Five Years Later, SJSU Remembers the COVID Lockdown
In 2020, SJSU students had to get creative with social distancing. Five years later, Spartans remember the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Jim Gensheimer.
On January 29, 2020, San José State issued the first campuswide health advisories sharing news of a coronavirus outbreak in China. Though news of COVID-19 traveled fast, the deadly virus moved faster, impacting healthcare, business operations, social gatherings, travel and life at SJSU. By March 9, 2020, San José State announced an official suspension of in-person classes, with the hope of returning within a few weeks.
Just two days later, with more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 deaths, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
At San José State, meanwhile, nearly the entire campus — faculty, staff, students, community and corporate partners — abruptly pivoted to life online. The majority of instruction was converted to online formats, however, there were a few rare exceptions: the Dance Department constructed a makeshift and socially-distanced “studio” in the 10th Street garage, and some Facilities, Development and Operations staff continued to work on site, sometimes on rotating schedules, to keep the buildings safe.
In recognition of the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown, we asked members of the SJSU community to share their recollections of the early days of the pandemic.
Sheryl Ehrman
Dean, Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering
I remember walking to the bus stop from campus and students were talking about the lockdown, with most not really believing it would happen. At first, it felt like how I imagined the evacuation after Katrina in New Orleans felt to students, faculty and staff at universities there: something extreme but temporary.
As an academic administrator in a middle management role, the lockdown occupied all of my time — translating directives and working with colleagues to develop plans where none existed.
I am an aerosol scientist by training, and my research community was aware from the beginning that COVID was likely transmitted by aerosols (which was eventually documented in scientific studies), and that social distancing and handwashing would not provide as much protection as we were being led to believe. Room ventilation and aerosol filtration were also important. I helped to communicate research findings in real time (or as close to real time as possible) to campus leaders and I did my own study of transmission probability in classrooms, working with SJSU students.
Karthika Sasikumar
Political science professor, chair of Academic Senate
My research involves interviewing top decision-makers in national security, so that came to a screeching halt. Teaching moved online, and so did my service to the university and profession.
Overall, the quantity of work increased and bled over into all aspects of my life. The line between private and public, work and leisure, sleep and wakefulness, reality and fantasy, became blurred. The lockdown did liberate us from many traditions and schedules that had been followed out of inertia.
On April 5, 2020 I posted on Facebook: “We go back from ‘Spring Break’ tomorrow. I’m revising my syllabus and having a moment of actual grief for the semester that could have been. I’m absolutely grateful for the continued good health of my family (and so far as I know) my colleagues and students. But I have to acknowledge that it…sucks.”
The SJSU Dance Department created a makeshift studio in the 10th St. parking garage where Spartans could safely rehearse outside. Photo by Robert C. Bain.
The freedom to work from home and to attend workshops and conferences in person has been ultimately transformative for many, especially for someone like me who had many household obligations. Yet while it made me more productive, it also created more demands on my time, encouraging me to split my time between competing demands and fragmenting my attention. For academic work, which requires a certain degree of isolation and contemplation, this has proven to be deadly. For my generation, even less prepared for the digital onslaught, it has been at best a mixed blessing.
One surprising observation was that many colleagues who were older and more resistant to technology ended up adapting to online teaching more easily than younger colleagues. It turned out that these older colleagues had built up some teaching “muscle,” and moreover they cared so intensely about serving their students, that they forced themselves to adapt to the Zoom delivery method.
Traci Ferdolage
Senior associate vice president, Facilities Development & Operations
[When the lockdown started] I had not actually started at SJSU yet. I had accepted the position of SAVP but did not start until May 2020. My first day on campus was surreal. People came in just because I was arriving (i.e., getting keys, showing me my office, getting me the photo for my TowerCard). Otherwise, virtually no one was present and I was in the process of starting as the new leader of the FD&O organization. An interesting time, to be sure. Tremendously interesting.
