BU faculty say they’re glad to be teaching students all in the same room again, but most also hope we’ve learned a few things over the last year and a half of the pandemic. Photo by Cydney Scott

Faculty Reflections

“Joyful.” “Humbled.” “Anxious.” Faculty Open Up about Returning to Class

“Hooray!” says one. Forget the word “normal,” from another. Profs share their emotions about the start of a new school year amid a lingering coronavirus

We’re coming off a year unlike any other, where connections were virtual, teaching was hybrid, gatherings were severely limited, and maintaining the professor-student relationship was challenging. For a while, it looked like we might get back to normal this fall, but now, thanks to Delta, we cannot. 

So the masking and COVID-19 testing will continue. But some change is evident. Learn from Anywhere has ended, and students and faculty are back face-to-face in the classroom. BU Today asked a sample of faculty from across campus what it means to them to get back to an in-person campus experience, even amidst continued uncertainty. Most were looking forward to a renewed interaction with students. Some also hope for changed attitudes after a year-and-a-half of pandemic disruption.

Joelle Renstrom
College of General Studies senior lecturer in rhetoric

This coming year, I hope we can put LfA behind us and come together in classrooms and on campus as a community. I think we should leave behind the word “normal” and its associated expectations both in and out of the classroom. At the same time, we shouldn’t forget what we’ve learned over the past 18 months in terms of pedagogical/academic flexibility and creativity, and even more importantly, in terms of recognizing one another’s humanity.

In some ways, COVID erased the distinction between student and teacher. Ultimately, we’re all just humans struggling through a historically difficult time. That fact, as well as its cognitive and emotional implications, will likely remain the case for a while. Thus, my number one hope for the upcoming year is that none of us, whether student, faculty, or staff, forgets our shared humanity and that compassion can be the most helpful tool we have both as teachers and as people.

Robert Pinsky
College of Arts & Sciences professor of English and a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor

My large—comically large?—hope for Boston University is that my colleagues in fields different from mine will find ways to help ease or solve problems in public health and medicine, in political and economic understanding, in limiting climate change, in nearly everything that concerns me when I read the newspaper. Maybe naively, I believe in the idea that a university, like the pursuit of knowledge, is universal.

My personal—comically personal?—hope for my own work is that the poetry students and I will find ways to maintain the voice of poetry: in a large sense of voice, but also in the most literal sense. As President Brown made clear in the Town Hall [August 19], we will be wearing masks, to protect ourselves, one another, and the population outside our classroom. The vocal heart of poetry must meet the physical challenge of masks. We must hear one another, literally and spiritually.

Nathan Phillips
CAS professor of earth and environment

In A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit writes of communities of joy that emerge in the aftermath of disaster. Last year at BU, my students and I discovered a paradise of sorts on the streets of Boston, built in the hell of the COVID pandemic. Because good ventilation promotes COVID safety, each week in BU’s Earth House class we met outdoors, taking walks, bike rides, or the T to investigate Boston’s energy, water, transportation, and food systems. We explored narrow corridors and tiny garden plots in the Fenway Victory Gardens; observed great blue herons and muskrats while recording ebbs and flows of the Muddy River; mocked up a safe mobility connection between the Charles River and Fenway campuses; and walked the North End to discover previously undocumented relict gas lamps from over a century ago. Together, these experiences helped us understand how Earth House and BU fit into the city of Boston as a whole, interconnected ecosystem.

Like most, I longed for a return to “normal” this fall, but the Delta variant requires us to redouble our vigilance and precaution. While the continuing pandemic is disappointing, I’m hoping our communities of joy in this disaster grow, and I saw encouraging signs of this on BU’s campus toward the end of last year. The installation of outdoor Adirondack chairs and space heaters on campus shows that BU has come to appreciate not only how to mitigate COVID risk, but to flip this situation on its head by creating delightful outdoor spaces that are also safe. It took a pandemic for me to rediscover the value of the spaces and places in BU and Boston, and I hope we take advantage of them this fall for learning, socializing, and cultivating communities of joy.

Leora Lanz (COM’87)
School of Hospitality Administration associate professor of the practice and assistant dean for academic affairs

Hooray! We’re all going to be back in the classroom, where we’re supposed to be. Together. I so look forward to the electricity of classrooms filled with students and feeling the positive vibes we all have.  

I hope to see smiles, despite our masks. I hope to see smiles and laughter through everyone’s eyes. And I look forward to meandering among the students in class, while I teach, as I love to do, so that our students have to swivel their chairs to follow me around the room. So much fun.

I’m looking forward to our students visiting SHA’s “faculty row” of offices. I hope SHA students will once again adventure to the third floor, stop in to visit each of their professors, maybe even make some noise, sit around the worktables, and simply socialize.

I’m eager to once again feel the energy of everyone’s return. I also hope, and expect, that our students’ passion for this industry, which was impacted so greatly during this pandemic, only strengthened. I hope that our students are among the great innovators, thinkers, and leaders to reshape the landscape and retain the integrity of hospitality worldwide.

