NSU Horizons Spring 2018

27 NSU HORIZONS The day before Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, NSU faculty members on the island met over lunch to begin making plans to save the semester. “We remembered our experience in 1998 when a hurricane hit Puerto Rico, and we were without power for a month. We knew this was going to be worse,” said Blanca I. Ortiz, Pharm.D., assistant dean at NSU’s College of Pharmacy in San Juan, where classes are usually broadcast live from NSU’s Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus. “We knew we would be out of sync with that campus,” Ortiz said. “We didn’t decide in advance who was going to teach what. While brain- storming, Frances Colón [Pharm.D.], suggested we could take over the courses locally.” The next day, September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in the southeast coastal town of Yabucoa as one of the strongest storms ever to strike Puerto Rico. When NSU’s campus in San Juan reopened in mid-October, “we had no choice but to compress the time,” said Enrique Nieves, Ph.D., assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy in Puerto Rico. “We had to teach and learn fast. We did this with live lectures and direct contact with the students. The college provided us with USB pen drives containing recorded lectures from the previous year to complement the live lectures. Elective courses were postponed, and we concentrated on the core courses.” At the Abraham S. Fischler College of Education, 423 of the 472 students enrolled in Puerto Rico are pursuing doctoral degrees and the rest are graduate students. With an average age of 45, many have jobs and families. Students and faculty members communicated with whatever technology they had available. Lectures and assignments were sent via text messages, messaging apps, and even the postal service. Students passed informa- tion among each other. While some students had access to the Internet at their jobs, others drove to specific locations on the island just to get cell phone service. “The biggest surprise to us—even confronting this disaster—was that none of the students wanted to quit,” said Jorge L. Blanco, Ed.D., assistant dean at the college. “Some students lived in rural, mountainous areas, and their homes were devastated. But they still wanted to move ahead. It was a ‘yes, we can’ attitude.” About 50 students were granted extensions to complete coursework. Face-to-face meetings between professors and students resumed this semester. To stay on track, the pharmacy college extended the semester through December 29. Some students rented homes together in San Juan so they could attend their classes. “Some days, we had perfect attend- ance,” Ortiz said. Ortiz commends the students’ perseverance. “Students have demonstrated tremendous courage, faith, and resilience,” she said. “We told them, we have to drive this boat to the end of the semester.” ¨ PUERTO RICO REBUILDS AFTER HURRICANE BY KATHLEEN KERNICKY