Two years ago…

During the second week of March in 2020, Cincinnati State began to grapple with the COVID-19 virus and Governor Mike DeWine’s just-announced State of Emergency.

We didn’t realize then that unprecedented College-wide changes were just a few days away– let alone that the changes would still have an impact two years later.

• The Academic Response Team met for the first time on Wednesday, March 11, 2020.
   
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• Daily News on March 11 was “normal,” with articles featuring the faculty members who had been awarded tenure the previous week, and encouraging faculty and staff members to order their attire for May’s Commencement ceremony (which would later be postponed, and then canceled and replaced with a virtual celebration).
   
• By Friday, March 13, the news had changed a lot, as evident in the long Daily News article titled “Cincinnati State prepares for changes in response to Coronavirus.”
   
• A rare Saturday Daily News edition was published on March 14, informing faculty members how to get in-person help on Sunday in retooling courses for remote delivery.
   
• By Wednesday, March 18, Daily News was filled with announcements about canceled and postponed events, how to get access to cleaning supplies, and how get more information and updates from the College’s COVID-19 web page.
   
• And on Tuesday, March 23, Daily News reported that all classes and student support services had moved to fully-remote format, in compliance with Gov. DeWine’s “Stay at Home” directive.
   
• The March 30 Daily News explained how CState was assisting front-line health care workers with donations of PPE and equipment not being used in now-suspended lab sessions.
   
• President Posey reached out to College personnel through Daily News on Friday, April 3, asking everyone to “continue to be flexible and continue do the best you can at managing the stress of uncertainty,” and encouraging sharing of stories that “celebrate the natural kindness that is so much a part of what we do at Cincinnati State.”

In March 2020, as CState scrambled to understand and deal with our situation, few of us contemplated the possibility that two years later we’d just be on the verge of a return to some pre-pandemic “normal” experiences, like an in-person Commencement.

So as we pass the two-year anniversary of a time like no other, we can reflect on the new skills and new perspectives we’ve developed, appreciate the resilience demonstrated by our students and colleagues– and also continue to consider reasons to be optimistic about the future of Cincinnati State as we move forward.