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The pandemic forced Michael Schoonmaker to think about the basics of storytelling.

Restrictions in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus “closed the door” on several opportunities for students and faculty within Syracuse University’s television, radio and film department. But the challenges also forced them to think creatively, said Schoonmaker, chair the department.

“It brings you down to the very basic level of ‘what are we doing here?’” Schoonmaker said. “What we ended up doing, it was different, and it was harder.”

Like many other professors at SU, Schoonmaker adapted this fall to ensure students were able to learn. The pandemic has created additional work for instructors, who again have to dedicate time and energy to redesigning classes and addressing new obstacles for the spring semester.

And though this semester presents unique challenges — a 14-week term starting in the heart of winter, with just two days off — some professors said they feel more confident about their classes than they did in the fall.

This fall, the television, radio and film department worked with students to create films with strict restrictions, allowing just one student to be unmasked at any given time, Schoonmaker said. Students and faculty had to work together to employ visual tricks to make the scene flow normally with only one actor unmasked, he said.

“If you learn anything about production when you’re in our curriculum, it’s tricks anyway, so we just had to employ our tricks to deal with the challenge,” he said. “I don’t want to pretend like it was easy.”

Milton Laufer, director of the Setnor School of Music, spent his summer working with other faculty members to develop the school’s COVID-19 protocols. Laufer and his team were tasked with figuring out how students and faculty could make music safely using existing spaces on campus, he said. 

Laufer and his team were tasked with figuring out how students and faculty could make music safely using existing spaces on campus. Courtesy of Milton Laufer

“We had this sudden disruption in March, and then we spent the whole summer just getting ready,” Laufer said. “By the time the fall came, we had our structure in place.”

The combination of aerosols created by singing and playing wind instruments — as well as the age of Crouse College, which houses the school — made it difficult to develop coronavirus protocols, Laufer said.

The university invested in protective equipment to help curb the spread of the virus, including special masks for singers and musicians, UV lights that can kill viruses and bell covers that prevent aerosols from spreading from instruments without changing the sound, he said.

Laufer said the Setnor School also adopted a policy where students can only sing in the same room for 30 minutes at a time. The room must then be vacated for another 30 minutes before being used again. The school also purchased recorders and digital pianos to support students in quarantine and those studying remotely, he said.

He also worked with different committees of faculty members to develop these protocols, including a technology committee and an executive committee. The work was a time-consuming addition to the standard work professors do prepping for classes, but the school has been successful so far with the protocols in place, he said.

Using other spaces was also essential to the Setnor School’s success in the fall semester, Laufer said. Spaces such as Goldstein Auditorium and Hendricks Chapel — which have high ceilings — leave room for students to have about 150 square feet of space to themselves, which makes singing in groups significantly safer, he said.

“Now, we’re at a point where other institutions are seeking assistance from us,” Laufer said. 

Jeff Zemla, an assistant professor of psychology, said that uncertainty and technology were two factors that made it difficult to prepare for his fall courses. Zemla, who taught a hybrid course in the fall, said that the technology was difficult to navigate at first but ended up working out in the end. 

Zemla met with SU’s Information Technology Services prior to the fall semester to learn about the technology available to him in the classroom.

Adam Capozzi, director of career services, said that, while meeting with students and planning events looks different amid the pandemic, the number of students the office engages with has remained relatively consistent.

“It was a little scary at first,” he said. “All our schools and colleges adapted very seamlessly.”

Virtual networking events and job fairs have allowed both students and the companies and alumni they’re engaging with to meet virtually, which is sometimes more convenient than the traditional, in-person meeting, he said.

“They can log in from home to be interacting with us,” Capozzi said. “We’re coming to the students where they want to be.”

While rising unemployment rates caused some students to miss out on traditional job opportunities, Capozzi worked with alumni to create smaller work and networking opportunities, which have been successful thus far.

While it was difficult to engage in non-traditional settings at first, the department has adjusted and continued to help students in creative ways. The response rate of partner companies and SU alumni has risen since the pandemic began, he said.

“Higher education is very accustomed to traditional in-person opportunities,” he said. “It has altered our job in terms of thinking more creatively.”

For Karen Doherty, chair of the communication sciences and disorders department, the most difficult adjustment has been reworking the department’s clinical program. Graduate students in the program need hundreds of hours of clinical work prior to graduation, she said.

When the pandemic hit, some of the speech pathology clinical programs were able to adjust and switch to teletherapy after the accrediting organization approved the switch, she said. But some other programs, such as the audiology program, could not operate online.

“For audiology, it was a real challenge because it’s really a different type of service,” Doherty said. “You’re fitting hearing aids, you’re doing hearing tests. You just can’t do that online.”

The audiology clinic eventually opened for drive-thru, but it was only operated by clinical faculty rather than students. Now the clinic is operating partially in person and partially through teletherapy.

“We’re still providing service for the community,” she said.

Schoonmaker is now confident that the spring semester will be successful overall. Though it took additional work on behalf of professors and other faculty and staff to create new plans and adjust classroom policies, the fall semester proved that learning amid COVID-19 is possible, he said.

“It looked different. It felt different. It was harder. But we did it,” Schoonmaker said. “I’m not afraid of the spring anymore.”

Published on February 7, 2021 at 10:06 pm

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu