WSU students make exodus from Pullman

PULLMAN — Coronavirus continues to spread across the country, schools and universities are shutting down and people are hoarding items like toilet paper and hand sanitizer, but for at least one Washington State University student, it’s no reason to abandon a time-honored college tradition.

Or to put it a better way — spring break must go on. Drew Kuzmin-Batchelor was among dozens of students on the WSU campus Saturday making a quick get-away. But instead of heading straight for his home in Lafayette, Calif., he’s heading for Cabo — a magnet for spring-break partiers.

“It should be a good time,” he said of the resort at the tip of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. “I read there are not as many coronavirus cases down there, so it’s a bit safer.”

The university is on spring break next week, meaning many students would have left campus regardless of the shutdown. Many students are leaving for the week and coming back. Others are getting out now and won’t return until the fall.

Following his week of fun and sun, Kuzmin-Batchelor said he plans to return to campus, pack up his room and then head to his San Francisco Bay area home to complete his spring classes over the internet. Like many students leaving the campus, he described the societal disruption and fast-moving news surrounding the pandemic as “kind of crazy.”

“It seems like something out of a movie.”

Lily Gelhause, a freshman at WSU, pulled a wheeled suitcase as she hurried to catch one of several tour buses departing from the campus to the west side of the state late Saturday morning. She remarked that the close friends she made at her dorm, Rogers Hall, had been saying just a few days ago that their time together was running short.

“We were complaining that we only had two months left together and now it’s two hours,” she said.

Gelhause was heading for her home in Bremerton, Wash., and said she planned to come back to Pullman in the coming weeks to complete the moving out process.

“We didn’t understand how big a deal (the virus) was until our university shut down,” she said. “I won’t forget my freshman year.”

Riley Nelson was loading her belongings into the back of a pickup truck on Saturday and getting ready to return to her home near Bothell, Wash.

“I think you just kind of have to roll with it and make the best of it,” she said of the sudden shutdown of campus and the move to online instruction.

She’s not coming back until the fall semester.

“I felt we might as well pack up now and save the gas money,” she said. “The sooner I get settled back home, the sooner I can get a job, if anything is open.”

Aidan Seidel of Coburg, Ore., and Aidan Callen of Maple Valley, Wash., said they both plan to come back because they need resources found only on the campus to continue their studies.

Instructors gave them few details of how their courses will be delivered, but have pledged to communicate more information in the near future.

“Even though we are going online, I’m still coming back,” said Seidel, a freshman. “A lot of people are staying.”

Callen said shutting down in-person instruction might be overly cautious.

“Even so, I appreciate them being more cautious than perhaps I think they need to be,” Callen said.

He expects his instructors to post video-recorded lectures.

Both said some of their fellow students are more worried than they need to be, and saying goodbyes as if they won’t see each other again.

“Calm down, it will be fine,” said Seidel, before adding, “I hope it’s OK when we come back.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.