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THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION Coping With COPING WITH CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus How faculty members can support students in traumatic times CHRONICLE.COM Cover illustration by Randy Lyhus ©2020 by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, forwarded (even for internal use), hosted online, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For bulk orders or special requests, contact The Chronicle at [email protected]. For questions or comments about the collection, email [email protected] How Faculty Members Can Support Students in Traumatic Times veryone is under stress trying to cope with the nov- members can help students cope. Professors, after all, el coronavirus pandemic, but students are especial- are on the front lines, even if that line is now a virtu- ly vulnerable: They’ve lost access to their friends, al one. Of course, some of the advice may need to be their campus communities, and the structure and adapted for a scenario that nobody envisioned, but the rhythm of the academic year. Seniors are mourning coming months are likely to offer plenty of opportu- Ethe traditions and rituals they will miss, and worrying nities to hone pivoting skills and demonstrate agility. about what comes next — assuming they can graduate. (And if you need help in making the online transtion, Many students have additional worries, including how check out another free Chronicle report, “Moving On- to help their families financially and how to transition line Now.”) Our latest collection includes articles on to online education, sometimes in regions where access how to make online teaching more sensitive to stu- can’t be taken for granted. Above all, the virus continues dent concerns, how to spot potential mental-health is- to spread, and students worry that the health of loved sues, and more. As Georgia Tech’s Karen J. Head says, ones — or their own health —could be at risk. “integrating empathy and compassion into our cours- This special collection, available online and free, es is now a critical part of the work we must do.” We includes some of our strongest pieces on how faculty hope these resources will help. In this special collection: Shock, Fear, and Fatalism 4 As coronavirus prompts colleges to close, students grapple with uncertainty. 10 Tips to Support Students in a Stressful Shift to Online Learning 8 Because professors play a key role in students’ retention, staying connected is crucial. Let’s Add Compassion to Our Online Curriculum 12 Karen J. Head explains why it’s essential now to emphasize human interactions in teaching. How to Help a Student in a Mental-Health Crisis 15 Faculty members aren’t counselors, but can still guide a struggling student, says David Gooblar. How to Make Your Online Pivot Less Brutal 18 Kevin Gannon offers tips on navigating the strange new normal. Linking Course Content to the World Around Us 21 Small changes in teaching can help students make connections, says James M. Lang. Resources 25 The Chronicle’s Teaching newsletter discusses how to help students keep learning through a disruption. Learning From Crisis 27 Read how colleges that have been through shootings, opioid deaths, and other crises have handled sensitive student concerns. Shock, Fear, and Fatalism As Coronavirus Prompts Colleges to Close, Students Grapple With Uncertainty By ALEXANDER C. KAFKA ffectively booted off campus in an -ef pus’s food pantry is open and stocked twice fort to contain coronavirus contagion, a week, which, she says, “we’re grateful for.” hundreds of thousands of college stu- So she’ll cope with the situation, week by dents are reacting with shock, uncer- week. And after law school or a doctorate in tainty, sadness, and, in some cases, history, when she’s a professor, she imagines Edevil-may-care fatalism. Even as they hur- she’ll look back at the Covid-19 pandemic as riedly arrange logistical details, the stress of a case study. an uncertain future is taking a toll. For Rachel P. Angle, a Georgetown senior “A lot of people are anxious because not from Middletown, Conn., studying govern- everyone can afford a flight home or a flight ment and living off campus, the academic to campus to pick up their stuff,” says Al- disruption should not be too drastic. But, ana Hendy, a Georgetown University ju- she says, “It’s my senior spring. There were nior studying international relations. She is so many things I was planning on doing, among the rapidly growing number of stu- and now that’s sort of thrown into flux.” Her dents nationwide who were urged not to re- grandparents had planned to go to D.C. for turn to campus after spring break as courses her graduation. shift online. Angle knows, however, that “there are a Hendy too is anxious, she says, but she is whole lot of people suffering a lot more from more confused as