For Kimberly Phillips, working from home has meant sharing her work space with a challenging coworker: her cat.

“My cat is not a suitable coworker. She does not observe boundaries at all,” Phillips said. “I was on a Zoom call with the Provost, Fred Kniss, and she walked right in front of my computer. I never thought the Provost would meet my cat, but now he has.”

Since students were sent home last week due to the COVID-19 pandemic, EMU faculty and staff have been tasked with moving all classes and services online. For some, this has meant overhauling classes and finding new ways to teach and provide services. But for Phillips, EMU’s Director of Career Services, not all that much has changed.

“The main difference for my work is I can’t have in-person meetings with students,” Phillips said. “But in place of that, Zoom is available, and I can get on video calls with students who do want that live, real-time interaction…The resources, the support, the assistance, it’s all still there. It just might look a little different. Students can reach out and let me know what they need.”

Career Services provides free guidance to students creating résumés and cover letters, job searching, and preparing for interviews, among other things. Phillips said the coronavirus is likely to impact seniors who will soon look to join the workforce, cautioning that employers may need to reevaluate their hiring needs as the coronavirus shakes the United States economy. She encouraged students to take the challenges posed to them by the pandemic and turn them into a career-building experience.

“For graduates who are starting new experiences, it might not exactly be what they had planned or expected, but if they can adapt and be creative and be a team player now more than ever, that could really serve them well,” Phillips said. “With employers having to cut some of their hiring, for some graduates who ordinarily would have been able to secure a full-time position, that might not be an option this year. They might need to look at opportunities that are classified as temporary or freelance or contract, something shorter term. I know that can be really scary for a lot of people, but if they can stay the course and build experience and skills and push forward, we’re gonna get to the other side of this, and they’ll be able to show that to future employers… That could benefit them in terms of being able to sell themselves.”

Education

Cathy Smeltzer Erb is the Chair of the Education Department. One of the challenges the virus has posed to her and others in the Education Department is making sure that Spring 2020 student teachers receive the credit they need after being unable to finish in-school instruction.

“I want to be clear that our student teachers will be OK in getting a teaching license,” Smeltzer Erb said. “One of the obvious downsides is that [current student teachers] will not have had the length of experience in student teaching and thus the personal and professional growth that we would hope for when a student graduates and gets a Virginia license.”

Some student teachers were immediately involved in preparing two-week learning packets for students to take home with them. The Education Department has told student teachers to be on deck, and to work with their cooperating teacher to the extent that is possible for the rest of the year.

“Our role in the Education Department is partly to monitor and make sure that students won’t be further taxed or overwhelmed with what lies ahead,” Smeltzer Erb said. “But we’re still figuring that out: What is it going to look like for them to be involved in the rest of student teaching?”

Smeltzer Erb acknowledged the struggles of some students because of the changing nature of this semester. “Academically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, they’re saying, ‘This is really hard, and it makes it hard to be motivated to do the work I need to do.’”

“I’ve read a few things around giving ourselves grace when it comes to what we expect to produce; to be gentle on ourselves,” she said. “I look at my list and I’ve been home for a week-and-a-half. That list has changed a little bit, but not a lot. And I think the underlying anxiety of COVID as well, and concern for the people I love and know remaining healthy, and how to respond in ways that nip this thing.”

Smeltzer Erb sticks to her office schedule and takes breaks when she needs to, and she goes for a walk at the end of her work day. She is keeping socially connected through Zoom or on the phone while staying mostly within the walls of her home. Her daughter returned Monday with the Guatemala cross cultural group, who is now quarantining in their basement for two weeks.

Athletics

EMU Athletics Director Dave King described the past several weeks as a “snowstorm.” 

“It’s surreal that this is where we’re at,” he said.

The NCAA has given all spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility, and the Athletics Department is working out who at EMU might be in a position to return again next year.

EMU’s spring sports seasons were not officially canceled until Monday, but whether or not to cancel was never a decision that the Athletics Department had control over, King said. The Athletics Department held out hope that EMU might invite students back to campus in April, but “the decision was given to us” on Monday along with the decision to extend online classes to the end of the semester, King said.

“I have to admit that there were not a lot of decisions that we had to make,” King said. “Trying to deal with the realities is another story. Early on, that first week [back from spring break], we played on Wednesday, and then there were reports that we weren’t going to play on the 14th because we didn’t know what was going on. Everything was dictated to us. The challenge was trying to help people get a grip on what this reality might be. The decision-making was not much of a challenge because it was done for us.”

King said last week felt sporadic, but that things have calmed down this week after having time to process the reality of sports cancelled. The Athletics Department had their second online meeting on Wednesday morning.

“Now that we have come to the decision of the finality of things, we’re starting to work more on how to maintain some level of normalcy. For example, we’re looking at how to honor our seniors since we’re not gonna have an athletic honors banquet. What did we do with the awards? What are the ways we can help people navigate the loss or devastation they might feel? … It’s interesting for us to go through this process and try to figure out both the value of what that athletic experience is for everybody, and then what happens when that’s taken away.”

