It is hard to believe the 2020-2021 academic year is behind us! *pause for a sigh of relief and a big round of applause* The end of the spring semester is always such an exciting time as many of our calendars are filled with a variety of banquets and award ceremonies to mark the end of another year. I encourage you to take a moment and truly CELEBRATE all you have accomplished this year. Whether that was implementing new and exciting initiatives in the midst of the pandemic or simply keeping things afloat as you navigated ever-changing challenges in more of a “survival mode”.
This time of year also provides an opportunity to reflect and set goals for the upcoming academic year. One idea we have continually talked about at my institution is, “what have we learned over the last year and how can we keep these learnings in the forefront of our plans for the future?” In my experience, there seem to be two mainframes of thought when looking towards the future. The first is, “let’s get back to our normal pre-covid routine and way of operating ASAP!” The other is, “our pandemic experience did not happen in vain, so let’s continue the good practices we’ve learned in the future”. Perhaps a happy medium between the two can serve as a guide as we plan for the upcoming year. We may see many more hybrid offerings, live-streaming of in-person programs or events, meetings consisting of people around the table and a computer screen with remote colleagues to still participate. A blending of two worlds.
My department has had the ongoing goal to improve the engagement of our busy, working, commuter student population. Looking back, switching to heavily remote services overnight sped up the process and allowed us to test new ways of engaging students virtually right away. We were now better at reaching our students who do not have much free time to spend on campus between juggling work, family, school, and personal responsibilities by offering many more virtual and flexible involvement opportunities. It was not perfect, or always successful. But we want to keep the momentum and continue building and growing this initiative in the coming years.
In the rush and well-deserved excitement to return back to “normal”, try not to lose sight of any positives you’ve learned that you can continue to apply at your college or university. Good luck as you aim to blend the old with the new!
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