More Questions Than Answers

I was in a one-on-one meeting with a member of our team the other day. After covering some of the regular, day-to-day stuff that is normally part of our conversations, our discussion turned to the latest on COVID-19.

As we were chatting, our conversation turned to the pandemic, and resulting directives to social distance and work remotely, have impacted our work.

"It has impacted everything" was the resounding theme. Because our team does not normally work at a distance every day, there have been lots of questions from staff.

But, while the staff are asking lots of questions, prospective students and their families are asking even more. This coming weekend, the University will announce some high-level decisions about what the fall semester would look like (classes remote/online, staff working remotely, etc), and my guess is that the answers that will be provided will only prompt more questions:

• What about spring?
• Will application deadlines be extended?
• How will you evaluate applications for students that have been graded pass/fail in the spring?

I've addressed some of this type of thing before:

I can't speak for other institutions, but from my perspective it is not that colleges and universities are intentionally trying to hide information from students, families, school counselors, or CBOs. Rather, it's simply that things are evolving rapidly at each institution.

Information about projects, processes, timelines, and expectations are changing by the hour - and so must our reactions. I know that I am hesitant to send out mass updates for fear of the information that I'm communicating becoming out-of-date as soon as it hits folks' inboxes.

So, forgive me if I feel like I'm repeating myself. I just can't seem to escape the uncertainty around all of this.

Add to it that we recently announced that Penn State will have a test-optional application and admissions process for the coming year, and the uncertainty continues.

What is certain to me is that I work with a great group of people. All the time. The fact that we have been able to roll with the myriad of changes since March - most of which have directly impacted our work on the daily - is a testament to the collective patience of our team. I know that there will be more questions to come, and I know that we'll be able to figure out the answers together.