King is using isolation to bake more bread and go on more runs, and hopes to soon get started on some outside work.

Biology

Without the ability to lead and assign lab work, professors in the Biology Department have adjusted their strategies to concentrate on simulations, data analysis and research design. Students are working with online, pre-collected data in their projects. Though there is no way to exactly duplicate sitting in a lab doing chemical reactions, professors are using simulations and finding creative ways to continue teaching, said Biology Department Chair Jim Yoder.

“None of us had planned on doing this,” Yoder said. “We all design our courses for lots and lots of interaction between professors and students, especially in our laboratory. That [loss] is by far the biggest challenge … I teach, and I became a teacher, because I like interacting with students and I believe very strongly in that. This is not an ideal, but I also think we can make do for this semester.”

Yoder said Biology professors are focused on the critical learning outcomes that students need, whether those outcomes are needed to graduate, to go on to medical school, or to go on to the next class. “I think we can get the main principles across in what we’re trying to do,” Yoder said.

Yoder spends time in the park and takes his dogs on lots of walks. He admitted that his dogs are “probably the happiest out of this whole situation, because instead of getting left alone for 8 hours, they’ve got a house with kids home.”

Facilities Management

Facilities Management personnel are still hard at work on campus.

“To me, there is a good and positive spirit amongst the facilities staff,” said Ed Lehman, Director of Facilities Management. “Overall, they understand that we’re considered essential personnel, and as such, they’re here, they’re showing up, they’re doing the work that we can do. Even when a campus like this is closed, as long as we’re not shutting systems down completely, there are still needs to be maintained and serviced. The grounds still need to be taken care of.”

The Department is making sure that Facilities workers have access to the necessary personal protective equipment like gloves and goggles. Lehman said that so far, access to this equipment has been available. But looking ahead: “I’m not sure,” he said.

“At this point, we’ve been able to buy what we need that we were getting low on or out of,” Lehman said. “I did find that I had to check a few additional places, and in certain cases buy an acceptable substitute to what we would normally buy because the regular size or brand was out of stock. But so far we’ve been able to manage that OK. Going forward, I guess that’s still an unknown, depending on the spread of the virus overall and responses on various levels that are beyond our control.” Lehman added that hospitals and medical facilities will likely be considered higher priority for protective equipment.

Except in urgent cases, custodians are no longer working in the residence halls since there are still a few students on campus.

Lehman expressed appreciation for Bruce Emerson, EMU’s Food Service Director, who has been providing individually packaged meals to staff who are working on campus.

Lehman, a motorcycle rider, said he may go on a ride today if the weather cooperates. Over the winter, he had a shop built at home for working on and tinkering with vehicles, and also set up a woodworking shop. Lehman and his son are in the process of setting up woodworking tools.

“I’m trying to think creatively about how we move forward here,” he said. “And there are still plenty of things to do while I’m at work.”

Academic Access

Steve Yoder is the Coordinator of Academic Access, a program within the Academic Success Center which provides assistance to students with disabilities. Yoder coordinates conversations between students and professors regarding these needs, working with students to create a memo which outlines their needs to take to their professors. Yoder said he was fairly concerned early on when the idea of virtual classes came closer to becoming a reality.

“Two weeks ago, I sent an email to all faculty saying, ‘Please keep our students with disabilities in mind as you prepare to move to online delivery,’” Yoder said. “The tricky thing is that accommodations that are needed will change as we move from face-to-face classrooms to online classrooms.”

Yoder has been contacting all of his students individually, asking how things are going, whether any access needs have come up, and whether professors have figured out how to give extended time to those students if they need it. He said students are telling him that they are having trouble focusing on schoolwork now that they’re back in their home, and acknowledged the same struggle in his own routine.

Yoder heaped praise on Steve Gibbs, who has been doing “a gargantuan pile of work” in the last few weeks in equipping professors, many of whom have never delivered an online class before.

“Even in normal times, Steve is very supportive of the office of Academic Access in helping with the assistive technologies,” Yoder said. “I’m the only person at EMU actually paid for disability support, but I lean heavily on Steve for his technological expertise for helping with disabilities.”

Yoder has been tending to his lawn and his apple trees, which were “in bad need of pruning.” Since last summer, Yoder has worked 20 to 24 hours a week at Shirley’s Gourmet Popcorn in downtown Harrisonburg. Two weeks ago, Shirley’s told him they were going to reduce hours and redo the monthly schedule, and the company soon after asked Yoder if they could leave his name off the schedule for a while, since his age puts him in the more vulnerable category of people susceptible to the coronavirus. On Tuesday, Shirley’s closed indefinitely.

“That was a fun place to work,” Yoder said. “I enjoyed being with the other employees, several of whom were EMU and JMU students. It was a fun place to meet lots of people downtown, and share popcorn and happiness. And that has come to a screeching halt.”

