by Isabella Cantwell | Sep 30, 2020 | COVID-19, News
Life is slowly starting to seem more normal. Campus has opened back up, familiar faces are back on campus and students have reunited with their friends yet again. But how does campus look from a freshman perspective? With Quest Week and classes being mostly online, how are the freshman making friends? “There are not as many events so we have to come up with more creative ways to meet people,” says Madison Head, a freshman on the women’s golf team. Head has some unconventional ideas for ways that freshmen could get more involved. “I wish that we could have a version of quest week again, but have it be in person instead of online,” said Head. “I feel like a lot of people make friends that way, and we didn’t get to experience it.” With out a doubt, Covid-19 has affected the social life the class of 2024. Sadly, that’s not the only way that the novel coronavirus has affected new students. Karly Falanga, another freshman on the women’s golf team, has struggled more with the academic side of “Zoom University” than the social side. “Classes are a lot harder when they are taught through zoom. I feel like I’m teaching myself,” says Falanga. Upperclassmen are in more specific courses with smaller class sizes, so they get more in-person classes. The freshman are primarily all online or in cohorts, attending class every other week. Not having the in-person class experience may affect grades and GPA’s drastically. Being a freshman in college during a pandemic is not easy. However, the obvious setbacks that come from a very strange and remote...
by Taylor McKnight | Sep 24, 2020 | COVID-19, News Slider
Lipscomb University is promoting ways to stay safe, not only during this pandemic but with flu season approaching as well. Lipscomb is hosting the Bison Flu Fest, which will give all students the opportunity to get a flu shot right on campus. In efforts to keep the campus open, and all students safe, Lipscomb is making this a FREE event, and students do not need insurance in order to participate. The Bison Flu Fest has been coordinated by Lipscomb’s chapter of American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists and Lipscomb University Health Services. This will be a two-day clinic at the Allen Arena concourse. Starting Wednesday, September 23 and Thursday, September 24, from 9 a.m.-5 pm. There will also be an additional date for Saturday, September 26, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. It will be a drive-through flu shot clinic right in front of Allen Arena where Lipscomb Pharmacy students will be administering the shots. ...
by Mckenzi Harris | Aug 27, 2020 | COVID-19, News, News Slider
Lipscomb’s weekly COVID tracker indicates that seven of the 56 people tested last week by the campus health center were positive cases. None resulted in hospitalization. The New York Times College Tracker reported Wednesday that Lipscomb has had 60 cases of COVID-19, though that number is a bit deceiving, according to a university spokesperson. The Times had not contacted Lipscomb for its numbers, Kim Chaudoin, assistant vice president, public relations and communications, told Lumination Network. “We do not have 60 active cases of COVID,” Chaudoin said. “Because colleges report data differently, and because cases continued to emerge, even in the months when most campuses were closed, the Times is counting all reported cases since the start of the pandemic.” Chaudoin said she updates the campus COVID stats each Monday morning. The current page states that 37 Lipscomb students are in quarantine/isolation. That figure does not refer to the number of positive COVID cases, Chaudoin said. “Nor should the 37 number be construed to assume positive cases,” she said. “It refers to the number of students in either isolation (they have tested positive) or quarantine (they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive).” She added that the number of positive tests recorded each week is a combined total that includes academic and university employees and students. Chaudoin said that of the Times‘ cumulative number of 60 positive cases, 48 of those were from March 25 through Aug. 8, and 31 of that number were outside vendors working on-site in May. The week of Aug. 8 had five positive cases; adding the current listing of seven brings the total to 60 since...
by Erika Plunkett | Aug 14, 2020 | COVID-19, News, News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb volleyball head coach Brandon Rosenthal was being hopeful that a season on the brink of COVID extinction would be rescued when he was interviewed recently. Now that the season has been postponed — the ASUN on Friday announced it was halting all fall sports because of the COVID epidemic and hoping to reschedule them for the spring — his and his players’ hopes have been dashed. Or at least delayed. In the interview prior to Friday’s news, Rosenthal said being “resilient” is a key factor for the team because the pandemic already had thrown the games and even practice into an uproar. At the time, possibilities being tossed around included playing only in-conference or moving the season into the spring. In making Friday’s announcement, ASUN Commissioner Ted Gumbart, called it “a huge disappointment.” “Anyone who follows college sports understands the dynamics that brought us to this decision, but that doesn’t mean we like it. My feelings right now? COVID stinks. If you weren’t putting my words into a public release, I might put it another way.” The postponement of competition in conference-sponsored fall semester sports includes men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball. So far, the basketball seasons for men and women remain unaffected, at least in terms of scheduling games. Scheduling will be a big issue for the fall sports, though, now that they have to wait until spring, if the disease allows for play then. “We will make every effort to provide a quality competitive experience for our fall student-athletes during the spring semester,” Gumbart said in the conference press release. “We’re...
by Camryn Given | Jul 30, 2020 | COVID-19, News, News Slider
It’s no secret that college campuses will look different this semester. With safety at top priority, Lipscomb has created some new ways for students to eat on campus. There have been new dining options, a full-service Chick-fil-A and even a healthy snack bar added to Bennett in preparation for students’ arrival in the fall. “We will be doing some fairly dramatic changing in terms of food service,” said President Randy Lowry in a conversation with Lumination about dining at Lipscomb this fall. Lowry talked about four specific changes that students will notice come August. The first “dramatic change” Lowry noted was the limiting of seating in Bison Cafe to half of its usual capacity, in order to follow social distancing guidelines. To accommodate for this loss of seating, there will now be seating available in two additional spaces: Room 1891 and downstairs in Shamblin. Not only will there be a reduction in seating, but the serving of the food itself will no longer look the same either. That’s where the next two major changes come into play. “There will be no self-service in the cafeteria,” Lowry said. “Everything will be served to you.” The Bison Cafe won’t be changing what food is served, just how the food is served. These modifications will limit contact between those in the cafeteria to reduce the spread of germs. “We will have a very robust grab-and-go kind of concept that will be introduced,” Lowry said. There will be an area where students can pick up pre-portioned food in addition to a cafeteria-style station. Not only will this be safer for students, but it will...
by Gunnar Eng | Jul 23, 2020 | COVID-19, News, News Slider, Uncategorized
Lipscomb’s nursing program, always reliant on physical interaction and hands-on experiences in the past, had to adapt dramatically when the school switched to virtual learning. The pandemic that mandated virtual learning also caused problems in terms of the opportunities for nursing students. “Many clinical partners, around the same time Lipscomb decided to switch to virtual learning, also decided to no longer let students into their facilities,” said Dr. Chelsia Harris, the program’s executive director. “The rationale was to conserve their personal protection equipment, or PPE’s, for essential workers that absolutely needed them.” “It was challenging for me to finish online in the spring, seeing a lot of cool things in my clinicals (at Vanderbilt Trauma Unit), but was only able to go twice before everything started shutting down,” said McKenzie Allen, a senior. Despite many clinical partners and direct physical interaction being cut off, the nursing program made successful adaptations, according to Harris. “We have such incredible faculty and staff that worked really hard to work with some of the vendors in a virtual capacity, and were able to launch a high-fidelity type virtual simulation,” she said. “Some of the simulations are so realistic, and actually have students think more critically than what you thought you would even imagine comparatively to bedside with a real patient.” “The Tennessee State Board of Nursing as well as our national accreditation body were in full support of the utilization of virtual simulations as long as students were able to meet outcomes,” Harris said. The sudden shift to isolation for students and faculty did cause adjustment, according to Harris. “It was gut-wrenching to...
