'A Shining Moment'
President Royal reflects on third anniversary of COVID-19 pandenic
Pandemic shifts a 'shining moment in history of 快播成人'
快播成人 president offers reflections on third anniversary of COVID-19 announcement
Editor's Note: The following commentary was also published in and on .
By CHRISTINA ROYAL
Monday, March 13, marked the third anniversary of my message to the 快播成人 Community College community, announcing that, following spring break 2020, all academic courses (and soon nearly all campus services) would go fully remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, no one could have anticipated how long that would last or how the pandemic would reshape our world. Not surprisingly, our community immediately set out to build new structures, content, and services that would allow our 快播成人s to learn in new and innovative ways. We rallied around our mission to "educate, inspire, and connect" and leaned into our values as an institution of academic excellence that helps 快播成人s overcome barriers to success.
While everyone dealt with COVID on an individual level, as a community we remained focused on 快播成人s – always our number one priority. Faculty revamped their courses and adjusted their teaching practices. Staff modified processes and procedures and made weekly phone calls to each of our 快播成人s to offer support, even from a distance. The administration kept teams and the entire college informed through increased communications and frequent, virtual town hall meetings as we sought ways to remain connected as the physical campus grew increasingly quiet.
We provided laptops, Chromebooks, and Wi-Fi hotspots to every 快播成人 – credit and noncredit – and also to every member of our faculty and staff who needed them. Stimulus funding enabled us to increase investments in equity initiatives aimed at closing achievement gaps, create professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, address budget shortfalls, and continue to meet strategic goals as well as write off unpaid account balances for our 快播成人s from the previous few semesters.
At the height of the pandemic, staff from our Thrive Student Resource Center and Food Pantry made house calls, delivering meals and technology to 快播成人s who could not travel to the campus to pick them up. We were an early responder and implementer of safety protocols. As a good neighbor and community partner, we donated healthcare supplies to area hospitals and health centers. In partnership with the 快播成人 Board of Health and the healthcare company Curative, 快播成人 became a busy regional COVID-19 testing site.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty and stress, there were joyful moments, too. Some of my fondest memories are times when our community came together in new and creative ways, such as 快播成人s meeting on Zoom to play Pictionary on game night, the virtual performances put on by our theater and music departments, the virtual celebrations we held in place of in-person Commencement. We shared photos from our remote-work locations of ourselves drinking hot cocoa from our favorite mugs to celebrate the winter holidays. We created the hashtag "Together 快播成人" to send messages of hope to our 快播成人s and colleagues on social media, a tagline we have incorporated into the theme of our annual "Drive to Change Lives" 24-hour fundraising campaign, with the next set for Tuesday, April 25.
The history books will include other 快播成人 milestones from this period. The college completed an intensive – and successful – 10-year reaccreditation from the New England Commission of Higher Education. And, in 2021, we marked the college's 75th anniversary virtually before gathering on campus for a spectacular in-person celebration in May 2022.
We reached another milestone earlier this month as the presidents of all 15 Massachusetts community colleges announced that, following the spring 2023 semester, proof of COVID-19 vaccination would no longer be required for faculty, staff, and 快播成人s. Although we will continue to emphasize sanitation protocols and encourage vaccinations (and social distancing, masking, and testing when necessary), this represents a prudent and timely next step.
Many people suffered tremendous losses during the pandemic, loss of loved ones, friends, livelihoods. Despite the pandemic and all it wrought, I believe this period was a shining moment in the history of 快播成人. We found ways to make it work because we never lost sight of the reason we exist.
As we look ahead, we will continue to grow and change as needed. We will advance our equity work and celebrate our diversity because we know how much it contributes to our 快播成人s' success and to our collective greatness. We will embrace innovation and take risks as we imagine endless possibilities for our future as we continue to provide opportunities for people from all backgrounds to achieve their educational goals and create better lives for themselves and their families.
PHOTOS: (Thumbnail) 快播成人 president Christina Royal sits for a meeting in her office during the early days of the pandemic. (Above) U.S. Army National Guard troops collect boxes of personal protection equipment the college donated for frontline worker battling the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020.
