“I haven’t seen a whole lot of school spirit myself.”

Riley Mean, 20, is a second-year finance major at UW-Milwaukee. Mean spent his freshman year at home while doing his classes online. He has had to adapt to all the changes on campus this year and go from online to in-person classes for the first time at UWM.

Joe Brethouwer: How much time do you spend on campus daily?

Riley Mean: Probably only an hour or maybe two hours depending on the day of the week. I don’t really hang around there much unless I’m going to or from class.

Q: Do you think UWM has a typical college atmosphere?

A: Yeah, it’s not the biggest school in the world but during the limited time I spend on campus, there are always a lot of people around, and it always feels lively on campus.

Q: Do you think being online for a year has impacted the atmosphere on campus?

A: Yeah probably, the first year I was actually on campus for classes was my sophomore year so I kind of missed out on seeing what the campus atmosphere was like before the pandemic.

Q: How has the mask mandate being lifted impacted life on campus?

A: I think the mask mandate being lifted has improved the campus atmosphere. I’m in a lab group with a couple of guys, and when everyone had masks on there was little conversation and now without masks it feels a little bit more human.

Q: Is there a sense of school spirit at UWM?

A: Maybe, I’m not a big school spirit guy but I’m sure there are groups of people who have a lot of school spirit, but I haven’t seen a whole lot of school spirit myself.