DePaul's Heroes: On-Campus Staff 'In Their Own Words'

May 19, 2020

The global COVID-19 pandemic transformed what would have been just another spring quarter to the historic Spring Quarantine Quarter of 2020. With great effort and speed, the university's in-person operation was modified to a community of remote learners, teachers and workers, with almost every university function, duty and responsibility adapted to be performed virtually in order to mind social distancing guidelines.

But not every staff member can join a Zoom meeting, jump on a conference call or sit in front of a laptop to do their job. While most are working, teaching or learning from home, the university's on-campus workers, our DePaul heroes, continue to head into the office to manage current campus operations and prepare for when we can return to Lincoln Park and the Loop.

From a safe distance, Newsline caught up with some of our on-campus staff members on April 21, before the Illinois mask order went into effect, to see how the COVID-19 crisis has changed life on the university grounds and to learn “in their own words" what it's been like for them during this unprecedented time in DePaul's history.

"My job has not changed much, other than not interacting with students, faculty and staff," Victor Lopez Jr., Public Safety officer.