For well over a year, many Rowan students have been craving a return to the beautiful Glassboro campus, along with the return of the activities, memories and events that make on-campus life so fulfilling. Come the fall of 2021, many students will be making the choice to return to the university for in-person instruction and a fresh lifestyle. For some students, they will be walking on campus for the very first time. 

Current Profs, transfer students and the incoming class of 2025 will all be a part of the fresh faces that will begin inhabiting the school in roughly four months.

Barring any major setbacks, Rowan University believes that they will be able to welcome many of their beloved students back to campus in the fall. During an announcement directed toward the Rowan community, the university’s president, Dr. Ali A. Houshmand, stated,

“I am confident Rowan University will be fully open this fall and ready to welcome students to our vibrant, fast-growing campuses. I’m excited that we’re moving in the right direction every day.”

With this reassurance from the president in mind, many students cannot help but to feel thrilled about the approaching fall semester.

While a fair share of students did return to Rowan for this past school year, a large portion of the student body remained remote for their courses. Many of next year’s seniors and juniors, however, will be coming back to Rowan for the first time in over a year. It was many of those same students who were unexpectedly forced off of campus when the pandemic first hit in March 2020, so they remain very eager to come back. Among them is sophomore Matt Munoz.

“Frustrated, upset and angry were the feelings I felt when we had to go remote in March of 2020,” said Matt Munoz, who was a freshman in his second semester at Rowan when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Munoz will be a junior when he comes back to campus, and cannot wait for what the restart of his collegiate life will bring.

“Being a part of campus life, seeing friends and starting clinicals for athletic training are some of the things I am most excited for when we come back in the fall.”

In addition to the current students at Rowan, the university has several individuals who transfer into the school annually. This year, both transfer students from last year and this year will be coming to Rowan for the first time.

Christian Kane, a transfer student from Atlantic Cape Community College, is one of those very enthusiastic people awaiting their Rowan debut.

“As a transfer student, this will be my first semester on campus,” Kane said. “I am very excited to connect with friends and meet new ones. I am also eager to participate in intramural sports, such as flag football and basketball. Lastly, I am excited to utilize my new living space on campus to work on my podcast, ‘The Green Players’, which I host with one of my future Rowan roommates.”

Furthermore, there are several current freshmen who have not had the opportunity to physically be on campus yet. While the class of 2024 will be sophomores next year, many of them will still feel the remanence of those freshman jitters and anticipation.

“I am really excited to finally live on campus with my roommates next semester,” said Gracie Passetti, a freshman inclusive elementary education major. “It is going to be nice having in-person classes and being able to meet my professors.”

It is hard to ignore the eagerness of the many students hoping to physically be on campus this fall, and while the pandemic has taken a toll our society for well over a year, it appears that Rowan University has optimism that we will return to some form of normalcy come September.

With the university’s enthusiastic approach to bringing hundreds of students back to campus safely, there will be countless current students, transfer students and new freshman faces at the university who will be counting down the days and marking their calendars for the start of the fall semester.

For comments/questions about this story, email features@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitOnline.