The tests for Grand Valley during the last year were largely unexpected. But through it all, Lakers responded as expected: pull together, examine options, find solutions, quickly learn from challenges, celebrate unforeseen triumphs and find the moments that remind us of what makes GVSU special.
Here is how Grand Valley persevered through one year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Grand Valley, March 16 was the day where the full impact of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's March 10 emergency order was visible. Faculty members started holding classes remotely that day, while students and their supporters worked quickly to move out of campus housing to comply with distancing rules.
As Lakers came to terms with an eerily quiet spring campus, a team of experts and leaders started in earnest the tireless work of shaping GVSU's response to the rapidly changing pandemic conditions.
See more about those initial days.
For some students, departing campus wasn't a viable option for a number of reasons. Watch them talk about their experiences.
From public safety to the mailroom, dining to the President's Office, critical workers kept the modified campus operations running smoothly.
The greetings may have been uttered through masks and carried out with elbow bumps, but Move-in still had the ingredients that make the time a special one on campus: Excitement, hope, lots of energy and poignant good-byes.
Watch Lakers making the best of the day.
A campus community known for its friendliness and emphasis on making connections may have been partially shrouded in masks, but there was a solution to communicating, said Roger Gilles, director of the Meijer Honors College and professor of writing: using eyes and eyebrows to smile and frown.
To reduce density, about 90 percent of fall classes were offered in a hybrid or online format. Faculty members adjusted their teaching methods, but not their dedication to students. And students set out to find their way in the new campus atmosphere.
Read more about the first-week experience.
Grand Valley established a robust COVID-19 testing program to identify those who needed help and to spot possible areas of concern to monitor. Lakers were asked to fill out daily online self-assessments.
And the Virus Action Team set up systems to both communicate widely and answer individual questions. A partnership with Spectrum Health allowed creation of a hotline to support those who were in isolation or quarantine.
Cardboard cutouts replaced spectators at basketball games, where players sat in socially distanced chairs. Mike Williams, GVSU head women's basketball coach, said while players missed crowd noise, once the game starts, "You tend to forget some of that and you become engrossed in the game and just play basketball."
At the one-year mark of the pandemic, with nearly an entire GVSU academic year carried out in its shadow, the renewal of spring seemed even more potent in 2021. The success of vaccinations fueled plans for full Fall 2021 operations.
And Lakers started to feel the possibilities of the campus environment we all love.
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