FIELD NOTES Rockin’ the Pandemic I just walked down the hall from my office into the 102 classroom here in the Geology building -- check out this photograph I took. Masked students, fewer in number and socially distanced, taking their first exam of the fall semester. A bucket of disinfectants at the front of the class. This is a typical scene in the department these days. But you know, it is going quite well, at least so far! We hobbled to the finish line this past spring semester after sending students home and teaching remotely. Then we approached this current academic year with a lot of planning. One of our large courses is split into student cohorts that attend lecture on different days. We changed a couple others to being live-streamed, figured out how many people could be in our rooms while maintaining a 6-foot distance, posted many signs, and secured a lot of sanitation materials. Geosciences is lucky. Many of our service courses taught to general students were already online or distance-delivered before Covid-19. Our major’s courses are small enough that we can still hold them in person for those students who choose to come in, while others watch on their computer screens. And yes – we are still running field trips, at least the local ones, although the students often choose to drive themselves to the stops individually rather than hop in our department vehicles. As I am writing this, the Field Methods class is out there in the local canyons trying to make sense of the generations of faults across the mountain front.
I do miss that academic hubbub and the normal bustle of a college campus, and I know that students miss connecting with others as much as usual. We normally would be launching
Fall 2020
regional field trips and going to conferences and hosting visiting speakers. Indeed, this spectacular fall season in Cache Valley was going to be the setting for our 2nd Summit Alumni Field Trip – following upon the awesome 1st Summit Alumni Trip to Moab last fall. Well – next year for sure, right? This issue of Field Notes highlights as usual some of our great students as well as changes with faculty -- those who have retired and those exciting young professors who have just arrived. In addition, Dr. Tammy Rittenour has been promoted to full Professor and Dr. Alexis Ault gained tenure and promotion to Associate Professor – congratulations! Finally, I want to foreshadow two timely new efforts in our department, which you will be hearing more about in the future -- we are currently designing our new “GeoWorkforce” undergrad degree program with the help of alumni advisors, and we have formed a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion taskforce to help guide us to a better future. Drop a line sometime, Joel
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