Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1363384
22 | W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 The pivot THUS BEGAN A NEW AND UNCHARTED CHAPTER in College of Medicine history. "With more than 1,300 medical students removed from classrooms and clinical settings across four campuses, the next question was, 'How do we educate them?'" says Curry. To answer that question, Rosenblatt and the regional deans from all four campuses convened via Zoom every morning, seven days a week, to collectively reimagine medical education for a world in the grip of a global pandemic. "During those first weeks, things were moving very quickly—and it felt like there were a lot of fires to put out," says Durst, who joined the dean's Zoom briefings every Wednesday to get updates and voice student concerns. Match Day on March 20 was the first casualty of the lockdown. To avoid what would come to be known as a "superspreader" event, the College decided to replace in-person Match Day celebrations across its campuses with emailed match results and virtual festivities. "This is clearly a Match Day unlike any other," Rosenblatt reflected in a video address to M4 students. "I wish I could be with you today to celebrate Match Day in person, but of course the COVID-19 pandemic makes that impossible. … I don't want this darkness around COVID-19 to overshadow the momentous nature of your Match Day. This is a truly exciting moment that defines the beginning of the most important part of your professional career—the residency training that will transform you into the best, most capable, caring and humanistic doctors around." As Rosenblatt delivered his Match Day address, the exacting process of migrating four years of medical school curriculum to an online format was already well underway. "This was when the heroic actions of our administrators and faculty really came into play," notes Curry. "We began going virtual on less than a week's notice and got better at it as time went on, with continual tweaking and feedback. Our faculty did a marvelous job of translating the curriculum for our first- and second-year students into a fully online experience. The clerkship Match Day 2020 The University Medical Student Council hosted monthly all-COM town halls to talk about schoolwide policy issues. TO P : Senior Associate Dean for Education Raymond Curry, UMSC President Matthew Durst, Peoria Interim Regional Dean Meenakshy Aiyer; M I D D L E : Executive Dean Mark Rosenblatt, Associate Dean for Administration Todd Van Neck, Senior Associate Dean of Students Kathleen Kashima; B OT TO M : Regional Dean Rockford Alex Stagnaro-Green, Urbana Acting Regional Dean Janet Jokela. 24 | Winter 2021