In June, most historically Black colleges and universities were racing against the clock to come up with a plan for what the fall semester would look like or rolling out and then revising strategies to safely re-open. But at Atlanta’s Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), faculty, staff and most future physicians were already back training, teaching and learning — virtually and in person.
Online learning only, school officials said, was never the plan for medical education. To master their craft, those studying to become medical doctors, physician’s assistants and scientists at MSM need to touch their patients, listen to beating hearts, peer through a microscope and see those in the community who will depend on them for care. But during a pandemic, they said, a hybrid approach is needed. These are reasons that Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, MSM’s president and dean, offered for bringing her students back to campus.
“We have not made the choice to return to campus lightly,” Rice said, “but we must live out our unique mission to give our students the hands-on instruction they will need to care for the people we are committed to serve.” That kind of training, she added, will supplement her students’ virtual learning and will be delivered through small, in-person sessions.
For Stephen Green, a first-year medical student from Atlanta, adapting to virtual instruction — so far, a mixture of Zoom and video lectures — has been a stressor for him and his classmates, he said. But learning, like teaching in the COVID-19 era, is uncharted territory. Despite the struggles, Green said, it matters that “the faculty are definitely trying their best,” even as they navigate some of the same technical hurdles. “We’ve just got to push through.”
Alternating workdays
Campus leaders like Rice and her team have mostly been on their own to devise plans for a safe re-entry and teaching and learning at an uncertain time in higher education. For two weeks in May, the medical school did a test run of its re-opening plan for faculty and staff. It offered COVID-19 testing, staggered start times for work and alternated days to be on campus or work remotely, said Dr. Monique Guillory, MSM’s chief of staff and chief administrative officer. She is also helping to lead the medical school’s fall re-opening.
The colors green and blue are being used to tag faculty and staff and to guide a physically distant work week. “Those who are ‘blue’ work on campus on Mondays and Wednesdays. Those who are ‘green’ come on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And, on Fridays, they alternate,” said Guillory of the plan MSM devised to “help maintain low-density circulation when people are on campus.”
