Toilet Paper, CR/NCR and Living Life Online

How’s everyone holding up? I don’t know about you but this has been the longest week of my life. My family has unfortunately joined in with the obsession of toilet paper, and surprisingly enough having 80 rolls of toilet paper doesn’t help my focus when it comes to school work. What I’ve come to realize is that I really struggle with working from home. I know my last blog was full of tips to help us transition to do just that, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to hit bumps in the road! With everything that’s going on and all the uncertainty around us, picking up my textbook and studying for hours on end really does not sound appealing. It’s exasperating to try and find the purpose of doing assignments when everything feels like we are in limbo. I struggle with online lectures and have a great deal of difficulty focusing. The only thing it does is make me appreciate in-class lectures that much more! I miss you Sid Smith, and Robarts, and every place in between. I wanted to share (truthfully) how I’m doing during this unpredictable time because I hope you guys know you’re not alone. Just because other people have beautiful at-home work spaces and bright rooms, doesn’t mean we all do. A lot of us went to the libraries to find that bright, conducive, motivating space we need for studying, and unfortunately home sometimes doesn’t do that for us. Now, just because the transition is hard doesn’t mean we can’t do it. Slowly, day by day, we need to push ourselves to adapt to our surroundings. I’ve been taking drawing breaks every time I get overwhelmed. Another thing to keep in mind that I’ve also been looking into are the new rules around CR/NCR and drop dates for courses. Obviously I’m not saying you should drop all your courses or CR/NCR them all, but it definitely is an option that is available to us, and given these extenuating circumstances, I think it’s a good idea to explore all avenues. Included in the link below are a bunch of FAQ’s on the Arts & Science website (www.artsci.utoronto.ca/covid19-artsci-student-faqs) which is updated regularly. I’ve included a few of the answers below. As of today:

• Students can select Credit/No Credit (CR/NCR) for any number of their S and Y courses from the Winter 2020 term. These courses will not contribute towards the 2.0 FCE CR/NCR limit.
• All courses (S or Y) completed in the Winter 2020 term with a final status of Credit (“CR”) can be used to satisfy program requirements. This provision will hold for these courses until students complete their degrees.
• The Winter 2020 deadline to drop an S or Y course has been extended to April 25, 2020. You can drop an S or Y course on ACORN until this extended deadline.

If you're not part of Arts & Science, you can find a university-wide site at www.utoronto.ca/message-from-the-university-regarding-the-coronavirus with faculty-specific links. These times are full of uncertainty, but we can still have control over our education. Contact your support systems (online) such as academic advisors, Accessibility Services, profs, TAs, and basically anyone and everyone who can support you. Everyone around you is experiencing the same uncertainty and we’re all here for each other... a safe 2 metres away.