You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The Boy is home for the rest of March.
UVA sent out a message yesterday telling students who live in the dorms not to return until at least the first week of April, and possibly not for the rest of the semester. They’re moving classes online next week. Students will be told when they can come and get their stuff -- books, laptops, clothes -- but otherwise should expect to be home for a while.
We’re lucky. The Boy has the option of staying with us. We’re far enough away that the drive back and forth is a hassle, but not so far away that we have to fly. (If he had gone to Michigan, which was the original plan, going back and forth would have been a lot harder.) He mentioned that he’s already received emails from two of his professors, the content of which boiled down to “we’ll figure this out.” I was struck, too, by how well written the letter from President Ryan was.
Many students have a harder time with such an abrupt curveball. If they’re insecurely housed and/or have strained relationships with family and/or don’t have family in the country, then suddenly changing the housing situation (not to mention the academic situation) can be a real struggle. TB was home for spring break anyway, so for him, it’s just a matter of staying home longer than expected. And we’re well-enough stocked with food and Wi-Fi to give him a secure perch while the university rides out the crisis.
At my own college, as at many community colleges, I can’t be confident that every student has those advantages. We don’t have dorms, so there’s no issue of coordinating a move-out day, which helps. But we can’t necessarily assume that every student has access to tech and Wi-Fi consistently enough to navigate the abrupt change to online instruction.
This coming week is our spring break, so that’s a freebie, as classes go. Moving online for a week isn’t necessarily a big deal; since most of our classes meet once a week, the impact on any given class is roughly the equivalent of a snow day. We know how to handle that. If we have to keep things online for a longer time, the gaps in student resources may start to show more dramatically.
On Monday I sent out a note to faculty asking them to write and submit very brief plans for how they would continue to conduct class if they couldn’t come to campus for a while. Going online was an option but not the only option, and I’ve been impressed by the range of options folks developed. This week, Teaching and Learning Center workshops were the hottest ticket in town. The approach of “we need to solve this, but you get to decide how” struck me as a reasonable balance of addressing an exigent circumstance while still respecting both academic freedom and the very real differences among disciplines. I’m glad to report that the faculty took me up on it.
I was pleasantly surprised when Middle States, our regional accreditor, sent out a memo to the effect that it will be more lenient this semester with adjustments to academic calendars and online delivery than it would normally be. That was appropriate and welcome.
Nobody wanted the virus to strike, and I’d be content if, a couple of weeks from now, we remembered it as a big dud, like Y2K. But so far, I’m seeing it bring out the good in a lot of people. And I get to spend more time with TB, which is always welcome. Here’s hoping that we remember the students who don’t have quite as much backup.