Campus Ministries

Brian Burkholder, EMU Campus Pastor and Director of Campus Ministries, has worked with pastoral assistants to maintain Wednesday morning convocations. He said senior Josh Ayers has been “tremendously helpful” in setting up online spaces. He also said senior Caleb Oakes asked, “What can we do for everyday encouragement?” and that that idea “stuck pretty quickly.” Campus Ministries recently launched a daily resource called “Everyday Encouragement” on the EMU events calendar, where pastoral assistants are adding songs, sermons, poetry, prayers, and visuals on a daily basis.

Campus Ministries is holding a time of prayer on Zoom at 11 a.m. on Mondays. The department is devising online small groups, opening spaces for things like dinner clubs and sharing food or movie and book ideas. These could be launched as early as next week, Burkholder said.

Burkholder reflected on the coronavirus crisis at hand.

“Some things are imposed upon us,” he said. “Situations change, there’s an upheaval, it’s disorienting. That’s happening in a widespread way impacting everyone… It’s quite normal to be initially distraught, keenly aware of losses and change, feeling out of control. I experienced that for myself and observed it in others.”

Burkholder also put the situation into a faith perspective in encouraging students to persist through challenges of an online semester and self isolation. 

“In the Biblical narrative of Jesus meeting the disciples, even after the Resurrection, they were scared and felt out of control after the crucifixion. We can work toward reframing fear into faith, or panic into presence, acknowledging the ‘now’ and be in it, and be aware of being present in ‘what is’ instead of resisting because we wish it was something else. Maybe from loneliness into solitude, or maybe loneliness into connection; reaching out, finding new avenues for really connecting with people and calling folks and asking how they are and sharing.”

At home, Burkholder has already gotten to work on his garden, planting potatoes, peas, spinach, lettuce and radishes. He enjoys 9 p.m. walks with his dogs, and says he has been enjoying music more than he typically does within a work day.

CJP/STAR

Jayne Docherty, Executive Director for the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), gave the following update on the program in an email:

“When the world is thrown into chaos, the best thing you can do is bring everyone to the table, make sense of the new reality, and figure out how to pivot by stabilizing those things that are in your control in order to respond to the needs of a world turned upside down. We did that at CJP by deciding to launch SPI Online 2020. Seven weeks from the first day of our 25th Summer Peacebuilding Institute, we were thrown by the pandemic into a massive redesign of the program. The CJP staff have been amazing. Next week we will begin advertising the courses and professional education (non-credit) offerings. Many are what we were going to offer but some are new. All are being redesigned for online delivery. SPI is more than just a collection of courses and workshops. It is a multicultural learning community that includes a lot of opportunities for engaging with others who are doing the same kind of work outside of the classroom. We are creating an SPI ‘metacourse’ space and working to move extracurricular activities into the new, reimagined SPI. It has been a lot of hard work done under pressure but I am really excited about what we are creating.”

Outside of work, “everything has slowed down, and I kind of like that,” Docherty said. She has been spending more time with her family, including grandchildren, on FaceTime. She added that she is doing some home projects and exercising.

Katie Mansfield, Director of the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program within CJP, is offering five virtual dance parties a day for STAR alums, practitioners, trainers, as well as current CJP students, staff, and faculty. She also provides a daily space for resting nervous systems, primarily through yoga. She said STAR is developing other ideas which they hope to roll out in the near future.

Housing/Residence Life

Only about 30 students are remaining on campus compared to the usual 450 to 500, said Jon Swartz, Director of Housing and Residence Life.

“I’m getting a bit of a glimpse as to what my role looks like when our housing is virtually unoccupied,” Swartz said. “I don’t know all of what will change, but I’m guessing my role will shift a bit towards more direct student support and care, even if there is now a little more physical distance between us.”

When students were directed to leave campus on March 16, many left their belongings in their dorm rooms and apartments in case EMU decided to return to campus after April 3. Now that classes have moved online for the rest of the semester, Swartz said students will hear directly from him or from their Residence Director with information on how to retrieve belongings. With the complicated reality of different states issuing “stay at home” orders for the next several weeks, Swartz said the date for students to return will likely not be until at least mid-April. “As soon as we are able to provide the procedures and plan, we will communicate that with residential students who are impacted,” Swartz said. 

Swartz had one message directly to students:

“This has been an immensely stressful, probably traumatic time for our department. So much of the work that we love to do is dependent on you: students! And most of you are no longer here, and there are entire residential buildings that are now empty (except for RDs and their families for whom this is their permanent home). This has been very sad for all of us – and each time we gather to ‘Zoom’, we remember that this isn’t the way that it’s supposed to be. And yet, it is the way that it is right now. Like you all, we are also resilient and will find points of joy and new things to engage, but right now it’s just…. strange.”

In his newfound spare time, Swartz recently planted a pear tree and blackberry bushes in his garden. He has been taking leisure walks with family, reading books, and catching up on house projects.

“I/We miss you all. When you all are not here, it reminds me what an amazing privilege it is to be able to do the work that I get to do, and how much that work is dependent on you all. Peace.”