"The Newman Idea gives me food for my soul. The readings and class discussions give me direction and reinforce my desire to know and love God. The online platform for class has shown me how God can work through any challenge, and how the growth and formation of my mind goes beyond my formal education." 

Dear friend, Cloister or quarantine? Throughout this craziness I've been trying day-by-day to see this as a time of cloister to be spent strengthening bonds with my wife and children and turning to God in prayer. But, there are certainly days when I feel stuck against my will - stuck at home, stuck trying to figure out what God wants of The Newman Idea, etc.

Dear friend, Indeed, the Lord heaped blessings on me and mine in this most unusual time, which seems fitting for the God we serve, as He is want to heap blessings upon us in the most unusual of ways. And so it came to pass that during Holy Week, with the blessing of an unusual amount of time together, my family watched the Passion accounts of all 4 “Gospels According to Netflix” (i.e. the new movies that do each Gospel, narrated line by line). And my formerly Southern Baptist heart was strangely warm

I hope you had a blessed Easter, and Christ has etched himself into your heart, the depth of your being (Proverbs 4:23). I wanted to share with you something personal . I know that now many of you are sheltered in place – if you are like me, it is surreal as spring is blooming all around us, beckoning us to get out congregate, and yet we are distant – watchful of the person close to us, washing our hands, worried if “I might be next”.

"What Newman identifies as necessary to the essence and integrity of a university may inform, directly when possible and indirectly in other cases, an online program that is a true expression of liberal education."

With classes moved online and dorm rooms emptied out, the COVID-19 pandemic has left Catholic colleges across the country strapped for cash. And now, with no clear end in sight, the question for some schools goes beyond how to support their students and staff, but how to stay alive.

‘I’ve been sold on the college experience before I chose to attend this particular college. If I’m not going to have that experience for the first semester or even probably the whole year, then what’s the point of paying full tuition to sit at home and watch videos all day?’” he said.

"Every institution is making a bet and hoping it's the right one, and we're not going to know if its the right one for a while," she said. "The circumstances around the virus have changed so rapidly that making a bold statement about your plan of action for August or September in late April almost guarantees that you're going to have to eat some number of your words when we get to the fall."

Online learning (whether virtual face to face like a classroom experience or on a learning platform that has information posted and communication without a face) will continue to grow and be with us for a while. I am seeing many articles out there that pit one verses another (many times learning platform companies are using articles as advertisements for their services). Which is better doesn't seem like the right question... Both touch on fundamental elements in how humans learn... But they aren't equal either.... Why?

From Full Openings to Fully Online - whither shall Colleges and Universities go?

An author from this Atlantic article questions whether going back to college for the Fall semester is realistic, while providing an interesting simile to what universities are....