Winter term begins for Oregon colleges and universities

Winter term 2021 has arrived for many Oregon colleges and universities.

Deploy all of our supply each week.

Today marked the first day of winter term for many oregon colleges and universities -- but what will that actually look like?

Kezi 9 news reporter kennedy dendy spoke to students, faculty and staff in our area to find out.

It's a new year*and a new term.

But doors aren't open just yet.

Kirby: "there is no replacement for in person education."

For the u of o, all classes are conducted online this week.

Kirby brown is an associate professor.

He chose to teach remotely for the entire term.

Kirby:"i have hope that we're going to continue to make the experience as good as it possibly can be."

Lane community college also kicked off winter term monday.

90 percent of instruction is offered remotely with only 10 percent in person -- for labs and those in the health, career and technical fields.

5 bridge: without a doubt, learning like this can be a greater challenge than many expected -- especially for those who thrive off of in-person teaching.

Austin: "even though i would say i am a lot more isolated physically speaking.

I've actually gained a lot of new connections to people in my class that i never knew."

Austin goergen is junior at o-s-u -- where 95 percent of classes at their corvallis campus are offered online for winter term.

He says he misses learning from the classroom.

Austin: "i didn't realize how important having that kind of break in your routine of just driving to campus and be on campus for learning."

Covid-19 testing at o-s-u is conducted weekly.

The school will be making decisions in february about what spring term will look like.

Plus the u of o requires students living on campus to participate in its internal coronavirus testing program.

Reporting in eugene kennedy