Every other seat blocked off by sign or rope. Brightly colored tape on the ground directing foot traffic. Plexiglass barriers dividing the chairs at the dining hall. Muhlenberg College looked a lot different from a time when I was a student there in the distant year of 2018.
My team and I were there to film the debut episode of our new web docuseries, Adapt 2020. Arriving at Parents Plaza, a popular hangout area before the Dark Times®, I was struck by just how lifeless the campus felt. We filmed the interview over the summer, so I expected it to be sparse, but a Muhlenberg so empty I had never seen. Not a soul around, not a sound besides the swift July breeze. Eerie, to be sure, but I would soon learn that the college was far from lifeless.
Kristine Todaro, the school’s director of news and media relations, arrived to let us into the dining hall, our location for the shoot. She herself could easily have been our interview subject - her passion and depth of knowledge about Muhlenberg was immediately clear. As a Muhlenberg grad herself (class of ‘84), she couldn’t wait to tell a fellow alumnus all the amazing ways our alma mater had stepped up to the plate to take on COVID-19. But after not too long, our subject arrived on site.
President Kathleen Harring was officially named to the position in the middle of a pandemic (as far as I know, the only Muhlenberg president with that distinction!). But, perhaps more consequentially, Harring has another notable distinction - she is the first female president in the college’s history.
As her tenure in the office began after my time at the school, I had never met Kathy prior to our interview. I knew her as the Provost, who was also responsible for reading each students’ name as the walked to receive their diploma. Upon learning this, and that I graduated in 2018, Kathy quickly took the opportunity to make a joke - “wasn’t that the year I butchered one of the names?”
The first thing you notice about Kathy is her charisma. She exudes down-to-earth energy. You’d be remiss for forgetting that you’re not talking to a casual friend, but the president of one of the most prestigious private colleges in Pennsylvania.
Over the course of our interview, we discussed topics ranging from her students’ reactions to COVID-19 to the trailblazing nature of her position as President. But what I found perhaps the most fascinating was that despite the college’s bare appearance, there was a massive concerted effort by Muhlenberg’s leaders underway to ensure a safe and healthy return to campus for the freshman class. In addition to all the transformations to the campus that I could see for myself, this plan emphasized a cultural coming-together (not literally, of course) to care for one another. I’ll save the details for the interview, but so far, their approach has been successful - as of October 7th, Muhlenberg is COVID-free.