By Emma Overton ’22
Editor-in-Chief and News Editor
Noting that “the Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across the United States and around the globe” in a March 11 email, President Schutt announced the extension of Spring Break to Tuesday, March 17. Although he noted that there were “no known cases of COVID-19 on the Lake Forest College campus,” Schutt explained that “because the number of cases continues to rise across the country … the College must move forward with plans to prevent or slow the transmission of the virus as best we can, to protect the health and safety of our campus community.”
The March 11 announcement was followed by an update the following day from Schutt, which, in addition to announcing the extension of Spring Break through Friday, March 20, with classes resuming Monday, March 23, promised students notification by Wednesday, March 18 of the College’s decision on whether or not to move classes online and maintain the residential program for the remainder of the semester. Schutt’s March 12 announcement noted that the further extension of Spring Break was “influenced by the World Health Organization’s declaration yesterday [March 11] that COVID-19 is a pandemic, by President Trump’s address last night, by the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois, and by other fast-moving developments.” The day before Schutt’s announcement, on March 11, other area institutions, including DePaul University, Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago, made the decision to switch to online learning and close their residence halls for the remainder of the semester. Alluding to these decisions, Schutt further noted that “COVID-19 is compelling colleges across our region to make large, serious academic and programmatic decisions very quickly.”
On March 16, joining the growing number of colleges and universities across the country, Schutt announced that Lake Forest College would move to online learning and cease the residential program for the remainder of the semester. Schutt expressed his understanding of how the closure of residence halls would affect the College’s approximately 1,000 residential students, stating “we realize how disruptive this departure will be, but it is necessary to reduce the risk of community transmission of COVID-19.” Residential students were given until Monday, March 23 at 5:00 p.m. to retrieve their belongings from the residence halls and turn their keys into the Office of Residence Life. Providing further guidance, Schutt advised that “students who come to campus should retrieve belongings in no more than 8 hours. Students should not plan to stay overnight, [and] should visit as few campus offices as possible …” However, the order to vacate the residence halls did not apply to every member of the campus community, as F1 international, ISEP students, and students who “lack[ed] any access to a safe home or friend’s family in the United States” were eligible to apply for exemptions.
For Jenna Stern ’22 of East Windsor, Connecticut, the announcement to vacate her residence hall did not come as a surprise. She noted that she “moved out Saturday, March 14 because there [was] an extended break,” and “[my dad] said the school is probably going to close anyway.” Stern further explained that “I mailed my books [home] and packed up the things in my room but left them in the room. When the school announced that they were closing, 2 of my 4 roommates were still on-campus, so they had to pack up all of their stuff, my stuff … and put basically everything in a storage unit.”
However, for other students, the closure of residence halls was unexpected. Sophomore Audrey Bailey ’22 of Monterey, California noted, “it was a big shock to hear I needed to pack up my dorm. We coordinated [with] a moving company to do it, since I did not want to risk traveling [back] from California.” Similarly, first-year Laurel Robbins ’23 of Longmont, Colorado described her move-out experience as “a bit chaotic, because I live out of state so I had a small window of time to figure everything out.”
Regarding the transition to online classes, Stern noted that the transition is “not great, it’s been hard to be motivated to do schoolwork given the environment at home. I’m going to rearrange my room to put a desk in and hopefully that’ll make things easier.” Similarly, Robbins shared that some of her online classes “have had a smoother transition than others. For example, in chemistry labs, we now have ‘dry labs’ which consist of a Zoom meeting where we use mock data for our calculations and talk about techniques for the lab instead of actually running the experiment [ourselves].”
In an all-campus email on the first official day of online classes, March 23, Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty Davis Schneiderman expressed the College’s commitment to student success despite the disruption. “We know this is a challenging transition. We know that this is not the instructional environment you anticipated when you came to Lake Forest College. Nevertheless, we want you to know we remain committed to your success, no matter what happens,” Schneiderman said.
