Graduating senior Tyler Randall says he has everything situated and is ready for the next level post graduation. Randall says he will be looking into getting a job as a police officer in his hometown of Tampa, Florida. “I started that journey last summer around June,” Randall said. “I was granted the job officially back in January, and I will be going into the academy in July training to be Deputy Sheriff.”
It has been two weeks since the call for evacuation occurred at Grambling State University. Many of the students had to adjust to the new online system, as well as, move off campus for their own safety while few remain on campus. There were still many students such as seniors who were not ready to make the adjustments of leaving.
While the majority of the students on campus are safe and sound, many of the seniors at Grambling are still struggling with post plans beyond graduation. Some of them still needed more time to pursue chances in looking for jobs, internships, and building their network on and off campus. Randall says that the actions of the university affected him both positively and negatively. “It was very unexpected,” Randall said. “With it being my graduating year, it really messed up my plans being with my friends and doing a lot of things that I will not be able to do. It is bad that everything was cut so quick and so short. I really did not have too much time to think.”
Randall goes on to explain his positive outlook over the situation. “This quarantine time that is going on nationwide is giving everybody time to spend with their families,” Randall said. “That is probably the biggest positive impact of this whole Coronavirus thing. I had the chance to spend some more time with my grandparents, my mom, my aunt, and other people who I usually do not see everyday and talk to everyday on a regular basis. This is giving us more quality time to bond with family and friends.”
Many of the students do not think that the university did enough to assist with student assistance. Some of them do not like the structure of online classes while some wish that they did not leave campus. Some seniors think there should be more options being developed by the faculty to assist them on their future endeavors.
According to Randall, he believes that the administration of Grambling State University did an outstanding job in assisting their students. “I think they did exceptional,” Randall says, “ when you are dealing with a mass group of students, you can only do so much. I think that with the faculty and staff encouraging students to go home at the urgent time that they did was really good. This thing just fell on us, and there are more cases of the virus being discovered. Once you have it it is too late you already have it so I believe that the protocols of what they have us do was good, and I don’t see anything wrong with how they handled it.”