Faced with disruption, my students were flexible, adaptable, nimble

[I adapted this from my post on the site When Falls the Coliseum.]

Drexel was one of the universities to experience a protest this past academic year, as toward the end of our fast-paced spring '24 term and overall academic year, protesters camped in the center of campus for nearly a week.

The university went on lockdown when the encampment started on a Saturday night, gradually resuming normal operations during a five-day period. For two days, many classes were online, including mine.

In my class, studenting-wise, the kids did alright.

I know this pandemic "generation" has been through a lot, but collective worries that they have fallen to pieces and will not be able to cope or function in the "real world" (whatever that is) were certainly challenged by my students' quick and in most ways expert transition to a Zoom-based classroom.

The university was functioning hour-by-hour, so the entire Drexel community would only receive information about the next day's operations in the evening. We all had to be ready to shift gears.

I don't know if they were happy about it, but every student showed up for our synchronous online class on Tuesday, and they were on time and ready to go. All but one had cameras on, and they worked well both in the whole group class and the breakout rooms, interacting with me and their classmates.

We shared a few winky in-jokes about online learning, but in terms of the outcomes for that day's lessons, we stayed on track--I did my best, but it was largely thanks to their attention and efforts.

Few would likely choose to resume learning in a solely digital modality, but if need be, they showed they could pull it off.

These students are not withering little snowflakes, fluttering about, buffeted helplessly by forces they cannot/will not resist, melting when the temperature of their environment clicks up a notch. I think, as I did during much of the pandemic, that they're warriors. I keep finding that they adjust and adapt when called upon, and they showed that again last month.

Drexel acted with relative speed in opening its campus and beginning onsite instruction again. We finished the quarter. Graduations for both colleges and the university as a whole came and went.

I watched students walk in front of me across the stage at the College of Arts and Sciences graduation, and, you know, I felt not only proud that I had a chance to work with many of them but confident that they'll be the ones in charge some day.