Uncharted Territory: Pace Finds its Way During the Pandemic

Pace Magazine

Uncharted Territory: Pace Finds its Way During the Pandemic

This year was hard; for everyone. For you at home and for us at Pace鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𨰣or our students, for their families, and for the faculty and staff charged with providing opportunity to everyone in our community. There was nothing easy or familiar about navigating the uncharted waters of making a university function during a global pandemic, but we did our best. Not everything was perfect, and we sacrificed a lot, but our hearts were in it. We started in mid-January and we haven鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脌 stopped since. Our community came together in the face of a seemingly insurmountable challenge. We were resilient. Steadfast. Hardworking.

Through long days and even longer nights, people from all across the University worked together to accomplish what we set out to do鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃安e brought our students back to campus and we kept our community safe. As the fall semester comes to a close, we look back on the journey that brought us to this point, and we look towards a brighter future.

Preparing for the Worst

With the goal of keeping the Pace Community safe, our emergency preparedness team regularly runs drills and tabletop exercises for a variety of scenarios鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤫟arthquakes, floods, fires, active shooters, bears on campus, chemical spills, loss of electricity, tornadoes. Clearly, some of these scenarios are more likely than others, but the University teams prepare for them, nonetheless. No detail goes overlooked: safety and security on the ground; meal delivery; managing residential students; communicating with our internal community, with the press, and with local law enforcement, there鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 a plan and procedure in place to manage a crisis. But nothing could have prepared them for the long-term impact caused by a deadly global pandemic.

In late January, while the coronavirus was still an overseas issue, leadership at Pace was closely monitoring the situation. While the pandemic was just beginning to make headlines in domestic news outlets, our biggest concern was for our students studying abroad.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪e had a coronavirus advisory team monitoring the spread of the virus, mainly because we had students studying abroad and a diverse international population,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� recalls Brian Anderson, Pace鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 director of Emergency Management and Environmental Health and Safety. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𥟡nce the virus hit US soil, we transitioned into a task force and we began to formalize plans in earnest of how we would react should we need to shift operations.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

The first recorded coronavirus case in New York was recorded on February 29 and while the news was inevitable, the planning process for how the University would respond should the rate of community infection rise was kicked into high gear.

The 35-member COVID-19 Task Force, comprising functional areas like health and safety, residential and student life, the Office of the Provost, facilities, dining and auxiliary services, communications, finance, and risk management began meeting daily as the virus crept closer to our campuses.

By March 11, the decision had been made to move all classes to a remote format, with the anticipation that in-person instruction would resume on March 30. In our communications to residential students, we encouraged them to bring their important belongings home with them as they headed out for spring break鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃瓌ust in case.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 understood the health implications and that people were getting sick, and the seriousness of it. But at the same time, I was like 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃熎e get to work from home for a few weeks and then we鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃耱l come back,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�" recalls Interim Senior Associate Dean for Students Todd Smith-Bergollo. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒t felt like a pause, not knowing it was the beginning of the most stressful year ever. So yeah, looking back to the thoughts then, it just seemed like it was going to be this thing that we'd get through quickly. We'd all work from home for a few weeks and we'd be able to beat the virus, and just not having any sense of what was to come.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

By Alyssa Cressotti 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�08, 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�18

In the classroom, faculty made use of Zoom stations, teaching to both students in the room and those at home.

Preparing for the Worst

Making a Shift

On March 18, the Pace Community was notified that the shift to remote classes would be extended. As cases rose and guidance from New York State became more direct, the COVID-19 Task Force made the difficult decision to move to a remote format for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester.

Moving hundreds of classes to an online format and shifting all work at the University鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃㻳ncluding student-facing services鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃癳as not an easy decision to make, but the safety and well-being of the community was the highest priority. In just a matter of weeks, all of the University鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 operations had shifted to remote. From Counseling to 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃 Services and everything in between, the University had to pivot. To stay in lockstep with New York Governor Cuomo鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 orders, only essential personnel鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃㻳nformation technology staff, safety and security, housing staff, and facilities staff鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃㽣emained on our campuses.

