COVID-19 Im­pacts Com­muter Life

 COVID-19 has changed many as­pects of col­lege life, its reach ex­tend­ing be­yond res­i­den­tial stu­dents and into Bethel’s com­muter com­mu­nity. Near the end of the Spring 2020 se­mes­ter, Bethel Uni­ver­sity no­ti­fied stu­dents it would pro­vide re­turn­ing com­muters with $50 of Bethel Bucks to be used at Suf­fi­cient Grounds or an off-cam­pus part­ner restau­rant. 

John Kaehr, as­so­ci­ate di­rec­tor for com­mu­nity life, con­firmed this fact.  It is un­clear if the $50 has al­ready been added to stu­dent ac­counts; how­ever, Kaehr said he will fol­low up to make sure com­muters have an an­swer this week. 

Ad­di­tion­ally, com­muters have ques­tions re­gard­ing swipe ac­cess.  Al­though com­muters have never had swipe ac­cess to dorms, Kaehr said that in years past, com­muters have been al­lowed to spend three nights per se­mes­ter in the dorms.  Now with the pan­demic, this is no longer an op­tion; how­ever, they are more than wel­come to visit a res­i­den­tial stu­dent if they wear a mask.  Com­muters also have swipe ac­cess to the gym and the com­muter lounge, which is open when the sci­ence build­ing is open. 

“SG or the sec­ond floor of the AC is my other rec­om­men­da­tion,” Vic­to­ria Sanchez, the com­muter as­sis­tant, said.    

“If a com­muter feels their swipe should have worked, they can go to Stu­dent Life for help,” said Kaehr. 

Chapel ad­just­ments have also been made to ac­com­mo­date for the pan­demic.   

“Com­muters only have a chapel re­quire­ment if they have a 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. class,” Sanchez said. 

Whether a com­muter at­tends a Mon­day, Wednes­day or Fri­day chapel de­pends on their last name. Fur­ther de­tails are in­cluded on the Bethel web­site and can also be found in the email an­nounce­ment re­gard­ing chapel. 

Re­gard­ing COVID, Kaehr said that yes, Stu­dent Life is try­ing to of­fer more sup­port.   

“We should be do­ing more,” Kaehr said. “With our com­muter pop­u­la­tion — ob­vi­ously it’s a lit­tle more chal­lenged to get them con­nected — so our com­muter as­sis­tance is in the lounge pretty reg­u­larly.  We have a Can­vas group now.  We’ve been talk­ing about do­ing events to help cre­ate com­mu­nity.”  

Kaehr also said the com­muter as­sis­tants will be putting out a sur­vey soon to see if com­muters would be in­ter­ested in a Bible study.