With classes at The New School being entirely online this fall semester, the common experience among students ranges from positive to draining, or a combination of both. As midterms approach, as well as the recent announcement by Interim Dean Stephanie Browner that the spring semester would be mostly online, the importance of checking in with one another is more important than ever. While for some students online learning has been working well, for others, their relationship with Zoom is touch and go.
Sydney Henry (She/Her) – Parsons School of Design
Sydney Henry is a second-year Strategic Design and Management student at Parsons who hopes to go into a creative career in marketing. Henry has been living in New Jersey with their family since classes went online in March. After the university’s announcement on Oct. 16 that classes will be mostly online in Spring 2021, she decided to defer her enrollment for the spring. She plans to live in New York City during her semester off to work and gain job experience.
SP: Now that we are about halfway into this online semester, how has that impacted you as a Parsons student?
SH: It’s seriously limiting, and that I feel I’ve lost so much of my creative practices, and I chose this semester knowing it was going to be online and so I chose my more written courses, so not as hands on courses. I just don’t feel like I’m actually learning or improving or growing myself. The relationships you make over on Zoom are just not the same compared to in person talking to your classmates.It’s hard to collaborate on ideas when you don’t really have the chance to. It’s just really hard.
SP: How has your hands on experience been different this semester?
SH: Last semester was my first year at Parsons, so all the creative courses, and this year is way more heavy and writing and reading. The first week of the semester I had an insane amount of readings. And it was kind of unexpected. I’ve talked to other Parsons students and they were also kind of blown away with how much reading we had gotten in the first week. Last semester was much more creative. I had drawing, and sewing I felt more alive then because I could still be creative, but not so much now.
SP: What is Zoom classroom culture to you and what do you like and dislike about it? What is the funniest/strangest thing that you have experienced in a zoom classroom?
SH: You’re all quiet. In the large group discussions there’s often silence when a teacher asks questions. Smaller breakout groups, it’s hit or miss. It can either be you can have a really fun group or you can all just sit there in silence with your camera off. It’s so terrible. But when it is a good breakout group it’s really fun, because that’s the only time you can really talk with your peers one on one. And you can get feedback from them too and kind of complain about everything that’s happening. I just don’t feel as closely connected with teachers at all either. I like that I can mute myself and turn off my camera. As you can sense I’m very anti online schooling, only because I had the privilege of going in person and so now it’s such a really big contrast right now. In my first History of Design class, my Wi-Fi was down that day and we had Wi-Fi in the car so I had to go in the car and do my class there. And the Wi-Fi wasn’t working in the car and the seat was too far forward. And, I just was like “fuck” but I realized I wasn’t on mute. So she [the professor] was like, “Hey everyone, make sure to turn off your microphones,” and I almost cried.
SP: How do you care for yourself during these difficult times? What advice would you give for other students struggling this semester?
SH: I go to yoga a lot, my local gym does outside yoga. It’s me and all these old ladies, but it’s the same group of ladies. So it’s really cute we’re always like, “Hi” and we know each other now. What I find comfort in the most is just talking to other peers and reaching out to other people. Being like, “This is so tough, our teachers giving us too much but can you help me?” I’m sure all students love talking to each other like I do. So, I hope other people do.
SP: Is there anything that you would want the school to know or professors to know about what it’s like to be an online student right now?
SH: Professors honestly should be giving a little bit less work because all I do is work. And that just is terrible for mental health and I know so many other students feel that way too. And I think to boost the whole morale of students and how they’re feeling just sometimes give them a break. Times are tough, not everything is school there’s life outside of school too. I miss my friends.
Alexandra Gold (She/Her) – Eugene Lang College
Alexandra Gold is a second-year Journalism and Design major with hopes to double minor in Communication Design and writing, with a concentration in poetry. As for career plans, she hopes to continue her work in gender and sexuality studies and sex-ed while pursing creative journalism. She is currently living at her family’s apartment in the Bay Area in Northern California. Currently, Gold’s main struggle is the time difference, as one of her courses is at 6 a.m. PST and when her class starts, it’s still dark out. Gold plans to move back to New York City for the spring semester.
SP: Now that we are halfway through this fully online semester, how has that impacted you as a Lang student?
