By Charles Errico, Chair of the Chancellor’s Faculty Advisory Committee
“Hello professor, I wanted to come to you today and let you know in the most respectable way possible; this semester is really kicking my ass.”
As we conclude our first full, and hopefully our last, academic year during the pandemic, I wanted to share my favorite student email from this past semester. The challenges that our faculty, staff, and administrators faced this year were overwhelming. But we all had jobs, worked as a team and, together, the VCCS did much better than community colleges around the nation that lost an average of 10% in enrollment.
Charles Errico, Ph.D.
The real superstars of the past academic year were our students. They faced health, family, and economic challenges. News coverage bombarded them with racial tensions in a politically divided America. Many took far too many courses thinking, mistakenly, that virtual instruction was easier than face-to-face courses. For most, written assignments replaced proctored examinations. On an optimistic note, students became better writers which will serve them well when they transfer to senior institutions. That does not outweigh the social isolation and loneliness. Endless zoom conferences will never replace the magic of the classroom. Our Virginia community colleges should be proud that we had our students’ back, championed equity/inclusion, and made this troubling year as productive as humanly possible.
Charles Errico, Ph.D. is professor of history at Northern Virginia Community College and can be reached at: cerrico@nvcc.edu
