“I’ve met probably 10 kids total that actually live on campus, and I’ve been friends with five of them.”

Harrison Prellwitz, 20, is a second-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He was a senior in high school when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and he entered college at UWM in the fall of 2020. Starting college during this time of uncertainty, Prellwitz says his UWM experience has been shaped by a growing emotional distance between students.  

Ainsley Feigles: How would you describe the current atmosphere at UWM?

Harrison Prellwitz: Poor. It’s not really the campus’ fault. It’s a commuter school, so most people don’t try to interact with each other because it’s almost futile most of the time, especially when you are in general education classes and you have 200 kids in your course. Most of those kids leave and are not on campus. I’ve met probably 10 kids total in my time that actually live on campus, and I’ve been friends with five of them. If more people lived on campus, or at least very near it, more people would mingle.

Q: Have you noticed any shift in the environment returning to school after the mask mandate ended?

A: I do think, a little bit, that this problem that I bring up is relatively largely because of the pandemic. I think that now that there’s not a mask mandate, to a lot of people it’s just basically over. I think people are just generally more comfortable. Kids are more actively participating with the professor and staying after class and asking questions and approaching each other. That’s not something that I saw before, so I would say that the mask mandate being taken down has made people feel safer together, which is a little backwards, but I understand where people are coming from.

Q: Have you ever felt isolated on campus?

A: Definitely a little bit. Especially freshman year. I had this chemistry class, and we met three times a week, but you had to sign up for the days that you were going to go. When you would go, they would have garbage bags over most of the seats, and then you had to choose between all of these spaced out spots. Even if I was in the room with 30 kids, I was in this massive lecture hall, I think that I would probably see the other kids a couple times, like right when class would start when everybody was sitting down. Everybody would get up and completely avoid each other and walk home. It was the weirdest thing to me. It was very strange, and I definitely felt like that was an isolating moment of my college experience.

Q: Do you believe that the pandemic has changed students’ outlooks on social opportunities?

A: Definitely a lot of students. There are always the kids that never really cared, but I think there’s a lot of kids that, even after the mandate’s done, will still come to classes with masks on. I feel like those kids in my classes that are still wearing masks seem to almost feel more isolated than they were before from the rest of us. They sit farther away. They don’t really talk to anybody. It’s kind of sad. They’re not doing anything wrong; I just feel bad for them. I wish they would participate more, because it is starting to be more fun to go to class. I feel like the pandemic has definitely pushed people away from each other. 

Q: Do you think that being involved in more activities on campus would change your outlook?

A: Yes. I think that being part of band is part of what I’m talking about when I’m talking about kids interacting with each other more. I think it’s really that you find your clique. I’m in band, and I see those kids all the time and we all work together towards a common goal. So that group of kids talks to each other, and a lot of us know each other, and it’s fun. I think if you don’t do things like that, then you have too much of a mixed bag of who is in your classes, and then people have a hard time really creating any sort of friendships. I definitely think if you do clubs, you’ll probably feel a bit more involved in things. But you will also feel like that is your only group of people that is involved, because the rest of the school is not. There are over 25,000 students that go here, and maybe your group of 20 kids feels connected, and I feel like that’s just too small.