Over a week after he was tested for the novel coronavirus, Lawrence resident Justin Thomas learned his results were positive, but the process of getting that response was more challenging than he and his spouse ever imagined.
âWhat you need to worry about right now is hygiene, not because the coronavirus is a big threat here in Lawrence, but because ordinary colds and flus are,â said Sheree Willis, executive director of the KU Confucius Institute, at the âFact vs. Fictionâ event.
In less than a month, however, the world of KU students â like the rest of the world â took a dramatic turn that few expected but that all would feel. The year of COVID-19 began, changing life in ways that no one could have imagined but that nearly all continue to endure.
Thu, 12/10/2020
LAWRENCE The fall 2020 photojournalism class in the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications faced a challenge. The pandemic shut down nearly everything that typically would yield good photography: events, sports, social activities even just normal life.
So Eric Thomas’ JOUR 410 students decided to turn the challenge into opportunity: to document a semester in 2020, the year of the pandemic, the best they could. Now they are turning their project into a book, “The New Normal: A Semester at KU Amid the Coronavirus in 2020.” It s a good slice of what life was like this semester,” Thomas said. From mask-wearing students hanging out at Potter Lake to classrooms seats blocked off, an empty Jayhawk Boulevard, and of course, so many Zoom calls, the students’ photos illustrate a year that will forever stand out in the course of history.