UAlbany just announced remote until the end of the semester. I have some thoughts about this. First, we got through week 11 in what was ultimately going to be a 13 and a half week semester.

I was really reluctant to teach in person when we first began, did not know why I had agreed, but for the fact that I was able to organize my classes into small groups, relatively small classrooms, lots of prophylactic measures.

I kinda did it just because I thought, "well, this is my job, and though I don't trust them when they say that they are keeping us safe, I am not certain that it is not."

As the semester went on, I realized that the students who were in person were really grateful for the human contact, and to see things I had never really understood, like how much the social networks they form during the semester are critical to their ability to thrive here.

I saw how the students who were fully remote felt really isolated, how much it wore them down, how their experience was really different from those who saw each other, walked to and from class together, just hung out.

So as time went on, I really began to hope we could get to the end together, to finish this class in person, in spite of all the problems tied to the masks, the general chaos.

So it was with real sadness that I told them tonight that we are going remote. It is a kind of goodbye, sudden, after we have all gone through a pretty strange experience together.

I will miss those kids, and I really hope I see them on the other side. It has been a really shitty, tough year for them, and alot of them showed incredible resilience through it. Honestly, they have done some of the best work I have ever seen freshmen in a survey course do.

Shit, I never got to really say goodbye, and tell them what an honor it was to teach them. Sure, I will do it over Zoom in the coming days, but it just won't be the same.

Thanks, Obama