A few days before the start of the semester, Dean of Students Dr. Gabe Willis emailed all student organization leaders that due to concern over the ongoing COVID-19 surge, all events excluding meetings would have to be canceled until Jan 28.

According to the email, medical professionals across the country were predicting a COVID surge, which would coincide with the start of the spring semester. Since Southeastern started classes on Jan. 19, students’ return to campus was at the heart of the surge. 

Willis was able to further explain why the particular date of Jan. 28 was chosen. 

“It was a two week mark and experts were looking at this time period as when the surge might end,” Willis said. 

While he could not name any events in particular, he was aware that a few had to be postponed because of this news. 

With this email being sent, some student organizations had to replan their events. 

The SLU Gaming Club’s president, junior engineering technology major Hayden Stafford, noted some of their events had to be canceled. 

“The removal of events did force us to cancel some things, but it was not a huge problem. We just postponed current plans for later,” Stafford said. 

Some on-campus organizations were lucky enough to not be affected by the postponement of campus events since it was still early in the spring. 

The Spanish Club, for example, was not largely affected by the postponement of events.

President of the Spanish Club, junior double major major Kathery Esqueda, shared that as of now her organization will be planning their first meeting for February and their first campus event for March. 

“The first thing that we thought was that maybe they were going to be postponing the events throughout the whole semester. However, if it’s something that we need to do to keep everyone healthy, we could work around it,” Esqueda said regarding the Spanish club’s actions regarding the email. 

As of Jan. 31, student organizations received communication from the university regarding a loosening of these restrictions. 

On campus events would now be able to be resumed, but the email mentioned to remain mindful of COVID and suggested to consider certain details with their events, such as trying to plan them outdoors and that curtailing the spread of COVID is still important. 

As presidents, both Esqueda and Stafford are two of many student organization leaders who have received this awaited update from Southeastern. Esqueda mentioned that despite whatever the outcome is in the future of the semester, the Spanish club will find a way to adapt to the situation, just like in past semesters. 

Before the 31 announcement came out, Stafford and SLU Gaming were optimistic that campus events could continue throughout the semester. 

“We do hope that we can resume in person events because we saw huge success and growth last semester with the ability to do so,” Stafford commented. 

To keep an eye out for more information about loosening or tightening on restrictions for future on campus events, student organization leaders should continue to keep up with SLU social media for announcements.