The Forbeck quadruplets, from left, Pat, Ken, Nick and Helen, outside their family's home in Beloit after finishing their first semester of college. Each attended a different school but all ended up living together at home because of the pandemic.
“I’ve never had a normal college year so I don’t have anything to compare it to,” said Ken Forbeck, second from left. Three of his siblings, from left, Nick, Helen and Pat, lived at home this fall despite attending different schools.
Fave 5: Higher education reporter Kelly Meyerhofer shares her top picks of 2020
The first story I wrote this year was about a two-legged dog. 2020 only got more weird from there.
In early March, I sat in a room with about a hundred others listening to UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank brief professors on how the coronavirus might affect campus operations. During the Faculty Senate meeting, she encouraged instructors to consider what classes or meetings could be delivered online.
The annual Match Day tradition, where students stand on stage to learn where they will do their residencies, was scuttled because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Thousands of students moved into UW-Madison's dorms with a mixed set of emotions about the semester ahead — excitement, hope, doubt, fear — and I tried to capture it all in this story.
UW-Madison's return to the physical classroom stokes fear among some who say the safest option is to continue online and relief from others whose experience teaching or learning remotely was underwhelming.
The Forbeck quadruplets, from left, Pat, Ken, Nick and Helen, outside their family's home in Beloit after finishing their first semester of college. Each attended a different school but all ended up living together at home because of the pandemic.
“I’ve never had a normal college year so I don’t have anything to compare it to,” said Ken Forbeck, second from left. Three of his siblings, from left, Nick, Helen and Pat, lived at home this fall despite attending different schools.
