June 25, 2020

Looking back on an unusual academic year at Stanford

The 2019-20 academic year was, by any measure, unusual, unexpected and unprecedented. The year started in September with the usual pomp and circumstance of Convocation and the exuberance of first-year move-in day. But very quickly, a worldwide pandemic made its way to the Bay Area. Everything changed with COVID-19, from the focus of research to the way classes were taught to where people lived and worked. Still, the campus community persevered through a most unusual academic year, as this slideshow suggests.

By Stanford News Service

The 2019-20 academic year started out as it has in years past, with the September Opening Convocation. Senior Will Paisley gave the student address, espousing the value of community.
Image credit: David Gonzales

President Marc Tessier-Lavigne shared in the exuberance that characterizes move-in day with first-year students and their families. Here, he celebrated with the staff at Norcliffe/Adelfa.
Image credit: David Gonzales

In September, the university announced that a 92,000-square-foot building at Porter Drive will be developed into a life sciences incubator and small lab suites.
Image credit: Vantage Point Photography Inc.

In October, the Anderson Collection at Stanford University celebrated its five-year anniversary and a gift of two major works of art. Jason Linetzky, director of the Anderson Collection, stands between Willem de Kooning’s Gansevoort Street on the left and Jackson Pollock’s Totem Lesson I on the right.
Image credit: Farrin Abbott

In October, “America in One Room” was a historic gathering organized under the supervision of Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy. The event brought 500 American voters together for a nonpartisan discussion about the major issues of the 2020 presidential election.
Image credit: Jason Liu

In November, seniors Cyrus Reza and Anat Peled were awarded Rhodes Scholarships for 2020.
Image credit: Courtesy Cyrus Reza and Bechtel International Center

Jane Stanford Way street sign — In November, the university dedicated Jane Stanford Way, completing the process of renaming campus landmarks bearing the surname of Father Junipero Serra. The ceremony took special note that the university is located on the ancestral homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone.
Image credit: Kate Chesley

Hospital move — In November, Stanford Health Care marked the opening of the new Stanford Hospital.
Image credit: Courtesy Stanford Medicine

Cardinal women's soccer team with campionship banner — In December, Cardinal women won the NCAA national soccer title.
Image credit: Courtesy Stanford Athletics

Men's water polo — In December, men’s water polo won the NCAA national championship.
Image credit: Courtesy Stanford Athletics

In January, Yakov “Yasha” Eliashberg was awarded the Wolf Prize in Mathematics.
Image credit: Yakov Eliashberg

In January, Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State, the Denning Professor in Global Business at Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, was named the Hoover’s next director.
Image credit: Steve Gladfelter

Coterminal student Ahmi Dhuna and undergraduate Nova Meurice organized the first satellite Iowa Democratic caucus at Stanford in January.
Image credit: Alex Kekauoha

The Stanford ChEM-H Building and the Stanford Neurosciences Building — In February, the university dedicated the Stanford ChEM-H Building and the Stanford Neurosciences Building. The new complex is designed to help foster deeper collaborations across traditional academic boundaries.
Image credit: Farrin Abbott

First-year medical students — In February, first-year medical students were among those celebrating John Arrillaga’s generous gift enhancing financial aid for medical school debt elimination.
Image credit: Steve Fisch

In February, co-directors of StanfordVotes Alex Chau and Chase Small helped coordinate a massive, campus-wide campaign to encourage students and other university affiliates to heed their civic duty during the presidential primary season.
Image credit: Courtesy Chase Small

Provost and parents — In late February, Provost Persis Drell talked with family members before her welcome to Family Weekend, the last major campus event held before the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

Circle of Death — In March, shelter-in-place orders designed to stem the spread of the virus causing COVID-19 emptied Stanford of undergraduates, faculty and staff, with the exception of those students for whom leaving would be a hardship. Without the usual whirl of bicycles and pedestrians, the main campus was eerily quiet.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

Zoom meeting — With everyone working from home, the COVID-19 pandemic turned Faculty Senate meetings into virtual events, and Zoom meetings became the norm.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

Ross Venook and his son sitting at a table with food — Instructors throughout campus quickly embraced remote teaching, including Ross Venook, a lecturer in bioengineering and the assistant director of engineering at Stanford Biodesign, often in the company of their children.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

Stanford researchers, including Alia Crum, assistant professor of psychology, pivoted their work to confront the interdisciplinary challenges posed by the pandemic. Crum is exploring the influence of mindsets in shaping behavior, health and well-being during the coronavirus pandemic.
Image credit: Courtesy Alia Crum

In their communities, students mobilized in the face of the pandemic, including James Kanoff, ’22, who helped create Farm Link, which specializes in delivering surplus food from farms to food banks in need.
Image credit: Owen Dubeck

Staff members kept the operations of the university going through home offices, including this one at the Ujamaa residence of Jan Marie Barker-Alexander, assistant vice provost for inclusion and community.
Image credit: Courtesy Jan Barker-Alexander

Medical researchers — Stanford Medicine researchers refocused their efforts to address the COVID-19 crisis, as did health care professionals at Stanford Health Care. Stanford Medicine innovations were widely adopted, from the development of novel ways of testing for COVID-19 to the modeling of the effects of social distancing. Philip Grant and Aruna Subramanian conducted a clinical trial of remdesivir at Stanford as part of a multicenter study.
Image credit: Courtesy Stanford Medicine

Russell Furr — Members of the campus community received frequent updates related to changes caused by COVID-19 from Russell Furr, associate vice provost for Environmental Health & Safety, who has been at the center of Stanford decision making keeping students, faculty and staff safe.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

Resident fellows and their families, including Cora and Wyatt Patton from Otero, sent messages to undergraduates at home to let them know how much they were missed.
Image credit: Courtesy the Patton family

In some ways, it was business as usual. In March, for instance, computer scientist and engineer Patrick “Pat” Hanrahan was named a co-recipient of the 2019 Turing Award.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

Kennedy giving commencement speech — But COVID-19 continued to cast a long shadow across life worldwide. In April, the campus community mourned the passing of Donald Kennedy, Stanford’s eighth president, who died as a result of complications from the virus.
Image credit: Chuck Painter

In April, Andrea Goldsmith became the first woman to win the Marconi Prize, the foremost honor in the field of information and communications research.
Image credit: Rod Searcey

In April, the Stanford community remotely celebrated the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, featuring scholars whose research is helping to lay the foundation for a greener future.

In May, Stanford physics Professor Sarah Church was appointed the Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, succeeding Harry Elam Jr., who begins his tenure as president of Occidental College July 1.
Image credit: Stacy H. Geiken Photography

In June, some 2,500 members of the campus community participated in a virtual vigil in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. His death awakened the nation to the continuing scourge of anti-Black racism. The Stanford event was organized by the Black Community Services Center, Office for Religious Life, Counseling and Psychological Services and Ujamaa House.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

The Oval became a place of reflection as the names and photographs of people victimized by anti-Black racism were placed in careful rows to create a powerful reminder of work to be done.
Image credit: Kate Chesley

In June, at the end of the academic year, the university held a virtual graduation celebration featuring Talisman a cappella singing Amazing Grace from their remote locations. The celebration didn’t replace the postponed Commencement. When public health and safety allows, an in-person Commencement will be held to honor 2020 graduates.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

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