Items

• 
  2021-02-20

  Life Frozen, Caught in a Web, Safety Arrested

  It was an August afternoon, the sidewalks I walked were abandoned. I passed this safety light on DePaul University’s campus, which based on the spider web delicately entwined within, had not been touched in some time. A bug is trapped in the middle by a force they couldn’t see, till it was all too late. This bug and I were clearly friends. My life, like theirs, had been frozen in place. Everything I aimed to do, suspended for another time. Helpless to do anything, and worst of all, even seeking safety and refuge in friends and family, made a risk.
• 
  2021-02-15

  Getting My BSN in COVID Land

  The start of the semester was like that of any other except last semester I managed to secure an internship for the summer of 2020. Nursing school was already a difficult major to be in and I really didn’t think that it could get more difficult than that of junior year. I truly didn’t know what was to come. I will never forget being at clinical and hearing everyone mention the start of the virus. COVID-19 was on the backburner when it came to the most interesting topics of January 2020, but it would soon prove to be the most prominent in the upcoming months. I distinctly remember shadowing a nurse in the ICU one day and hearing the nurses discuss what was going to happen. “It doesn’t seem like it is coming here but trust me it is and when it does, we will need all the healthcare workers we can get.” This was a statement from one of the nurses that I will never forget hearing. At the time I didn’t fully believe the things that I were being rumored and didn’t think that we would ever be where we are today. As February and March arrived, COVID came to be part of everyone’s lives. Turning on the news, checking your timelines, and most day to day conversation held the topic of corona virus. Before we knew it, our lives changed completely. Our clinicals and classes were held remotely, you couldn’t leave your house without a mask, and we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to attend our internships. One thing that worried a lot of us was working while the virus cases began to spike. I knew that I would continue working as I was if not more than usual. Over the course of my internship I watched as COVID began to impact all the healthcare workers I was surrounded by. Safety precautions in the hospital setting were changing and at first, a lot of people were afraid to come in for their illnesses for fear of encountering a positive COVID patient. As time went on people became less and less afraid to come seek help at hospitals. With a large influx of patients coming in I could see nurses, aides, and doctors among others all begin to take the toll of the virus. This wasn’t necessarily due to exposure but more so that our exhaustion kicked in. Health care providers were and still are working countless hours to help in high census situations. The most frustrating aspect of quarantine has been watching people be noncompliant with mask requirements and stay at home orders. I wake up for work everyday and risk the wellbeing of everyone in my home including myself to help take care of those who need it. As the media has portrayed us as frontline workers, it felt slightly misleading while some of the public wasn’t contributing to lessen the blow of the ongoing problem. I started my internship to gain experience for my career. I didn’t know that I would grow accustomed to death and grief as fast as I have in the past year. COVID has shown me what it means to work hard and what struggles I can encounter in my career before I have even graduated and hold my diploma in hand. I currently work on the same unit I held my internship on as it has been converted into a COVID care unit. I go into work and experience exposure situations day by day but wouldn’t change my career for anything. The corona virus has taught me so much about what it means to be a nurse and take on healthcare as a career. In a few months as I graduate I will be prepared to take on whatever challenges it may have.
• 
  2020-05

  Weekly Planner

  Attached is a picture of my planner from May of last year. I have always tried to keep a journal of some sort but over the past few years entries in my actual journal have become more sporadic, and I sometimes feel bad that I'm not documenting my life better. But I have found that I keep my memories and experiences in different ways. I keep post-its and planners and notes from past classes, all of which contain some view into a different time of my life. This page in my planner was probably drawn during class, or while waiting for another class to start. The goldfish stickers were there before I wrote the words around them, I'm pretty sure. Looking back now I could say maybe the goldfish and the misconception about their memory is a comment on the way isolation and lack of enrichment affects memory, but really I just had them nearby and thought they were cool. At this point the monotony of quarantine and online school and being out of work made a planner feel kind of superfluous and each page was less like an organized look at my week and more like a dumping ground for my thoughts. The speech bubbles near the fish read: "(I love you guys)" "What?" "I said let's count down so we can all sign off together!" Since moving back to my parent's house in March I haven't seen any of my friends in person. It's been nearly a year of movie nights over discord, all of us counting down and trying to press play at the same time despite the latency. There's a certain intimacy of talking to someone late into the night from my bedroom, surrounded by artifacts of my high school life. I'm afraid for myself and afraid for my friends but we don't talk about the big scary thing looming over all of us. It's been nearly a year and the space in between now and February feels both infinite and microscopic. I am still, but time goes on. I remember that I wrote "One day I will be disappointed (spelled incorrectly) I did not document history better" later in the week. Memory is fragile and I want to preserve it the best I can but lately I'm too tired to take down the details of each day. Maybe this vague collection of my thoughts will be valuable to future me, but I won't know until then so I'll hold onto it anyway.
• 
  2021-01-08

