While waiting for the face-to-face recovery, let's adapt Article pagination

“As Rector, I can also assure you that the Direction is doing everything to ensure the continuity of the institution and the continuation of teaching. (…) Measures have been put in place for distance learning. The departments and faculties are working hard to cover all needs. It will take a little longer, thank you in advance for your patience! »

This impression of the temporary left by the Rector of the University of Lausanne Nouria Hernandez at the start of the Coronavirus epidemic, in this extract from her message of March 17, 2020, seems to have become definitive, although definitive-provisional. hope. It has therefore already been almost a year since distance learning and teleworking (for university employees) have become the rule. This extraordinary situation has real consequences for everyone, but it must be a question today, as in 2020, of knowing how to make the most of this experience.

It's true, it's hard...

The difficulty in following classes, confined to home or almost, and studying despite everything, is palpable. Most students, if not all, agree with the fact that the physical effort involved in waking up, preparing and traveling to campus (lectures, auditoriums and/or classrooms, practical work, laboratories) is more favorable to a better concentration during the courses given and therefore to a better assimilation of these. Without concealing the fact that it is easier to exchange both with the teachers at the end of a course or during breaks, and between students in the corridors of the buildings or on the paths and peaceful green spaces of the campus. This unanimity is also present among the teachers: having to teach without having the students in front of you and ensuring (even sometimes only by their facial expressions) that they understand the lesson or not and, if necessary, going back or insisting on one element more than another, is a reality that none of them prefers. Beyond what is generally known, the disadvantages of this Covid-19 health crisis can be observed even in the field of psychology. For many students, their mental health is challenged by remote workload, worry, social isolation, mounting financial hardship. The increase in requests for psychological support compared to previous years attests to this. In this case, the child psychiatry services of the CHUV in Lausanne report a 60% increase in hospitalizations between June and September 2020. Dr. Arnaud Pictet, psychologist at the health center at the University of Geneva explains that students are particularly at risk of mental health problems because they “are in a transition phase with a lot of challenges and issues in their academic, social and relational life. They must call on significant resources while having to be autonomous and having to manage the stress of studies, having to build a network of friends and possibly have a first serious romantic relationship and build a kind of professional future with all the uncertainty that characterizes the world today".

It therefore seems clear that social life, and hence life in general, has taken a serious blow.

why did they teach us cursive in school

— blonde don Sat Jul 24 21:35:31 +0000 2021

… but, against bad luck, let's have a good heart.

“Against adversity, the strong man proves himself. This assertion by the French poet Maurice Scève reminds us how much we must rise to this crisis. Besides, let's go further by not only being up to it, but by getting the best out of the situation. It's an open secret to say that a social life already existed on social networks. Only let's face it: she was, for the most part, primarily focused on entertainment. What if we took the opportunity to make more beneficial use of it: combine business with pleasure or simply switch from business to business? Everyone will go with their sensitivity. Clearly, the exchanges that were once possible between classmates and/or teachers on a subject, exercise or aspect of the course that is poorly and/or little understood, can continue on social media. The ease of communication today is undeniable: let's take advantage of new technologies, put them at our service. The conferences organized, albeit differently, this time in a remote format, are not to be neglected. Participating in it is strongly recommended, especially since it is possible to expand your LinkedIn network (for example) by adding the different speakers each time and to exchange with them to learn from their professional experience. Since the beginning of this spring semester, all the different associations on our campus such as ours (HEConomist) have opened their doors to new members to the rhythm of massive virtual invitations. They are equally suitable places for meeting and sharing, as well as for developing various “skills” which we will always use to face the great challenge of the future that awaits us.

Remember that, as those who are struggling under the weight of the burden are invited to lay it down with Christ and find rest, those who are in need are welcome in the Faculties and services of the Unil for any problem at the same time. psychological, health, financial, or other. Information about the aid available can be found in the “Study” section of the Unil website. It is also possible to turn to the 24-hour Help Line at 147; the helpline for “La main tendée” at 143; the Central Physicians on 0848 133 133; or the emergency number at 144.

Note that we can objectively think that we are moving towards a gradual return to normality or at least an adapted normality. It is not the hope conveyed by our Rector in her spring return message on February 22nd, which will contradict us: "We are ready as soon as we can, to return to a mode of operation that I would describe as more worthy of a university. Because if it is in the very nature of the sciences to continually question itself and therefore in the nature of an institution like the Unil, which produces and teaches the sciences, to adapt again and again, the sciences present also certain constants and one of these constants is that knowledge is created, transmitted and learned through exchanges between members of the academic community. Exchanges in auditoriums and classrooms, labs, during congresses, mobility semesters, or even random encounters on campus or in the cafeteria. The exchanges by interposed screens allow us to hold our ground, to continue to provide teaching as well as our services to the university community and to society. And for the moment, we still have to resolve it. But it is not said today that the semester will take place entirely remotely. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be recklessly optimistic. As a biologist, I know what surprises a virus and its mutations can hold for us. How the epidemic situation evolves over the next two or three weeks will be decisive, and it is crucial that we all continue to be very, very careful. But my message is that if the virus and the authorities allow us, we are ready to resume teaching in hybrid mode and to do everything to allow you, dear students, dear students, to reconnect with university life in all its wealth of encounters and exchanges. »

The academic community of the Unil can, with a broad smile, proudly boast of having a Rector who has a crystal ball and who is listened to by the federal authorities. This is the place to recall that among the proposals made by the Federal Council last Friday, to be consulted with the cantons for decision-making on March 19 with a view to a possible relaxation from March 22, broadly the authorization of face-to-face teaching again in Universities, High Schools and continuing education with a maximum of 15 people per class.

Only, while waiting for the effectiveness of this new phase of easing, let us not lose sight of the fact that this crisis also calls us, more than ever, to a significant degree of responsibility: “Distance, distance; masks, masks; hand hygiene, hand hygiene” to borrow Alain Berset's instance formula.

Vivien Bekam Kengne