Virginia colleges excited for first normal year since start of pandemic

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — Several colleges in the Commonwealth go back to class starting Monday for their first normal year since 2019.

Schools going back include:

• Virginia Tech
• University of Lynchburg
• Liberty University
• Randolph College
• Sweet Briar College
• Central Virginia Community College
• Radford University
• Ferrum College
• Patrick & Henry Community College

This will be the first time in three years that colleges are expecting a year not impacted by the pandemic, and they said they couldn't be more excited about that.

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"I am very excited to get back to normal," said Joshua Lynn.

Lynn is a junior at the University of Lynchburg and he said he's never experienced a year of college without COVID.

"COVID really shook everything up my freshman year," Lynn said. "So now that we're gonna be back in the classroom full-time, no masks, no online stuff, it's going to be really nice."

He's not the only one.

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Senior Sydni Spradlin said she hasn't had a normal semester since the fall of her freshman year.

"We only got our fall semester normal and then as soon as spring hit, we went home for Spring Break and then didn't come back for five months," Spradlin said.

U of L Administrators, like Eric Baldwin who serves as the V.P. of Student Development, said getting back to business as usual feels like a cloud lifted from the campus.

"It's kind of strange to say getting back to normal is new, but that's really one of the things that we're focused on is getting back to as much normalcy as possible," Baldwin said.

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Virginia Tech is doing the same thing.

"We are back," Mark Owczarski said. He's a spokesperson for the university. He continued, "We have been back but we're back now with more confidence."

Owczarski said their goal this semester is clear.

"To teach, to learn, to have some fun and experience Virginia Tech in the manner that we really want to experience it," he said.

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Though COVID is still in the picture, both schools said they’ll live with it the best way they can, so students can get the college experience they deserve.

"I'm just excited to get one full year of just normal college experience," Spradlin said.

Both universities also said they plan to monitor COVID and follow the Virginia and CDC guidance in the new year.

They said they're trusting students to make appropriate health decisions as they learn to live with COVID in this return to the normal world we're moving into.