  Where Campuses Reopened, Covid-19 Cases Spiked. Where Colleges Went Remote, They Declined.

  This article compares the responses taken by higher ed institutions during the pandemic.
• 2021-01-24

  My Student Staff Lost Their Graduations

  I manage a staff of Math and Science student tutors for one of the Arizona State University campuses. In early 2020, five of my staff were seniors who started to get excited about their upcoming May graduations. As COVID-19 started spreading, they began to worry that their commencements would not take place. Sadly, they were correct. It was heartbreaking watching them try to accept that their last four to five years of study would not culminate into the graduations they were so looking forward to experiencing. I tried to comfort them by reminding them that all of their hard work these last several years was about to pay off in a future that would provide them many opportunities to succeed. It did not comfort them. Next, I tried to put into words that although their disappointment was valid, their ultimate goal was not walking across a stage but instead to realize their dreams of becoming scientists, mathematicians, medical doctors, etc. It did not help. In the end, it was what it was. There was nothing I could say to make them feel better. In retrospect, what could possibly have been said to comfort these students who may very well have been the first group since the Spanish Flu pandemic that would not experience a traditional university graduation? This was not a time for words. It was just a time to be there if they needed someone to listen and vent to without judgement. True to form, these five did apply to medical and graduate schools, and forensic science positions. I know great things are in store for them. Hopefully, if this pandemic has taught them anything, it is perseverance in the face of adversity. To not give up and keep moving forward.
• 
  2020-12-16

  Suffolk Masks

  Everyone has a mask these days and they are all so unique or plain. Suffolk created their own mask along with a few other styles that students could buy. It is easier to recognize suffolk students when wearing these masks. It is cool to see Suffolk step up and be a part of the pandemic and create new things for their students. Us athletes got a separate mask, seen in the second photo, it is called a gaitor. A lot of the athletes would wear them walking or at practice/in the gym. It separates the athletes from the regular students. Suffolk wanted to be a part of this history so they created these masks. These objects are important to Suffolk’s history through the pandemic and how they chose to help their students out. This is also significant in the year 2020 because everyone was designing their own masks and it was cool to see how all of the colleges and universities came together to create their own masks and contribute to today’s history.
• 
  2020

  Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During COVID-19

  The University of Toronto has developed a free course entitled Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During COVID-19, in order to equip Canadians with tools to manage our mental health, before it manages you. The course is designed to teach students about anxiety as it presents itself throughout our daily life, from the consumption of news, to the way it is discussed with our children. Understanding how our brains react to crises, students would be more prepared to manage their own mental health.
• 
  2020-11-19

  Student Life During a Global Pandemic in Boston

  I was supposed to spend my first semester of college abroad in Rome, Italy as part of my acceptance into Northeastern's NUin program. Due to the pandemic, I had to switch my location to London, England and then ended up having to switch to Boston, Massachusetts. But despite the unexpected change in location and covid-19 guidelines, I ended up having an amazing first semester here in Boston. Life on the Northeastern campus was definitely not what I was expecting for my first year of college, but my peers and I were able to quickly adapt to the safety guidelines and online classes. My entire education relied on one thing this year... the strength of my WiFi connection. As you can see in the photo, all of my classwork, textbooks, assignments, and professors were primarily accessible from my laptop. Instead of being taught in-person with a live professor, all I had to do to get to my class was open my computer and click a link to a Zoom meeting. This made it easy to attend class, but it also made it very difficult to focus during class because I was able to mute myself if I didn't feel like paying attention. If I learned anything from going to school during the covid-19 pandemic, it was self discipline. This is because I had to make sure that I stayed focused on my classes when I could have easily not been paying attention.
• 
  2020-11-18

