'Monday is way too soon': MSU plan to resume classes questioned

EAST LANSING − Abby Locke was in her home on M.A.C. Avenue Monday night. She stepped out of the shower to frantic calls and texts from loved ones, asking if she was OK. There was an active shooter on MSU’s campus, they told her.

“That just kind of made the whole world stop for a moment,” Locke said.

As Locke sheltered with around 20 of her housemates at her co-op, holding a kitchen knife for self-defense, she had a realization: “This is real and this is happening and it will never be the same.”

Locke is one of tens of thousands of MSU students and community members who are still reeling from Monday’s on-campus shooting that killed three students and critically injured five. The suspect, 43-year-old Anthony McRae, killed himself after being approached by police in North Lansing later that night.

Now, as students continue to process the loss of classmates and confront a new reality of vulnerability on campus, some are saying it’s too soon to return to business as usual.

The university plans to resume classes Monday, and Locke is among those pushing back on those plans.

“Monday is way too soon,” Locke said. “Just talking to people and seeing reactions from everybody else everywhere. It just feels way too soon.

“It's hard to focus on anything education-related right now because I want to focus on how everybody's feeling, and I want to keep that focus on community building before we even consider returning to schooling,” she said.

Locke isn’t alone in advocating for the university to provide accommodations for grieving and traumatized students. A recent editorial from The State News, MSU’s independent student newspaper, expressed students’ desire to delay the return to classes by another week.

A petition advocating for an online class option has collected more than 18,000 signatures over the last two days.

“We can’t physically sit in a classroom on Monday. It’s been less than a week since we lost three fellow Spartans in those classrooms. We aren’t ready,” the newspaper's editorial board wrote.

“But we also can’t log onto Zoom on Monday and meaningfully engage in our classwork. We’re processing trauma. We’re coming to terms with grief. We can’t be worried about a deadline or an exam.”

MSU deputy spokesman Dan Olsen said university administrators are meeting to discuss the best ways to support students as they return to class. No decisions have been made and all options are still on the table, but conversations are happening about class flexibility and online, in-person and remote learning options, he said.

“We’re focused on preparing a safe understanding campus environment,” Olsen said. “Employees have returned to many positions and we’re looking at the best ways to support them. We are united in moving forward.”

MSU interim President Teresa Woodruff on Thursday said “we’re considering all options for the manner in which we continue the continuity of education, research and outreach.”

The university gave students some news late Friday, when Thomas Jeitschko, interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs told students in an email that

’’Instructors have been given the flexibility to adjust syllabus expectations and have been told that they need not rush to “catch up” for loss time.”

The college is moving a credit/no credit grading system for all 100- to 400-level undergraduate courses for the spring semester. Additionally, students who need a grief absence or medical withdrawal should reach out to their academic advisor, Jeitschko wrote.

The Spartan Housing Cooperative, a nonprofit and autonomous organization that provides affordable off-campus housing options for MSU students and the Greater Lansing community, read the State News editorial and created the Action Before Attendance group. It’s a group that currently is working to organize a student strike on Monday, according to Lucinda Gleespen, vice president of education for the Spartan Housing Cooperative and a junior at MSU.

Reclaim MSU, an advocacy group composed of students, faculty, staff and alumni, shared a Tweet on Thursday supporting the need for more time before returning to teaching and learning.

“If the MSU administration *wants* to listen – to students, to staff, to faculty – and do the right thing, now is the time,” Reclaim MSU wrote in the Tweet. “Not everyone will be ready at the same time. Even for those who are ready, returning will be hard. We can do hard things. But we need support.

"We need more time."

Return to routine not for everyone

Jo Kovach, president of the MSU student body, acknowledged the need to allow students the option not to return to campus, while understanding others may benefit from returning to their normal routine. Kovach and the Associated Students of MSU have been advocating for options to be provided to students rather than requiring all to return to in-person classes.

"I've heard a lot of information this week about what's best coming from these things is a routine," Kovach said. "But that's not going to be best for everyone. Some students are ready to come back and get into a routine and some that aren't."

Kate Birdsall, president of the MSU Union of Non-Tenured Faculty, sent her advice to professors over social media.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to how we should handle returning to teaching on Monday. Each of us will do it differently. I encourage each of you to do what you think is best for your students and for yourselves,” she tweeted. “I encourage you to ask your students what they need and try to accommodate those needs. I encourage you to be open with your students and your colleagues about your own shock and grief, if you’re able. I encourage all of us to be human and humane.”

