“I've always had trouble staying awake or staying focused in actual in-person lectures,” Marek said. “But, for some reason just being in front of a computer, and that might be partly because of my major, but just interacting over Zoom really isn't that bad. And in my case, it's actually been a benefit compared to in-person.”

Additionally, Marek, a commuter student who lives with parents in the upper age bracket, feels safer when working online as opposed to attending in-person classes. 

“I would definitely not feel as comfortable (going back in person),” Marek said. “I feel I'm not worried about myself getting it; I'm worried about spreading it to other people.”

Graphic design freshman Paige Cramton says she did well online these past three weeks as she feels that it wasn’t that big of an adjustment after having to be online for the past year and a half. She agrees with Marek that COVID-wise, staying online would be the safer option.

“For this semester, I feel it would be best to stay online due to how many COVID cases there are currently, because it's at, I believe, 1.5 million right now,” Cramton said.

But, other students have struggled significantly with online learning and feel that returning to class is the better option.

This opinion is consistent with national trends, with multiple accredited studies finding that online learning has caused significant disruptions to academic performance in students. 

Supply chain management junior Jack Fischer says that he has had online classes since 2020 and that this has affected his academic success. He felt extremely disappointed by the announcement that MSU would be virtual once again and feared he would be faced with yet another semester of online learning.

Fischer is looking forward to finally being back in a classroom after two years of online learning.

“I'm just looking forward really and excited to be back in person,” Fischer said. “That's my biggest thing is, I'm excited. I'm excited to be in the classroom. I'm excited to meet my peers. I'm excited to just see everything about the campus.”

When the remote start was initially announced, students had mixed reactions, with some feeling frustrated and others relieved. Others worried that the remote start was a harbinger of another wave of lockdowns and a sign of lost progress.

“I felt like we got to a place in the world where things were starting to open up, people were getting vaccinated and everything was starting to look up and I feel like now we're just kind of being thrown back into March 2020,” neuroscience sophomore Charlotte Best said.

However, COVID cases have been on a downward trend since mid-Jan., according to the CDC. This data is consistent with reports that Omicron would rapidly peak and then begin to dissipate just as quickly.

Citing this plateau in cases, MSU returned to in-person classes on Jan. 31 as originally planned. The vast majority of classes have an in-person component.