While no one was here, we still had to take care of a campus with more than seven million square feet of space; you cannot just turn everything off and leave; you had to ensure the environment would be safe when people were finally allowed back. When the governor lifted the lockdown we brought back our entire facilities team, but it was a challenging time due to social distancing. We made a great effort to keep everyone safe, but I’m proud to say we did not have an outbreak in FD&O until after the rest of the campus returned. We also took on a strong leadership role in keeping the rest of the campus safe by developing COVID protocols and working with folks all across campus to ensure safety.
COVID changed everything. It was a challenging time for everyone, personally, professionally and in all sorts of ways.
It was absolutely exhausting as there was no down time, but all of the work and effort we took on was worth it to keep our campus community as safe as possible during this time. I am proud to have been part of the SJSU community and on the front lines in the response effort. We are better at our jobs today because of COVID; more effective as we now have more tools and the ability to reach more people (i.e., public meetings are not just in person any more, etc.).
Julia Halprin Jackson
University writer and copy editor
Ironically, I had started working remotely the week before the lockdown, because I was six months pregnant and already suspicious about reports of the virus. 2020 was such a blur of confusion and constantly changing expectations.
Initially, our impression was that the lockdown would be short-term, and that within a few weeks or months we’d be back on campus. I remember feeling a lot of anxiety and concern, not only for our students, faculty and staff, but for my own welfare and that of the people I love. I remember being relieved when additional government funding allowed me to take a month off before giving birth to my son, but then the act of having a newborn amidst the insanity and terror of millions of people getting sick and dying was in itself really scary. I also felt heartbroken for all the students who had worked so hard for their degrees but wouldn’t be able to fully experience in-person celebrations, events, etc. We did our best to provide online “equivalents,” but the world felt so muted and quiet.
As a writer, I am lucky in that my work doesn’t necessarily require me to be face-to-face. I already did a number of interviews over the phone or Zoom, but I did miss getting to meet people in person and see the environments they worked in. I missed being in a community with people.
I am grateful that we have continued to maintain a hybrid schedule, because it allows me the flexibility to be in person with colleagues and stakeholders, and it gives me the freedom to have more in-depth interviews from the privacy of my own home. It also makes it easier for me to have off-site interviews, and I’ve done studio visits, toured museums with faculty members, etc. I know how hard we all worked to maintain a sense of community on campus, and to provide as many services to our students, faculty and staff as possible. I hope that those who attended SJSU during that time understand that, and I also recognize that it must have been hard for them too.
Charlie Faas
Vice president of administration and finance, chief financial officer
I have a few very important memories of the lockdown. SJSU hired Traci Ferdolage, senior associate vice president of Facilities Development and Operations, on May 1, 2020. She led many of our building, personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety decisions. I led a multi-university task force (SJSU, Stanford and Santa Clara University) to help deal with the Santa Clara County mandates. The year before, SJSU had installed “garage doors” on the Koret Training facility on South Campus. These enabled our D1 programs to compete. The doors provided an “open-air” gym that could comply with county policies.
Our SJSU Football season was delayed, as was most of college football. A small window opened for us to have a training camp and a “bubble” season, but Santa Clara County prohibited practices. We explored Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties for practice facilities, but our students would have had to return to their student housing afterwards and the county prohibited that. I came up with the idea to send our team to CSU Humboldt.
Spartan Football played a remarkable season in 2020 while adhering to COVID-19 guidelines. Photo by Ryan O’Rourke.
They were fully remote and had an unused football stadium, campus housing and dining. We filled up six buses with players and staff and moved our practices up to Humboldt. We went through an undefeated season, leading to our first Mountain West conference championship. Later, we had to use Las Vegas as our home field for the championship game.
We faced a $92M budget deficit that we only this year have finally recovered from.
We had to work with the federal government on Higher Education Emergency Relief Funding (HEERF) and accounting for all the many expenses (zoom licenses, housing closures, tuition losses, etc).
