‘Zoom Fatigue,’ Gratitude, and Purring Cats: A Peek at Life During the Pandemic

The Pandemic Year

Fifty-two weeks ago, campuses closed and 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? Read on.

• 24 Hours in Higher Ed, One Year Into the Pandemic
• Enrollment Managers Are Flying Blind
• The Stranded
• The Scholar With the Skeleton Key
• Why Haven’t More Colleges Closed?
• What We’ve Lost in a Year of Virtual Teaching
• How Much Has Covid Cost Colleges? $183 Billion

A year ago this week, The Chronicle‘s editorial staff gathered in our newsroom in Washington, D.C., for a hastily arranged farewell meeting. Colleges had already begun moving to remote operations as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and now it was our turn.

No one was sure how long our retreat from the mothership would last. Has it really been 12 months? Even longer? What day is today anyway? Absent life’s usual milestones, time has defied measure.

What is certain to anyone who has lived through the pandemic is that the losses have been staggering and the psychic toll immense. The arrival of the vaccines delivers a shot of hope at the same time that some states’ premature end-of-the-pandemic decrees inspire frustration, even despair.

Those thoughts and others came through loud and clear in response to questions we posed last month to readers of our Daily Briefing and Academe Today newsletters.

We want to continue the dialogue. What else should we have asked? What stories should we be telling? Please let us know. Meanwhile, check out a sampling of what we’ve already heard.

How has the pandemic changed you?

What word or phrase should be banned forever?

What has the pandemic changed forever — for better or worse — in higher ed?

What are you sick of?

What do you miss on campus?