Elizabethtown College is heading home for Thanksgiving break, and students won’t be coming back until late January. 

The decision made by the College not to have students return to campus to finish the semester after Thanksgiving break was made in August as part of the Fall 2020 Semester COVID-19 Plan. 

This plan is intended to allow students to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families at home, while limiting the risk of spreading of the coronavirus on campus with people returning. 

Students on campus have mixed feelings about the semester ending online. Many wish that they could stay on campus longer, and will miss being able to attend classes or see friends in person. In general, students are understanding. 

“I prefer being on campus because learning through Zoom is not ideal, but I see why it’s necessary,” senior Haley Zimmerman said. 

“I’m not too upset over it, since it’s only for a little bit, but I prefer being on campus,” sophomore Rachel McCarthy said.

However, the campus has changed a lot to make it safer during the pandemic, and that has impacted how people feel about returning home early. 

“I think I’m ready to go home,” junior Rebecca Parsons said. “In past semesters you get ot go out and do so much, but with COVID-19, I spent way too much time in my room.”

There are some concerns about remote learning, but after the experience of the spring 2020 semester, faculty and students alike were able to prepare for remote and hybrid learning. 

One downside to the return home however is that students with jobs on campus are unable to keep working. In cases where a student is working to pay for college, that is no small matter.

For many students, however, there will be little change to their semester this weekend. A large part of the Etown community have been remote all semester. 

“This way there’s also no argument about one group of students having any kind of advantage over the other,” sophomore that has been on Zoom the whole semester Lauren Comly said.