It was a long six weeks.

When students left campus at the end of last semester – most just before Thanksgiving – they still had to contend with finals week. Then, they faced down an unusually long winter break, lengthened to accommodate an expected (and born out) surge of COVID-19 cases following the holidays.

“I’m really excited about being back,” said Shelby Brown. “It’s a nice relaxing place for me to be to do my schoolwork. And I just do better here than I would at home.”

Students began moving back into dorms on Jan. 22, with several thousand pouring back into a campus chillier than when they left it. Move-in was once again by appointment to encourage social distancing.

Brown, a freshman finance major, said she did not expect UK to make major changes for the spring since COVID-19 cases have been so high.

But some students say they are hoping that campus will open up more.

“I was hoping that we’d be have a little bit more freedom, like the Johnson Center. I hope I could go there and play basketball again,” said Matthew Graviss, a finance major. 

Graviss already had COVID-19 so he is less worried for his personal health this semester.

“Plus my girlfriend got vaccinated, so I feel good about it, but I am a little nervous about COVID-19 in general,” Graviss said.

UK is vaccinating some students along with faculty and staff. Though they have not released data on how many students have been vaccinated, the university expects to offer vaccinations to students through its COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Kroger Field. Administrators have said they do not plan to require the COVID-19 vaccine for students.

According to the vaccine webpage, students and employees do not have to take additional steps to sign up for a vaccine and will receive an invitation when they come up in the queue.

Some faculty have expressed hopes that this could lead to a return to in-person instruction sooner rather than later. 

UK student Bryan Vance had hopes that by summer, the mask mandate would no longer be necessary. He said he is not going to change his habits much from fall.

“The first semester I was pretty isolated. The only worries I had were at work, and I feel like their guidelines are pretty comfortable. I’m not too worried,” Vance said.

Like other students, he wants more in-person classes. 

“I had two classes last semester that were in-person and I felt like I did a lot better and was able to connect with my professor and get more out of the material,” Vance said.

Unlike in the fall, students had the opportunity to choose their course modality for spring classes. Modality for last semester was assigned over the summer as UK prepared for its first full semester during the pandemic, but students pick classes in mid-spring before anyone knew university operations would change so drastically. This time around, students had the chance to know modality before signing up – but some students found they still couldn’t get the in-person classes they wanted.

“I picked as many in-person as I possibly could. But I only managed to get one class that was in-person,” said Luke Gilland, a first year engineering student. The same happened to Brown.

“The classes I took, all of the sections that were in-person were full, so I was kind of stuck with the online model,” Brown said.

Students like neuroscience and biology major Madison Webster are fighting to get in-person credit for practical courses like labs and experiential learning.

“It’s really hard to do labs online but the rest of them. I’ve just been sticking online as to limit my exposure other people,” Webster said.

Brown and others said they feel like they learn better in-person and know many of their peers struggle to stay focused during online classes.

This spring semester differs from most with the significant absence of spring break. UK administrators made the choice to pull the week-long break from the calendar because any travel would spread COVID-19 on and off campus. 

“I’m okay with it because I don’t think people should really be traveling right now anyways. And also, that means we got to come back later than a lot of others,” Webster said. ”And also, that means we get to come back a lot later than a lot of others.”

Many students agree but fear the mental health effects of a long semester with little time off.

“I really think this can be hard for a lot of college students,” Brown said. “I know personally I need a mental break every now and then. And I think without the spring break, it’ll be kind of hard to make it through.”

The fall took a lot out of students, but with one pandemic semester down they hope they can adjust better for the spring.

“I felt comfortable and then when we got to around fall break, what would have been right after midterms, I started getting a little antsy, feeling kind of drained. It was hard to go straight through the semester like that. So this semester I’m expecting it, so hopefully I’ll be able to cope with that better,” Vance said.

Students hope that COVID-19 cases among students decrease this semester.

“I think Capilouto is doing a really good job about it and I think honestly think cases will go down,” Graviss said.

In the fall, UK reported just under 3,000 cases among students from the first to last day of class.

As of Jan. 21, UK reported 117 active cases and 228 recovered cases among UK students through its reentry testing program beginning on Jan. 14.

UK students were required to be tested when they returned to campus. Like the fall semester, testing may be required of any student at any point during the semester and testing sites will remain open and free for students.

“I think they’re doing a pretty good job because they have a lot of testing centers and it’s really easy to sign up for a test,” Webster said of UK. “I think they’re doing a good job of like not having visitors and residence halls.”

COVID tests for students are available in three on campus locations: inside the Blue Box Theatre in the student center, inside K-Lair of Haggin Hall and drive-through in the Blue Lot at Kroger Field. Symptomatic students should be tested at University Health Services.

Webster said she expects cases to go up at first, but hopefully everyone will be smart and avoid parties so cases go down.

“I’ve visited other universities and I’d say UK is the best I’ve seen at following the mask mandate,” Gilland said.

Overall, students expressed relief at returning to campus.

“I’m really excited, especially to see my friends because I haven’t seen them in like two months, and I’m excited because I’m supposed to have at least one in-person class so I’ll get to get out of my apartment,” Webster said.

Out-of-staters like Vance are readjusting to guidelines in Kentucky.

“I come from West Virginia so the guidelines here are a little bit more progressive, but they’ve kind of met,” Vance said. “There was a larger gap earlier on, and how strict it was in Kentucky vs. West Virginia, but I feel like now it’s pretty similar it’s about. “

Kentucky’s positivity rate is hovering just above 10 percent, with most counties in the red zone. Lexington’s seven-day average for new cases is around 200, according to the health department. Still, case numbers are showing a tentative downward trend across the state.

This is good news for students hoping to remain on campus; UK maintained an in-person presence through the whole fall semester despite contributing up to 20 percent of Lexington’s cases.

Student case numbers jumped following holidays, like Labor Day and Halloween. The spring semester offers fewer seasonal traditions like that but does include an academic holiday on March 26.

Students will once again have a 16-week semester, with classes beginning on Monday, Jan. 25 and finals week concluding on May 14. But the end of the school year is far from students’ minds during move-in as they prep for one thing: class to be back in session.