  With Cases Surging, Colleges Turn To Students For Help

  As COVID-19 cases at universities surge, universities have started to hire students to help with contact tracing.
• 
  2020-11-21

  Through Their Eyes: The COVID Freshmen Experience

  St. Mary’s University (a liberal arts college) is filled with students struggling to find a balance between a new online learning environment and the pandemic, and there is a group of students who in particular have had a hard time. The freshmen of St. Mary’s is this group. This interview tells the experience of a freshman, and how she is handling this unique college experience.
• 
  2020-11-13

  Full-Virtual Work in the Middle of a Pandemic

  This document was created and shared by myself and some coworkers in the History department at my university, St. Mary's. This document was the result of a project we were all assigned to work together on regarding researching the African-American community in West San Antonio, Texas. The work was not easy. Being separated from each other meant coordination and collaboration were very difficult, and actually accomplishing much in the way of actual work was slow going, with few of us actually being able to work together at the times the others were available. Not helping in any way was the fact that working remotely left us with almost no oversight from our supervisor, who was also in charge of several other projects in the department. Our research also took many different forms before settling on the one it ended up in, and it suffered most greatly from most of the workers assigned not being in the city we needed to be in, not having access to any traditional resources like proper records or non-digital resources that might have gone into the detail that we needed, and of course being unable to properly help each other. Despite this however, when we finally were able to coordinate a time to collaborate and work together, we surprisingly were able to unearth the aspect shown here, the resurrection of the Keyhole Club by noted Jazz musician Don Albert, famous for being a fully racially integrated nightclub during a time when such a thing was unheard of, and was challenged. Despite some serious challenges of our own, my coworkers and I were able to emerge successful after all and provide some much-needed information to the assignment.
• 
  2020-11-17

  Interview with a University Student Worker: How Drama works around COVID

  This is an interview with a student of St. Mary's University, who is also a member of the student assistant crew which works in the university's drama department, who describes how her job, which is primarily done in-person and in service to theatre productions on campus, has changed with the vast majority of school no longer meeting in person and events such as theatre productions cancelled, as well as what the department is doing in the meantime and what steps it is taking to guarantee student worker safety in the workplace.
• 
  2020-10-16

  Virtual Black Box: How a University Drama Department Works around COVID

  An interview between a student of St. Mary's University who is involved with the university's Drama Department talks about the challenges of the recent school semester in the current circumstances and how the Department is working to overcome them and plans for the future. Interview conducted by myself.
• 
  2020-09-01

  St. Mary's Mask Squad

  A feature story in the lifestyle section of The Rattler student newspaper is about the St. Mary’s Mask Squad, a group of student leaders from different RSOs on campus promoting safety and Marianist values. The job of the mask squad is to not only promote proper mask wearing but find ways the campus can improve on safety for its students and staff. This promotes our Marinist values by caring about other’s safety and health and making sure our actions are aimed towards protecting those around us.
• 
  2020-09-01

  Resources and Tips for St. Mary's Students

  This is the center spread graphic of the first issue of the 2020 fall semester—the first semester where many students on the St. Mary’s campus have gone to primarily remote learning. This center spread is meant to bring awareness to the resources students have available to help them through unfamiliar times: the resources listed include the business office, the office of financial assistance, the student health center, and the student counseling center. Also included are tips from fellow classmates on how to stay engaged and succeed and helpful apps that may help them stay organized throughout online learning.
• 
  2020-09-01

  Meet The Rattler Staff

  These photos are introductions of The Rattler (St. Mary's University school newspaper) staff to the campus. Typically students interested in working on staff can meet the current editors at one of the many in person meetings, but since all meetings are held over Zoom and students can pick up more stories through a simple email putting names the faces of the section editors can be a bit hard. These introduction photos can help writers connect with the staff they will work with so closely, and understand who may be best to contact if they have any questions.
• 
  2020-11-12

  HISTW 300 Interview of Stephen Von Der Ahe

  This was an assignment that I did as part of a course on the global history of food. As a class, we interviewed each other to see how one's experience with covid was going. In particular, we asked questions about how one's experience with food has changed since the covid lockdown began.
• 
  2020-03-16

