By Kathleen Malone
The NDMU campus has been closed for almost a month. Many students are attending online classes via Zoom. However, NDMU is not alone in the shift to online-only interactions. Faculty and staff are having meetings, lunch hours, and even casual chats on Zoom.
The department of Institutional Advancement has been meeting via Zoom since the campus had shut down March 11.
“I am glad I can still meet with my department on Zoom, but I really miss seeing them all in person,” said Anne Malone, who works in the department. “I didn’t realize how much time I spent in a day surrounded by these people.”
Another member of the IA department, Carroll Galvin a new father, is also working from home, noticing both the challenges and opportunities. Since he is no longer commuting to work every day he is able to spend more time with his family. Being a new father, he doesn’t have to worry about childcare.
Even though the department is communicating on Zoom, Galvin finds that it is challenging to work from home because his team is highly collaborative. “The team is challenged by not physically being with each other each day. But, we are making frequent use of Zoom and even scheduled a virtual lunch hour to keep up the camaraderie,” he said.
Everyone in the department is dealing with quarantine differently. Despite the lack of face-to-face contact, they still manage to keep up morale. Chelsea Gell, another member of the department seemed to sum up the mutual feelings of her colleagues when she said, “the unknown is certainly stressful, so just take one day at a time and remain hopeful.”
Photo By Kathleen Malone
NDMU Student Media 
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