Special Report
The Pandemic Year
Barry Blitt for The Chronicle
Fifty-two weeks ago, higher education as we’ve known it came to a halt. Ever since, we’ve been asking two questions: How will the pandemic change higher education? And how many of those changes will stick? This collection of stories and data is devoted to exploring what has in fact changed, what hasn’t, and what to expect, in the individual lives of those who work and study at colleges and in the health and functioning of our institutions.
Lives Under Pressure
To document Covid-19’s indelible mark on life and work in higher education, The Chronicle followed more than a dozen people in the space of a day.
The Review
Almost all the instruments colleges would normally use to predict the fall are broken.
A Year at a Distance
The pandemic has not just disrupted international students’ college experience. It has marooned them all over the world.
The Pandemic's Toll
The pandemic has frayed nerves and exposed our tattered safety net. Can this researcher make people see the connection?
Talking Back
Readers told us what they’re sick of, what they’ve missed, and what has forever changed, for better or worse.
The Review
Prognosticators predicted mass shutterings. That hasn’t happened, but other enormous changes are underway.
The Review
Our professional identity has suffered, and so have our students. But we’ve learned, too.
Advice
The financial situation is dire. But colleges that stay focused have a fighting chance.
By the Numbers
A look back at a trying year for higher ed reveals strained budgets, falling enrollment, hefty job losses, burned-out faculty and staff members, struggling students, and death.
