Return to campus

Not to be a lousy journalist, but I’m going to put myself in this story for just one second.

I have a very distinct memory of coming to campus last semester for the first time in over a year. I was nervous. Half nervous due to sitting with so many people, but half nervous because those so many people were supposed to be at least decent acquaintances by the time third year rolled around. Instead, I walked into a room of familiar faces but nothing more. Strangers via the zoom box.

Many of us are coming back to campus this semester, and half of us are stepping foot in a university classroom for the first time. It’s crazy to think this may be the final “transition period.” 

“To be honest, I thought I was going to struggle with it a lot more because we were online for two years,” says Aru Kaul, a third-year student. “But I found that I’ve been adjusting to it quite well. And I mean, sometimes you run into the occasional, ‘do I know this person? I can’t tell because they have a mask on.’ But other than that, it’s been going pretty well.”

While first and second-year students are stepping onto campus for the first time this year, third and fourth years knew the school pre-pandemic.

Kaul says that while they prefer more in-person events, communication became easier with being online.

“When we were in person, I wasn’t really that talkative. I was honestly kind of shy. But then throughout the pandemic, I found that I was able to make more connections in an online environment. Now that I’ve had all this practice doing that, I found that it was easier for me to transition to in-person.”

Nishat Chowdhury, third-year, has only started reliving the energy she remembers from first year. 

“For the first time in two years it feels like I’m a university student again. Being on campus all day, studying and then coming home late at night. It felt like the first time in a long time.”

Students coming to campus is only half the battle. J-School staff are also dealing with the transition back to campus.

“I am a people person, that is my personality,” says Angela Glover, the school’s news media production specialist. “So being away from people, I found that really challenging.”

Glover, and the rest of the tech team, have been helping to ensure hybrid courses operate successfully since the fall. However, the number of hybrid classes has only increased. Hybrid classes include students in the physical room, as well as those online.

“Fall semester, we only had maybe 10 sections of courses total that returned to campus, so we were dealing with far fewer classes in a space at one time,” says technology and web design specialist Lindsay Hanna. “[This semester] we’ve basically set up every single space that we use in the RCC to work in some form of the hybrid scenario.”

The issue with hybrid courses, said both Hanna and Glover, is Zoom.

“Zoom takes a single camera input and a single microphone input. That’s not conducive to a class discussion. We’ve set up a webcam, a lav mic for the instructor, plus one or more stationary mics that can be placed around the room for discussion,” Hanna said.

Instructors also have mixed feelings about being on campus.

Shenaz Kermalli, an instructor for JRN 105, said that she loves being back.

“There’s nothing like being able to meet and teach your students face to face. There’s a feeling of being in a classroom that just can’t be replicated on Zoom. I found that my students were more engaged, and built off each other’s ideas when we discussed topical issues and carried out group exercises. It was really difficult to detect that same energy when we were online.”

Jane Gerster, who is an instructor for On the Record, as well as the second-year feature course, doesn’t feel that sense of community returning yet.

“Not really. Because it’s so inconsistent, right? So not everybody comes back. For instance, I just go in on Thursdays right now, and the rest of the time I’m online.”

Gerster does agree that conversations are still better held in person.

“Conversations are very different in person than they are online, the ability to have a good debate or good discussion, to talk about contentious issues, to disagree, there’s so much more room for that in person. So, I have found it’s easier to give feedback, it’s easier to have a really good conversation about why something does or doesn’t work.”

Overall, Chowdhury thinks that this transition period is going well.

“And so it’s been weird. Coming back, but like not a bad weird, it’s like a good weird and I can see myself getting used to it. And I feel like I’m already getting used to it a little bit.”