Covid: 45,000 students take classes online

19 November 2020

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Politecnico has taken action to ensure the continuity of distance learning, to protect the health and well-being of students.

"Piazza Leonardo da Vinci these days offers a surreal spectacle. The silence and emptiness in the classrooms of the Politecnico di Milano are difficult to describe. A desolation capable of transforming a university animated by thousands of students, their voices and colors, into its exact opposite. A place apparently deserted, but tenacious. Able to withstand a health emergency first, then a social and economic one, which risks bringing Lombardy and the whole country to its knees.

The university has tried, right from the start, to react. To the absence of lectures in the classroom, we responded with distance learning. And not without effort. It is very important, and I take this opportunity to say it clearly, to make our students, their families and the media understand the extent of the effort we are making. Behind every connection there is not only, and it is not little, the competence and availability of the teachers (we count 1,400 at the Politecnico). There are people who every day guarantee a service that we believe to be of prime necessity. To all of them goes my thanks for the availability and professionalism with which they have been able to cope with this exceptional situation.

Let me also say that we have not allowed this forced isolation to undermine dialogue and solidarity within our community. We have set up a monitoring unit that every morning evaluates the situation step by step, makes decisions and at the end of the day reports publicly, through transparent communication. If you open our site, you will see them appear on the home page. Some students on social networks say, ironically, that, like in bedtime stories, every night they wait for the Rector's words to fall asleep. An irony that hides the desire to smile again in a complicated moment".

In this moment of emergency that involves the entire Italian School, it is clear the commitment of the Politecnico di Milano and all its offices in ensuring accessibility to remote services. As PoliPsi, the counseling and psychological and psychotherapeutic support service of the Politecnico di Milano continues to follow students and PhD students taken care of in recent months with skype sessions with a psychologist or psychotherapist. How the Career Service has been activated to allow students to participate in online orientation events with companies. And also the Sport Unit has made available to the entire politecnico community some training to be done at home to stay fit.

Taken from the article by Professor Donatella SciutoCovid-19, al Polimi 45.000 studenti ogni giorno si collegano all’ateneo” su AlleyOop.ilSole24ore