On Sunday, Jan. 31, I received an email, as most EMU students did, stating that classes on the following Monday would be completely online due to snow. 

I immediately rejoiced. 

The beginning of the spring 2021 semester had forced me, as a commuter, to get into a strict routine of Zooming, driving to campus, and navigating every other part of my life promptly. Now, here I was, being given a free pass to stay at home all day. 

When I first heard of the past weeks’ oncoming snow, I was dreading it. My school transportation is a worn-down 2006 Toyota Corolla with tire treads so shallow that if you were to squint, they would seem completely smooth. Obviously, I knew that driving to school in the icy snow would not be a safe option. Realizing this before in-person classes were called off, I was mentally preparing myself for the stale monotony of being on Zoom while my peers remained in the classroom. 

Then came the next slew of emails, each one with a subject line including some variation of either “COVID,” “online,” or “concerns”. My mind flooded with a million possibilities of what this emergency could be. I wasn’t sure how long the shutdown would last and began to wonder if my residential friends would be getting sent home soon. 

The uncertainty and anxiety on our virtual campus was and is evident. At first, it felt like the whole EMU community was holding its breath, hoping for good news or no news. Despite the various challenges and upsets surrounding the campus shutdown, I had two things to look forward to. The first and best of these was that I could eat cookies during Life Wellness (big score). The second, less exciting but comparably beneficial thing, was that my classmates would be stuck on Zoom with me. 

I almost felt selfish for this thought because the people around me were constantly in more intense states of worry and stress than I was. This was my feeling, at least, until I heard some of my own thoughts echoed back to me during the course of a day’s classes.

 I was hearing several students, who had previously been the only people distance-learning on Zoom, express gratitude to have a week (now longer) of class time where they could engage just as much with class content as in-person students. 

Admittedly, I had not thought about this particular distance-learning challenge. As an in-person student, I had only been on Zoom when either everyone was on Zoom, or I was feeling sick and didn’t want to engage anyway. What had not occurred to me until I had to consider the situation for myself, was that a perfectly healthy person forced to distance-learn while others are not would probably feel like a less important part of the class. 

EMU classes thrive when there are active discussions and participation from all students. Even though campus shutdown makes active engagement more difficult in person, it has opened up a new area online for our all-year distance-learners to engage better with each other and gives in-person students a better chance of hearing and understanding the wider EMU community.