  Virtual Campus

  I first heard my university would be transitioning to online teaching through the uni magazine's Facebook page on the 16th of March, an email from the uni following soon after. This felt appropriate for a time when decisions were being made in a seemingly hectic fashion and there was still so much speculation about how worried we needed to be and what measures needed to be taken. There had been 14 new cases of COVID-19 in Victoria on that date and the total number of cases in the state was 71. The photograph is of the deserted University of Melbourne campus in September when we were into our second semester of online teaching and Victoria was in it's second wave of the pandemic. It was eerie to see this area of the campus, usually filled with students socialising on the grass, so empty. (HIST30060)
• 
  2020-04-29

  "Reasons I Can't Do My Homework"

  This digital comic demonstrates the anxiety and fears that arose during the pandemic around April of 2020. The artists shows how they are being overwhelmed by the fears for their own life and the lives of their loved ones because you can clearly see “mom” and “grandma” in the fears scrolling through their brain. Because of these fears there is no room for “school work” and “classes”.
• 
  2020-08-02

  New rules in The Rattler Newsroom

  These rules have really altered the way the newsroom operates. It is significant because it shows how the operations of the office have had to change so that we all stay safe. Although we- the editors, pretty much all have our own computers we still share the space and desks. Typically we bounce from each other desks to help with one another speeds and ideas, but these practices have had to change. These changes have made it hard to have press weekend, but we still find ways to abide by these rules and put the paper together as a team. Other clubs and groups on campus must also preform all their activities via Zoom, and cannot share a creative space. These rules epitomize the standards we all have to function under and still manage to get our goals completed.
• 
  2020-05-08

  A Student’s Daily Life During a Pandemic

  This is a post to Instagram of a story The Rattler’s lifestyle section did covering student life during the pandemic. The images highlight the story and are a scan of the physical paper. This story was published towards the beginning of the pandemic in May 2020, just as classes were moving online and student life became unrecognizable. In the story Angel Valarde, senior psychology and Spanish major; Joel Reyna, freshman psychology major; and Scott Short, senior finance major all detail their daily lives after they are no long able to go to classes. This showcases how different students lives became, and although they were less busy with running to classes it didn’t make their lives any easier.
• 
  2020-04-15

  stmarysstulife Instagram posts from Student Development & University Programming Council

  These two posts are from the @stmarysstulife account. The Student Development and University Programming Council (UPC) made Tik Tok videos to the Full House "Everywhere You Look" song and the @stmarysstulife posted them. I think they posted this to show we're all in this together at St. Mary's and there are multiple people we can go to for help and support.
• 
  2020-03-21

  stmarysstulife Instagram posts

  This is a series of Instagram posts from the @stmarysstulife account when St. Mary's University began adjusting to COVID-19.
• 
  2020-10-24

  Interview with St. Mary's University Student Athlete, Julian Dziuda

  This is an interview with Julian Dziuda. He is a student athlete (soccer) with St. Mary's University.
• 
  2020-10-31

  Dorm list upgrade: Masks are the new essential item to bring to college

  My dorm list for my first year of St. Mary’s consisted of the usual: bed sheets, towels, and-masks? The new normal of college is needing as many masks as you can get. The picture attached are 50 masks I had to buy, and I couldn’t even buy them at a store since they were sold out. Masks becoming the new college essential is a complete change and was unheard of a year ago. What's more interesting is masks becoming a new way to express yourself. While some students like myself choose disposable masks we have others who are showing off their school pride with their St. Mary's masks as well as masks that showcase their interests and hobbies.
• 
  2020-10-21

  Responding to the COVID-19 crisis as a student from a different state: Arumi Ortiz

  This is an oral history with Arumi Ortiz conducted by Victoria Villaseñor. Arumi was born in Veracruz, Mexico and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma when she was 15 years old. Arumi is now a senior at St. Mary's University.
• 
  2020-10-20

  Responding to the COVID-19 crisis as a foreign exchange student: Ximena Barbagelatta

  This is an oral history with Ximena Barbagelatta conducted by Victoria Villaseñor. Ximena Barbagelatta is a foreign exchange student from Lima, Peru studying at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX.
• 
  2020-09-04

