What We’ve Learned
Note: This column was written after the University announced plans to reopen for the spring 2021 semester. At the time of this writing, the pandemic had entered an acute phase, with COVID-19 infections and deaths rising. The University’s plan remains contingent on our capacity to open safely and in compliance with local, state, and federal guidelines.
At the completion of perhaps the most unusual and difficult semester in Colgate University’s history, it is important to look back and reflect on the months from August through November. After a semester with all students on campus, with extreme adjustments to nearly every facet of campus life, what did we learn?
It Was Hard
Colgate, rightfully I believe, feels a sense of pride in the accomplishments of the semester. Through the work of dozens of staff and faculty members, two task forces, a health analytics team, and an Emergency Operations Center that made everything possible, we were able to do what few colleges and universities were able to achieve. Namely, we brought back all of our students and kept them — and the Village of Hamilton — safe during the period of on-campus instruction. During the last several weeks of the semester, our infection rate fell to near zero. Close to 1,000 students voluntarily took COVID-19 tests before returning home. All tested negative during that last testing round.
In short, the plan worked.
But, it was also extraordinarily hard. It would be challenging to describe the pressure on students and staff and faculty members to adjust to the plan and to the changing circumstances of the semester. How we taught, how we gathered, how we moved about the campus — all of this changed. As conditions changed, we often had to make difficult adjustments. And while there was a near universal agreement that being together was profoundly worth it, we should never forget the extent of the effort and the true emotional toil of making it through this hard time. For everyone.
Place Matters
Several years ago, the most heated argument in higher education was about the potential role of massive open online courses, or MOOCs . With new technologies, would it be possible to simply replace a campus-based experience with courses delivered by one or two national education providers? Did the campus actually matter?
We learned that it does. Again, despite all the changes and significant inconveniences, despite the loss of fall football weekends and social gatherings, there was something important about being together on a campus. You could feel it as students walked to class, waited to pick up their packages, or (when we could return to dining halls) as we ate together in Frank. It was not simply nice that we were together — it was essential.
We speak often about the beauty of this campus. We should also always speak about its power to sustain and connect us.
Communication Matters
Early in planning our response to the pandemic, we decided to put a face to the crisis — to give it a voice. During the quarantine, we sent out daily emails to the entire campus, often with videos shot from my small room in West Hall. Even after the campus caught a rhythm of the new normal, we kept sending out emails and videos.
In a crisis, people need information. They also need to know that there is a face behind the decisions. So, we learned, again, that you cannot communicate enough.
We also learned that Colgate people — not just students, but also parents and alumni — will listen. I have often felt that Colgate can have a shyness about it, an unwillingness at times to speak. As the weeks went on, and as the emails were read and the videos watched, we could feel that hesitancy slip away. We learned to speak more directly, often with wit thrown in. In this dark period, Colgate found a new voice.
We Are Capable of Doing Hard Things
In January 2020, if someone had told me that we would ask all Colgate students to stay in their residences while coaches and staff members delivered them meals twice a day, I would have said that was impossible. If, in March, you told me we had to change every classroom and every dining facility to accommodate a radical new reality — and that this had to be done in four months — I would have, again, said this was impossible. If we were told we had to develop a comprehensive medical testing regime and provide new places for isolation and quarantining, yet again, I would have said we cannot do this.
But Colgate did all of this.
We learned we are capable of hard and great things.
And as we think about our future — our third century — as we endlessly seek to enrich our academic program, support our faculty, improve residential life for all, extend the reach of our admissions and financial aid efforts, attract and retain an extraordinary staff, and strengthen our athletics, I hope we can remember this most important thing: We are a stronger Colgate, together.