Beth Colbert, ’86 Radio-Television-Film, ’89 MS Mass Communications
Associate vice president, advancement and campaign operations
[When the lockdown started], I was actually on bereavement leave, because my father passed away on March 5, 2020. It felt surreal. Because my father died right before the shut-down, I had to handle all the aspects of settling his estate without being able to go directly to government offices such as the DMV and it was really difficult to get things done online at that time. I also had to clear out his house almost single-handedly because I couldn’t have gatherings so friends could help. It was isolating as well, so figuring out how to see people while maintaining safe distancing required some creativity.
Of course, the eventual reality was very different! I was fortunate to have colleagues who helped get my team set up for remote work. We all had to pivot very quickly to handling all our tasks online. I learned to use Zoom and other virtual meeting platforms; we adapted our process for gift agreements to make full use of DocuSign.
Magdalena Barrera
Vice provost for faculty success
I was in the midst of leading a search for a new department chair for African American Studies. I was panicking because the final candidate arrived in town on March 9 and his campus visit was planned for March 10. I sent an all caps email with the subject line “STILL HAPPENING TODAY” in an effort to round up a handful of faculty willing to play the role of “students” for the candidate’s teaching demo.
I was a department chair at the time and it was a scramble to communicate resources to transition everyone to remote teaching — for the first time, for most colleagues. I leaned heavily on more experienced chairs in my college, who graciously shared materials and strategies.
Carli Lowe
University archivist
I was at home having had a few days off of work. I was not sure how to feel. At the time I believed it would be a short change of pace. I was able to work in a more focused way that had a deeply positive impact on my research and writing, even though my mind was also distracted by the uncertainty of the situation.
I also had to get creative about how to teach and create exhibits with materials that I no longer had in-person access to. [I still use] zoom meetings and hybrid schedules for sure. I’m still hesitant to make physical contact when meeting new people for the first time, but I try to flow with whatever the other person is comfortable with. One skill I’ve learned is that just because something is scheduled does not mean it has to happen, especially if there are good reasons to cancel or reschedule. I’ve learned to be flexible with colleagues and students, understanding that there may be all sorts of things impacting our lives, and what I see at work is only a tiny glimpse of people’s responsibilities, passions and worries.
Judy Tsuji
Senior graphic designer
It hadn’t really hit me that [the lockdown] would be more than a few days. [The lockdown] had almost no impact on my work. I have created areas in my home that are made only for work. Prior to the lockdown, there were several shared spaces between myself and my family. Having individual workspaces, and work-only areas helped keep a healthy balance during lockdown and now that we are managing a hybrid schedule, the layout of our household still works well. SJSU created a safe environment during COVID-19. I truly felt like the environment was safe, and it was definitely a place that provided a wealth of information.
Shannon Campano, ’21 Business
Current administrative manager at Veggielution
[When the lockdown started] I was at home preparing for a midterm. I felt great because I was very stressed balancing a full-time job and being a full-time student. I’ve always been a good student; this allowed me to really focus on my schoolwork. Today, zoom meetings are a part of my everyday life, even though I work a relatively mostly in-person schedule. I do appreciate a hybrid schedule. The school’s communication during that time was very timely and as a student who didn’t know what to expect or do, they did a good job keeping us posted.
Amy Guerra-Smith, ’19 Hospitality, Tourism, Event Management
In 2020, she served as the senior manager of student success, leadership and assessment at Student Union, Inc.
Since we did events for students, we had to scramble to cancel so many events and orders. I want to give a shoutout to all the employees who were mandated to work on-campus during COVID-19! UPD personnel, custodial staff, Student Union personnel. Not all employees got to work from home during this time!
Vincent Del Casino, Jr.
