Contagion: The One Year Anniversary

It seemed like a good
plan back then...

 

It is hard to pick the anniversary date for when the pandemic “officially” started.  It was, after all, kind of a rolling start. 

For me, that slow roll “officially” started on March 2, 2020.  It was a Monday.  We had Faculty Senate meeting that day at 10:30.  I had been hearing about this virus of a couple months, but it was all in China and seemed remote much like the SARS scare in the early 2000s.  So, I was not taking it seriously.  During the last two weeks of February, there were reports that the virus was on the move internationally.  The first cases in the US were reported in Seattle and LA (l believe).  The first case in Illinois was reported about the same time.

It was beginning to look like we should be taking this thing a bit more seriously than we were.  I suppose this not so novel insight was the result of years of contingency planning in my corporate career.  The high point, or low point depending how you look at it, was in 1999 when I had the distinct honor of being on the Y2K Task Force at Colgate Palmolive.  I certainly got great training in contingency planning using probability of occurrence (sometimes called risk), impact on the business, and cost of mitigation all for amazing charade foisted on the world by the Gartner Group.

So, I am sitting at the Senate Meeting, which coincidently was the last one we had face-to-face.  I was reflecting on a report I heard on NPR that morning that brought this Corona, Covid, thing to front and center in my mind.  During the new business, unforeseen question, or “does anyone have anything else to say about anything” portion of the meeting.  I raised my hand, was acknowledged, and asked a simple question:  “This virus thing seems to be getting more serious press and attention with each passing day, are we doing any planning in this regard at the university.  As we have heard nothing, I am assuming that there has been no activity in this regard.  We should take a closer look at this.”  A colleague in the math department agreed with me.  The Provost was in attendance and said he would look into it.

Later that afternoon, I found myself in an email exchange initiated by the math professor or the Provost.  By the weekend, I was attending live face-to-face meetings with a newly established task force trying to decide what to do and when.  The decisions were not easy but inevitable as I saw it.  It took a while for everyone to reach consensus and do what practically every other university in the country decided to:  move all classes online.

Our task force moved online as well.  We continued to meet every weekday through the end of June, planning for the fall term.  Then we started to take a few days off here and there.  We have met at least three times a week for a year, with the exception of the Christmas holiday.  But, we have made it work without major incidents or risks.  It has not been easy and probably has been more difficult for some. 

Everyone wishes we could return to the normal campus life.

It is unclear if and when that will happen.  We have figured out how to have classes in what we call a hybrid mode.  That is where some of the class is in the classroom face-to-face and the rest are online using Zoom or MS Teams.  I do not think that will change.  This video conference technology for sure will eliminate a favorite of students and teachers of all ages, namely, the snow day.  If snows to the point everyone has to stay home, we will just have class online.  Can’t make the class because of not feeling well, sleeping in, doctor’s appointment, alarm didn’t go off, or whatever excuse?  No problem, we record every session.  Students can watch it whenever they want.  So, most definitely, the old normal will not be the new normal.

Of course, everything I have written about is nothing compared to the number of people who died from this virus.  This is the very sobering and very sad part of this whole thing.

It is hard to believe it has been a year.