It has been almost one year since OCU moved classes online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
On March 11, 2020, OCU officials decided to move classes completely online for two weeks following spring break due to the outbreak of a novel strain of the coronavirus. On March 19, the university announced online-only classes would be extended for the remainder of the spring semester.
One year later, there have been over 25 million cases of COVID-19 in America, and 500,000 people have died as of March 5, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Oklahoma alone, there have been 427,558 positive cases and 7,202 deaths, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Oklahoma County itself has had 81,276 cases and 758 deaths.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the campus community has been able to gather and attend classes in person for the 2020-2021 school year with mitigation factors in place, such as wearing proper face coverings, social distancing and limiting class sizes.
Wendee Lentz, Emergency Operations Center COVID coordinator, wrote in an email the EOC is proud of the OCU community for following health and safety protocols, and their efforts are shown in the campus’s statistics.
Since the EOC has received health reports, starting Aug. 11, 2020, there have been a total of 269 positive cases within the campus community, and there have been 996 times where community members have entered isolation due to possible exposure.
During the 2020 fall semester, there were 74 positive, direct on-campus cases, and 62 positive, indirect on-campus cases. Direct on-campus impact is defined as an individual being on the OCU campus within two days of the symptom onset or receiving a positive test.
Indirect on-campus impact is defined as an individual that does not report being on the OCU campus within two days of symptom onset or receiving a positive test. So far, the 2021 spring semester has had 27 positive direct on-campus cases and 106 positive, indirect on-campus cases.
Lentz wrote it’s important to note the increase of indirect, on-campus positive cases spring semester is a direct result of the university’s entry surveillance testing requirement for residential students returning to campus.
Additionally, there were 608 cases of students being quarantined and 118 cases of employees who were required to quarantine during the 2020 fall semester due to either testing positive for COVID-19 or because they were identified as a close contact for exposure. This spring semester, there have been 210 students and 60 employees required to isolate or quarantine.
Lentz wrote the OCU community has fortunately not received any report of hospitalizations or deaths related to COVID-19 among faculty, staff and students.
Joey Croslin, vice president for Human Resources and EOC manager, said OCU rose to the challenge of navigating school within a pandemic.
“I think our community has been really eager to comply with a lot of the health and safety protocol to keep people safe, and we really care about each other,” she said.
Croslin said the biggest challenges for her this year were that COVID-19 is a novel virus, and there wasn’t a lot of research initially on how to mitigate the spread. In addition to the challenge of making sure the university had the necessary resources, Croslin acknowledged the emotional challenge the virus has presented.
“I think there’s also the challenge we all face in our personal lives in that it’s just exhausting, you know, all the stress peaks and plateaus, and it’s easy to get complacent, so staying complacent can be a challenge.”
Croslin said overall, the university continuing to operate in-person is a testament to the resilience of the community.
“I think it’s a really big accomplishment, and we shouldn’t take it for granted that we’re here in person,” Croslin said.
Benjamin Rosfeld, music composition sophomore, said the pandemic has made it hard to meet new people.
“It’s made my circle a lot smaller, but it is what it is,” he said. “I’m usually a pretty social person, and I like meeting new people, but I haven’t met new people in a minute so I miss that.”
Rosfeld said he’s learned a lot about how to use technology in his music, but the most important thing he’s learned is how to equip himself to deal with setbacks.
“Honestly, the biggest thing I’ve learned is we have to be defined not by the negative experiences that happen to us. We’re not defined by those experiences; we’re defined by how we cope with them and how we choose to deal with what life throws at us,” Rosfeld said.
Ashley Freeman, dance management senior, said while some things, like lecture-style classes, feel the same, performance-based classes feel very different because they’re more collaborative and movement-based.
“I almost kind of forget what things were like before all of this. I know that sounds silly, but it’s just the little things,” she said. “In the dance school we’d use lockers and get ready and eat snacks between classes, and now it’s so normal not to use the locker room. We kind of forget that was a thing we used to do.”
Freeman said she’s learned how to adapt when things don’t go according to plan.
“I’ve always been OK with pivoting and changing plans, but actually opening up to that in my career, when things don’t go the way you plan, seeing those opportunities as an opportunity to do something else, something you didn’t expect and weren’t planning on, but maybe you’ve always wanted to do and haven’t because you were prioritizing other things.”
Lindsey Cole, assistant professor of psychology, said shifting to online learning last year, regardless of whether the class had ever been planned online or whether a faculty member had ever taught online, demonstrated an educational environment could become completely virtual when in great need.
“Having to do that has changed what courses will look like in the future in terms of what universities are willing to offer, what faculty will be expected to offer, what’s possible to be offered. I think there will be a shift in the mentality of that,” Cole said.
Cole said the challenge of teaching during the pandemic has made her think outside of the box.
“In my classroom I had to get really creative,” she said. “It’s been a lot of reworking educational opportunities into something that could work in a COVID environment and still make students feel safe and comfortable without losing the quality.”
Cole said it’s hard to imagine what life was like before the pandemic.
“We’ve been doing it for so long, it’s like an old hat,” she said. “If you just have the right attitude about it and find a way to still fit in the things you enjoy and spend time with people who are important to you and fit in the things that are meaningful to your life, you can still feel good about the way you live your life.”
The Emergency Operations Center sends out emails every Wednesday to the campus community with updates regarding the state COVID-19 on OCU. News related to COVID-19 at OCU is available via the OCU website or on the MediaOCU coronavirus page.
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