IN THE FACE OF
COVID-19
A report on our year’s events would not be complete without mentioning the coronavirus
pandemic that swept the world and had a profound impact on our campus and our OS
community. As students returned from spring break on the weekend of March 6, messages
related to health and safety as well as continuity of operations planning flowed from the higher
levels of U-M administration. Within one week, U-M had called home hundreds of students
from study abroad (including 28 OS’ers), classes were cancelled for two days, faculty and
staff were encouraged to work from home, and the entire University pivoted from in-person to
online learning.
Without a doubt, we were all shaken by the coronavirus and its impacts upon us, creating a
profound sense of loss on many levels. Our OS study abroaders lost a significant portion of
their overseas sojourn and had to find ways to salvage credit for their experience. OS juniors’
internships were cancelled and OS seniors worried about future jobs and mourned the loss of
live graduation ceremonies and all those last experiences they had planned to capture with
friends and family. Faculty were forced to scrap much of their teaching plans and balance
family care with a new way of teaching, all while wondering how they would have time to move
forward with their research agendas. Staff missed the bustle of OS new admits finding their
way to Weiser to have their first advising appointment as an OS student. Many of us were
consumed with seeing friends and loved ones become ill and even pass away.
But OS’ers are resilient. Despite the sadness that abounded across the
campus, there were moments of great joy and inspiration. We choose to
focus on those instances of laughter, innovation, and remote caring and
sharing as we remember our winter semester in the life of COVID-19.
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