By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Even as light rain was falling and temperatures were only reaching the high 30s, the spirits of Fort Hays State University students remained high as they quickly moved out of their dorm rooms Tuesday afternoon.
FHSU students expected to remain on campus through the week, but on Monday the decision was made to cancel classes and move the students out immediately due to concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak.
"I think overall it's an inconvenience, but they understand and the community has been extremely willing to help out with everything that has been going on," said Jacki Dougherty, FHSU Student Government community relations director. "Thankfully a lot of people have come together to help out."
She said she had seen on the campus media outlet, Tiger Media Network, individual students offering to help store personal items in their own homes as students were moving out.
Professional Movers Kansas also stepped up to offer their services to students for free.
"We just tried to help out," said Kasey Deutscher, owner.
With such short notice is was a bad situation, he said.
"I know being a college student sometimes people don't have that much money and it's a lot of stress, so I thought it was just the right thing to do," he said. "Yeah, we could have made a little bit of money, but I just feel it was the right thing to do and help people out."
Deutscher said he hopes to see the students again as they come back to FHSU.
"We want people to feel good about the community, and we wanted people to have a good positive thing to come out of this," he said.
Joey Linn, FHSU vice president of student affairs, said while students are still reeling from the quick announcement, everyone is staying upbeat and handling the situation well.
"Right now it's kind of deer in the headlights. They are worried about what their next step is," he said.
There are a lot of hugs and tears, he said, as students say goodbye to their classmates, and it's extremely sad to see the students moving out early.
"But the overall attitude is really positive," Linn said.
The students also seemed to be very understanding about the short notice.
"I understand it is on a very short time scale, and the university wasn't expecting to have to close this quickly," said Lia Boese, FHSU student as she was packing her vehicle to leave.
"I know that no one was expecting the presidential announcement I heard that had triggered all of this," she said.
Although Boese said she understood the reason, she called the situation frustrating.
"I'm glad they canceled classes this week, at least, so we aren't worried about classes in addition to trying to get out of here by 5 p.m.," Boese said.
"I think they understand," said Kansas Third District Congressional Candidate Adrienne Vallejo Foster, who was helping her freshman son move from the dorms.
She received the call at 3 p.m. Monday he would have to be out of the dorms and said while it is difficult for the students and parents, protecting the most vulnerable people in the community is paramount.
"That's the most important thing right now," she said. "I get it. It's tough, but oftentimes it's never easy to do the right thing."