One of the critical components to keeping a University community alive and thriving during the remote period was our access to the Internet and the software we all needed to do our jobs effectively and serve our students. For Chief Information Officer Paul Dampier, the infrastructure was there, but his concern was how well the community would adapt to it.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 felt shock, horror. All of those negative emotions, initially,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� recalled Dampier of the official pivot to remote for the Spring 2020 semester. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think my biggest concern was how would people react to using online technology. Because I felt, from the IT perspective, we had all the technology in place apart from, perhaps, a fully comprehensive video conferencing system. We have different video conferencing systems, but when everybody goes online, that's a different kettle of fish.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

In addition to this seismic shift, the fear and worry within the Pace Community was pervasive鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤴆his was a global pandemic, hitting New York hard.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃輶ecause my role involved communicating with the faculty about the pivot and subsequent revisions to our modes of teaching and learning, what was most challenging for me was supporting people who were feeling anxious, afraid, and angry,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Interim Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Joan Walker, PhD. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𢜛y own response to these emotions was to hold smaller town calls where faculty could talk with each other about their experiences. I also worked with our instructional designers at Pace Online and the Faculty Center and with Academic Technology and Educational Media to set up a large number and variety of professional development events. The coordination of these teams at that time鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤤗nd our continued coordination now to support faculty success鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃悧as been outstanding.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

In addition to getting students and faculty up and running for online learning, there was also the matter of caring for the students who remained in Pace鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 residence halls鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤫟ither because they were unable to travel home or because their move-outs had been put on hold due to changing guidance from New York State.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃嚹here's not much that I haven't done or seen in higher ed to be quite honest鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃㶏鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脎e been in this field for more than 20 years,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Alerie Tirsch, interim associate dean for students and director of Residential Life and Housing for the Pleasantville Campus. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪hen we pivoted, I was thinking, 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃熎ow, this is something I never thought I would see or be a part of, and I have no idea how to make this happen,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� literally. And that is not often something that I say in my job.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

Breaking Down Barriers

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𢜛y initial reaction to the news that we were going to pivot was 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦲀 know we can get this done, I know that we are going to be able to meet the needs of our students,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃蕯陓挈棱夊蚙脹篲� recalls Interim Associate Provost for Student Success Hillary Knepper, PhD. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦯷nd that it would be a great opportunity to bring everyone together.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

And she was right.

As the COVID-19 Task Force continued to meet daily and plans were put in place for what would need to be done over the summer in order to bring the community back to campus for the fall semester, cross-functional relationships were formed and synergies created.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃諪verybody came to the table and they rolled up their sleeves. There was no arrogance, there was no I-know-best attitude. There was nothing but 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃菭ow do we make this work? What are the problems? What are the solutions? Who can make it work? Who can fix this?鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃蕯陓挈棱夊蚙脹篲� says Knepper. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦯷s part of the task force, I was working with people that I'd never met before and seeing for myself how hard everybody works on a daily basis to keep Pace running.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

For Anderson, the coming together of the University towards a common mission was a critical part for successfully navigating an entire University through a global pandemic situation.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think the most surprising was just how quickly we all came together. For a university that can sometimes operate in silos, those silos seemed to go away very quickly,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� he says. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪e had different operating units, different kinds of people. We had students, staff, faculty, all involved in our planning, all working towards a common goal.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

For Andr矇a Sonenberg, PhD, professor of graduate nursing in the College of Health Professions and member of the board of directors of the New York State Public Health Association, once she was appointed to the role of Coronavirus Coordination Officer, she realized how critical the relationship-building aspect of her role could be.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦒄oordination is what it takes, because it isn't just about strategizing, developing, and implementing a testing protocol; following up on the results; and isolating/quarantining students to keep the community safe. All of that goes into working with multiple players, and all of the different moving parts of the system. I met amazing people in the University that I never had met before, or was even aware of their roles, who helped along the way,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� she says. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦯷nd I couldn't have done it without them. Obviously, Brian introduced me to a lot of these players, but then once I developed my own relationships with them, we were able to accomplish things by expanding our smaller groups to work together in whatever facet of what I was doing.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

Preparing for the Return to Campus

As the months of remote work rolled on, the focus shifted from an immediate righting of the ship to a concerted effort to create smooth sailing for the fall semester. Once the University was able to get its bearings in a virtual format, planning for real success was swiftly becoming a reality. With New York鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 phased reopening in process during the summer months, the COVID-19 Task Force alongside the Fall Reopening Group, which comprised faculty and students and was led by Biology Chair Marcy Kelly, PhD, began planning for an in-person college experience for the fall. The plan had to align with guidance from New York State and included not just health and safety protocols, but also methods for monitoring the health of our on-campus population (think testing and health care availability), containment of potential transmission (how we would assist the state with contact tracing and providing space for quarantine and isolation on campus), and planning for a potential campus shut down鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃㻳n the event there was widespread, uncontrolled transmission of the virus.

