One thing I have always appreciated about team sports is the impact on individual players. Being part of a team inspires you to be much better than you thought possible. It pushes you beyond your limits.
In higher education today, the entire team is needed, just like in sport. A quarterback depends on the planning beforehand just as much as the offensive line in front. A university is reliant on the hundreds of individuals creating and implementing a strong plan. In so many ways, that is what has happened at Humboldt State University this fall semester. Our students, our faculty and staff, and our broader community came together as a team, and we pulled off something remarkable.
At Humboldt State, face-to-face classes recently came to an end for the fall. As we reached that milestone, HSU remained notable for the relatively small number of positive cases, mirroring similar success at the county level.
Even as the national story about higher education has often been about high infection rates, the story here is about a college town and surrounding region that have kept rates low. In some communities the story was about large gatherings and many college students getting sick — media reports around Labor Day said 4 out of 5 of the worst outbreaks nationally were in communities with large numbers of college students. Here in Humboldt County, a place with two colleges, there are fewer reports of students gathering in groups, and very few students have gotten sick.
At this time at HSU, we have had just 12 students test positive across many months. We have been able to support those students and, when needed, provide them with housing to help them isolate. Working closely with our partners at Public Health, we have been able to provide extensive testing for students living on campus as well as off-campus.
Of course, this is what all the hard work and planning was intended to accomplish. But like the rest of the country, HSU went into this with limited and changing information. From the very beginning, we were moving quickly into the unknown, and our efforts depended on the teamwork and dedication of thousands of individuals.
I can’t stress that point enough. Our plans were utterly dependent on thousands of people doing their part. The plan’s basic premise came down to something like this: “We believe that HSU faculty and staff will go to extraordinary lengths to offer our students a positive experience during this pandemic. And we believe our students will make extraordinary personal sacrifices to continue their education and to help protect the broader community.”
That was quite a lot to expect. It also proved true.
I am so inspired and so appreciative. I know it hasn’t been easy. We’ve seen students making strong progress toward their degrees, but many also struggling with isolation and with daily anxiety. We’ve seen faculty and staff members full of pride in how they have continued to educate and support our students, but have also seen some brought to tears as they push through the frustration and long hours to keep our institution functioning. Nobody was really ready for a pandemic.
Students, faculty, and staff have shown incredible resilience and determination. They have used humor, applied technology creatively, and shown great sensitivity to one another.
As we near the holiday season, we can look forward to some time to rest and recover. However, we also see the very concerning rise in infections nationwide, and we know the work is far from over. We know there will be unexpected difficulties. Our plans will have to change as we learn.
One thing we know for sure is that we have come together in amazing ways. The team, which includes all of you, has been incredible. We had each others’ back when it mattered, and we stayed strong.
Be well.
Dr. Tom Jackson, Jr. is the president of Humboldt State University.
