College During A Global Pandemic (COVID-19)
An interruption because of a global pandemic is not what anyone in the graduating class of 2020 expected. In fact, it wasnât what anyone in any academic institution was expecting.
First and foremost, my heart goes out to the graduating class of 2020 (high school AND college). All of you have worked extremely hard to get where you are today and many of you looked forward to having a graduation ceremony to both validate and celebrate your academic achievements. Many of you have had your graduations, proms, and senior trips cancelled (rather than rescheduled) and there are no words that anyone can say to take that pain away. I am sorry your senior year was disrupted the way it was.
Today, there is an outrageous amount of uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 and schools. Some states, including my own, are re-opening although schools (including college and universities) remain closed through the rest of the academic yearâthe end of May/early June. Some universities have announced that they will announce by the end of June if classes will resume face-to-face in the Fall.
Surely, these are scary developments for those of you who are struggling to adapt to online learning as it is. But, colleges are making every possible accommodation for their students during this time.Â
Although I donât do this often, Iâll tell a bit of a personal story:
I am currently in my second year of law school, which is the main reason why I am infrequently posting here, and we shifted to solely online learning March 24. Now, before anyone thinks âthatâs a late transition,â our classes were cancelled March 12 and the ABA sent out approval for classes shifting online amid the pandemic, the following week was Spring Break, and then we resumed the semester online. Iâll be the first to tell you that online classes are toughâI would much rather attend class face-to-face. I still had class at home, in my dining room, at the same time I had them every day on campus.
But, the worst part of it all is the exams. The exams are administered on a software that uses AI (artificial intelligence) to watch you take the exam and report if youâre cheating or even talking to someone else during the exam. The software is intrusive and a complete invasion of privacy. You canât take notes on the exam, mark out incorrect answers, or even underline/circle key words in the fact pattern or the answer choices. Also, when your house is not quiet, it makes taking an exam much harder than taking it in a classroom. Needless to say, online exams are nothing like face-to-face exams. So, the transition has been tough.
Right now, I feel like Saul Goodman (Jimmy McGill/Slippinâ Jimmy) from âBetter Call Saul.â (The running joke is that we attend Zoom Universityâs School of Law.)
But, I say all of this to say, everything will go on!
Eventually, schools will re-open, we wonât have to wear masks, we wonât have to worry about shaking peopleâs hands, and we wonât be stuck at home. But, if that doesnât occur before Fall 2020, colleges will still continueâalbeit onlineâbut they will continue. Many schools have shifted new student orientations online. Remember: higher education institutions know that we didnât sign up for this, they know that we would have signed up for a correspondence colleges/universities if thatâs how we wanted to go to school, so theyâre doing everything they can to make online learning a possibility.
GOOD LUCK CLASS OF 2020!!Â