Derek Lopez
Contributing Writer
With the Fall 2020 semester coming to a close in less than four weeks, KU prepares to face similar challenges regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring.
President Hawkinson assures that a plan is in place to continue to keep students safe as they continue their education.
“At this time, we expect a similar profile of course offerings for the spring as what is in place right now,” said Hawkinson.
Students will have face-to-face classes; synchronized online classes, where the class will meet “live” online at set days and times; online classes that are asynchronized, or don’t meet in real time; and hybrid classes, where students will rotate who is present in their classes and who will engage with their class in real time from a computer.
As time continues to pass at KU, everyone is becoming more acclimated with handling the COVID-19 pandemic. President Hawkinson is no different and has learned a lot over the last two semesters as he looks to keep students safe while ensuring that they receive the best education KU has to offer.
“I have seen the full measure of those in our campus community with the overwhelming majority displaying the fortitude and perseverance needed to sustain them in this world-wide crisis,” Hawkinson said.
Hawkinson praised KU faculty as they converted 1,767 classes last spring to a virtual delivery method in a week and students quickly adapted to these new learning modalities.
Personnel in units across campus supported the faculty and students as the university moved into the fall semester with a fully residential experience for students.
After nearly eight months of dealing with this pandemic and having to continuously learn about COVID-19, the spring seems to bring similar challenges that we’ve seen in recent semesters, but the future is still unknown at this point.
“I believe that KU did extraordinary work in converting to virtual modalities in spring and we had a solid reopening plan for fall similar to that of many other universities nation-wide. But we are in a constant state of learning new things and will adjust our planning as more information becomes available to us,” said Hawkinson.
The future is uncertain, but following a similar structure to previous semesters should keep students safe while allowing them to continue their education.