By CHELSEA NICHOLSON & EMMA GALLAGHER

Last semester Sophie Green, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, was living in Kenefick Hall, making the trek to the west side of campus to attend classes. This spring she still attends her classes, but not through the cold and snow she faced at the end of the fall semester. Instead, she’s greeted by sun and palm trees outside her bedroom window as she joins her classes virtually from her home in San Diego.

Sophie Green while on campus in the Fall 2020 semester.

While she was excited to return to campus in August, return to independence and return to some sense of normalcy, in the spring Green joined a growing number of Creighton students who requested to learn remotely this academic year.

Creighton University received 150 requests from students in either the Heider College of Business or College of Arts and Sciences to learn remotely this academic year rather than attending classes on campus.

Green’s decision centered on her mental health and drawing herself out of isolation that affected her mentally, socially and academically during the first semester.

Holly Harris, associate dean for the natural sciences, said there are various reasons students submitted a remote learning request.

“There was a wide variety of reasons cited for these requests, ranging from the directly practical [travel restrictions, could not physically get to Omaha] to the much less specific [general preference for online learning],” Harris said.

The decision by many students to make the switch to remote learning follows last year’s spring semester that was quickly turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Aside from transitioning to virtual classes and communication, students and faculty faced an added challenge being separated from the campus community and interactions that shaped their Creighton experience.

It’s a challenge remote students still face.

One of those efforts was a series of videos the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, S.J., president of Creighton University, released last spring to share messages with the Creighton community.

The first of that series expressed a commitment to carry on that feel of community in the “unprecedented and historic moment,” even if in a virtual form. 

“As I ask for your patience, I pledge we will meet your needs in one way or another,” Hendrickson said. “It is important to me that Creighton University upholds its academic rigor and at the same time we must uphold our sense of community.” 

Sophie Green while home in California during the Spring 2021 semester.

So, what adjustments and efforts has Creighton made to continue meeting those needs of individual virtual learners nearly a year later? 

As she closes a month of her experience this semester, Green says she’s missing some of the components that make Creighton what it is to many students, but she’s optimistic as she finds some of those promises of staying connected, compassionate and creative in gestures by professors and her peers.  

“Connectedness is felt, compassion by professors and those in the dean’s office is felt and creativity is very much felt by professors,” she said. “Some have even found ways to help me better interact with my peers in discussions.”

With progression in vaccine distribution, Green is confident the world and the university will be in a different position come next fall, and she looks hopefully at that and the opportunity to safely return.

“I think by the time next semester rolls around, despite whatever atmosphere we will be living in, I would be ready to return – especially to the layout we have this semester,” Green said.