Dr. Kathryn Ibata-Arens
At DePaul University, leaders have been able to find solutions that have benefited some of the university’s most challenged students and their families. DePaul has many students from multigenerational family living environments with elderly relatives, explains Dr. Kathryn Ibata-Arens, Vincent de Paul Professor of Political Economy and former director of the Global Asian Studies program at DePaul University.
“Our students have been very diligent about limiting their exposure to potential disease,” says Ibata-Arens. “[What’s more,] some students are perfectly happy not to get in their car and drive an hour and a half to sit in a classroom.”
COVID-19 prompted administrators and faculty to adapt to students’ needs as necessary by ever-changing situations.
“What we have been able to do successfully at DePaul is create that kind of versatility or flexibility with our menu of courses in person for students who want to be in that environment, and virtual[ly] for students who are finding that it’s much more convenient for them,” says Ibata-Arens.
Dr. Meredith Oyen
“There’s no magic solution,” says Oyen. “It’s not just ‘back to normal,’ so getting back to the ‘new normal’ is going to be more of a mixture. I think that getting back into regular classes and having a mix of online and regular classes is helping students who have a mixture of needs — some may have started fulltime jobs (during the pandemic) and need classes online, and others may just want to get back into the classroom.”
