Campus tours for prospective Boston University students will be conducted by student guides virtually over Zoom. SOPHIA FLISSLER/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
With prospective Boston University students unable to experience traditional campus tours, the University has invested in a virtual touring system.
These tours are set to start Monday, according to Associate Director of Admissions Kevin Lackey, who wrote in an email that they’ll be held over Zoom for the foreseeable future.
“We are not hosting any prospective student programming on campus this Fall so there’s no risk to our campus community or to prospective students,” Lackey wrote. “[It’s] too early to say what next semester will look like.”
Tours will be staffed by two students: one on camera, and one behind it to film the other. Lackey wrote both students will be masked as they tour from West to East Campus over the course of an hour. They will not be entering any buildings and must adhere to social distancing guidelines.
A camera stabilizer and hotspot will also be provided by the Admissions Office to student guides, Lackey wrote, but the tours will be conducted on a student’s phone.
Jasper Tangchitsumran, a tour coordinator and junior in the Questrom School of Business, said the tours will still be interactive, and questions can be sent in the chat for the tour guide to address.
Tangchitsumran said the live tours would be more “genuine” than a pre-recorded video. He said some vital campus attributes — such as Bay State Road, Marciano Commons and the George Sherman Union — might be missed.
“Normally the GSU is hustling and bustling with all these student organizations trying to recruit people. Now it’s dead quiet,” Tangchitsumran said. “They’d be missing that community aspect, that atmosphere feel of BU, which I think is so essential.”
While students will miss out on experiencing the liveliness typically present on campus, Lackey said in a phone call that the virtual tour allows prospective students and their families to see a larger part of campus that wasn’t in the traditional tour.
“This is going to allow us to really cover the whole campus. We’re starting in West and finishing up in East in an hour,” Lackey said. “We’re pretty excited about it. We’ve never done anything like that.”
Lackey said virtual tours will likely become a fixture in the admissions process.
“We’ve really liked being able to have even a further reach for people that never could visit campus,” Lackey said. “People are very appreciative that we have found ways to still interact with them and get all this information across that they need as they’re applying.”
Despite the switch to virtual events, Lackey said average attendance has not significantly lowered compared to previous years.
“It’s kind of followed the same track that it does, even when we’re hosting visitors,” Lackey said, “as far as how busy they are.”
Junior College of Fine Arts transfer student Cheyanna Duran was making her decision during the height of the pandemic. She said not being able to attend a tour or an in-person Admitted Student Day was a missed opportunity.
Duran lives near BU, but has not had the chance to explore campus. She said the University gave her important information before attending, but she wishes she could have seen it on a visit.
Not having gotten to know the campus has made attending BU feel more impersonal, Duran said, especially because she is learning remotely.
“I don’t really feel a super strong connection to the school,” Duran said. “I also don’t really know what I’m missing out on. So it’s not like heartbreaking or super devastating in any way.”