  Precautions and Code of Student Conduct at St. Mary's University during COVID- 19 Pandemic

  This email is relevant and important because it is a clear example of how life as a St. Mary's University Student has changed. The email discusses the precautions the students and faculty should be taking in order to ensure the health and safety of everyone at St. Mary's. The email also lays out the possible consequences for students (especially on campus) who aren't following the rules in the Code of Student Conduct relating to these COVID Precautions. As I am a student with all online classes, living at home- therefore I am not on campus- this email does not affect me in a huge way. I am also not going to any in-person classes however, I think it is great that these precautions be enforced and closely monitored as the health of other students and professors or faculty who are on campus may be jeopardized. It is important that students learn to respect others and that they understand that their actions can affect a large group of people and not just them.
• 
  2020-07-07

  Fall 2020 Course Format Options for Students at St. Mary’s University

  This email was sent out to the St. Mary’s University community on July 7, 2020, to explain the three different formats in which courses would be offered for the Fall 2020 semester. The university would offer three different formats for the then-upcoming semester. The first format offered was online courses (OL). These courses were not taught in person, but they still follow a syllabus and have course deadlines. They could include pre-recorded lectures, video uploads, class chats, and individual meetings with professors. The next course format offered was Virtual (V). These courses would meet at an appointed time and date, similar to a normal in-person class, but on the Zoom conference platform, and they would be led by a professor who could be teaching from a variety of different environments. They would not meet in person or on campus, just virtually. Similar to online courses these courses might also include class chats, video recordings, and one on one meetings with professors. The last course format offered was In-Person Virtual (IPV). These courses were designed as hybrid courses. Students would be able to attend these courses in person in a traditional classroom environment (though class size would be limited), or they could attend the class virtually through Zoom. All of the course formats described above were offered by my university in response to the COVID19 pandemic, and they demonstrate the need for adaptation and change in the era of COVID19. The author of this post has been able to attend both virtual and in-person virtual classes at St. Mary’s University this semester. Speaking from firsthand experience, I can attest to how different being in the classroom is this semester. There are not a lot of students in the class; at most maybe three students on any given day. Those of us in the classroom, students, and teachers, sit in socially distanced seats, and we all have our masks up. Regardless, I am grateful that I have had the chance to try to forge a new normal for myself during such an abnormal time for our university and our world.
• 
  2020-10-20

  Carly's Quarantunes

  This is a playlist of songs I've listened to during quarantine and an explanation about each of them.
• 
  2020-04-27

  Keeping Traditions: Students Shift to Virtual Events During a Global Pandemic

  The post is on the St Mary’s student life Instagram page and contains an image of an electronic flyer/bulletin announcement. It is a post to announce an Instagram live stream for St. Mary’s students where there will be cooking lessons, trivia, study tips, DIY projects, Spirit Dress contest, gift cards giveaways and more. Just like how St. Mary's students would use this platform to announce things such a trivia night at the pub on campus, they began to use it to announce online events. This item shows how universities and organizations have had to adapt in order to keep going with their extracurricular activities and traditions that students look forward too. They have always worked hard to keep the student entertained and give them things to do outside of class, however, with COVID, they've had to be more creative and think of activities to do on any online platforms such as Zoom, or in this case, an Instagram live stream. In the end, it is important to try and keep the fun activities and traditions alive and going so that the students can feel as though, even though things are being done on online platforms instead of in person like before, their academic years are still filled with the exiting activities and things they love about being a student.
• 
  2020-07-09

