online classes than before Covid, but I think this summer will probably still be a combination of (in-person and online classes),” Korieh said.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services there have been 3,542,552 COVID-19 vaccines administered in the state of Wisconsin. Korieh said the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary for people to stay safe and healthy while fulfilling their class requirements, so summer and online classes are a great opportunity to achieve these things.
Similar to summer classes, SPARK leaders, orientation leaders and summer crew at Marquette are also influenced by COVID-19.
SPARK is a required program all first-year students must attend to help them acclimate to Marquette’s campus and register for classes. Due to the pandemic, SPARK will be all virtual like it was last summer. Katie Harrington, coordinator for new student and family programs, said all first-year students will attend one of five sessions of SPARK in June via Microsoft Teams.
Harrington said regardless of SPARK’s virtual climate, there are 28 SPARK leaders that do a great job at hosting small group meetings. She said that this year SPARK leaders will also be hosting late night events for first-year students.
“We’re still kind of in that phase where we’re prioritizing the health and safety of our students and families, and this was the best decision coming from the university and the city for how to conduct our June programs, but we are still really excited,” Harrington said.
There are 110 orientation leaders coming to campus this August. Harrington hopes that the incoming freshmen will have a more in-person experience with orientation leaders this fall compared to the fall of 2020, as that was conducted in an entirely virtual setting, but they still do not know what that will look like yet.
“We rely on guidance from a lot of folks for that, the university, the city, the state, but just like the university has declared an in-person fall, we also hope to host most of our August programming in person,” Harrington said. “Which means 100 orientation leaders will be here with us on campus and helping students acclimate to the campus.”
Although Summer Crew is a more behind-the-scenes job and less interactive than most organizations on campus, how they operate is still different because of COVID-19.
Colin Atkinson, coordinator of operations, business operations and auxiliary services, said that Summer Crew is a group of students that work to assist with residence halls from when they close mid-May until when they reopen in August. They help out by preparing residence halls and apartment buildings for move in day, assisting people with furniture on move in day, perform maintenance work, etc …
Atkinson said that one of Summer Crew’s major jobs was to assist with the conference groups that would stay on Marquette’s campus throughout the summer. Summer Crew would help in customer service by cleaning the room’s that were converted into hotel rooms in the residence halls, helping out with any questions the guests may have, fixing any broken objects, helping them get checked into their rooms, etc …
but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marquette has not been given the approval to host these conference groups yet.
Aside from the conferences, summer crew focuses on getting the residence halls and apartments ready for students to move into in the fall semester. Summer Crew performs a variety of tasks like moving furniture, washing walls, performing maintenance checks, fixing electrical outlets, checking the plumbing and checking every piece of furniture in the room.
“We don’t know if we can have conferences so that is huge for us (one of their main jobs throughout the summer), but our work doesn’t change. We did have a very small crew last year, so what changes is everyone does ((COVID Cheq)) in the morning, we wear masks, work in small groups- which are already two to four in size- and we keep (limit to) one person in a room unless we are moving furniture,” Atkinson said.
The spring 2021 semester ends on May 15, and six separate summer sessions begin throughout May, June and July. All academic session dates can be viewed on the 2021 summer undergraduate academic calendar
This story was written by Julia Abuzzahab. She can be reached at [email protected]
