It was about 18 months ago that  the college decided to go fully remote as a result of the COVID crisis. That was not an easy decision at that time but the senior leadership and an expanded group of administrative staff who formed the operation team came to that conclusion and quickly started pivoting to the various action items that would make remote learning successful.

As the year developed, we started gaining confidence that the fall of 2021 is likely to be a different semester than the last year and therefore preparations were underway to make this an on campus experience for everyone. However, as we approached the beginning of summer it became very clear that the fall is not going to be what we all thought it was going to be. 

The Delta variant was becoming more pervasive in the United States than anyone had imagined and it was becoming a major factor in us having to decide what to do next. The college instituted mandatory submission of proof of vaccination for all the students and all the faculty and staff who will be on campus on a regular basis. Because we were going to have all on campus classes and all students on campus the college also decided to recall the remote work policy for administrative staff. However the senior administration had developed a plan that accommodated up to 2 days a week of remote work for administrative staff to whom that applies. 

We all spent the summer working on various things related to the implementation of these new policies. For example LTS quickly needed to figure out a way for the staff and faculty to upload their proof of vaccination. And some of us who are involved in supporting COVID testing needed to implement several new technologies because the college decided to move to pooled testing in the fall. 

Our classroom team needed to make sure that all the technologies in the classrooms are checked out thoroughly. A handful of large spaces that were converted to classrooms last year were no longer going to be used for classes, so unwinding various technologies in those classrooms was another major effort that we needed to do. We also needed to work with the Registrar’s office and the faculty for various changes to the classrooms in the wake of concerns about some classrooms having too many students.

In some sense all of this reminded us of what we had to do a few times during the past 18 months. But, last year had prepared us well to be able to support the community by being agile and be ready to pivot as needed.

I began my own reentry to college for my first ever covid test during the last week of August and then I began my on-campus work starting from Sept 7th. It was great to see many of my colleagues in person. I have run into several colleagues in the library or the parking lot and depending on the time I drive, I have had to stop for the students to cross the road in between classes, reminding us that we are sort of back to where we were before the crisis.

But, we are far from that in reality. You see masks everywhere, testing is in full swing. We are managing a record number of tests every week – every student testing twice a week and all faculty and staff on campus testing once a week. The compliance has been great. I walk around Clapp Library to observe the mask compliance and though others have noticed issues, I have not. And, here we are, getting ready for the Fall Break next week and classes have been going well, some social activities and in person events are back, Founders Parking Lot is as full as it usually is, but we are still doing a lot remotely. Most of my meetings are still Zoom meetings, for all the right reasons.

No one can predict how long this will last… It is so sad that the number of unvaccinated people in this country is as high as it is, despite the availability of vaccines. And as the experts say, unless this number reduces drastically, the crisis will continue. There will remain large numbers of hosts for these viruses who then mutate into new forms and invade a lot more, including those vaccinated. Let us hope that this is contained soon and we can move on with the life as we knew it, if at all this is even possible!