  Covid-19, Education and Making Choices

  The Covid-19 pandemic has forced almost everyone to make decisions, some small and some drastic. The following is a reflection of how my studies as an international student at the University of Melbourne, Australia were affected by the pandemic. The date is 9 July 2020. Covid-19 cases have been on the rise in Melbourne in the past two weeks. This trend seems specific to Melbourne as the rest of Australia seems to have the situation under control. I receive an email from the University. The email announces that the studies for the second semester (July to November 2020) will take place entirely online. The majority of semester 1 (March to June) had also taken place online. But students were hopeful that a return to face-to-face teaching would be possible given the relatively low number of cases of Australia up to late June 2020 (when the second wave started). As an international student, I must make a choice. To stay in Melbourne or to fly home. I need to do so quickly, since incoming flights to Melbourne had already been suspended, and there is no guarantee that the same might not happen to outgoing flight. In my case, returning home seemed the obvious choice. I would rather have stayed in Melbourne (a city I love!), but alas at least to return means to be closer to friends and family during these times. I write this in October 2020, the semester is almost over, and the number of daily cases in Melbourne has now dropped significantly (to single digits), after months of strict measures. For much of the rest of the world however, there does not seem to be an end in sight. Submitted as part of the HIST30060 Making History subject at the University of Melbourne.
• 
  2020-10-16

  Worrying for future scholarships

  I'm worried about applying for a future scholarship called the MEXT scholarship because supposedly international students are still not allowed to enter Japan. While this will likely change, I'm fearful that due to many governments around the world losing tax revenue due to the pandemic, that they'll will cut extraneous programs such as the MEXT scholarship. The pandemic prevented people taking the JLPT language assessment last July as well. That makes it harder to get certifications to help boost my current resume. They say that there will be a test date in December, but like many events during the pandemic, it's up in the air.
• 
  2020-10-04

  Lucas Hynes Oral History, 2020/10/04

  In this Oral history, I interviewed my brother Lucas about his experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a freshman at the University of Cincinnati, and the interview focuses on that part of his identity. It begins with us talking about campus life in general. We also discussed his perceptions of COVID-19 both at the beginning of the pandemic and now. His perceptions have not changed much, although he believes that it’s important to listen to scientists as new information is released. We then talked about government response to COVID-19, as well as the response at the University of Cincinnati. Finally, he discussed things he felt he has missed out on because of the pandemic, and what he thinks school will look like going forward.
• 
  2020-08-29

  The Rattler Late Night Pizza Breaks

  This image was taken during The Rattler's first press weekend. Due to COVID-19 restrictions there is a no eating in the newsroom policy, and so staff now must eat outside in the hallway and maintain social distancing. This scene is typical of a late Saturday night (closer to midnight) as the staff is working to finish the upcoming paper, although now this gathering must take place in the hallway. The staff stays 6 feet apart to eat and due to only a set number of people being allowed in the newsroom at any given time some have taken camp out in the hallway to work "remotely" but still able to communicate quickly with the rest of the staff.
• 
  10/01/2020

  New Sanitization Protocols

  This fogger is a new sanitization device introduced to our daily cleaning regime at the Athletic Center. It plays an integral part in ensuring that the recreation spaces are sanitized for patrons and for athletes to use the spaces. The fogger is used by custodial staff at 10:00 am and 2:00 pm and the facilities must be closed for an hour each time. The fogger is also used at a closing time ensuring that the facility is sanitized for incoming athletes for their 6:00 am sessions.
• 
  2020-09-15

  ASU COVID-19 Interview Image

  This picture is of me taken after an EOSS Social Roundup interview about my experience with school, work, and life during the COVID- 19 pandemic. This picture was also uploaded to the Arizona State University Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation Instagram page (asunursingandhealth) and scholarship page. This interview will be incorporated to a video that will be shown to incoming first year students. The goal of this project was to clarify any questions that any future students may have and provide comfort to them through the firsthand experiences of multiple students at Arizona State University. Students were taken to various parts of the Downtown Phoenix Arizona State University campus and were asked questions pertaining to their involvement in campus, class, and how they incorporated safety measures while attending on campus. Personally, I was able to give detailed responses about how professors handled in- person classes and what measures they took to keep their physical students safe. I was also able to share my work experience at the university during this pandemic. I work at the university residential hall and Sun Devil Fitness and Wellness Complex. I was able to give a detailed description of how we, at my student jobs, have taken various measures to keep a safe and sanitary environment to keep our residents and patrons safe through this pandemic. My interview was also able to give an insight of living on campus during this academic year. I was able to answer questions about precautions that has been taken by university housing to keep their residents safe from this virus and reduce the potential spread. Overall, I hope that my insight given in this interview will put future incoming students at ease or encourage them to come to campus. All of this is to show the students that we are taking various safety measures to keep them at low risk and show them that they are in our best interest.
• 
  2020-09-21

