by Rachel Ayres | News Editor
Last minute planning filled the past couple months as the Whitworth community transferred to remote learning in the wake of the global coronavirus outbreak. But, after Whitworth’s extended spring break, campus leaders began to turn their attention to planning in advance for the fall.
On April 28, the Whitworth community received an email update from President Beck Taylor, explaining how the university is beginning to make precautionary plans for the Fall 2020 semester. Detailed in the email was the formation of two task forces who are working to make plans for the fall if the current health crisis caused by the coronavirus persists and prohibits learning from happening face-to-face on the Whitworth campus.
“[The task forces’] purpose is actually quite simple,” Taylor said. “It is to imagine a number of different scenarios that we may find ourselves in in the fall with respect to the virus and public health concerns. And, to come up with appropriate and workable solutions for each of those, so that we have a workable set of plans for no matter what we face in the fall.
Dividing the main concerns of the campus community into academic and student life, the two task forces are charged with being “really imaginative in terms of what could happen and then what would be an appropriate response from the university,” according to Taylor.
Ron Jacobson, Dean of the School of Education, is the chair of the academic task force. This task force is split into three working groups that are covering flexible course delivery, faculty development as well as addressing courses that are difficult to manage remotely.
“We want to think about building a flexible course plan that is really robust, strong and Whitworth quality. And so, our work over the summer and into next year will involve working with faculty on the professional development they need to build those courses in a real quality way,” Jacobson said.
As chair of this task force, Jacobson is coordinating all personnel involved as well as leading discussions as the team collects articles and information regarding how other universities across the nation are handling the situation. The group is set to deliver a report outlining possible scenarios on May 15 to the President’s Cabinet.
Taylor has also been in communication with leaders from other universities, as they learn from one another.
“Maybe the silver lining in all of this is that we are in this together. None of us are really immune, forgive the pun, to this situation… We are all trying to do the best we can to support one another as we make very difficult decisions,” Taylor said.
Jacobson also sees a silver lining through this situation.
“I think the opportunity is that this really allows us to explore instruction that looks different than the norm. I am not sure that we change all of that often unless we are put in situations that force us to think differently,” Jacobson said. “Even if we were to go back completely to normal, and everything is face to face and everything looks great in the fall, this experience has still transformed the way students learn, it has transformed the way that we teach.”
The second task force that is addressing possible plans for student life is led by Rhosetta Rhodes, Vice President for Student Life. According to the email communication from April 28, the task force is working to find ways to incorporate co-curricular opportunities as well as putting systems into place through the campus-based public health resources that could effectively handle cases of the coronavirus.
One decision that has been made in regards to health resources on campus has been to hold back a number of theme houses.
“We are not going to be renting those out to students next year and that will provide additional empty bed capacity for us to isolate and quarantine students if we need to,” Taylor said.
Other than that, no official decisions have been made about the fall and won’t be made for quite awhile, according to Taylor. Instead, he is hopeful that Whitworth will be able to begin the Fall 2020 semester as usual.
“God willing, we are looking forward to reopening campus and welcoming our students with open arms in the fall. We miss our students. Our faculty did not come to Whitworth to teach online classes. Our faculty are at Whitworth because they want to be proximate to students, they want to be part of our students’ lives and we can’t wait to get back together again as soon as possible,” Taylor said.
Meanwhile, students are highly encouraged to complete the survey that was sent out on April 29. This survey will help inform the task forces what students believe is working and is not working in terms of academic and student life.
“I am really excited to hear from students [and then] crafting programs that meet their needs,” Jacobson said.
To keep up to date on Whitworth’s response to the coronavirus, visit https://www.whitworth.edu/coronavirus/.