A phase-in period has been implemented by the university to slow the income of students and faculty to campus. This decision was made August 12 by the university which was 12 days before the first day of classes.
Associate Academic Professional Lecturer in the Visual Arts Department, Bailey Russel, teaches a first year seminar and two introductory classes this fall semester but one class had to be canceled and switched to another course due to the phase in period now implemented by the university.
“With the phase in, ART 2265, a black and white photography lab based class became unteachable,” said Russel. “I can’t cover the content of the course online, there’s no way for students to do B&W darkroom work at home, or even during the short in person time we will have. I was uncertain before the change to the phase in if the class would be successful so in some ways this was a relief to force my hand to cancel it.”
Over the summer Russel taught his digital photography class all online and said it lends itself nicely to an online format. However, he said there was a lack of personal connection with his students and informal education through conversation and assistance in the classroom was missing.
“This switch has made me realize how much of the content I deal with is imparted in informal discussion and has made me rethink many aspects of my classes which is good,” said Russel. “I think it’s really healthy for professors to be forced to overhaul our classes pretty regularly, but obviously it would be nice to do that in better, and less stressful and ridiculous circumstances.”
Since the film class will not be possible, Russel is offering this digital class in place of it.
As for the first year seminar class, Russel said it is a studio class primarily but that he was already planning on increasing the academic side of the class in light of the semester initially being online after Thanksgiving break. He said the announcement of the phase in period moved his decision even further but he still hopes his students will be able to come into the art building for this seminar after the phase in period so he may cover what is needed for the class.
Nate Applehans, a junior studying finance and accounting, had all his classes switched to online except one. He said he is grateful though for this switch to online so things do not possibly switch back and forth during the semester. He also said that it would be difficult to go from in person to online after Thanksgiving break. He is now able to get into a groove and plan his classwork around his job to keep grades up.
“I don’t think we would get a proper education but it beats riding a roller coaster over the semester,” said Applehans. “Staying online is the best of a bad situation.”
Applehans said he is not taking any higher level courses this semester which he is thankful for due to the situation and the fact online classes feel more like “temporary” knowledge. If things would have been more difficult in regards to higher level classes or this being his last year, Applehans said he may have skipped this semester. If he did skip though he would lose some loans which he said was not worth it.
Barbara Sandick, an adjunct lecturer, teaches graphics of communication Monday nights this semester. It was initially in person with 30 students enrolled and more waitlisted said Sandick. The class had to be changed to a max of 16 students and no waitlist with only 8 in person slots for when classes would resume in person. Sandick said, though, she was informed that the class would be entirely online from now on due to the phase in period.
“My class lends itself to in-person learning; one-on-one sessions are extremely important in design,” said Sandick. “The editing suite the university uses will be very difficult to teach online.”
Sandick understands the phase in period is for the health of the community and a wise decision, but she wishes there were more of a heads up.
“The university should have implemented phase in period at the very beginning of the summer; the waiting was a huge disadvantage for educators and students to adjust at the last minute not only their learning plans, but moving, choosing classes, continuing on as a student based on the health of the community,” said Sandick.
Russel said he was already expecting the university to have to move completely online once students returned to campus. With the new plan he said he hopes UW can learn from other universities’ mistakes in order to get the in person aspect of learning this semester right so it is safe for everyone. But he also wishes this decision was made a while ago.
“Overall, I am very supportive of the phased move,” said Russel. “I would have preferred for the announcement to have come a month earlier as now I’ve completely re-written three different syllabi, and prepared the content for three different classes, a total of 5 times between them, but I completely understand the need and can see how this could potentially help us actually have classes in person.”