Locke said that she thinks administrators should also consider other accommodations including online or hybrid class options, general leniency from professors on due dates and attendance and the credit/no credit grading policy the school announced Friday.

“I know that there are some people who may never return to campus,” she said. “There may be, after this, people who drop out and say, ‘I can't go back’ – and that's completely valid."

The State News' editorial advocated for heightened campus security, requiring MSU IDs to access on-campus buildings and providing continued counseling for students and faculty.

“As we struggle to figure out how to heal, we simply can’t fathom showing up to class; a place that, less than a week ago, was life-threatening, and for some, deadly,” they wrote.

Kovach said student leaders have begun discussions with administrators about safety enhancements that could be made on campus, like using scanners on building doors to assure only people with MSU identification cards are allowed inside.

'It just seems impossible'

Kelly Branigan, a senior, barricaded herself in a dark room Monday night. She was in the Student Services building, just across the street from Berkey Hall. She doesn’t yet feel comfortable returning to classes.

“Personally, I cannot imagine stepping into a school building on Monday,” Branigan said. “As someone with chronic anxiety, I love structure. But the thought of going to class after everything that transpired – I just can't imagine going and sitting and learning about now what seems so frivolous and silly.”

“The thought of having to go back into the places that once I never questioned my safety in,” she said. “I've never once thought, ‘oh, there could be a shooter at Michigan State,’ and now I'm like, ‘how am I supposed to go back in person and learn and turn in projects and do exams?’ It just seems impossible to me to do that in the next couple of days.”

Branigan said she’s not sure when she’ll feel comfortable returning to normal.

“Your mind is in flight mode now, consistently,” Branigan said.

She said that she feels some of her professors will offer a welcoming environment after returning to classes – but still, she knows that may not be the experience of other students.

“I don't know how every other professor will handle it, because they also went through this – there's no right way to do it, but I do not think expecting every student to go back to class on Monday is the right way to do it.”

'It just felt good to see people'

Salina Voegtly, a junior, was in her Grand River apartment Monday night, peering out of her roommate’s window throughout the night. Her high-rise apartment is located just across from the Student Union building.

She sat by as countless emergency vehicles enveloped the campus where she attends classes and fielded calls and texts from loved ones.

Voegtly saw responders bring out a victim from the union.

She spent the rest of the night with her roommates, listening to a police scanner and watching the news like many other students fearing what might come next.

Since the shooting, all of Voegtly’s roommates have left for home, leaving her alone in her apartment since Tuesday.

Voegtly returned to her on-campus job Thursday, which resumed as campus reopened with normal operations.

“We were able to go back today and it just felt good to see people and to do something with my hands instead of sitting in my room, just going stir-crazy,” she said.

Voegtly still isn’t sure how she will react going back to classes.

“I'm torn as to what I want to do come Monday,” she said. “I want to go back to class, I want to see my classmates, I'm here to learn. This doesn't change that Michigan State's a place of learning and education and growth – and I don't want this to be reduced to a crime scene and a statistic.”

“I fully understand people pushing for the online or hybrid option – whenever people feel safe, that should be respected, but I want to go back to class and I want to see my classmates.”

If nothing else, Voegtly said that she wants professors to offer a much more relaxed environment for the remainder of the semester with less strict deadlines and lower expectations for students’ work.

Some students could benefit from going back to class on Monday and returning to their normal routine and begin to heal, said Steve Zimmerman, a father from Okemos of two MSU students.

"My kids, their roommates and friends want and need to go back so they can find comfort from their friends and classmates so this horrible event does not take more from them," he said, in an email.

Borjana Alia, a senior from Brighton, isn't ready to go back to campus yet. Many of her classes are in an academic building less than a mile away from Berkey Hall, where the gunman killed two of the three students.

"I don't want to go back on campus," she said. "I can see why some people want to go back to normal. I feel like the best would be a hybrid option."

Regardless of when students return to their normal schedules, many say that the exact sense of security and community felt before the shooting may be lost forever.

"There will never be a return to normal," Locke said. "I think it's just a return to comfort in MSU and in East Lansing."

Contact Sheldon Krause at skrause@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @sheldonjkrause. Contact Mark Johnson at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 'Monday is way too soon': MSU plan to resume classes questioned