Before and after the Pandemic

Seating at the Memorial Union Terrace went from 1,400 chairs in 2019 to 400 in 2020. Jeff Miller

The 2019–20 and 2020–21 academic years at UW–Madison couldn’t have looked more different. In spring 2020, a predominantly offline university went online practically overnight. This past year, students returned to the residence halls, and the university offered a combination of in-person and remote courses. But some campus staples, such as in-person tours and Rathskeller gatherings, remained a thing of the pre-pandemic past. The result, at times, was an unrecognizable campus.

For all the upheaval, what didn’t change was the students’ dedication to learning and to the university. In the middle of a pandemic, the UW enrolled and taught a record number of students and received a record number of freshman applications for the next year.

Here’s a sample of what changed during the pandemic — and, against all odds, what remained largely the same.

Published in the Summer 2021 issue