Page 5 - MGATODAY_Spring_2021

By Sheron Smith

perseverinG In A PAnDEMIC

AdAptinG to unprecedented hastily moved to all online-only instruction. In
chAllenGes, Middle GeorGiA stAte MGA’s case, the University extended spring break
university finds wAys to live up to by one week to give faculty who were teach-
its vAlues And support students ing in person time to make the transition. Most
pursuinG their deGrees in An administrators and staff members began working
unsettlinG tiMe. from home and transitioning to remote com-
munication through Microsoft Teams and other
platforms.
B y March 2020, math major Kessiny Neal forced to cancel face-to-face campus activities.
Meanwhile, the Office of Student Life was
was really hitting her stride as a Middle
Georgia State University student leader. The NAIA, the athletics association to which
At the time she was a sophomore living in the MGA Knights belong, suspended seasons.
Harris Hall on the Cochran Campus. Neal was The University canceled in-person graduation
part of the Student Government Association, ceremonies, replaced by virtual events. Pandemic-
Campus Activities Board, and other related budget cuts hit MGA along with other
organizations. state agencies.
She had, of course, heard of COVID-19 as she As Dr. Christopher Blake, MGA’s president,
made plans to return home to Valdosta for spring said in his State of the University address in Janu-
break. But, along with perhaps most of her fellow ary 2021, “Our work and accomplishments as a
students, she had not yet grasped how much the University this past year have taken place within
burgeoning pandemic would impact her life. the context of the most challenging, frightening,
“Then we got the word that we were not to and unstable environments in decades.”
come back to campus after spring break, that
all of our classes would be online,” said Neal, a More thAn survivinG
19-year-old junior. “We were allowed to return Well over a year after it began in the U.S., the
later to get our stuff from our rooms, and it was pandemic was not over but MGA was surviving.
around then that I started to realize we were In some ways, especially now, the University is
dealing with something much bigger than I had even flourishing.
thought at first.” Along with other University System of
As it did for many aspects of people’s lives, Georgia institutions, MGA resumed many in-
the pandemic upended colleges and universities person classes and services in fall 2020, albeit with
across the nation. MGA was among a multitude significant adjustments that included manda-
of institutions that canceled in-person classes and tory face coverings and social distancing for all

ContinUed on PaGe 6

Math major Kessiny Neal was among hundreds of students who were living on MGa campuses in spring 2020 when the pandemic
shut down in-person classes. the disruption left her a bit shaken at first but neal returned in fall 2020 more determined than ever.
now a junior, she lives at University Pointe residence hall on the Macon Campus.

Spring 2021 MGA TODAY 5