Pandemic shapes – but does not stop – the 2020-21 academic year
Hanover College’s students and faculty are back, beginning a much-anticipated 2020-21 academic year August 24.
Bright eyes and exuberant gestures help plentiful smiles radiate from behind face coverings. Campus life is flourishing, but continues to be a daily work-in-progress. The continuation of this thriving learning community is dependent on each person’s activities and behaviors.
“Students are optimistic, but timid,” stated Louis Holbrook ’22, an economics major. “Nobody is really sure what the ‘right way’ to be a college student amid a global pandemic looks like.”
The lessons learned from last spring’s rapid move to remote instruction have been put into action. Of Hanover’s 312 courses currently being taught, 192 are being delivered through face-to-face, in-person classes. Hybrid courses, combining both in-person and online elements, total 78, while 42 classes are being taught fully online. After a full summer of faculty training, all courses are prepared for virtual delivery if dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Spending the summer learning new techniques, re-thinking established courses, brainstorming, visualizing … these were all good things. But there’s no replacement for the gift of getting to work with these students,” stated Bill Bettler, professor of communication. “Emotionally, I was ready to forge those bonds that magically occur when the semester starts.”
After a summer of thorough analysis, all classrooms now feature reduced capacity with wide berths between chairs, desks and lecterns. Most rooms also feature a “teaching zone,” which provides a 6-to-12-foot distance between instructor and students for safer lecturing.
In some cases, areas that have previously been used for other purposes have been transformed into classrooms, including Fitzgibbon Recital Hall, Ogle Center conference room, Horner Health and Recreation Center aerobics room and even available space on the second floor of the Duggan Library.
As an extra option, large tents are available for classes that choose to move outside. The tents, located near the Lynn Center for Fine Arts, Duggan Library and Parker Auditorium, also provide a safer venue for chorale and musical classes.
The array of hybrid and fully online courses, created to limit gatherings, have been well-received by students and instructors.
“Early on, it was established that we would navigate everything together and openly communicate about what is and is not working,” stated Liv Loran ’21, an English major who elected to complete her final semester with an entirely virtual course schedule. “The Hanover faculty has made this transition less-jarring than I expected it to be. They are actively reaching out and ensuring remote students have the resources they need.”
“I want to make sure that students know that they can still ask questions, they can still reach out,” stated Bettler. “Collaborating and interacting is at the very heart of the DNA of a Hanover education. I’m still here for them, even if we can’t meet in the sort of proximity that we are used to.”
The resiliency of Hanover’s students, combined with the joy of being back on campus, has helped residence life prosper despite protocols to cope with the pandemic. Day-to-day life on campus still has a very familiar feeling. Movement between buildings and through the hallways is a recognizable combination of relaxed sauntering and frantic hustling.
Face coverings are required within all campus buildings and classrooms, as well as the common areas of the living units. Even outside, masks and neck gaiters are prevalent. The safety protocols being placed on students can be, at best, challenging. No more than one guest may be in a room at any time and off-campus visitors are not allowed. All non-roommate interactions are encouraged to be held in lobbies, common spaces or outdoors.
With so many risks tied to indoor interactions, outdoor activities have increased importance and remain one of Hanover’s hallmarks.
Students continue to enjoy a multitude of opportunities in the fresh air. Each day, it is common to see students walking around the Point, holding basketball games and sand volleyball matches near Greenwood Suites, skateboarding in front of Donner Hall, and tossing a frisbee in the Quad.
“Being back on campus feels normal,” stated Holbrook. “While the things we do are different, it still feels like home. Hanover is still my personal ‘safe space.’”
Mealtimes, normally a daily gathering of masses, have a slightly altered, but familiar look.
Lines into the J. Graham Brown Campus Center’s main dining room are widely spaced and move quickly. Capacity within the dining room has been trimmed by two-thirds and also curbed in the Underground and Shoebox. Spacing is substantial between seats, tables now include plexiglass separators, and meals are encouraged to be finished within 15 minutes.
In a further effort to limit congregating, grab-and-go meals are also available in the Withrow Activities Center. Plenty of additional outdoor seating is available. The Campus Center patio is adorned with vibrant red tables and picnic tables now blanket the street in front of the building. A Herculean effort by the entirety of the campus community was needed to not only make the fall term possible, but succeed.
Bettler, pondering the start of the academic year, summarized, “Many of us were skeptical that this semester would even happen. So, the fact that it is happening; that the hard work of so many has made the impossible possible … it’s got a kind of miraculous quality to it. So, I think there is a sense of “we’re a team; we’re all in this together” that is constructive and palpable.”
