Photo by Chhany Minton/The Summit
Students retrieved their belongings Sunday after the College announced the shift to online learning last week.
By Max Peebles
Stonehill is set to resume courses online Wednesday, after the College announced that campus would be closed to students as a result of coronavirus.
The decision followed numerous universities across the country that also decided to move to online learning, after coronavirus cases rapidly spiked throughout the United States last week and the World Health Organization’s declaration that COVID-19 is a pandemic. Additionally, President Father John Denning, C.S.C., announced on Monday that an employee of the College had “received a presumptive positive test for coronavirus.”
Shifting to online learning was just one of a series of sweeping changes the College has made to curb the threat of the virus.
The College also announced that residence halls will be closed to students, with the exception of some international students and those with “extenuating circumstances,” and will tentatively re-open on Sunday, March 29. All non-essential international and domestic travel sponsored by the College, including conferences for faculty and staff, are canceled through April 30. Athletics came to a screeching halt, as the NCAA canceled the remainder of all winter and spring seasons. All campus-wide events were also canceled through March 27.
“We will evaluate future events and consider rescheduling canceled events on a case-by-case basis,” Denning said in the campus-wide email.
Martin McGovern, director of communications and media relations at the College, said everyone worked together in the decision to move to online learning. “Coordination and collaboration were, and are, critical,” McGovern said.
“Of premium importance were the guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the state Department of Public Health (DPH). The College’s Emergency Response Group brought representatives from across campus to address all aspects of preparedness and prevention and to make recommendations to senior management — always in line with the CDC and DPH. Given the speed with which this situation has evolved, decisions were made relatively swiftly. Virtually all campuses in the state, and increasingly across the country, have seen the need to prevent the spread of the [virus] in a confined, heavily-populated college environment,” McGovern said.
Pauline Dobrowski, vice president for student affairs, and a member of the senior leadership team, was part of the decision making process.
“At all times, what remained at the heart of our decision making was keeping the health and wellbeing of all of our community members as our main priority,” Dobrowski said. “With students now engaging in online classes, our team in Student Affairs is working to develop ways in which we can keep students engaged in the life of the College and connected with supportive resources.”
McGovern said that the College has made an effort to remain transparent in its communication to the Stonehill community about the ongoing situation. “Students and staff deserve the background that drives our decision-making at this critical time, and for that reason we have attempted to include whenever possible links to the CDC or state guidance that has helped us reach our decisions,” McGovern said. “Our top priority is to ensure the health and safety of the College community. To that end, we work to be credible, accurate and — crucially, timely — with our communications.”
While the College has stated that it is planning to resume in-person classes starting March 30, some are skeptical, especially given Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s announcement for stricter restrictions in a press conference on Sunday.
“I am ordering a three week suspension of school operations for educational purposes at all public and private elementary and secondary schools. This will be effective starting this Tuesday and continues until April 7,” Baker said.
When asked if Baker’s statement would have any effect on Stonehill, McGovern said, “No decisions have been made yet but obviously we would take the governor’s April guidance for K-12 into account when considering extensions for remote options.”
The anxiety and fear that Stonehill students may not be allowed to return by March 30 was further heightened by President Donald Trump’s Monday announcement that Americans should “avoid gatherings in groups of more than 10 people,” and that the strict restrictions could last for “several weeks.”
“With several weeks of focused action, we can turn the corner and turn it quickly — a lot of progress has been made,” Trump said. The president was asked by a reporter how long these restrictions could last, to which he replied, “people are talking about July, August, something like that.”
Senior Chad Gaucher does not believe students will be back on campus by March 30. “I think the tentative return date will be extended to the rest of the year,” Gaucher said, “I think Stonehill is trying to reassess the situation later rather than a sweeping close of the semester so they do not have to unequivocally refund on-campus students for services not provided.”
For the senior class, many feel that their time at Stonehill has come to a close.
With upcoming anticipated events such as, 50 Days, the Cape Week formal, and Graduation, many wonder if these events will even take place.
“I really don’t think we’ll be going back. I don’t think 50 Days is going to happen since it was scheduled for the 28th and we don’t go back until the 30th. If it does happen, it will be a later date but I don’t see it occurring at all,” senior Cassie Monteiro said. “As for Cape Week, I’m unsure if that’ll be canceled, a lot of us already have our houses and places to stay so I am sure even if the formal is canceled our grade will make the most of it.”
“I know some of my friends’ schools have canceled their graduations and this has become a big concern of mine. I really do not know if our graduation will be held on May 17 when it is supposed to be. I am unsure what they will do if we do not have our graduation. It’ll be really sad if we are unable to have our commencement, but again, I am sure we will try to make the best out of it,” Monteiro said.
When asked about this and whether students will be able to return by March 30, Dobrowski replied, “This is a question that we are obviously considering closely in the context of a number of other decisions. Given that we really cannot predict the direction of this virus, we will continue to track the situation as closely as possible and make decisions accordingly.”
“At this stage, it is too early to make decisions regarding Commencement and other senior events,” Dobrowski said, “Please know we will continue to monitor the situation in the hope that we can gather together to celebrate the many amazing accomplishments of our graduating seniors.”
In Monday’s email, President Denning once again urged members of the Stonehill community to think of one another during these difficult times. “Please continue to pray for one another and especially for those members of our community whose health has been impacted,” Denning said.