Colleges Preparing for Fall 2020 (5/3/20)

N. Buckley

May 3, 2020: “OSU is allowing the [registration] deposit to be waived for families who claim financial hardship due to the pandemic. Also, if students decide they actually need to start out at a community college first, OSU has pledged through its dual-degree partnership with Oregon’s community colleges to hold that student’s scholarship for when they later enroll at OSU. ‘Obviously we’d love to have them at OSU, but if that’s not the reality, we’d like to be able to serve them later,’ Noah Buckley, admissions director at Oregon State University said.” -Jordyn Brown, Register-Guard.

S. Bondoc and J. Olian

May 2, 2020: “While [Salvador Bondoc, chairman of Quinnipiac’s occupational therapy program] and his colleagues are working their hardest to make online learning succeed, he’s concerned about the volume of preparation that needs to be done for classes in the fall. ‘We start classes, I think, Aug. 24 in the fall, and contracts begin Aug. 11 or something like that. I’m not sure if two weeks would be enough for us to turn things around as rapidly as we did (in the spring) on a high-quality, highly efficient level.‘ … Quinnipiac President Judy Olian … announced four multidisciplinary planning groups that will examine short- and long-term options related to public health, academics and operations, from ‘business as usual’ to worst-case scenarios. ‘Our goal is to return Quinnipiac to a focus on advancing the university of the future, with the benefit of lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis.'” -Bryan Proctor, ctpost

Brian Yontz

May 3, 2020: Brian Yontz, associate professor and chair of the Wittenberg education department: “‘Two of the key skills of being a teacher are flexibility and problem solving.’ … [Alexis Pelisano, a Wittenberg senior who is student-teaching at Northwestern this spring,] was among three Wittenberg students who reported being able to carry on with their student-teaching via online video conferencing and other tools. An intervention specialist, she said working with students in kindergarten through second grade through an online forum was at times challenging, but she felt it was a good experience overall. ‘When things like this happen, you have to jump in and be willing to try anything so that your students are still receiving an education,’ said Pelisano, who is from Groveport, Ohio. ‘I have become more comfortable with different aspects of online teaching such as using Google Meet to conduct lessons and teaching in smaller increments. There is also the awkward skill of videotaping yourself teaching to post for your students to watch.'” -Marcus Hartman, Dayton Daily News.

Dan Hurley

May 2, 2020: Dan Hurley, CEO of the Michigan Association of State Universities: “‘Even if university campuses do open up, it’s just absolutely under no circumstances going to be what it was like last fall — and for the last hundred falls. There will be significant social distancing and physical distancing in place.’ To battle any resurgence, college classrooms could be filled halfway to better comply with social distancing guidelines. Students and faculty might have the option to check into a course on Zoom. Large campus buildings could be converted into super-sized lecture halls. Temperature checks and contact tracing could become part of college life.” -Bianca Quilantan & Juan Perez Jr., Politico.

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