On March 11, 2020, I walked through the dreary hallways of the William H. Sewell Social Sciences Building en route to my first class of the day — a discussion section for a Gender and Women's Studies class. Early as my overzealous sophomore self often was. What wasn't normal was the email I opened shortly after sitting down. Then-Chancellor Rebecca Blank delivered an early message with an eerily casual subject line that simply read "Updates to campus operations."
"...UW-Madison will suspend Spring Semester face-to-face instruction effective Monday, March 23, the date that classes would typically resume after next week's Spring Break."
I remember reacting aloud with a classmate who sometimes came to class as early as I did. What did it mean? When will we be back? At the time, neither of us knew. Because nobody did.
A month later, I was over 70 miles away from that classroom with any desire to be early that my classmate and I shared replaced with the anxiety of Zoom waiting rooms.
What follows is a visual diary of my transition to virtual learning. And what would unknowingly be my last assignment for University Communications for over a year.
