Online classes, takeout meals, and masks in the hallways are the new normal for first-year students taking on their first semester of college amid a pandemic, where some are uncertain about the future of the in-person semester.

Several universities have already sent students packing from residence halls due to COVID-19 outbreaks on campus, including the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Michigan State University, and the University of Notre Dame.

Director of Housing Administration Virginia Ibrahim-Olin said in a press conference on Aug. 17 that if the UI moves to all virtual instruction before Thanksgiving break, students will receive information about their housing and meal plan contracts, and applicable refunds and rate changes at that time.

“If the university chooses to close, I think the important thing to note is that we in Housing and Dining will do everything we can to remain open to support those students where this is their primary housing,” she said. “We know that there are a number of them that this is home, and we don’t want to assume that every student has somewhere else that they may be able to go in the event of virtual instruction.”

Around 6,000 students live in the residence halls in a typical year and 5,500 students are set to live in University of Iowa residence halls this semester — including 4,400 first-year students, which is down from 6,000 in previous years, according to UI administrators. The state Board of Regents predicted in June that 5,700 students would live on campus.

With several colleges already abandoning reopening plans, some first years said they felt apprehensive about how the semester will look at the UI.

First-year UI student Breanna Powers said the uncertainty going into the semester is nerve-wracking to think about, due to the possibility of campus closing earlier than expected.

“There’s just a lot of unknowns in regard to what’s happening next semester too, but at the moment I think I’m okay,” Powers said.

Katlynn Long, a first-year UI student, said she observed students’ social distancing in her residence hall, and is concerned about students who will choose to party.

“I’m nervous because things aren’t going to go quite as we expected, but you have to understand that everybody’s in the same boat and the college itself is just as worried as the students are,” Long said. “I really hope our fellow students are going to take COVID precautions seriously so that the world isn’t like this forever.”

The UI will begin sharing self-reported COVID-19 cases among students and employees on Friday, and will update case counts each week.

Students who test positive for COVID-19 or have come into contact with someone who tested positive, will be moved into quarantine and isolation housing.

“We have isolation and quarantine housing in nearly every building,” University of Iowa Housing and Dining Senior Director Von Stange said. “The goal is, if they have to quarantine or isolate, we want them to stay on the same side of the river.”

Stange told reporters that students who test positive will be informed through contact tracing. If a student tests positive for the virus, Stange said, their roommate will be informed, but the entire floor the student lives on will not.

Alex Marse, a first-year UI student from Iowa City, said she was excited to be on campus but scared because she does not want to contract coronavirus.

“It’s my hometown, and with everyone coming back, I don’t want to see a spike in cases,” she said. “It’s weird — my whole life I’ve watched college kids return to campus, and it’s a weird perspective now being a student and living in the dorms, which you don’t see when you don’t go outside of downtown.”