she sorts through uncer- this. I have a safe home to go to, parents who tainties concerning her living and academic are happy to take me in. It’s mostly just the arrangements. A low-income student from stress of uncertainty.” Bowie, Md., she says it would be better if she stayed on campus because her father suffers ‘UTTER PANDEMONIUM’ from chronic obstructive pulmonary dis- Not everyone is adjusting so philosophi- ease and diabetes, and is particularly vul- cally. Students are “definitely freaking out,” nerable to Covid-19, the illness caused by says a junior at Harvard, who asked not to be the new coronavirus. named for fear of reprisal by the university. Among the questions on her mind: What The week before spring break is academical- will happen to her work-study job in the ly hectic, so students were turning in prob- dean’s office at the School of Foreign Ser- lem sets and papers, then heading home, vice? How will her responsibilities as a when they learned their classes would move teaching assistant in a geography class online and they were to leave campus. In change with the new online format? some cases they zipped right back to Cam- But counterbalancing the uncertainties, bridge, Mass., to try to pack up, store, or ship she says, is support offered by the universi- their belongings. ty. It is helping defray low-income students’ “It’s utter pandemonium on campus right costs for shipping medication, books, and now,” the student says. “Everybody is party- other necessities, for example. And the cam- ing all day or incredibly stressed out about COPING WITH CORONAVIRUS 4 the chronicle of higher education homework, or both. People really seem up- classes would be moved online. What was set and confused.” initially reported to be a protest against And they’re not exactly following the Cen- the university’s anti-virus measures was in ters for Disease Control and Prevention’s fact, the administration says, “one last large protocol, the student says, with parties out- gathering before spring break, and the size doors and in, “scorpion” punch bowls, and and behavior of the crowd required police to games of beer pong, “one of the least sterile take action.” More than 1,000 students gath- things to be doing right now.” ered in the streets, according to local news Similar seize-the-day mayhem broke out coverage, and when some students stood on at the University of Dayton, when it said its cars and the situation grew rowdier, the po- Alana Hendy, a junior at Georgetown U., is now at her family’s home, in Bowie, Md. Speaking of her classmates, she says, “a lot of people are anxious because not everyone can afford a flight home or a flight to campus to pick up their stuff.” JASON ANDREW FOR THE CHRONICLE lice launched “pepper balls,” which contain often. It’s a disconcerting time, she says, but irritants, into the crowd. “there’s a difference between healthy con- “Students are often accused of living in cern and fear. … Let’s make smart choices, a ‘campus bubble,’ immune to wider so- but let’s not be afraid.” cial concerns, so it doesn’t seem surprising Gregory Roper, a freshman at Rensse- that on some campuses there would be out- laer Polytechnic Institute, is more afraid breaks of partying,” says Mikita Brottman, for his grandparents than he is for himself. an author and psychoanalyst who teaches He was already visiting them, in Fairfield, literature at the Maryland Institute College Conn., during spring break, and “it looks of Arts. like I might be doing that for a while lon- “It’s hard for some students to take the vi- ger,” he says, now that the New York col- rus seriously. They’re often cynical about lege has announced that classes are going ‘media panics,’ and even if they do follow online and students must move off cam- the mainstream media,” she says, they feel pus. His parents are in Santa Clara County, that “this is a virus that targets ‘old people.’” Calif., which has a high concentration of “Beyond that,” Brottman says, “I think coronavirus cases. They’re considering go- the celebrating reflects both a feeling of di- ing somewhere safer, so he won’t be joining saster-inspired togetherness — and togeth- them at home for now. erness is part of the spring-break tradition A computer-science student, Roper says a anyway — along with a sense of social con- lot of his coursework was already online, but straint collapsing.” The partyers “are like the lab sessions in his biology class “are still the inhabitants of Prospero’s palace” in Ed- completely up in the air.” gar Allan Poe’s story “The Masque of the Reactions to the crisis among his friends, Red Death,” she says, “getting drunk while Roper says, “are very much a mix.” Some plague ravages the nation.” think fears are “sort of overinflated.” Oth- ers, particularly “friends with weak immune ‘STAY IN THE ROUTINE’ systems, are very scared.” The stress of uncertainty can be very un- nerving, says Alise G.