All Online, COVID, and CZU Lightning Complex Fire

What pushed back the start of the semester one week? All of the above. I'm writing this post from my trailer in an evacuation center at Cabrillo College, aka Camp Cabrillo. 

On Monday, August 31, we start the semester. A trifecta of life changing events has changed our community — a devastating pandemic, disruptions to every aspect of education, and now the fire—loss of homes, displaced residents, and our beautiful redwood forests burning. 

May we have compassion for our students, faculty, and staff among us who are struggling. Some are in hotels, campers, or couch-surfing. We wait, we watch the news, we hope to see a better tomorrow.  We'll get through this too, and find a way to pull together with support and instill a feeling of connection through our creative work called teaching.

For the faculty reading this, please see my All Faculty email from August 24. It outlines an expanded model of tech support for you and your students. The Computer Technology Center staff, along with the Teaching and Learning Center staff, have worked tirelessly to clear a backlog of tech requests from students who are confused about registration, accessing Canvas, and due dates appearing in their Canvas To-Do list this week.

It'll all be OK if we keep communicating with each other with kindness and compassion.