After pivoting the majority of a University鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 workforce to a remote modality, the University saw upwards of 18,000 Zoom sessions per day. Which was great! But how do you make that work once people return to campus?

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪e had to somehow be able to bring Zoom into the classroom, and we reached out to one of our vendors and actually said, 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃姯his is the issue we've got. We've got to be able to put a big screen in the Zoom station,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃蕯陓挈棱夊蚙脹篲� explained Dampier. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪ell, we coined the phrase 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤊥oom station,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� because we wanted a buzzword to hang it on and worked with the vendor to actually develop that technology and put it in place.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

The Zoom technology that was brought into our physical classrooms were 150 large format screens and audiovisual equipment that would allow our faculty to teach simultaneously to students physically in the classroom and to those tuning in from a remote location. Each station essentially gave the students and the faculty an almost seamless course delivery method called HyFlex, or hybrid-flexible.

Over the summer, Pace鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 ITS Department teamed up with the Provost鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 Office and the Faculty Center to bring our faculty, some of whom had never worked with Zoom, up to speed to make sure they were able to effectively teach for the fall.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒t's a challenge, it is absolutely a challenge to learn in a method in which you have not before, it's a challenge to teach in a method that you have not before,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Knepper. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃輶ut when I saw the numbers of faculty who took the trainings to learn how to do a better delivery, how to improve their pedagogy鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃安e had adjuncts stepping up, we had tenured full professors stepping up. We had everybody covered in terms of our community. So, I would say that we kept education accessible in a very dire time.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

In addition to the Zoom stations set up in classrooms across campuses, our Facilities team was hard at work ensuring that the physical classrooms and common areas of our buildings were set up for success.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪e had to learn new cleaning methods, learn about how to clean for a virus that we didn't know whether or not lasted on surfaces. So new protocols, new training, bringing on staff to make sure that they were cleaning the right way. That was a big one, making sure that they weren't contaminating surfaces as they cleaned one area and cleaned another area. The cleaning aspect was really important. Learning all about electrostatic cleaning, what that did, the type of products that we use, making sure we had the right products in place, making sure we had enough supplies on campus and projecting, we usually project on a semester basis, but we really had to project differently on what we needed and how much we needed,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� explains Assistant Vice President of Facilities and Capital Projects Aisha Moyla.

And it wasn鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脌 just cleaning and sanitization techniques that were being perfected over the summer break. There was also the small matter of ensuring social distance was maintained across the University and that students, faculty, and staff were kept safe during an in-person semester.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪e spent a lot of time talking to other people, other universities, other facilities, a lot of organizations, to see what they were doing, what their recommendations were, and that's where we learned a lot of information,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Moyla. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think that the hardest part of all this is really planning and trying to figure out what to do in this unknown.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

One of the biggest tasks for the Facilities team was making sure there was appropriate signage throughout the buildings on all of the Pace campuses鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦷪ccupancy limits, traffic patterns and flow, where people could sit (and where they couldn鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脌), and so much more.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𥟡ur project managers put together circulation plans for every single building on each campus, over two million square feet of space,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� she says. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃嚹hey spent a lot of time trying to figure out what made sense and then actually going out to the field and walking that to make sure it actually worked and making sure that they were still not violating any code compliance issues, any egress issues. This was on top of putting together the social distance planning for more than 300 classrooms.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

Another critical part to consider when bringing the students back to campus was what they could expect in terms of life on campus鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃癳ere there going to be events? What about life in the residence halls? How do meals work? What would happen if students had to be isolated or quarantined?

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦯷t some point in the summer when we started realizing we're going to have to change our protocols for everything. We're going to have to change our protocols for living in residence, how to host campus activities, how to keep students, staff, and faculty healthy,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Interim University Dean for Students Rachel Carpenter.