Provost and senior vice president for academic affairs
Well, I was on the side of helping write the email that announced the closure to the campus. We had been working all weekend as a cabinet to not only craft a message, but develop a plan for the remaining part of the semester. I remember how anxious I felt about the fact that everyone —faculty, staff, and students — would have to switch to remote education. It was an ominous feeling. But, I also remembered thinking, “Well, this will be over in a few months, and the fall will be better.”
The lockdown, and the switch to a remote environment, meant that every single meeting I had was through a distributed environment. The biggest impact of the lockdown, though, was having to meet two to three times a week to discuss the impact of the lockdown and “what’s next.” I spent a lot of time crafting messages to keep the campus community informed about what was happening, what decisions we faced, and what it was going to mean for us to stay in an extended remote work environment.
The entire experience of COVID-19 was one filled with uncertainty. Each time we thought that we might be returning to more “normal” operations, we found ourselves having to maintain or re-establish remote work. I think the fall of ’24 was the first semester I really felt like the pandemic, as it was directly experienced, was behind us in a real way. That said, the impact of the pandemic lingers. People still get COVID. Some members of our community have long-COVID, and others have found that being immuno-compromised means that they have to live with masks and social distancing even, while others think of the pandemic as “over.”
Judi Garcia
Career counselor, Lucas College and Graduate School of Business
In fall 2020, select music classes offered socially distanced, outdoor sessions to enable Spartans to play together in person. Photo by Robert C. Bain.
At first we thought the lockdown would only be for a few days, maybe a week at most. It was so much greater and tragic than we imagined; none of us [could] return to campus, work or school. We had to isolate ourselves at home as people were rapidly being hospitalized and dying of Covid-19. We didn’t know how long the lockdown would last, and we had to figure out how to do our work remotely and cope with a worldwide pandemic we had never experienced before. My notes indicate that the Shelter in Place order started on March 16, and we canceled all Career Center events for the rest of March, figured out how to work differently and offer our services, and resumed in April.
It was an extremely challenging time for all of us, especially the isolation from each other, students, our families and friends. We learned how to use Zoom rather quickly for presentations and meetings and we did our best to support each other and our students remotely. I was able to resume career planning workshops and events, all virtual, by April 2020. It was a learning process for everyone, adjusting to a new reality that we could not comprehend.
After almost five years, I am very comfortable on Zoom, hybrid schedule, wear a mask whenever I feel the need, keep hand sanitizer on hand, and get vaccinated. All good practices and skills that remain important. We all needed coping mechanisms during Covid, and I shared mine with the team and students to deal with the mental stress and uncertainty. I spent so much more time outdoors walking and hiking, going to the ocean, gardening, watching the wildlife around me, than I ever had before the pandemic. I started practicing yoga at home with a great app that I still use. I listen to music every day, all genres. Supporting and engaging with our students and staff during Covid became so much more meaningful and rewarding as we were all experiencing the pandemic, and needed (and still need) to comfort and encourage each other.
Joyce Osland
Professor emerita, Lucas College and Graduate School of Business
I moved to Washington state in late December 2019 and was teaching the first half of my final grad classes online before retiring. However, when classes were suspended, I was on campus for the course’s big finale — a week-long Luneburg University-SJSU intercultural exchange program, complete with Silicon Valley guest speakers. I paired up the German students with SJSU students in advance so they were in email contact. I was in my office on campus when I got the word that in-person classes were suspended. The Germans were already in flight to San Jose.
[When the lockdown started,] I was very disappointed and a bit frantic because the German students had spent so much money on their travel and were expecting the program they’d signed up for. So many arrangements had gone into preparing for a full week of classes, guest speakers, field trips and activities. We’d been planning the event since mid fall. How could I pull off an intercultural exchange with no local students and no company visits or guest speakers?
After talking with the then-dean, who consulted others, he agreed that SJSU students could attend the workshop if they were willing to accept personal responsibility if they became ill. But attendance was not mandatory for anyone. The German students and 5-6 SJSU students decided they wanted to proceed and I began adapting the week’s activities to fit our changed circumstances. Each German student was also assigned to shadow a local HR professional on the day before the workshop began.
