Chitchatting in the age of Zoom

I value, and miss, nondirected conversations. A lot of good ideas can come from them. But how do you replicate them in a videoconference?

It was 9:27 a.m., three minutes until the Monitor-wide, daily Zoom meeting. I’d been trying to log in early to these, hoping to promote the kind of nondirected conversation (read: “chitchat”) that can be so valuable and yet is so lacking in this work-from-home era.

The first few people to come online for a teleconference feel free to greet and talk with one another. As more people join, the conversation slows. By the time the 12th or 13th person arrives, talk ceases. Instead we stare into one another’s eyes from our bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms until the meeting host arrives.

I value, and miss, nondirected conversations. A lot of good ideas can come from them. They strengthen friendships and build teams. As editor of the Monitor Weekly, I chose to hand-deliver copies of the magazine to my colleagues in the newsroom when the box of issues arrived. Sometimes I’d be placing a magazine on an empty desk. But sometimes it was an occasion to compliment writers on their stories, talk with people with whom I didn’t usually interact, or even stop and – if it seemed OK to interrupt – ask how it was going, what they were up to. Sometimes I’d float an idea: “What if we used the inside front and back covers of the Weekly to create a poster?” “What do you think about maybe bringing back the  Op-Ed section?” “What if we did an entire issue as a comic book?” (Don’t worry: I realized the folly of that one as soon as I heard myself say it out loud.) Communication is so deliberate now.

My eldest son works in business development for a global entrepreneur. He has a remote team – made even more so now, with no one in his office. I asked him how he handles chitchat.

My son noted that he has more excuses to tack casual conversations onto regular one-on-one check-in calls. But when I pressed him he had a suggestion: You might try this team-building exercise I used when I led those long bike-camping trips, he said.

I logged into the Monitor’s daily Zoom meeting and waited. Three others joined me: an intern, a photographer, and a graphic designer. We started chatting. It was taking a while for others to show up. That’s because, one of us discovered, the meeting had been canceled. I suddenly had an idea. Before we go, I said, may I try something? “Rose, thorn, bud” is my son’s bike-trip exercise: Tell something you’re happy about (rose), something that bothers you (thorn), and something you’re looking forward to (bud).

After some cajoling on my part, we began. To all our surprise, three of us had the same thorn and rose: The thorn was the burden of living with the pandemic and all its uncertainty, restrictions, and frustration. And the rose? Being at home with spouses, children, parents. Two sides of the COVID-19 crisis loomed equally large in our minds. It was unexpected, reassuring, unifying.

And it’s why I’ve strengthened my resolve to show up at Zoom meetings just a little early. Even if it turns out there isn’t one.

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Professors Speak Out About College Reopenings Amid Coronavirus

Universities and colleges are beginning to reopen for some in-person classes around the U.S., despite fears and concerns from students, professors, and staff about the risks of doing so.

The University of Florida in Gainesville, one of the largest single-site college campuses in the U.S. with around 54,000 enrolled students, is set to begin in-person classes August 31.

“There’s no requirement to be tested for students. They take their temperature, and fill out a questionnaire which asks if they’ve been exposed, which is purely voluntary,” said Steve Kirn, a retired business professor and current acting chair of the United Faculty of Florida-UF, which has called on colleges and universities in Florida to transition to remote learning for the fall.

Kirn also noted that the school’s coronavirus tracking system doesn’t date reported cases, but only the totals since the pandemic began.

“We’re very concerned with the high infection rates, limited classroom capacity, and making sure everyone is as safe as possible. This is why we’ve advocated for 100 percent remote learning. We realize we’re not likely to get that, but we’re going to push as hard as we can because we feel people’s lives are at stake,” said Paul Ortiz, UFF-UF president and professor of history at the University of Florida. “We have over 50,000 students in a town just over 100,000 people. I get calls and emails every day from people in surrounding neighborhoods worried about the reopening and the impact it will have on the community.”

More from Michael Sainato

A UF spokesperson said in an email that the school has instituted police party patrols to prevent large gatherings, issued a mask mandate for students and faculty, and is conducting contact tracing and testing on campus. Students may face sanctions or disciplinary measures for noncompliance.

