COVID-19 has been pervasive in all aspects of life, including education. However, the pandemic did not stop members of the School of Professional Studies community from sharing ideas. Throughout the fall semester, students, alumni, staff and faculty alike have written blogs detailing their experiences and thoughts on the pandemic, including insights into new hybrid teaching models and advice on how to manage stress at home.
Here you can find all of the COVID-19 blogs written this past semester.
Choosing Grad School During COVID-19
Erika Dy
Student, M.S. in Sports Management
“As the world tries to find its way through the uncertainties that a pandemic brings, many of us search for answers about our future. For me, the question has been whether or not it's a good time to proceed with graduate studies. And of course, just like all other questions, it leads to many other queries. Will the quality of education be dampened by the pandemic? Would the availability of on-campus resources be limited? Will networking opportunities even be available? These are just some of the questions one has to consider when thinking about whether or not it's the right time to go back to school and get an education in your chosen field. It's even harder if you have to leave a job by choice, during a time when a number of people are losing the benefit of a regular paying check. Not in a hundred years, literally, have we seen a pandemic take over our lives as COVID-19 has. It has changed and is changing the landscape of just about every industry. The world of sports, despite the discipline and resilience that sport itself stands for, is not spared. So, the question for me was, ‘Is this a good time to pursue higher studies in the field of sports management?’...”
Read Erika Dy’s full article here.
Maintaining Hope in a Horrible Time
Steve Cohen
Vice Dean, Columbia University School of Professional Studies
“Just when you think it can’t possibly get worse, it does. To recap a sample of the flood of bad news this year, we have experienced:
- The lockdown that began in March to reduce the spread of COVID-19;
- The murder of George Floyd;
- Trump’s effort to delegitimize the election;
- Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death and proposed “replacement;”
- A horrific presidential debate displaying a president out of control;
- A seemingly endless pandemic with millions of Americans out of work and hungry;
- More people than I can remember sleeping and begging on the streets of New York City;
- Over 200,000 Americans dead, and now a president and first lady infected with COVID-19.
We are a nation in crisis, poorly led by a dysfunctional government and a set of seemingly strong institutions buckling under the strain. This is a moment when we need to look to each other, our families, neighbors and communities for mutual support, understanding and a sense of hope….”
Read Steve Cohen’s full article here.
Looking Ahead with Hopes as the Catastrophe Continues
Steve Cohen
Vice Dean, Columbia University School of Professional Studies
“President-elect Biden said he would urge Americans to mask-up for his first 100 days in office. Let’s use that same time frame to complete a national vaccination project and vaccinate America by the end of April instead of by September as many are now projecting. It is time to stop this flabby, meandering federal effort to attack this disease and focus on producing all forms of public health capacity: Encouraging masks and social distancing, testing, tracing, isolation, treatment and vaccination. We need an aggressive, all-hands-on-deck mobilization to end this mess, with the new president calling on all Americans to do their part to drive down this disease. Let’s replace the infection and death data on cable news with data on the number of people vaccinated….”
Read the rest of Steven Cohen’s article here.
New York State’s COVID-19 Response and the Need for a Crisis Standard of Care
David N. Hoffman
Lecturer in the Discipline of Bioethics
“I was recently invited to testify at a joint hearing of six committees of the New York State Legislature on the inadequate response by long-term care (LTC) facilities to the coronavirus pandemic. How does one receive such an invitation happen? Well it helps if you have spent your entire career in a narrow area of professional practice, and then wind up teaching what you’ve learned in a variety of academic settings.”
Read the rest of David N. Hoffman’s article here.
Three Ways to Boost Mental Stamina: Pandemic Blues Be Gone!
Juli Spencer
Student, M.S. in Strategic Communication
“There's no way to escape hearing about or seeing the grim statistics of depression and suicides on the rise since the arrival of COVID-19. Humans are social creatures. We need loved ones to thrive, and when we're cut off abruptly from our support structures, we can easily fall victim to negative thoughts and impulses….”
Read the rest of Juli Spencer’s article here.
COVID and out Network -- Stepping Back to Move Forward
Edward Hoffman
Lecturer, Information and Knowledge Strategy
Steve Safier
Lecturer, Human Capital Management
"In Mark Twain's 1876 classic, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, we read about an episode where Tom and his friends run away to play pirates, leaving his community to think that they have drowned. Tom later returns to his village to witness his family speaking about him after he has died.
As morbid as this seems, I think that many of us wonder what people will say about us when we're gone. In fact, the ability to detach from situations and examine how they turned out can be a deep learning experience — whether in the case of "project reviews," as in the corporate setting, in "case reviews" in a hospital, or, as Tom Sawyer did, when we look back and consider how we have dealt with life around us and how it has dealt with us."
Read the rest of Ed Hoffman's and Steve Safier's article here.
Rebuilding Your Company During and following the Coronavirus
Amelia Zwecher
Associate, Human Capital Management
“During unprecedented times, an overwhelming amount of businesses have extended work for home orders to employees. It’s an understatement to say that engaging remote workers during the coronavirus pandemic is challenging. Once the vaccines reach a majority of the population, cases decrease, and public officials lower restrictions, BusinessWire (2020) stated that more than 80% of global businesses are estimated to return to the workplace.
Employers must begin developing actionable plans to reacclimate staff to the new normal in the office. SHRM (2020) noted that many organizations surveyed staff on their perspective about working remotely, work-life balance, and returning to the workplace. Leadership will need to reconsider policies, procedures, and benefits, especially those affected by the pandemic. People’s needs and expectations have changed. What has attracted qualified candidates to organizations in the past may not attract the same individuals now. Employers should lead with the idea of recreating a healthier and more resilient culture. How can we try to accomplish this?”
Read the rest of Amelia Zwecher’s article here.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any other person or entity.