As companies began shutting down, most HR folks called to cancel this event. Instead I scrambled and called on other HR contacts to see if they could drop everything and come to campus and speak with the visiting German students as a group. This was not as powerful as a company visit would have been, but the German students were pleased to have individual speakers who educated them on how HR was practiced in their firms and what their careers had entailed.
They got all their questions answered, so that aspect of the program had a reasonable substitution. Five or six of the SJSU students opted to attend the entire week-long workshop in person with the Germans. I switched to online speakers and adjusted the experiential exercises for smaller numbers of students. Afterwards, I was able to work on my research projects at home and give conference presentations online, so the rest of my semester’s work was not disrupted.
After completing the exhausting student exchange week, I planned to use my final day in San Jose to finish clearing out my office. However, my husband, also a SJSU professor, got a 3:30 am text stating that no faculty over the age of 60 would be allowed on campus. We rustled our elderly bones out of bed, drove to campus, and hastily packed up decades of books, research, and teaching materials before the campus opened. Radio warnings that Oregon and Washington might be closing their borders to travelers and that toilet paper was about to run out made our trip northward even more exciting.
Yu Chen
Associate professor, School of Information Systems Technology at the Lucas College and Graduate School of Business
I was not sure how to continue learning and teaching with the newly developed student projects. We definitely lost in-person interaction, but the suffering experienced by the students and their communities motivated them to brainstorm and prototype how to use AI to address social issues during COVID-19. As we pivoted the class projects to using AI to address social issues related to COVID-19, we were supported by industry professionals in the US and Europe who judged the students’ projects. The suffering was universally felt, but that further ignited our students’ empathy and innovation. The story was covered by ABC7 News. The classroom experience was later published as an article in Communications of the Association for Information Systems called “Digital Innovation during COVID-19: Transforming Challenges to Opportunities.”
Catherine Voss Plaxton
Associate vice president for Health, Wellness and Student Services
When the lockdown started, I was plugged into a solid day of meetings, as usual. One of the meetings was with the University Leadership Council, where plans to suspend in-person classes were shared.
The situation felt very surreal. At that time, we had no sense of how long we would be away from campus and how the pandemic would conclude, so there was considerable uncertainty. At the same time, I felt a palpable resolve from the staff to ensure that students continued to receive the resources and services they needed. Everyone was ready to roll up their sleeves to honor SJSU’s mission.
In December 2020, I became associate vice president for Health, Wellness and Student Services. At that point, I began to oversee the Student Wellness Center’s COVID-19 student care strategy. I spent countless hours in Zoom meetings with colleagues in Academic Affairs, FD&O, Marketing and Communications and other key units to shape our plans. We were challenged to create several new protocols for vaccination compliance, testing and positive case mitigation, and campus signage and communications. We provided regular updates to the president’s cabinet on the COVID-19 caseloads and mitigation work. Perhaps the biggest challenge was translating evolving public health data in ways that didn’t unnecessarily stoke fear.
Initially, I had to think differently about how to keep my team focused on the most important work while using only virtual tools of communication. In the same context, we also had to continuously gather feedback from students on their concerns and needs. While my team had been expanding digital services for some time through events like virtual career fairs, the pandemic put that work on a fast track. It’s fair to say that now, almost every student service is available virtually and that many students have come to prefer virtual services.
I’ve realized that there is a theme of national crisis response in my career. In my early career, I worked in IT for a large financial services company. While there, I led the remediation of over 800 client applications on 10,000 desktops to avoid predicted Y2K computer systems malfunctions. Later in this role, I helped assess the impact of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center where we had an office. In the moment, I’ve been able to compartmentalize the difficulties of these experiences to stay focused on what I needed to do. It’s only when I reflect on experiences like this that I acknowledge how tough and nerve-wracking they were.