Moreover, due to the transition to online classes, faculty voted on March 31 to turn all courses for Spring 2020 initially to pass-fail, with letter grades still being awarded, allowing students to ”look at the grade they received in each of their courses and decide if they want to revert to the letter grade, or leave the P on their transcript,” according to Conner. Additionally, courses taken pass-fail in Spring 2020 are exempt from the maximum of 4.0 credits of Ps that can appear on a student’s transcript, and departmental restrictions on pass-fail grades for major courses are waived for any courses taken pass-fail in the Spring 2020 semester. In her announcement of the result of the faculty vote, Conner stated, “I’m thrilled to share this news with you, which will provide you additional academic flexibility in these uncertain times.”
In addition to the transition to all-online classes and the closure of residence halls, Schutt’s announcement noted that “all campus events must be canceled for the rest of the spring semester, including all athletic practices and competitions, theater and music productions, all-campus parties and other student events.” The cancelation of campus events, while consistent with other measures to combat the spread of the virus, was nevertheless disruptive for students who were looking forward to events that were planned months in advance. Alpha Phi member Sydney Johnson ’22, was looking forward to her sorority’s “Alpha Phifa, [event] which is a soccer tournament fundraiser we do every year and our formal.” Other events that are campus traditions, including what would have been the 23rd annual Steven Galovich Memorial Student Symposium and the annual Relay for Life Fundraiser, were also affected by the cancelation.
Schutt’s announcement also addressed graduation, noting “it is especially painful for me to announce … that Ravinia Festival Park has had to cancel all events until June, including the College’s May 9 Commencement. I cannot yet say where or when it will happen, but the College is committed to holding a graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020.” Senior Maria Contreras ’20 shared her concerns with the postponement of graduation, noting, “I hope it doesn’t get canceled. It’s unfortunate that there are a lot of things canceled up to May. It almost seems unfair … graduation is a milestone and I would love to celebrate my accomplishments.” Echoing Contreras, senior Melissa Ramirez ’20 noted, “I was looking forward to being the first in my family to walk the stage in May … I just hope that Commencement is [only] postponed.”
In an update on March 17, Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Andrea Conner elaborated on the postponement of graduation. “Since the federal government has advised against gatherings of 10 or more people indefinitely, the College is not yet in a position to reschedule Commencement,” Conner explained. In a later update on March 24, Conner elaborated on plans for graduation and other award ceremonies. “It is still too early to predict how this national and global public health crisis will unfold and finally end and therefore we are not yet able to specify a date or format for a rescheduled Commencement, Senior Honors Convocation, or Leadership Awards Ceremony,” Conner stated. She further noted that “as soon as it is possible, we will make sure to honor these students, alongside our graduating seniors, with a truly celebratory spirit. Please trust in the College’s commitment to these important traditions that are fundamental to the Lake Forest College experience.”
Communication from Schutt and Conner also addressed adjustments to student accounts in light of the closure of residence halls. In a March 19 email, Conner explained that “for all students who received room and board charges for this semester and who are now required to leave campus, the College will reduce those charges. The reduction will be customized for each resident student based on the specific room type and meal plan selected this semester [and] unused meal plan Boomer Bucks will be rolled over to the fall semester, and seniors with unused Boomer Bucks will receive a credit on their student account.” However, students “will not be reimbursed for room and board, and will continue to have access to their existing meal plan” if they were approved to remain on campus.
In her campus update on March 30, Conner announced the first confirmed case of COVID-19 on the Lake Forest College campus. Noting that the infected individual is an employee of the College, Conner stated that she was not at liberty to disclose additional details about the individual. “Following guidance from the Lake County Public Health Department and the CDC, the employee is self-isolating at home. I’m sure you join me in wishing them a speedy recovery to good health,” Conner said. She further stated that “in the last 14 days, the employee was only on campus for one day, and maintained physical distancing.”
As the campus response to COVID-19 developed, themes of community and support were reiterated by the College administration. In his March 16 email, Schutt noted that “we are all dealing with a list of setbacks and disappointments that grows longer by the hour, due to COVID-19. I have great faith in our strong College community, however, and I am confident that these challenging days will pass away like others before them.” Additionally, in his March 23 email, Schneiderman stated: “our community may not be physically in one place right now, but we are still a community and we are all in this together, so please let us know how we can help.”
