Weekly Briefing: Where Do We Go From Here?

The coronavirus changed higher education. How do you quantify those changes? ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( [logo] [Read this newsletter on the web](. What does higher ed look like after the lockdown? [image] Harry Haysom for The Chronicle Don't look now, but around the corner is the Covid-19 lockdown anniversary — sometime in March, depending on where you live and when your state shut down. The coronavirus changed higher education. It's still reshaping the industry, and there will probably be more shifts to come. How do you quantify those changes? How do you take stock of a year punctuated by an endless stream of Zoom links and misremembered passwords? And what does this year of lockdowns, unplanned distance learning, and social unrest mean for the future? [This year our annual]( aims to answer those questions. The report tackles, among other things, how the pandemic has accelerated surveillance of students, how hits to revenue will shape colleges in the future, and how likely higher education is to exhibit real racial progress. To settle on the five stories in the report, the deputy managing editor Jennifer Ruark solicited ideas from readers and held several virtual brainstorming sessions with reporters and other editors, talking about what they were hearing from sources and what patterns they were seeing. Every article in the report illustrates the big picture with case studies of individual colleges. Take [the]( University of New York’s Oneonta campus]( where town and gown got off to a rough start last March. The conflicts and the events that followed showed just how important, and fragile, the relationships between college campuses and their surrounding towns have become. In the Trends Report, and all year long, we look for stories like that: Tales that stand alone, but reveal something more. [Read the full report here](. Miss you. Last weekend I asked readers to tell me about the casual encounters or acquaintances that they miss now that the coronavirus has sent most of us indoors for a whole year. Here are two: Melba Veguilla Sánchez is a lifeguard at the Universidad de Sagrado Corazón, in Puerto Rico. She misses Mr. Berrios, a blind swimmer who before the pandemic came to the pool about three times a day. Sometimes he was too chatty between swimming laps. He always popped up to ask how long he had been swimming, Sánchez writes. She was proud of his drive. Other times he stopped by with his guide dog to socialize. He even asked her to read a letter out loud to him. Sánchez writes that she wonders how Mr. Berrios is doing and who is helping him. "I want this to end, I want to talk to my swimmer again, I want my pool back to being crowded," she writes. "I miss talking and the noise of people. But I miss, the most, the blind swimmer who can't stop talking. I want to give him the time. I miss Mr. Berrios." Emily Fogel Conway, an academic-advising official for undergraduates at Pennsylvania State University, didn't know their names. They didn't chat about serious topics, but she misses her fellow bus riders during her commute. "I still think about how it was possible to develop small intimacies with virtual strangers," she writes, "in a space where the concept of physical distancing would have been impracticable." What are you sick of? Nearly a year ago, the Covid-19 pandemic upended our lives. To report on how this past year has changed us and will continue to define our lives and our work, we want to know: How are you feeling? What are you sick of? What do you miss? Help us document the year by [filling out this Google Form]( about your pandemic experience. Paid for and Created by Fluidigm [COVID-19 testing solution]( Collaborating to develop a new COVID-19 test, Fluidigm’s microfluids technology allows for a noninvasive saliva test, addressing the pressing need for increased testing and for a significant improvement in testing accessibility. ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( Subscribe to The Chronicle The Chronicle’s award-winning journalism challenges conventional wisdom, holds academic leaders accountable, and empowers you to do your job better — and it’s your support that makes our work possible. [Subscribe Today]( Lagniappe. - Learn. A natural disaster is pummeling Texas in slow motion. [Here's how you can help](. (PBS) - Read. In 1990 the reporter Ellen McGarrahan watched Jesse Tafero die in an electric chair. [Her life changed forever](. (CrimeReads) - Listen. Hearing the jazz percussionist and composer Kahil El'Zabar's latest album, [America the Beautiful]( feels like revisiting a home from your childhood. It smells and looks familiar, but around every corner, every song, there's something new and enchanting. (Spotify) - Watch. If your dreams are filled with disaster scenarios, masks, or animals, you're not the only one. [Here's a video]( of illustrated dreams during Covid-19. (YouTube) Cheers, —Fernanda This Week‘s Top Reads THE PANDEMIC [Why Would Iowa Want to Kill Tenure?]( By Eric Kelderman [image] Republicans in the state legislature are pushing a bill to eliminate tenure, threatening the reputation of Iowa’s public universities. ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( THE REVIEW [What a Public-Information Act Request Revealed About My College President]( By L.D. Burnett [image] It showed a disturbing pattern of mismanagement and deceit. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS [More International Grad Students Wanted to Come to the U.S., but Couldn’t]( By Karin Fischer [image] New graduate numbers fell by almost 40 percent in the fall of 2020, according to a new survey by the Council of Graduate Schools. Job Announcement Endowed professorships for Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions at Arizona State University.[Visit jobs.chronicle.com]( for more details. Paid for and Created by Humboldt-Universität [Academe in the Anthropocene]( A showcase for Humboldt’s most exciting scholarly research, the Humboldt Lab will spark enquiry and debate for scholars and the public alike, contributing discussions around research, teaching, and knowledge exchange with society. Burned Out and Overburdened: How to Support the Faculty Professors are anxious and burned out. They’ve been pivoting. They’ve been juggling work and child care. They’ve been worried — about Covid-19, the economy, social justice, the nation’s divisive political climate. This collection includes many of The Chronicle’s essential reads on how colleges can support their faculty members — and how professors can help themselves — during these stressful times. 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