Kirsten Greenidge
College of Fine Arts associate professor of playwriting and theater arts and BFA Performance cochair

I hope that despite all of the challenges that have brought us to this point, this fall will bring with it the opportunity for the types of discovery and inquiry in our classrooms, laboratories, and studios that I know I value immensely here at BU. Zoom and remote learning are wonderful tools. In terms of theatre, these tools helped to keep us connected and working throughout the pandemic. I’ve been amazed at the innovation, created by necessity, of virtual theatre. But this mode of practicing art cannot replace the humanity that is experienced during live theatre, and in order for students to fully learn and practice their craft, in-person interaction—that allows for shared breath and space and tangible community—is imperative.  I’m looking forward to the generation of new art, and thus new life, with my students and colleagues alike.

Muhammad Zaman
College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering and of international health and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor

Students on campus are coming in at a time of great global anxiety. Not only does the pandemic continue to affect families and communities, but the events in Afghanistan have also shaken many people to the core. The worries about human rights, safety, and human dignity are very real. Other global challenges, from Tigray to Yemen, Haiti to Lebanon, are affecting millions around the world. Yet, I believe that some of our best ideas for innovation, global cooperation, and ethically grounded solutions crystalize and take shape during times of great stress and anxiety.

My hope is that our students will create new partnerships across disciplinary boundaries to challenge the status quo and find solutions to our common problems. I hope that students in engineering will learn from their peers in arts, humanities, and social sciences to learn from history and shape the future. The new normal, I hope and believe, will allow us to be more humble, kind, and innovative for equality and dignity.

Ethan Sobel (COM’13)
Hillel managing director

We’re coming off a year unlike any other, and entering a fall 2021 semester that also will be unlike any other before. What these weeks and months will bring is an opportunity…a chance to connect, be together in new ways, and to be back at BU. I most hope that our community can once again learn, explore, and participate. Even with certain modifications to campus life, I urge everyone to look for the hidden smiles beneath masks, offer waves on the street bigger than most oceans can produce, and to embrace the warmth of being in a space or room filled with other Terriers.

We are a thriving utopia of goodness at BU, a place where people find common ground with one another through shared experiences. Let’s do this, let’s get through this, and let’s thrive. I cannot wait to see you!

Linda Sprague Martinez
School of Social Work associate professor and chair of macro practice

I would argue there is no such thing as “normal.” Normal is constructed and means different things for different people and changes over time. Normal for me pre-pandemic was a greater degree of privilege in how I navigated the world. The ability to drop my kids off at school or to hop off the train without thinking seemed “normal,” when in fact both were a privilege. My hopes for the next year are basic. To be able to take stock in the things that matter: time with family, friends, and new people I meet along the way—developing relationships and learning new things—moving towards a more collective way of being. With each new sunrise, I am hopeful, but I can’t say my expectations are high. As for worries, they are the same as they were pre-pandemic: the fate of the planet, the fate of humanity.

Sarah W. Davies
CAS assistant professor of biology

My hope for this new academic year is that we can begin to rebuild our BU community, which has experienced such disruption and challenge over the past 18 months. However, I hope that we do not just build things back to what they once were. Instead, I hope that we use this time of healing to reimagine and rebuild a stronger, more resilient, and more equitable Boston University.

I hope that we do not forget all of the lessons we learned about what mattered most during the pandemic and fall back into our old ways of prioritizing work and productivity over all else. I hope that we can all find more time for family and friends, personal well-being, and growth and less time for the things that we did not miss when they were gone. Lastly, I hope that everyone in our community, including those with children and immunocompromised loved ones who cannot be vaccinated, can stay healthy and safe.

Harvey Young
Dean of CFA, CFA professor of theater, and CAS professor of English

It is my hope that everyone will once again experience the joy of standing—or sitting—with strangers. After months of remaining within social pods, we’re a little rusty at interacting with others. Attending arts events can help folks knock off that rust.  

One of the gifts of a residential education is the presence of people from different places with varying experiences. We gather here at Boston University to be inspired by, and to learn from, others. These strangers—your roommate, the person in the seat next to you, the coworker down the hall—quickly become acquaintances, colleagues, and, often, lifelong friends. 

Within the College of Fine Arts, we strive to create community. We—our students, staff, and faculty— believe that the arts enrich everyone’s lives. It is not uncommon for an attendee who may have arrived alone to depart deep in conversation with new friends after sharing in the experience of seeing a free play at the Booth Theatre, listening to a free symphony orchestra concert in the CFA Concert Hall, appreciating works of art at the Stone Gallery, and, of course, cheering alongside the BU Marching Band and Pep Band at events throughout our campus. 

I hope that you will experience the joy of meeting new people through the dynamic arts offerings at BU. I am thrilled that you are here.