The new dean of the Farmer School of Business reflects on lessons learned during the pandemic era and makes plans for the future.
In the summer of 2020, Jenny Darroch took on the dean’s role at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business in Oxford, Ohio. Through a series of articles that first appeared in
BizEd, she has shared her ongoing insights about her first year on the job. In a September article, she described the challenges of choosing priorities and setting a budget. In a December piece, she outlined how she identified the school’s strengths and began long-term strategic planning. In a March post, she examined what steps the school was taking to prepare students for the new normal of a post-pandemic era. Here, in the final installment of this series, she describes the accomplishments the school, the faculty, and the students have achieved during the COVID era, and she looks ahead to the next academic year.
May 27, 2021 at 2:36 PM
Shares0
(Image via Getty)
So, how you do feel these days? Ready to go back into the office? Prefer working from home for the foreseeable future? Some firms have already announced plans to reopen. Others have not finalized plans. It’s anyone’s guess how the return to work will roll out.
How are you feeling emotionally? If you are at all like so many of us, your answer would probably be “meh.” Not terrible, but not great. I think “meh” is the perfect word to describe that kind of nether world in which we find ourselves these days. “Blah” could also be another descriptive word right now.
Why did the federal guidance on mask-wearing change so quickly?
PolitiFact | A look at the data that led to confusing recommendations.
Â
Â
Pedestrians wearing masks out of concern for the coronavirus walk in the Harvard Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Mass., on Sunday. [ STEVEN SENNE | AP ]
To say that federal guidance on mask-wearing has been confusing would be an understatement.
Back in 2020, during the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., mask-wearing was discouraged. Then officials changed this guidance, citing clearer findings that the virus could be transmitted by people who showed no symptoms.
The advice to wear masks remained in force for about a year, even for people who were vaccinated. But in mid-May 2021 â amid widespread use of vaccines and falling case counts â federal health officials changed their guidance again.