CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Class has been in session for Texas A&M University Corpus Chrsiti students for a few weeks now. The pandemic has posed challenges for many educators and students.
3News spoke with the island university music department to see how they've been navigating through the uncertainties.
Texas A&M Universtiy Corpus Christi students have been back in class since August 19. Before the semester began, 3News spoke with music professor Dr. Ross Bernhardt and he shared some of the challenges the music department would be facing.
“In a lot of ways, we’re gonna be experimenting a little bit as we go along because I can’t have my full classes in the room at any given times there’s just too many and it’s not safe for singing. Our profession is not only having to shift some things online. We’re having to totally re-imagine what we do as music educators,” said Dr. Bernhardt.
Now that class is back in session, 3News spoke with Dr. Brian Shelton chair of the music department and he shared how they've been navigating through the challenges brought by the pandemic.
“We spent a good amount of time the week before classes started putting down stickers on the floor just to give an idea of distance because most of our classes are not set classrooms. Meaning they’re not tables bolted to the ground. They’re just flat floors that we then populate,” said Dr. Shelton. “So, it was important that we put down stickers, so people at least get an impression of how far apart. We did 6 feet.”
When it comes to performances the performing arts center implemented a new system to ensure everyone’s safety.
“What the PAC is doing, they are marking off seats. So, every other row, every fourth seat someone can sit in it and we had a test run,” said Dr. Shelton.
“For contact tracing we had a QR code. So, students can scan the QR code, they put in their name, phone number and email address. That tells that who is in the hall and when. So, if there is an outbreak we hear about we can contact folks who were at the performance.”
Dr. Shelton says the department wants to be able to hold performances in the safest way possible. Right now, visitors are not allowed at the island university, but the department has been performing for each other.
The department held a performance for the first time in months with the new system in place.
“We’re gonna move forward with our plan. The first recital seemed to go fairly well so our plan is to continue and then we also say how do we get to the community? We will stream our concerts,” said Dr. Shelton.
So far, Dr. Shelton says one student in the department has tested positive for the virus.
Dr. Shelton says the biggest issue is trying to anticipate what new challenges will arise, and in the meantime everyone is continuing to adapt to these new situations.