COVID Has Changed College Life
This back-to-school scenario, described by Claremont McKenna College, offers potential answers to the biggest question in higher education today: How will colleges reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic? Many colleges and universities across the nation, distressed by the negative financial, academic and social impact of continued online learning, are scrambling to find ways to safely educate and provide for their students in the fall.
Already, several universities, including Boston, Brown, Purdue and New York, have said they plan to reopen this fall or are leaning toward doing so. San Jose State, Cal State East Bay and UC San Diego have said they intend to offer a combination of in-person and online instruction. USC is exploring a later start for on-campus classes, retrofitting facilities for social distancing and hybrid courses with online and in-person activities.
Most universities are planning for multiple scenarios depending on public health assessments and their own campus needs — and all of them are different, experts said.
Maloney and Joshua Kim, an online learning expert at Dartmouth College, recently laid out 15 fall scenarios that colleges are discussing. They include starting the fall term later, bringing students back in waves of smaller groups, using hybrid online and in-person instruction or redesigning courses into shorter blocks.
Charlie Streator, a junior in history who has returned to his Connecticut home for spring term, said he misses the learning that happens outside the classroom. One of his best memories, he said, was “being very nerdy together” with his classmates and professor after class. “I was like literally at that moment, ‘Oh so this is why I go to a small liberal arts college,’ ” Streator said. “What fills our day now is like a Zoom class or doing our homework, but there’s nothing else because we’re just trapped in our house. For a lot of people, it’s been a super isolating time.”
Zach Fogel, a sophomore majoring in philosophy and public affairs, said many of his friends are planning to take time off from school if they can’t return to campus. Fogel quarterbacks for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps football team and sings with a campus a cappella group.
Sharon Basso, vice president of student affairs, and her staff have assembled an Excel document with nearly 25 tabs laying out myriad details. Basso stressed that the campus will take the lead from public health officials and incorporate protocols for testing, quarantines, contact tracing and social distancing.
Similar planning is underway at Claremont McKenna’s four sister undergraduate institutions in the Claremont Colleges consortium. Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr said the campus is considering delaying the start of fall term or limiting students who return — possibly to freshmen or transfer students so they get the all-important on-campus experience. Students may take one or two courses online, then take subsequent ones on campus. Pomona also has secured additional leases for campus housing in case more spacing is needed.
“Every time you peel the onion,” Oliver said, “there’s a level of complexity that’s difficult to untangle.”
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