Learning and Living During a Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed how we learn. How we live. From the beginning, faculty, staff, students, and alumni have harnessed the spirit of lifelong learning that drives the liberal arts. Faculty, staff, and students have drawn upon all of their tools and perspectives to engage in an unequaled, supportive learning experience. Our experts have delivered to the public practical insights and understanding. And alumni such as you have addressed the needs of our communities with and inspired practicality and transformative creativity.
In the liberal arts we prize adaptability, creativity, communication, fearless inquiry, and empathy. All of those commitments put us on a good course as a college and in our society as we move forward in the months ahead.
“I have never been more proud, grateful, and humbled to be the dean of this great College than I have been in the past three months. The COVID-19 pandemic is a historic challenge—one that our students, staff, faculty, friends, and alumni have met with the kind of excellence, ingenuity, and determination that make CLA one of the nation’s finest liberal arts institutions. As one alum wrote to us, ‘I graduated with a BA from SLA (the former CLA) in 1961. Your collective response to this dilemma is extraordinary. It would have been considered science fiction in 1960.’”
Even before the pandemic and the stay-at-home order, CLA faculty and staff used forward-thinking approaches to on-line delivery tools to create dynamic, enriching online, alternative methods for good student interaction. Therefore, within hours of knowing we were all sheltering in, CLA was transforming the remaining spring semester learning experience onto an on-line learning system. And the results are amazing.
Read "CLA Rises to the COVID-19 Challenge from the Classroom"
CLA faculty and experts are trusted sources for journalists and the community, and they are being called upon with even more frequency for responses to COVID-19. University and CLA sites are regularly updated with news, information, and inspiring stories about how the University is meeting this challenge head-on.
CLA alumni are among the leaders in finding solutions to challenges presented by COVID-19, from business to the performing arts. Alumni David Batcheller (BA '05), Brad Price (PhD '14), Jacqueline Beihua Tang (MM'99), and Anna Wienke (BA ‘01) are only a few among many who led efforts to be where they could to make a positive difference.
