The Quandary: How Do I Support a Student Who’s Sick With Covid-19?

Welcome to the first installment of The Quandary, The Chronicle’s occasional series to answer your questions about college life during a pandemic. The questions were posed by you, our audience, including members of our Facebook group Higher Ed and the Coronavirus. If you have a question, send it to fernanda@chronicle.com, or join our Facebook group and chime in.

How do you support a student who tests positive for Covid-19?

A student in your course tells you, “I have the coronavirus.” Now what?

An abstract possibility has become a reality in your virtual classroom. But this isn’t the first college student to contract the virus, and it won’t be the last. Keep in mind that the virus affects people in different ways. Some may be bedridden for weeks, or hospitalized, while others will experience relatively mild symptoms and recover in a matter of days.

Of course, the student’s health is the first priority. Consider each case on an individual basis, knowing that the circumstances could change quickly. Your student may still want to continue his or her coursework, and it’s your job to help however you can. If you have past experience in accommodating students with physical or mental-health challenges, consider what worked well, what didn’t, and what approaches might be appropriate to adapt. There is no uniform prescription for supporting a sick student. Every instance will be different, and that’s OK.

Coronavirus Hits Campus

As colleges and universities have struggled to devise policies to respond to the quickly evolving situation, here are links to The Chronicle’s key coverage of how this worldwide health crisis is affecting campuses.

• Covid-19 Is Pushing University Hospitals to Their Limits
• Colleges Are Canceling Spring Break. In Its Place: ‘Wellness Days’
• The Real Covid-19 Enrollment Crisis: Fewer Low-Income Students Went Straight to College

Remember to temper your expectations for both your student and yourself. Your plans for readings and assignments may not be as ambitious as you first envisioned. Your student may not meet even extended deadlines. Consider alternatives and prioritize asynchronous work so the student can pick things up when feeling well enough.

Shannon Lank, an instructor in academic-success programs at Arizona State University, says that given the limits of Covid-19 testing and the virus’s rapid spread, whenever a student says that he or she is sick, Lank assumes it could be the virus. She treats students with compassion foremost. “If they’re not healthy for themselves,” she says, “they’re not going to be good at anything else.”

Once a student reports an illness, send periodic emails to check in. Work with the student to adjust deadlines and create flexibility in coursework. Seek the student’s input on what is possible. And keep the conversation going. There is little to no certainty during this pandemic, Lank says, and everyone’s experience with online learning and the virus itself will be different. Some students may ask for more flexibility to care for a sick relative or friend, and you can also consider alternative arrangements to help them stay enrolled in the course.

It’s a tough time for instructors and students alike. “Showing somebody a little bit of empathy and compassion, it goes a long way and can change a student’s perspective on education in general,” Lank says. Remind students that you are navigating this transition together and will take on any adjustments to coursework as a team.

If students have to drop the course, give reassurance that it won’t be a mark against them. At Indiana’s Valparaiso University, for example, transcripts will be modified to provide context with the line, “Semester disrupted by Covid-19 pandemic.”

What will happen with new-student orientation this summer?

What are best practices for holding orientation online?

It’s unclear how long social-distancing policies will be in place. Given the infection and death rates, the restrictions could easily extend into the summer. Whatever the situation is come fall, colleges still need to engage incoming students. For orientation or even your back-up orientation plans, options are your best friend.

What’s happening at Western Kentucky University is an instructive example. Before the Covid-19 outbreak, Western Kentucky had planned about 13 student orientations, and four were in April and May, says Ashlee M. Manley, assistant director of orientation and events. When the university had to shift its courses online, orientation went online, too. The university already had an online module for transfer students. All new students can now attend a virtual orientation, one of 11 sessions hosted on Zoom.

The virtual live sessions, like in-person orientation, are designed to give students information on the nuts and bolts of their first year at Western Kentucky, including financial aid, advising, and career development. The sessions also allow students to ask questions in real time. The students are later placed in “breakout rooms” on Zoom to chat further with peer orientation leaders. The week before each live session, all the students signed up for it will receive an email from their adviser with the basics of what to expect, Manley says. That way, students can log on feeling as prepared as possible.

The university has also added more orientation dates and reduced the cost, to $25 from $75. Depending on the status of state and federal distancing policies in late July, the session slated for then could be in person, says Jace Lux, director of undergraduate recruitment and admissions. Students registered for the July session will be preregistered for their courses.

“That will go ahead and give them a class schedule and let them feel connected,” says Lux, “even though they might not be able to visit the university right away.”

When planning a virtual shift, consider what orientation, in person or not, should accomplish in the first place. At the University of Virginia at Wise, the outbreak forced the campus to cancel its first orientation and push back its other sessions, says Chris Dearth, vice chancellor for enrollment management. When his staff began planning a virtual orientation, they listed what they wanted students to understand and experience: adjusting to campus life, the code of conduct, academic advising, housing, and safety and security, among other things.

Now the staff is trying to figure out how to foster connections among incoming students, Dearth says. In-person orientation is filled with icebreakers and community-building exercises. Organizers have to adapt that work to a virtual environment.