Two weeks to flatten the curve.
The statement is haunting now. It gives pause. It hits differently. We didn’t know then. But in those early pandemic days, it gave us hope that the path to beat COVID-19 could be swift, deliberate, and without controversy.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Two days later, a majority of the campus community spent their last day — ironically a Friday the 13th — in classes. The Collegian has just shut down operations for Spring Break, after a feverish push to finish the third issue of the semester.
On March 13, schools in San Joaquin County’s K12 system began announcing shutdowns through April 6. By March 17, Delta College faculty, staff, and students were put on notice that we too would be transitioning to remote learning with “minimal staffing” on campus, according to an email from President/Superintendent Dr. Omid Pourzanjani. The email noted that Delta would continue “monitoring all communications at national, state, and local levels in addition to communications from the Chancellor’s Office.”
That monitoring continues as San Joaquin County remains in the purple tier of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy indicating a “widespread” risk level as of March 24. Hopes to move to “substantial” red tier were dashed earlier this week when the case numbers per 100,000 went up again.
Within a matter of weeks, Delta College — and the world — was tasked to do the unthinkable. Every class moved to online only instruction. Every student who swore they would never take an online class suddenly had no choice. Every instructor who shied away from learning the Canvas learning management system had to quickly catch up. Student services transitioned from it’s mostly DeRicco-based environment to suddenly serving the campus through digital means.
We were struggling to catch up while pushing into the future all at once.
For The Collegian, the pivot felt like a crash. The well-oiled machine that is a newspaper staff is built around deadlines and structure. We suddenly had none. We rebuilt the scaffolding that holds us up. We made mistakes (and still are). We let ourselves hit the wall in order to break through. But we didn’t give up.
Resilience is an oft-talked concept in pandemic times. But so is protecting our peace. We have struggled with pushing to put out the best product possible, while trying to reconcile the constant tearing down of our mental states from the constant stress and sadness.
We’ve experienced the circles tightening around us, as members of the staff went from knowing no one with COVID-19, to knowing people at periphery, to having a loved-one die of the virus. Members of our staff have been stricken personally as well.
We know we are not the only ones.
Our county counts more than 1,200 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Public Health Services of San Joaquin County. Nationwide, the deaths total more than 530,000 as of mid-March, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.
There are signs that we may, after all this time, be coming out of this pandemic, or at least the worst part of it. The CDC reports that 109 million Americans have received vaccines. In late February, Johnson & Johnson joined Pfizer and Moderna as the third vaccine maker to slow the spread. More than 65 percent of California is now in the “substantial” tier for risk, with more joining every week, according to the state. Three counties are at “moderate” risk. Alpine County is the lone “minimal” risk location.
California State University and University of California campuses have noted an intention to reopen for campus-based classes in Fall 2021. Students are still waiting to see where Delta College stands in the push to reopen the economy safely.
The early messaging giving hope for quick resolution has been replaced by guarded optimism. We know better now. We are cautious and suspicious of good news like many of our readers.
As a newspaper staff, we have been reporting on the pandemic since before it was officially declared. This special issue marks a somber anniversary for all of us, but also one we couldn’t ignore. The stories here are a collection of where we came from, where we are, and where we hope to be in the coming months.
We make no claims that this is the end.
Instead, it’s a raw look at the pandemic year as we knew it and how we’ve found our way to here.
Hannah Workman, Editor at Large
Dominique Williams, Editor in Chief
Robyn Jones, Opinion Editor
Esperanza Hernandez-Munoz, Entertainment Editor
David Victor, Sports Editor
Tara Cuslidge-Staiano, Adviser
Matthew Wilson, Multimedia Lab Tech