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As the summer holidays are getting closer, we conclude the Corona Times article series with the corona times experiences of our Dean James Kennedy.

The start of the social distancing period on 12 March meant a radical change on the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ College Utrecht campus for both students and staff members. Ever since, improvisation and adjustment have been the key words in everyone’s vocabulary, also in the Dean’s.

How do you look back at the past three months?

It feels like six months or more. Life before corona seems very remote. Despite the fact that I sometimes go to campus, just like some of the other crisis team members, time since March has been very long. Sometimes is has been hard to count days, or even hours. You get a totally different sense of time.

How has the College community coped with the situation, and what has been most challenging for you as Dean?

I think the community has responded very well. Teachers and other staff members have done their best to make things work. They have performed very well, very consciously and creatively. Most students have also done their best to keep their motivation up, although the situation has been tremendously hard to cope with for everyone. They persevere, in spite of the circumstances.

My concern is that we will be able to go on the same way. We may run out of adrenaline, as the adjustments may take longer than we first expected. The challenge is to channel our uncertain future on a sustainable path.

What has been the experience of teachers and other colleagues of online teaching? How about your own experience?

As for myself, I had to take a fully new approach on my teaching. It has worked out well, and although what I did was in some ways very basic, it got me and the students through in a pretty okay way. But it certainly does not compare with the fantastic things some teachers have done in their online teaching. One of the positive things of corona times has been the opportunity to learn from each other.

Working from home has been a challenge for many of us. How have you coped with it?

Due to working from home, work has become very compact, intense and tiring. On the other hand, it also means being at home at tea time with family and sitting in the garden. It has been a strange combination of intense working and relaxation; working in a more focused way and being extremely distracted by your local environment. It has sometimes been hard to put those extremes together. What I miss most is the energy we give each other by meeting, and I am now looking for opportunities to do so, in whatever way possible.

The coronavirus happened at a not exactly easy time for the College…

Yes, the organisational reorganisation we are having has been hard on many people. There has also been the discussion on the relocation of the College. The coronavirus has been just one more thing we have had to deal with in a year that already was pretty hard. But we have to find ways to make the best of the situation so as to be able to move on.

I therefore hope that everyone will find ways to relax in the summer, whatever that means, getting out of the house or reading your time away, by spending time with your family. After the summer we are facing a new situation again, when we have to start with a hybrid model of education. It will require more than the usual of the community. I am confident that everyone will do this in a phenomenal way, but I also think that having a good summer’s rest is now more important than ever.