Four years after COVID-19, the atmosphere on campus is different.
“I would say that one of the things that’s definitely different is there’s a different vibe on campus right now,” Interim President Steve Bridges said. “Students want to be together.”
He said he believes USI has returned to campus life.
“I think that students have learned to appreciate the interactions of one another more than ever,” he said. “I think they long for the ability to be around people, and we certainly feel that way here. Our employees realize how much we enjoy interacting with students.”

According to CDC.gov, states began implementing shutdowns to stop the spread of COVID-19 March 15, 2020.
On March 17, 2020, a press conference with local educational institutions, including USI, discussed shutdowns.
Bridges described it as a “pretty surreal day” for him.
The following day, USI closed down, and classes resumed online the following Monday.
He said it was in the institution’s values to care for everyone and have safety first.
According to Illume’s Fall 2020 magazine, nearly 9,000 students moved home, while 75 students, approximately 50 international and 25 domestic, stayed in campus housing because they had nowhere else to go.
After the shutdown, Bridges said everything changed without notice, and the university had to accommodate students the best it could.
“What can we do to help students and make students successful?” he said.
The university purchased computers to ensure students could access class material, and Bridges said faculty worked “day and night” to upload course content—something they had never done before.
“I saw us all pull together and try to get this done so that we could be as normal as we could during a time that was absolutely not normal,” he said.
COVID-19 also led to lasting changes, such as making alternative work arrangements and online classes more accessible.

Bridges said employees working some days at home and other days at the university was a
significant change to campus and one that “will probably be here forever.”
Additionally, he said COVID-19 showed that classes the university thought weren’t teachable online came to be teachable.
“I think we are better than what we were when it started,” Bridges said. “I think it was an awakening in some ways, and I think we saw what we were capable of.”