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Students stand 6 feet apart while waiting to enter the University of Hawaii Maui College campus bookstore on Monday afternoon, the first day of fall semester. The Maui News / DAKOTA GROSSMAN photos
KAHULUI — Although not all University of Hawaii Maui College students and faculty were back on campus for the first day of school, a feeling of hope filled the air as a few in-person classes and instruction resumed to kickstart the fall semester.
The majority of schools statewide were empty for the past 16 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and though cases have been skyrocketing in recent weeks and school functions remain far from normal, about 400 to 500 students returned to the UH-Maui College campus on Monday. About half of the student body is currently learning online and about 43 percent are on a hybrid schedule.
“It’s really exciting to have people on campus because last semester we pretty much went all entirely online, so there’s a little bit more action on campus — you see more students walking around, you see more cars in the parking lot,” said UH-MC Chancellor Lui Hokoana. “So it’s almost like a normal first day of school. We have a lot of people wandering around not sure where they’re supposed to be and we’ve been giving them assistance and pointing them in the right direction.”
Those that were on campus included culinary, nursing, automotive technology and dental hygiene students.
It’s still not “a typical” first day given the circumstances, but opening day to the fall semester is “going amazingly well,” he said.
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About 400 to 500 students were back on the University of Hawaii Maui College campus on Monday afternoon. Still, about half of students are taking online courses this semester while 43 percent are on a hybrid schedule.
A few UH-MC students who were looking for their classrooms told The Maui News that they were happy to be back at school where they can interact with their classmates and teachers, while another nodded in agreement that in-person learning was “much better” than distance learning.
Although face masks were being worn, faculty that meandered UH-MC seemed eager to be back too as they greeted the occasional student and other staff member on campus.
Waiting in line at the campus bookstore, Autumn Bradley said that most of her classes will still be on Zoom this year, though some of the labs for the nursing program may be held in person.
“I really want to be back on campus, so hopefully they transition us to being back on campus a little bit more,” said Bradley, who was checking the costs of books, materials and supplies needed to do her coursework.
Given the recent concerns over the peak in COVID-19 cases, she remains hopeful for “a little bit of normalcy” as the school year gets underway, and “just seeing people’s faces and being able to interact with my fellow students face to face.”
“I just want to be here, you know, it’s much easier for me to get into school and focus on my work,” she added.
Referencing Maui District Health Officer Dr. Lorrin Pang, who like many health officials had anticipated a rise in COVID-19 cases over the next few weeks due to the transmissibility of the delta variant, Hokoana said “we’re prepared for that” by remaining vigilant and implementing health and safety protocols on campus, which have been the same since the start of the pandemic.
“We continue to be concerned with the spike in cases,” he said. “But, we’ve been guided by our close relationship with the Department of Health and then having some very competent and very qualified faculty from our Nursing Department, who are actually experts in this area.”
One of the bigger changes from last school year is that vaccinations or negative COVID-19 tests are now required for all students, faculty and community members who come to campus.
“This is a new normal and I do not want to retreat back,” Hokoana said. “We have to keep moving forward because we need to learn and adjust to new protocols. We will always keep our students safe, and our faculty and staff safe, but we need to push forward and figure out the new normal.”
Vaccination cards and test results must be uploaded to the LumiSight UH application prior to coming to school. LumiSight is connected to the state’s vaccination system.
All face-to-face students and community members utilizing UH facilities must present LumiSight clearance every time they go to campus.
The on-campus testing site saw about 60 students by 10 a.m. on Sunday.
“It’s been going pretty good,” Hokoana said.
Some courses that include clinicals, labs and field work require the COVID-19 vaccination without any exceptions because safe physical distancing cannot be maintained or because the practicum site requires it, Hokoana said.
A first-semester Dental Hygiene Program student, Sara Nagamine, said Monday afternoon outside her class building that day one of school is going “pretty good.”
“I like that there’s parking,” Nagamine said with a laugh. “Because some (students) are online, some are in class, it’s pretty chill. I’m just glad that it’s not everybody all at once, especially with the delta variant.”
The two-year dental program is known for its smaller class size and one-on-one training.
Nagamine said that there are “small concerns” that UH campuses may shut down again if coronavirus cases continue to rise, but “it’s not a big worry, though” because staff have been good about keeping students up-to-date and implementing appropriate health and safety protocols.
A University of Hawaii survey was given to a randomized sampling of students two weeks prior to the start of school. The survey was based on the student body size of each campus.
At UH-Maui College, nearly 76 percent of the 480 respondents are vaccinated, according to a survey administered the week of Aug. 9 by UH. About 3 percent are partially vaccinated or intend to get vaccinated while about 17 percent of respondents do not plan to.
Based on the school’s student body size, UH-MC has one of the lower vaccination rates across the 10 University of Hawaii campuses.
More than 90 percent of students attending the UH campuses have been vaccinated or plan to be. Specifically, 83.4 percent of UH students are fully vaccinated, 4.3 percent are partially vaccinated, 2.6 percent plan to be and 9.4 percent are not vaccinated.
Among those who are not vaccinated, half said in the survey that they will be on a UH campus this fall semester for in-person classes, employment, in-person activities or other reasons. About 47 percent of respondents say they will only be vaccinated when a vaccine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration while the remaining 37 percent say they prefer not to be vaccinated and will take courses online.
About 27 percent of all UH students registered for the fall 2021 semester responded to the survey, which is 12,390 out of 45,930 students. The findings are similar to the student survey from late June that found 92 percent who responded at that time were vaccinated or planned to be.
“We’ve really been trying to convince our students to get vaccinated,” Hokoana said. “I think that’s the tool against this pandemic, is the vaccination.”
The UH-MC Health Center can provide COVID-19 testing and vaccination for students, staff and faculty.
Free testing is available for students this week at the Community Services Building from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Friday and 7:30 to 9 a.m. on Saturday.
Testing is covered by health insurance and the campus has reserved federal funds to support testing for the uninsured.
To make an appointment, call 984-3493.
* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.
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