Seattle City Wire

After a year of at-home instruction and staying linked to classmates and colleagues through the likes of virtual hangout sessions, Seattle University is now planning for a return to campus life and in-person learning before year's end.

For sure, many of the scars born of the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent shutdown that followed remain for one of the first universities in the country to take on the change of remote learning.

As time has passed around campus, it's been a slow but steady period of adaption, with some viewing it as a time "Jesuit education was made for."

University President Stephen Sundborg reflected on the changes during a virtual address that happened in September.

"Despite it being an extraordinary year, we are in [a] remarkably positive spirit," Sundborg said during the September address, the university reported. "When we needed to be creative, we have been creative. When we needed to be greater colleagues and collaborative with one another, we found out the way to do it. When we needed to learn how to use the technology and a phenomenal way to deliver our education and engage with our students, we learned how to do it that way."

Among the innovations has been the creation of a student emergency needs fund designed to help students financially impacted by the virus and the launch of a student support website offering one-stop information.

Mechanical engineering professor and chair Teodora Rutar Shuman had tried to stay focus on the positive.

"Industry professionals throughout the country have given talks to our students in seminars that would not have been possible if we were not online," he said, the university reported.