MU received backlash statewide after spiking in COVID-19 cases in the fall semester.
“Within a only week back at school, the Mizzou campus has had 415 students infected with the virus,” according to Fox2 News in St. Louis.
In the spring semester, the university attempted to amend their response to the pandemic by requiring returning students living on campus to have a COVID-19 test.
MU encouraged students to either get tested within five days prior to arrival or upon arriving on campus. Those who waited to get tested until returning to Columbia were encouraged to quarantine until receiving their results. However, MU failed to enforce this procedure, making the system ineffective.
Andrea Merritt is first-year journalism at MU. She is an opinion columnist who writes about local issues for The Maneater.
Nothing is more terrifying than walking the 0.8 miles from my parking spot to my home in Johnston Hall at night. My parking spot is one of the thousands hidden behind the Hearnes Center, tucked away from campus. If I screamed in the never-ending parking lot, no one would hear me.
The danger and fear students feel from these parking lots are more than real. In the last three months, MU has had 26 reported simple assaults. Simple assaults are anything that is intended to cause harm to another person. Some students have to give up their safety to gain parking for their cars. No person wants to become part of this simple assault statistic, simply, because MU fails to implement more parking near dorms.