Getting Back Into the Swing of Campus Life Post-Pandemic

Summer just began. Yes, there are long weekends, beach trips, and barbecues to look forward to, but we also know that once August rolls around, many of us—faculty members as well as students—will be returning to campus. It will likely be an odd return due to the pandemic. Many of us have not spent any time or very little time on campus over the past 14 months. But soon we will be back. What does this mean?

Tips for Returning to Campus

How should faculty members ease back into campus life? Here are some suggestions:

Some of us probably need to sort through backlogs of mail and to clean and organize our offices (your desk may be as you left it or perhaps it is now piled high with paper). Taking an hour or two a week to visit your campus office and to begin to straighten it up is a way to begin. Organizing your course notes, prepping PowerPoints, and drafting or updating syllabi is also a good way to ease in.

I suspect many readers have only Zoomed with their departmental colleagues. If it is safe to do so, perhaps staging re-entry into the departmental community by meeting for lunch or a happy hour (as long as everyone is vaccinated) might be a good idea. You could even hold a brief departmental meeting to do a bit of business before engaging in socializing.

Think about your expectations for the coming academic year. Do you intend to return to the campus schedule you always relied on in the past? Or did you gain something out of working more from home? There is no law that says you must return to your 2020 schedule on campus—you may choose to work from home more than you did in the past. Some readers may want to change their fully face-to-face classes into hybrid offerings; others may not want to teach via Zoom for a long time. Still, it is worth considering what, if any, teaching gains you made over the last year that can be incorporated into your campus return to the classroom. I, for example, will now rely on Canvas (the interface used by my institution) for all my courses, assignments, and grading needs.

If there are things you wanted to do during the year of Covid-19, now is the time to do them! Perhaps you thought of a new course to design and teach? Why not plan for spring 2022? Maybe you read some new material that can be added to an existing course? Now’s the time to do that. You might even want to change textbooks for your classes.

You probably haven’t seen many of your campus friends and colleagues—when you go to campus for an hour or two each week this summer, why not meet one or some of your fellow teachers and administrators for coffee? You can catch up on campus gossip and begin to feel more at home once more on familiar turf.

Of course, your return to campus may feel a bit strange or even strained at the beginning. You may want to remember that taking “baby steps” at first is a good idea. Don’t wait until late August to head back to campus—start slowly now. Your academic home will likely seem like it used to by the time classes begin.