AG: I think that because I chose more liberal arts credits it has been less challenging academic wise than it could have been because I chose classes that I thought would be able to translate decently into online curriculum. And that would help knock out some of the classes I wasn’t as eager for because I do believe you cannot get the same thing, especially at a school such as The New School. And because I have taken classes at Parsons and was hoping to continue to take classes that would necessitate in person structure.
SP: Do you think as a Lang student it was easier to transition to online classes and online material compared to Parsons students and what has this online transition been like for you?
AG: I definitely think that has been easier because also the classes I have taken at Parsons or hope to take at Parsons are related to either more theoretical work or graphic design for communications design, so that is work that can be done online. As a Lang student I definitely think it’s easier. Not easy, but easier. I think just overall being a student right now with so many people working part or full time, family members are sick, there’s a mental health crisis. I just think being a student at all, especially with a grading system currently still being ABCD. I think that all the pressure of an in-person schedule still exists, but we are in online format, which I think creates unnecessary sort of crashes that could be resolved with school-wide adjustments. I suppose physically one could prepare, making sure you have the supplies if that is something you even have access to. I think mentally and, in regards to the greater scheme of things, there is no way to prepare for how taxing things are going to be on you. Especially because most of the time in the summer I was more worried about basically every other issue that could possibly exist besides school. School wasn’t on my mind. It was finances, which is unfortunate that that is the first thing that comes into my head. Just how poorly the government has handled the health of our people. And I think that there are so many things going through people’s minds and there’s such an influx of just constant information that there really is no way to create that space to dedicate to learning, unless you are living a very privileged life.
SP: In mid-March classes abruptly went online due to COVID-19. Do you feel classes being online then and now are any different? How have your professors changed their approach to online classes compared to last semester? Is there anything you wish professors would know about being a student right now in online classes?
AG: I was going to take my midterms the day that classes were officially canceled. Being in the second half of the semester meant that we already had relationships with our professors that were built in person. I knew how I expected professors to handle it, and which classes made the adjustment smoothly, which was not very smooth at all actually. I think that no one was prepared. I think we also were all dealing with such a shock,. Now I think professors are assuming that that same initial shock doesn’t exist anymore, or that the same living adjustments or family adjustments or even getting sick are not present when they are. For me, professors had slowed down a lot when we went online, because I think all of them were grappling with their personal lives too. I have had professors put on a lot more pressure this semester, treating the workload as if there was nothing else going on in the world. I think it’s just important to remember that every student is under different circumstances, especially for those dealing with economic fallouts of the pandemic: low income students or students whose families speak multiple languages at home, people who don’t have their own space or technology or sturdy Wi-Fi. It’s really little things that add up to make it so much more difficult. Students being understanding of their professors and professors being understanding of their students needs to be a mutual and ongoing relationship. More professors need to understand that students, a lot of us, are living adult lives with so much going on outside of school and not everyone gets to put their academics as a priority. Also some of us students need to understand that professors are also dealing with the pandemic. I think everyone needs to be more understanding.
SP: What is Zoom classroom culture to you? How do you feel it has impacted your mental health if at all?
AG: With Zoom just as with Twitter or Instagram, which is odd because my brain immediately treated Zoom like a social media rather than this platform. There’s going to be stereotypes that arise: “Are you muted? Can you hear me? Can you see me? Turn on your cameras. Turn off your microphone.” These little phrases that have so instantly become so familiar to all of us and we have assimilated them into our lives and vocabularies and conversations. Not having an in person culture has pushed us all to try and create culture out of the internet in ways that it didn’t exist prior, or ways that it existed only for some prior, now exists for masses of people. Zoom culture is something that I feel I am often too tired of screens to want to want to participate in. In-person classes seem to require so much more effort like getting dressed, or walking to class or commuting to class. All the things that are accompany meeting in person, but Zoom classes have been so much more exhausting. I have only one class where the professor makes us keep our camera on the whole class. And it is so exhausting. I will turn off the camera just for a second and just sigh because it just feels so silly. Especially because you don’t know where all of us are or what’s going on in the background. Mentally there’s so many other factors besides Zoom that contribute. I’m doing well this semester, but Zoom is not a part of improving my well being.
SP: How do you care for yourself during these difficult times? What advice would you give for other students struggling this semester?
