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F I N A L S W E E K E D I T I O N | M AY 10 -16 , 2 0 2 2 | O U D A I LY. C O M
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OUDAILY
The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916
LASTING LESSONS FROM THE PANDEMIC
‘DO WHAT YOU LOVE TODAY, BECAUSE
TOMORROW
ISN’T PROMISED’ Campus leaders reflect on lessons learned through hardships STAFF REPORTS
It’s been two years since thousands of OU students left campus for spring break 2020, unaware that for many — including the graduating classes of 2020 and 2021 — it would be the last time they saw OU’s campus as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. While the chief medical adviser to the White House Dr. Anthony Fauci has declared the U.S. is clear of COVID-19’s pandemic phase, many of the changes wrought on the university and its people will linger. The Daily surveyed people across the OU community on what the pandemic has taught them moving forward. Here are the lessons they shared: Dr. Dale Bratzler — OU Chief COVID Officer: Bratzler said the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a renewed interest in the important role of public health. He said the U.S. was “ill-prepared” for the virus, and there were many lessons learned that will, hopefully, shape the role of public health in the future. “The unprecedented surge in patients required all of the health systems in Oklahoma to work closely together to address the pandemic-induced health needs for so many,” Bratzler said. “The remarkable story of mRNA vaccine development — technology that had been researched for years, that was, in record speed, modified to produce highly successful vaccines to prevent the most severe complications of COVID-19 … will serve us well for years to come for a variety of diseases.” Scott Miller — University Counseling Center director: Miller said it was hard not seeing his colleagues at the UCC and students in person, but he was pleased with the staff’s ability to quickly transition, preventing them from having to cancel sessions or interrupt client care. “I was so proud of the people I worked with that continued providing counseling through such a hard time,” Miller said. “I always knew we were taking the best care of our students, faculty and staff who were feeling overwhelmed and scared.” Miller admitted it was hard, at times, to listen to all the negative stories created by COVID-19 while he navigated the pandemic. He said he learned that “we have so little control over external things,” but “we can adapt and accept what is.” “We had to let our students know we were still with them through all of their challenges even when we were not in an office together,” Miller said. “We also had to find new ways to reach out to students who were isolated and withdrawn due to the pandemic. It was hard but we found a way to still be there for our students.” Miller said he doesn’t think anyone will return to normal because the pandemic was a traumatic and disruptive experience. He said he thinks things will slowly feel more normal, and hopes to see the
Mums on the South Oval on Nov. 4, 2021.
resilience learned from the pandemic experience. “We just want our students, faculty and staff to know that we care about them and are here to support them with whatever it is that they are struggling with,” Miller said. “I hope this experience has taught us that we are in this together and that together we can get through this.” Jamelia Re e d — Black Emergenc y Respons e Team co-founder and former co-director, and African American studies senior: Reed said that, as a leader of the Black Emergency Response Team and student advocate, she had to adapt to the pandemic, which made it harder to pull people out of their shells. Although Reed understood administration and faculty needed “grace” from students, she said students needed grace too. “We have technology, but we really figured out and realized that, although we do have the technology, we can also get burnt out on technology,” Reed said. “Quickly, we had our cameras on (in class), but turned them right back off or (stopped) attending period.” Reed advised to “do what you love today, because tomorrow isn’t promised,” as she recounted the millions of lives lost to COVID-19. She said time is more valuable than people may think. As Reed prepared to depart from OU, she provided a final statement to its leaders. “The honor and pleasure is yours,” Reed said. “Understand, if you ever want my time and energy again, it will come at a cost, and it won’t be free.” David Surratt — vice president of Student Affairs and dean of students: Surratt said when he first came