One of the first changes was to the University鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 guest policies inside the residence halls. Students are typically allowed to visit each other鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 rooms, but to keep everyone safe, 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤧶amily Units鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� were created to help slow the spread of the virus while still giving residential students the sense of community they desired. Inside a student鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 room or suite, they could take off their face coverings, relax social distancing requirements, and feel normal. But this new policy wasn鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脌 without its challenges.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪hen we announced the change to the guest policy we had a little bit of pushback because students wanted to visit with each other. But I think they really understood,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Patrick Roger-Gordon, assistant dean for students and director of Residential Life and Housing in NYC. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think the culture in our state, given what New York went through in March and April, even our students who weren't physically here, the whole nation was watching what was happening here. And we were the epicenter and things were terrible and we worked really hard to improve.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

The education around the virus and the ways it spread was critical to helping enforce policies set forth by the COVID-19 Task Force. Once the decision was made to return to campus, the University began socializing these new requirements and policies through the #OurSafePace campaign and our Return to Campus website, dedicated to informing our community about the different procedures that were implemented to help reduce the spread of the virus on campus.

A Virtual Learning Experience

The introduction of Zoom stations and a mix of in-person and virtual learning began when the community returned to campus. The ways faculty and students had to reassess their definitions for teaching and learning this semester were incredible.

In the classroom, students sat six feet apart, faculty stood behind clear moveable partitions and taught to the students in the room and those tuning in from elsewhere, and all wore face coverings. Not an easy feat in even the best of circumstances.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think that this has demolished any preconceived notions that online or remote teaching is inferior to on-campus teaching. No pedagogy is perfect. But I think many people have seen that remote teaching has unique affordances that can and should be used post-pandemic,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Walker. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𥟡n Zoom, I felt like a guest in students鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� homes and residence hall rooms. Knowing that roommates and family members were overhearing our work, meeting students鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� pets and seeing students 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃炦n their turf鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� rather than in the classroom made teaching feel more personal to me.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think that window into students' lives made faculty really aware of their students鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� needs in ways that they might not have been otherwise,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� notes Knepper. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒'm not sure everybody realizes that a lot of our students are really struggling to make it through.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

For Walker, she used class time and office hours during the first two-weeks of the semester to set up one-on-one meetings with her students to get to know them personally, something she believes really created a connection and increased the level of student engagement. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒t鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 something I want to continue doing, whether we鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃胩e face-to-face or not,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� she says.

And that sense of connection goes both ways. For students, they had the opportunity to see their professors on their home turf鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𨰣rom kids and spouses wandering around in the background to cats jumping up to say hello, the virtual modality had a humanizing effect that traditional in-classroom learning doesn鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脌 typically have.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦯷s a faculty member, I think it probably makes you a little less lofty and a lot more like a partner in education,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Knepper. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦒄ontinuing that accessibility was so important and also makes everybody think about the fact that people have lives beyond the classroom, beyond my classroom. I know they have another life and they know I have another life.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

Preparing for the Worst

Making a Shift

In addition to this seismic shift, the fear and worry within the Pace Community was pervasive鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤴆his was a global pandemic, hitting New York hard.

Breaking Down Barriers

And she was right.

For Anderson, the coming together of the University towards a common mission was a critical part for successfully navigating an entire University through a global pandemic situation.

"I think that this has demolished any preconceived notions that online or remote teaching is inferior to on-campus teaching. No pedagogy is perfect. But I think many people have seen that remote teaching has unique affordances that can and should be used post-pandemic."

Preparing for the Return to Campus

A Virtual Learning Experience

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think that window into students' lives made faculty really aware of their students鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� needs in ways that they might not have been otherwise,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� notes Knepper. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒'm not sure everybody realizes that a lot of our students are really struggling to make it through.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

Our Safe Pace

While life on campus may have looked and felt different this semester, Pace continued to be committed to ensuring the health and safety of our community.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think our students, whether from the tri-state area or from outside that area, understood what was happening here and what they were coming to be a part of. I think they recognize the importance of those measures we were taking, even though there was a sacrifice and a cost for that,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Roger-Gordon.

Through community training, daily monitoring with the PaceSafe app and careful adherence to policies regarding social distancing, the wearing of face coverings, good hand hygiene, and a regulated community testing plan, Pace was able to have a successful semester back on campus.

