COVID-19 and Georgetown

These are unusual times on a university campus. At Georgetown, the campus is quiet as it is for all spring break weeks. Only a few students are around; many faculty are away.

In contrast, the staff and administrators are working at a frenetic pace. The concern for the health of the community, based on epidemiological models of the spread of the COVID-19, made it clear that rapid operational changes were needed. The principal tool at the institutional level was to attempt to “flatten the curve” of the growth of the disease by separating people from one another in the community.

On Monday plans began to be made to transition from a face-to-face learning and research environment to one that is virtual, using a variety of internet-based software tools. Immediately jumping into action was the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship. This unit is the brain of all of learning technology and online pedagogical support at the university. The group assessed the university-wide staffing resources that could be deployed to support faculty in making an abrupt transition to remote learning in the middle of a semester.

Deans launched a class-by-class assessment of readiness and difficulty of moving to an online format. This yielded some hope that the multiple years of preparing for “instructional continuity” for snow days might have paid off. Many, but certainly not all, instructors reported they felt ready to move. Further, the effort identified a set of classes that didn’t translate easily to an internet mode. They are getting intense scrutiny now.

As the hours ticked by, CNDLS assessed weaknesses in the technical infrastructure. We needed to beef up the proctoring software support for student identification verification during examinations; we immediately bought new licenses for all. We discovered that video capture of lectures required unprecedented storage capacity; we transitioned to cloud storage via Zoom. Every obstacle we are finding, we’re immediately knocking down. The University Information Services has been there every day to assist in beefing up the infrastructure.

Clusters of faculty who have more sophisticated skills with Canvas and Zoom have offered to be peer supporters of their colleagues, supplementing the CNDLS experts. Training the trainers sessions are going on every day.

But research universities have much more than education in their mission. Georgetown has hundreds of research projects ongoing at any given point. Many of them cannot be turned into virtual activities. Laboratory animals need care and feeding; specimens and cultures need examination; ongoing experiments need continuous monitoring. A joint team of researchers plotted out a strategy for research continuity and distributed it today.

Separate teams of staff worked the problem of supporting undergraduate students as they plan to return to their homes, to minimize the presence of students on campus. This is almost a 24 hour a day issue, as some of our students are spread over many time zones during their spring break.

Staff administrators have worked all week on procedures to maximize teleworking for all employees, while provided all necessary support for teaching and research.

The goal of all these activities is to continue the critical operations of an institution with thousands of members, while minimizing the physical presence of those members on campus. We know we can do this for a few days, but it is very likely that starting March 16, we will need to do this for several weeks.

Every minute of every day, there is a new issue to address.

This is challenging all of us and the challenges will continue. However, the times bring deep appreciation as well. The most heartwarming side effect of these days is that everyone is working with a sense of devotion, dedication, and commitment to mission that is rarely seen in today’s workplaces.

It’s an honor to be here, now.