  University Of Victoria Students Fined for Partying 2 Weeks in a Row

  Students at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada have been fined for not social distancing and public consumption of alcohol. While Vancouver Island has had relatively low cases compared to nearby Washington State, covid cases have been recently rising throughout the province.
• 
  2020-09-22

  Professor Shares Anonymous Student Anxieties

  A professor shared student's anxieties about the Fall 2020 semester. Most of the responses show the toll the pandemic has taken on student's mental health. Another common theme is that many students face a multitude of difficulties when it comes to online school. Whether it's finding the motivation to go to class or how a student's home-life creates a toxic environment for online learning.
• 2020-09-17

  MW1: Covid University: I: The Chat Box

  The pandemic forced us all to take online classes. We all miss the traditional classroom setting. But we all remember how awkward it was to ask questions. One thing about zoom is you can ask a question or make a comment in the chat box. This is a feature I hope get added to the in person class experience. It adds so much to the productivity and the curiosity of student. Being able to just add a question into the chat log, then the teacher peeks at it and answers when they have time or if its immediately relevant. No classroom disruption, no being shy, just unadulterated curiosity.
• 
  2020-07-09

  Northeastern University Update on Housing, Hybrid NUflex, and Fall Reopening

  Email from Northeastern University, detailing reopening plans for the Fall 2020 semester
• 
  2020-05-19

  Letter from the Boston College President

  After the closures of colleges across the country, Boston College remained open in a diminished capacity to provide housing and refuge for students unable to return home to shelter in place. In this email, President of the School Father Leahy outlines the steps taken to ensure safety. He also speaks towards the future Fall 2020 semester and how Boston College can best ensure a safe climate atmosphere.
• 
  2020-03-16

  Food Hoarding Then and Now Thoughts

  A post in which a university student reflects on the historical precedents and potential of current events. The accompanying caption reads: "As a History student, I can’t help but think that we will look back at what is currently happening in the world and we will feel gravely disappointed in ourselves for the selfishness many seem to have during this pandemic. For those who know me, you know I love to study propaganda and food has always played an extremely important role in propaganda and I couldn’t help but think of these two posters while hearing about everything that is happening right now. The authors of @humansofny have compared COVID-19 to a world war, calling it this generation’s world war. This will be the defining conflict of our generation and we have the power to determine how we appear one hundred years from now. We can choose to hoard essentials that everyone needs, or we can try to make sure everyone gets enough. Please. Be responsible when you shop. Be selfless during times like this. We are only as strong as our weakest link and in times like these we must do everything to protect that weak link in our society. Be kind. Be patient. We can get through this together."
• 
  2020-05-13

  The Sounds of a Health Pandemic

  Music Professor examines the media's use of sound and music to portray the health pandemic
• 
  2020-05-26

  Universities aren't planning cuts to tuition to compensate for online classes during COVID-19 pandemic

  Article regarding the call for a reduction in university tuition for the upcoming school year/term from the Canadian Federation of Students and student governments across the country and the refusal of many major universities to do so. The universities rationale is that the quality of education will not be effected by the move to predominantly online/distant classes and that they are fulfilling all their obligations. The article outlines the decisions of each of the major Canadian universities including Dalhousie, McGill, the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, Carleton, Queen's, the University of Winnipeg, the University of Alberta, and the University of British Columbia.
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  2020-05-25

  Queen's University Student Trustee and Rector Call for Tuition Decrease During Pandemic

  In keeping with the Canadian Federation of Students and Student Governors from Universities across the country, the Undergraduate Trustee and Rector of Queen's University at Kingston call for a reduction of tuition for the upcoming school term to reflect the quality of education which will be received in predominantly online/distant learning classes and the decreased potential for student earnings through summer employment to pay for school when many seasonal industries, such as tourism, have been closed completely due to the pandemic.
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  2020-04-14

  Committing to College Over Instagram

  Kathryn Jue and Ellen Galindo, both teachers, were planning to celebrate their high school students' acceptance and commitments to college. However, with schools closed, this could not happen in person. This captures the moment their student Tran submitted her SIR to UC Berkeley, with both her teachers, and her classmate Albert, online with her virtually to celebrate the moment.