Once back on campus, Pace implemented a community testing strategy that was able to successfully test 25 percent of our on-campus population weekly. People coming to campus were selected for coronavirus testing at random based on ID swipe information鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃㻳f you were coming to campus and interacting with the community, the chances were good that you would be selected for testing. This 25 percent randomized testing strategy developed by the COVID-19 Task Force and Pace鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 Coronavirus Coordination Officer was able to detect early clusters of positive cases on campus, resulting in only two full quarantine situations in Pleasantville and White Plains.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 am humbled by the dedication, commitment, and persistence of this amazing group of men and women,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� said College of Health Professions Associate Dean for Administration and COVID-19 Task Force member Gerrie Colombraro, PhD, RN. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃嚹hrough our on-campus testing initiative, we have tested more than 9,000 individuals since August 10, with just 121 positive test results for an overall positivity rate of just over one percent鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤤗 remarkable accomplishment!鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

When the students returned, they were able to host cross-campus events virtually via Zoom, connecting with students they otherwise would never have met if it wasn鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脌 for the pandemic. From yoga sessions to club meetings, students were connecting with their counterparts on other campuses鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤳙trengthening the connection between all Setters.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃侻tudents have forgone typical social interaction and many of the most traditional and fundamental aspects of college life,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Walker of the students who returned to campus this fall, making Zoom critical to not only the academic portion of college life, but social as well.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒 think really at the heart of it all, was figuring out it's not just about doing a social program. It's about engaging all of our students; welcoming our new students into the community, helping them feel connected, giving them information,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� says Smith-Bergollo 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃嚹here were so many important things that we needed to capture in these virtual social programs in ways that we had never tried to do before, so it was a huge experiment.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

Throughout the fall semester, the University rallied behind the concept of Our Safe Pace, a call for each of us鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤳙tudent, staff, or faculty鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤴆o do our part to create a safe and healthy community for the greater good. The message was woven into our training, into digital signage across campus, in emails to the community, across social media, and more. And for the most part, it worked.

We had some positive cases, but we were able to contain them. In late September, we had our biggest outbreak, with 18 positive cases in one of our residence halls. The county health department directed everyone who lived in that building鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤳙tudents, RAs鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤴆o quarantine for 14 days. And, as it turned out, even that went OK. There wasn鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脌 a larger outbreak. Our students stayed healthy鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤤗nd emotionally healthy, too, thanks to a lot of support from our Residential Life staff and other university leaders.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒t was upsetting to think that I might not even have [the virus], but I鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃联 stuck in quarantine,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� said Kayla Slusser 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�23 in an article for the Pace Chronicle. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃輶ut thinking from a bigger picture now, we鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃胩e doing this so we can prevent having to all go home鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃匈t sucks, but it鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 better for the long term than the short term.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

By starting classes early, the University was able to complete in-person instruction by Thanksgiving break, with the end of the semester, including exams, conducted remotely and finishing on December 6. The accelerated calendar was implemented to comply with public health guidance to avoid asking our community to disperse across the country and then return to campus, potentially contributing to virus spread.

Looking Ahead

As effective vaccines against COVID-19 have begun being rolled out to the nation, the team at Pace is looking forward to a bright spring. Right now, the students have gone home for winter break and the COVID-19 Task Force is monitoring the rising cases across the nation. They鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脎e shared their plans for bringing students back to campus for the Spring 2021 semester鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𥿡arring any unforeseen changes to New York State鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 travel advisory or reopening plans鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𤤗nd have high hopes for another success, albeit unusual, semester.

The nature of the virus and the actions we all take will play a key role in the success of the Spring 2021 semester. As things change, so, too, do the University鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 plans.

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪e have a lot of work to do. The virus is at a very interesting place right now. How it behaves further this spring is really going to be dictated by our actions and the actions of our communities,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� Anderson says. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𦔒f people are wearing masks, if they are listening to science, we will see that slowing the spread that we saw last spring, but we do need to work together and stay vigilant.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𢜛y hopes for the spring semester are that our students will return safely, that they will have a wonderful academic semester, that we will get some semblance of our normal student life,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� Knepper says. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃𢜛y hope is for tenacity,鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃� adds Walker. 鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃乪e鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃脎e been through a lot and it鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃䏭 not over yet. But we will get through this, if we continue to have patience and help each other.鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃�

鹹躓紱排弝ⅰ⻏璃

Preparing for the Worst

Preparing for the Worst

Making a Shift

Breaking Down Barriers

Preparing for the Return to Campus

A Virtual Learning Experience

Preparing for the Worst

Making a Shift

Breaking Down Barriers

Preparing for the Return to Campus

A Virtual Learning Experience

Our Safe Pace

Looking Ahead

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