In about 3 weeks universities will be in session again. Many universities (like my own) want to pretend that things will be back to normal. The buildings and classrooms and quads will all be there and look the same. The routines of commuting to classes will be the same… 1/7
But WE will not be the same. We may still be suffering from mental fatigue. We may have developed new life routines and work habits that are suddenly incompatible with on-campus life. 2/7
2nd year students will be expected to act like 2nd year students even though they are navigating the new social norms of being away from home for the first time—something students normally learn in their first years. 3/7
We may be trying to do all this while still experiencing higher-than-normal levels of anxiety about getting sick. 4/7
We have to deal with the fact that our social norms don’t provide scripts for navigating the politics of determining how to react to people who do not share our same attitudes about vaccinations and masks. There will be social and emotional conflict. 5/7
The facade of normalcy is a trap. We will look around and see things looking normal and wonder why we don’t feel normal, if we are broken. We are broken. But also know that there will be a lot of people feeling the same way underneath. 6/7
We university faculty and course instructors will need to remember that we are not the same. Our students are not the same. Problems will arise that we did not seen pre-2019 and when they do our response should not be “be like you were in 2019”. 7/7
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