In July 2020, the Trump administration pressured universities and colleges to reopen in the fall. Since reopenings began this month, several schools have already shut down or changed their plans in response to outbreaks.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shut down campus in response to outbreaks after its first week of reopening. Notre Dame suspended in-person classes for two weeks after initially reopening. Michigan State reversed course to full online learning after reports of outbreaks at other universities. After a rise in cases on campus, Butler University ordered students to shelter in place and conduct classes online for two weeks.

Other outbreaks have been reported at Georgia Tech, the University of Alabama, University of Dayton, University of Miami, Radford University, North Carolina State University, and several other campuses. Critics have charged that some campuses pushed to reopen to ensure they would get student tuition for the fall semester. Students have subsequently demanded tuition cuts after classes went online.

As other universities and colleges begin to reopen campuses in the coming weeks, professors have been protesting their schools’ reopening plans, frustrated with the lack of safety protections and support for online teaching.

“Onondaga County has a 0.6 percent infection rate. We’ve been very lucky and the question is what’s this moving petri dish of students going to do. That’s a real concern to us,” said Deborah Pellow, an anthropology professor at Syracuse University. “If only they bothered to ask us what we thought and if only, frankly, more energy had been put into organizing virtual classes for the faculty.

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AZ: Student group slammed for raising money for Kenosha shooter

A Republican student group at Arizona State University is receiving backlash for donating money to the 17-year-old gunman who fatally shot two protesters in Wisconsin.

College Republicans United announced this week that half of any funds they raise during the semester will go toward paying for the legal defense of Kyle Rittenhouse.

“He does not deserve to have his entire life destroyed because of the actions of violent anarchists during a lawless riot,” the group said in a tweet.

In a statement Saturday night, the ASU College Republicans denounced College Republicans United “radical, far-right extremist group.”

Authorities in Kenosha, Wisconsin, say Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and severely wounded a third with an AR-15 rifle Tuesday. The victims were part of anti-racism demonstrations occurring in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake, who is Black, by a white police officer.

Blake, who was shot seven times, remains hospitalized.

Rittenhouse told police he was trying to protect businesses and people and acted in self-defense. At a hearing Friday, a judge postponed a decision on whether Rittenhouse, who is in custody in Illinois, should be returned to Wisconsin to face charges, including first-degree intentional homicide.

ASU officials said in a statement the school cannot prohibit a group from fundraising. But the school does not endorse the fundraiser.

The group is not the only one raising money for Rittenhouse. A self-described Christian fundraising site, GiveSendGo, says it is too

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LA County Public Health Director Said the Quiet Part Out Loud About Reopening Schools

We know Democrats have weaponized the coronavirus against President Trump, but sacrificing the education and development of school children to hurt the president's re-election chances -- that's just sick. If Democrats were resorting to such depravity to oust their political foe, surely the Democrats know they could never admit to stooping so low. Well, it looks like Los Angeles County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer didn't get the memo to keep her mouth shut.

KFI News reporter Steve Gregory obtained a recording of Dr. Ferrer on a conference call with local health officials and school administrators. During the call, Dr. Ferrer says K-12 schools will not be allowed to reopen until after the election takes place. Sure, childhood development is important and all but, you know, orange man bad.

"So we don't realistically anticipate we will be moving to tier 2 or to reopening K-12 schools at least until after the election, after, you know, in early November," Dr. Ferrer said. "When we just look at the timing of everything it seems to us the more realistic approach to this would be to think that we're going to be where we are now until we get, until after we are done with the election."

Every time California schools appeared on the path of reopening, Gov. Gavin Newsom overhauled the rulebook. Most recently, the governor has announced a coloring system by which each county is assigned a color representing various rules and restrictions placed on schools, businesses, and people's freedoms. According to Gavin's new system, schools are eligible for reopening fully for in-person instruction once the county has been in the color red, or tier 2, for 14 days.

But instead of reassuring parents that schools will reopen as quickly as they safely can, the goalpost for Dr. Ferrer is to use her position to disrupt everyone's life as much as possible until everyone is done voting. Not before the election will Dr. Ferrer even consider allowing things to return to normal.

It's not like we needed a confession from the Democrats to know what they've been up to. It's apparent to everyone with eyes. The Democrats want "life under Trump" to be as miserable as possible until election day is over. This is why Joe Biden, in early August, called for universal mask-wearing for three months. September, October, November -- oh, right up to the election!

When it comes to the lockdowns, even Biden knows not to say the quiet part out loud.

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