into the position in 2019, the OU community was trying to address campus climate issues, but these efforts were derailed by the pandemic. He said when he was a freshman at OU, he got involved in several public health-related student groups, and he tried to tap into that knowledge in the early days of COVID-19. “I tried to trust, and what I think really good leaders should try to do is ask really important and powerful questions to gain an understanding of how to move forward,” Surratt said. “So that’s kind of what I focused on was thinking about ‘What questions have I not asked? What are the sorts of information I need to get? And then how do I communicate and lead in a way that’s both compassionate and clear?’” Surratt said, throughout the pandemic, he spent time reflecting on the concept of tragic optimism, which was introduced by scientist, neurologist, psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, who acknowledged the inevitability of pain, guilt and death. “You have a choice to suffer and dive into these feelings of despair, or you have the choice of experiencing tragedy or suffering and focusing on ‘what is it that is to be learned from this experience?’ … I don’t think I’ve met anyone that hasn’t been touched by or impacted by COVID, either directly or indirectly, at this point,” Surratt said. “And so the question for us is ‘what meaning do we make of it and how do we move forward?’” Michael Givel — President of the OU American Association of University Professors and political science professor: Givel said it’s been an honor and a challenge representing OU faculty throughout the pandemic. “I hear stories about how staff members, in particular, have been
TREY YOUNG/THE DAILY
resigning, and this is a trend that’s been going on around the country since the pandemic,” Givel said. “Faculty members become more disassociated from the university due to being isolated, so representing all that can be an interesting challenge.” The U.S. is “quite different” in its approach to protecting its citizens compared to other countries, Givel said. “If you’ve kept your humanity and … you’re doing the decent thing, whatever you’re trying to do, that’s all we can really ask,” Givel said. “Whether it’s a little tiny thing or you’re trying to change a law or something in between.” Alex Gray — former Student Government Association vice president, and a public relations and women’s and gender studies senior: Gray said the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to prioritize different issues — like mental health and vaccines — and emphasized the importance of the OU community’s ability to rely on campus leadership. She said her biggest takeaway from the pandemic was the ability to give and receive flexibility. “(It’s important to) give yourself grace and other people grace, because everyone is dealing with things, and the world is super unpredictable,” Gray said. “You just have to be able to adapt, and to be adaptable. You really just have to give yourself the space to do that and give other people the space to do that as well.” While Gray plans to move to California to work for education nonprofit Teach for America after graduation, she said she’ll take the lessons she learned during her time in Norman with her. “Something that I’ve definitely gotten out of it (is taking opportunities), because you never know what could
happen, and you never know what the world can look like in a year,” Gray said. “I think that I really have grown into this mindset of, ‘I should take every opportunity that I have and do everything that I can to kind of experience life.’” Dr. George Henderson — professor emeritus of human relations, education and sociology: Henderson wrote that his campus activities with students before COVID-19 revolved around teaching classes and having meetings with current, past and future students. He said after COVID-19 protocols were put in place, most of those activities went virtual. “The meetings I held off-campus were rushed and felt emotionally cold to me,” Henderson wrote. “They were deficient in face-to-face and person-to-person interactions that are embedded in verbal and nonverbal cues.” He said virtual gatherings meant misinformation, disinformation and wasted time affected his ability to help students actualize as humane persons and facilitate positive social interactions off campus. He wrote that he hopes his “new normal” after the height of the pandemic will replicate most of his preCOVID-19 behaviors, but if COVID19 protocols are required again, he wants to have a better “plan B.” “Truth be told, I was not creative enough to alleviate that situation,” Henderson said. “I should have tried harder to facilitate teams that were inclusive, emotionally safe and effective. Instead, I shifted my share of the unhelpful behavior onto the students. Shame on me.” Crispin S outh — Stu dent Government Association Undergraduate Student Congress chair emeritus: South said it was weird transitioning from conducting congress business in-person to virtual settings because maintaining community had become difficult. When he was nominated to become an SGA chair back in December 2020, people in leadership positions — like graduating seniors Ways and Means Committee Chair Lauren Patton and Sustainability Committee Chair Jake Lange — kept their chairships from before his tenure through the end of it. He said this is because the pandemic caused many people to leave or participate much less in congress, causing a gap between people willing to “take the reins” from previous leadership. When Lacey Lewis took over as chair, he said he had full confidence in the new executive team’s “resilience” because they knew what congress proceedings looked like both in and out of the pandemic. South said as terrible, depressing and awful as the pandemic was, it completely changed his college experience for the better. He said he started the pandemic as a computer science major, a resident advisor and in Air Force OU. Now, he is none of these, but instead an international securities studies major. “I’m just a guy at this point,” South said. “(The pandemic) offered me an opportunity to look at what I wanted see COVID-19 page 2