For some graduate employees at Syracuse University, adjusting to online education has been challenging and abrupt. But it has shown them the flexibility and resilience of their students, too. 

SU announced March 16 that it would transition to online learning for the rest of the semester due to the coronavirus pandemic. The novel coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected at least 66,497 people in New York state and killed 1,218.

Class responsibilities have become one of many uncertainties graduate employees are facing amid the virus’ outbreak. Many teaching assistants told The Daily Orange that they find themselves struggling to split their attention between professional work, personal health and the well-being of students in crisis.

Moving online

As a TA, Courtney Dreyer oversees two recitation sessions for a research methods class. The communication and rhetorical studies master student no longer sees her students, but instead sends them weekly email updates to check in. The course’s professor records lectures and posts them on YouTube.

Dreyer said she was lucky to have a course that wasn’t especially hard to transition to online, but she misses interacting with her classes and being able to offer students help in person.

“I wish I could see all their faces,” Dreyer said. “It’s easier to tell if something’s going on, if something’s not clicking.”

Sometimes instructors don’t recognize how much communication happens in the classroom without students even saying anything, said Carlos Andres Ramirez Arenas, a TA for a religion class.

“I think now we’ve realized that there is a bodily aspect of the classroom — and also an atmosphere — that plays an important part in the way we establish dialogues and interactions with students,” he said.

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Sara Swenson, who teaches a world religions course and is the TA in another, has set up virtual office hours so students can talk to her in real-time. Students now work without real-time interaction, a sharp contrast from what the class looked like on campus, Swenson said.

Dreyer’s students will now complete a final paper instead of multiple choice exams. In Swenson’s classes, group presentations have been replaced with a different assignment.

“They’ve done a really good job adapting to the workload and changing expectations,” Swenson said. “I have been really impressed by the resilience of my students in this huge shift, now taking four to six classes online from different geographical locations in the midst of mourning things like graduation or the sudden end of their sports seasons.”

Access to materials has been another problem, Swenson said. Several students who left their dorms or stayed home for spring break have had to re-order electronic versions of their textbooks, she said.

SU encouraged students to move out of university housing by March 22. Students who weren’t able to get back to campus to collect their belongings will have to wait until May or June to come back.

In some cases, remote learning has fundamentally changed the way instructors and students interact, said Stephanie Hilliard, a composition and cultural rhetoric doctorate student and Writing Center consultant. Students and staff are now sharing documents and feedback digitally, they said.

“It changes things a lot because it’s harder to ask questions and clarify things while working,” Hilliard said. “I really enjoy seeing my students. I miss seeing them and working with them in person.”

Research and writing

Swenson’s planned dissertation writing fellowship in Germany has been indefinitely postponed. Her research is complete, though, and she’s now in the dissertation writing phase of her degree.

Maddy Hamlin, a geography doctorate student, was planning to start dissertation field work in the fall, she said. She’s now waiting to hear from funding agencies. Three conferences she planned to attend have been canceled, and some journals have rolled back the frequency of publishing.

“It makes it very difficult to plan and stick to these academic deadlines we had for ourselves,” Hamlin said.

Dreyer, who plans to graduate in May, said working from home has also affected her progress on her thesis.After SU initially announced classes would be moved online until at least March 30, she left New York to see her family in Michigan. She’s decided to stay put to prevent contact that might spread the virus, she said.

“Trying to put the college-student mind on when you’re in your childhood home is difficult,” Dreyer said. “It’s been getting done, just slower.”

As contact with other people decreases, so has productivity, Hilliard said.

“It’s hard for me to work at home constantly,” Hilliard said. “I thrive seeing folks in person and having to be present for others, and those obligations are basically nonexistent right now.”

SU on March 22 suspended all non-essential research and in-person data collection due to the coronavirus. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered all nonessential workers to stay home until April 15.

Suspending research activities is a necessary step to curbing the virus, but the pause leaves questions about research spending and the semesters ahead, Hamlin said.

Hamlin wonders how the halt on research may affect the resumes of junior scholars and whether SU will have to hold onto funding lines for TAs and researchers whose plans might change. She’s also unsure how prospective graduate students will decide on a school without ever stepping foot on its campus.

Flexibility and a trying year

Swenson is glad most of her students seem to be adjusting well to remote learning, but there’s a lot she can’t see, she said. Where students are living, whether they have good internet connection, whether they’re unemployed and how they’re coping with the pandemic doesn’t always manifest in obvious ways, Swenson said.

“I only see my side of the class, and I can be glad that they’re getting the work done, but I have no idea what kind of toll it’s taking to suddenly adapt and shift to having different projects in four to six different classes.”

Arenas said he is particularly concerned about international students who often only have social ties at SU. Arenas flew home to Colombia, and though being close to family and friends has helped him refocus on academic responsibilities, wondering about his friends and students can be stressful, he said.

Students should feel comfortable reaching out to TAs for help and asking for flexibility, Dreyer said. Graduate and doctorate students are experiencing the same stress and uncertainty most students are and want to work with them, she said.

It can be hard to find a balance between work and self-care, Dreyer said.

“Anxiety is real. Depression is real. I think it’s exemplified in this time,” Dreyer said. “How much do I push through and just try to be disciplined and how much do I take a break and take care of myself because this is rough and you need to do it otherwise you’re going to burn out?”

That uncertainty can be especially prevalent among SU’s graduate TAs and researchers who aren’t unionized, Hamlin said.

“I think something like a pandemic sort of heightens the anxiety on the part of those of us who don’t always have funding guaranteed from year to year, who are junior scholars, who are on the job market or will be soon, whose research plans may be in flux,” Hamlin said. 

Some graduate students who identify as Black, indigenous and people of color, as well as international students, went on strike this semester in support of #NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students. 

#NotAgainSU led an eight-day sit-in in November and occupied Crouse-Hinds Hall for 31 days starting in February to protest the university’s response to at least 32 racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents that occurred on or near campus. 

“It has been crazy, but here we are,” Dreyer said. “It was hard, and we did it, and that’s kind of how life is. Things happen, and you go through and you’re stronger for it.” 

Arenas said he hopes the sense of community TAs and other graduate and PhD employees have been fostering in recent weeks can be a model for how universities should operate.

“Many things will not and cannot be the same after this. And we should try to steer that change into building the type of academic community we want to have at SU,” Arenas said. “I’ve cared for people and people have cared for me in an unprecedented way. And I would like for that sense of community to endure once the crisis passes.” 

Published on March 31, 2020 at 12:09 am

Contact Michael: msessa@syr.edu | @MichaelSessa3