Learning from our Students
September 9, 2021 |
We met this week for the first time since the spring -- or was it for the first time since February 2020?The CAS Student Advisory Board (SAB) meetings have become my favorite meetings of any month. I cherish the brave, frank, hopeful, and critical conversations with our students.
But this SAB meeting was particularly special.
Like two years ago, we sat around tables in Alter 201. No, there was no pizza for them this time. And yes, everyone wore masks.
Yet we all agreed: it felt a lot more like the 2019-20 SAB experience (above left) than the 2020-21 Zoom facsimile (right).
Those seniors who had walked through the entire experience with us expressed it well: they were so thankful to be back to something like a normal campus life: full classes, social life, even the SAB.
Thankfully their contagious energy didn't prevent them from giving us precise recommendations for addressing what has not been going so well this year -- like this year's Day One program.
And then they surprised me. They articulated something that hadn't occurred to me, something I hadn't yet paused to notice.
The long-awaited return to normal classes, clubs, service, social events, SGA, sports, and the (nearly) full campus experience was -- after so many months of more limited, more focused lives -- also hard to handle. It seemed a lot to juggle. Welcome, but also overwhelming.
Aha, I realized! That's what I'm feeling too.
On reflection, I noticed that this was the first week in 18 months that everyone in my household has multiple evening commitments for school or work. It feels amazing -- and it's also a lot to juggle.
Maybe that's why I'm feeling both energized and exhausted, so early in this academic year. You too?
