COVID-19 Note
A note about COVID-19’s impact on Michigan yearbook programs (2022)
While the 2021-22 school year brought more stability to schools after two years of massive disruption, it was still a turbulent year for many Michigan yearbook programs. Our state took a conservative approach to COVID precautions (as in incredibly cautious and reserved) that while designed to protect the health and safety of students and school staff, had significant ramifications for schools, students and teachers. We know you will take these challenges into account as you critique work that was done during this period.
Here in Michigan, some schools continued online-only or hybrid in-person/online instruction for at least part of the school year— and some for the whole year. Sports and other extracurricular activities were impacted by COVID precautions - and attendance by the public (including media) may have been limited. School clubs and other activities may not yet have returned from hiatus.
Even for those schools that were fully in-person, they may have dealt with periods of online learning or disruptions from higher-than-normal absence rates.
Access to technology may have been limited, and social distancing protocols may have changed the way programs have been able to do their work. Advisers may have had to step in to help more than normal, and the use of contributed photos may be higher than during pre-pandemic times.
As the situation may have been very different from school to school, we asked advisers to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their programs as part of our critique service entry form. We urge you to look over this background information, along with other detailed information about the school and program, before you begin your critique and reference it again before you submit your final work.
Our standards for high quality student media have not changed, but we urge you to carefully consider each program’s situation as you apply these standards.
We are frankly amazed at the high-quality work student journalists have been able to do throughout the pandemic.
Please be understanding about “mistakes” or practices that break from the norm if they can reasonably be attributed to the pandemic, especially when the staff proves through the rest of their work that they understand and follow media best practices.
We suspect you actually will find a significant amount of work worthy of high praise, and you may have recommendations to help students and advisers meet the challenges ahead. We encourage you to recognize this work when warranted and to offer your usual thoughtful advice. Our students and advisers need more guidance and encouragement than ever.
We would be happy to talk with you if you have any questions as you do your work.
Thank you!