By Isabelle Schindler
This year at Dominican University is a little different: Students have the option of taking either in-person or online classes. Due to COVID-19, things on campus are much different; buildings have changed their hours, the Dining Hall and Cyber have new restrictions. Sanitizing equipment is available in every room and throughout hallways and masks are required everywhere on campus.
With all the changes on campus, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or confused; but don’t worry, you’re not the only one having to relearn a few things. As students enter their third week back at Dominican, we decided to ask a couple of professors who are teaching in-person classes on how it’s going so far.
Claire Noonan, Senior Seminar professor and Vice President for Mission and Ministry, chose to hold in-person classes because herstudents preferred an in-person option. As a member of the President’s Cabinet she knew how hard people were working to make that happen.
To assist in-person classes, outdoor ‘classrooms’ were formed by the Greenfield parking lot. Some days this idea works and others it does not due to weather. As a member of a class that meets outside once a week I’ve experienced the weather and noise that makes it hard to focus and hear, but personally I think it’s still refreshing.
Dave Pabellon, Graphic Design Professor, chose to go the route of hybrid classes. Half of the class is online while the other is in-person. “Having experienced going online, as an emergency response to the pandemic, it became immediately clear that the subject I practice and instruct is a profession that is heavily dependent on access to technology and software,” said Pabellon. He then stated that his course is also prepared to go fully online if there is a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases on campus.
According to both Pabellon and Noonan, neither have had any issues with students and their masks in their classrooms and each has a sanitization process when students enter and leave the room. With the spray and paper towels provided in every classroom each professor has their students wipe down their work space and anything they come in contact with during class. When the students leave they are also responsible for wiping down everything again.
A general concern for each professor has to do with what would happen if a student became infected. Noonan’s main concern is the student in question keeping up with classwork in a quarantine setting. Pabellon’s main concern was that students may feel the need to come in even when they are not feeling well. He reassures his students that their health comes first and that if they feel the need to not come into class, it won’t negatively impact their grade.
Another main concern for Pabellon regarding the safety of the students as a whole is the main exits, entry ways, and hallways that many students go through. Something he thinks can be improved on campus, and among its people, is the, “channels of communication amongst administration and faculty once someone in a class either tests positive and/or encounters someone positive needs to be more transparent.”
The information needs to travel faster and a strict sense of communication needs to be in place to keep the Dominican community safe and healthy, but so far, things seem to be ok.
Photo by Chelsea Zhao.
Courtesy of Maggie Andersen’s ENG 334 Class
