Once the effects of COVID-19 had been fully determined, it was only a matter of time until the country’s universities, which are often filled to the brim with close-quarters and lowered immune systems, were necessarily altered from the fashion they previously existed. Beginning with the University of Washington, education establishments all over the country found themselves sending their staff and students home to begin a new strategy to finish out their semesters. Remote learning became the adaptation necessary to effectively fight the spread of COVID-19.
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As the first major university to announce their bid to take the leap into what would become the new standard on March 6, the University of Washington acted as a pioneer into the new frontier. Closing its doors and moving to remote learning, then and there, became a real possibility for universities everywhere.
Though WU was the first big name to throw its hat into the ring of remote learning, it were by no means the last. Soon, well-known names within the world of higher education became vocal about the actions they would be undertaking.
Harvard, one of the largest and well-known names in higher education, announced its shift on March 10 in an announcement that stated, “Our teams are considering every contingency as they undertake their important work on your behalf, and I write today to update you on major near-term changes that will limit exposure to the disease among members of our community…”
Megan Mishler, a sophomore at Olivet Nazarene University remembers how she she first heard the news of Olivet’s transition.
“I was initially relieved when I heard that we were moved to online…I think it was overall a good move for Olivet,” Mishler said.
For her, the “official word” felt like it had taken much longer than she would have anticipated as compared to what she was seeing with the other universities.
The initial response of the university was to shut down all functions of the school that involved mass congregations of students and faculty. This included the functions that they likely felt were integral to their mission of an “education with a Christian purpose”, such as their twice-a-week chapel services. But as the spread of the virus, and the accompanying rising fear continued, ONU decided to transition to remote learning. for the duration of the spring semester of 2020 as of March 13.
On March 16, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, publicly advised the reduction of public gatherings to 10 people or less. Then, as of March 19, California was the first state to put into place “stay-at-home” orders. With the governmental response building, the pressure on those universities who had yet to transition grew.
In a Forbes.com article from April 13, Boston University may be the first university to announce an extension to their delay that reaches as far as January 2021.
It is yet uncertain how many, if any, other universities will decide to entertain that possibility, as well as who will be the first to pull the trigger.
The full, up-to-date, WHO timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic can be found here.