AG: Reminding yourself that your productivity does not need to be the epitome of how you understand your self-worth, and to stop defining yourself by your work. There are so many other factors that are contributing to you being a human in the world right now. Just remembering that this school is not everything. Get what you need from your classes, but it really is up to you. Find your worth in other ways. Knowing when to stop and when to start again. If I’m feeling creatively inclined, I use that. Pushing myself by my own standards rather than the typical track of what a young adult’s life should look like right now. For physical self-care, getting off the screens and if you have the option to safely see people or a singular person, that has been really beneficial to me. Just, of course, being really safe with the pandemic.
Ashanté Charles (She/Her) – Eugene Lang College
Ashanté Charles is a third-year at Lang in the BAFA program studying photography and Journalism + Design. Charles is currently living in New York City and chose to postpone their photography courses until in-person classes resume,Charles is focusing on writing and journalism courses in Fall 2020.
SP: How has the online semester impacted you as a journalism and photography student? Do you think you are still getting the same quality education online compared to in person?
AC: A part of journalism is communicating with your peers. It’s not the same. I’ve enjoyed online classes, and I found difficulty with that in high school. It’s a lot more prepared than last semester, when the pandemic started. I feel like my focus in class is better. I am on time, all the time, and that was unlikely especially with the commute from Long Island. It was a lot of work, a lot of stress and I feel now because I’m in my own time and in my own space it’s easier to carry through classes, without being distracted. I immediately think about the grading system and for certain assignments how they’re weighed. I just feel it’s a lot different than last time because I feel that’s something they have to establish because it is going to be online, the weight of the grades. I have bumped heads with professors on how the grading is and how many assignments we’re getting and I feel that’s because they want us to do more homework because we’re at home.
SP: Do you think as a J+D student it was easier to transition to online classes and online material compared to other more hands-on students? What has this online transition been like for you?
AC: It has been smooth. With photography I just postponed it because I just think that it wasn’t going to be the same for me. I didn’t want to waste money and time online even though it seems like it’s working out fine for students who I was with in sophomore year, but some photo students didn’t think the way I did about postponing.
SP: How have your professors changed their approach to online classes compared to Spring semester? Is there anything you wish professors would know about being a student right now in online classes for four months?
AC: I feel the professors adjusted well. We had to purchase books for certain lectures, and so I feel the cost in supplies probably went up in that way. Same thing for photography but photography was a lot more expensive with photo paper. Also they started extending onto other platforms of communicating. That was something I was annoyed with the structure that they created, because one of my professors was using Slack for communication and I’m like “OK, but we have Canvas,” or we’re doing a class discussion on Slack. Now I’m getting so many notifications, it’s a lot. Especially those notifications before class starts. It’s draining because every time I unplug my laptop and that 100% that’s going down you’re like, “Oh my god I’ve been on the laptop for so long.” I tend to shut off the screen sometimes. When I’m in the class physically, I want to participate and because I’m physically there I have more of a connection with other students, but because I’m on virtually I don’t have the connection. That kind of distances me. I don’t have that experience that I need and that’s one thing I didn’t want to miss in photography. I don’t feel like my opinion is heard enough too during class, especially when there’s different voices coming out of different places.
SP: What is Zoom classroom culture to you?
AC: The Zoom chat box is a thing that we can all relate to. You can’t really tap somebody’s shoulder and lean close to them to say something funny or whatever the professor said, but you can always text in the chat box for help but not interrupting. I think that’s cool.
SP: How do you care for yourself during these difficult times? What advice would you give for other students struggling this semester?
AC: So I’ve become a morning person now ever since Zoom classes started. Since I’m home all day I want to start my day off early and one of the things I need to wake myself up to stare at a screen for two hours of classes is incense. I always put my incense on. I have my iced oat chai latte, that’s one thing I’d always pick up at Joe coffee before class when I’d walk on campus. Since I can’t go there anymore I just bought two ingredients to make it myself. Another self-care is yoga. Yoga is definitely important and I think that’s something a lot of students would adapt to especially because you’re just sitting there in front of the screen and not really moving. Reach out to other students and communicate with them even though you’re not there physically, connect through social media not just through Canvas discussions. One day you’ll be able to connect without it just being virtually.