College kids are back on campus, or at least some are

Ha Seung-yeon was so excited about her first day back to school, she could barely sleep.

It’s her second year at Ewha Womans University in Sinchon, western Seoul, but Ha says it feels like she’s starting her college life all over again. With most of last year spent online on Zoom, going to school Wednesday already felt like a whole new beginning.

“I was worried about being late for school this morning, thinking I might be stuck in traffic with office workers,” says Ha, a sophomore majoring in chemistry and nanoscience. “I genuinely feel like a college student now that I get to finally meet all my professors in person.”

Ewha was among a number of universities in Korea that launched the new school year on Wednesday, even as health authorities relayed the grim news that the nation reached yet another new record high of daily Covid-19 infections. With cases now exceeding 200,000, health officials predicted the daily coronavirus count to reach as high as 350,000 in the coming days.

Despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, many universities have refused to scrap their plans to hold in-person classes this semester and go fully virtual like in the early days of the pandemic, instead allowing professors to use their discretion in determining the format of their classes.

Like Ha, Kim Ju-yeon, 20, who majors in philosophy at Ewha Womans University, says she has some in-person classes this semester, too.

“I finally feel like a part of a community,” says Kim. “I didn’t have any friends on campus, but this year I really hope to enjoy my campus life with new friends and seniors, and go eat at popular places with them.”

Lee Jeong-bin, 20, a sophomore at Yonsei University in Sinchon, says it was only after he arrived at his lecture room Wednesday morning that he realized his professor had changed the class format from in-person to on Zoom.

“I was told a week ago that the class would be held face-to-face, so I got up at 7 a.m. today and rushed to school so I wouldn’t be late,” says Lee. “But when I arrived, the room was empty.”

Yoon, a 24-year-old majoring in earth system sciences at Yonsei University, was told by his professors that all of his classes would be held in-person this semester, which is why he rented a single-room studio apartment near the school campus. His biggest concern now, he says, is that all his classes might switch to Zoom.

“I’m really worried all my rent may go to waste.”

BY CHOI SEO-IN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]