Rob's story on the disruption of his PhD program at Cornell, wrapping his head around teaching seminars remotely to students from the West Coast all the way to Hong Kong, and his 12 hour overnight drive with his family from Ithaca to North Carolina.
ABOUT
Rob's story on the disruption of his PhD program at Cornell, wrapping his head around teaching seminars remotely to students from the West Coast all the way to Hong Kong, and his 12 hour overnight drive with his family from Ithaca to North Carolina.
LOCATION
North Carolina
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
driving, North Carolina, people, home, interesting, distancing, stay, varied responses, hearing, cookies, rob, phd student, conversations, mm, tough decision, teaching, day, hours, resume, Italy
DONATIONS
Rob's requested donations be sent to Ithaca's Tip Jar learn more here and find individuals to support here
LINKS
Rob's Site
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Adam Mutschler 00:00
Welcome to socially distanced. On this episode we have Rob Cantelmo calling in from currently North Carolina. welcome, Rob.
Rob 00:10
Hi, Adam. Thanks so much for having me.
Adam Mutschler 00:12
Like a handful of the guests on this show, Rob is someone that I know in my personal life and have stayed close with and have been in close communication with as this crisis has evolved and sort of knocked us sideways, knocked us on our back. And Rob has graciously offered his time and maybe some insights and reflections on what's happened. Rob would love to hear from you. Sort of some of the hits some of the things that you and your family have been thinking about and going through, as as this whole situation has evolved?
Rob 00:51
Yeah, absolutely. Well, again, thanks for having me. It's been a really interesting process so far. I have to say the best thing that's come out of it is I've gotten to spend a ton of time with my son who is quite young, under a year old. And I currently work as a PhD student slash instructor at Cornell University, as you know, yes, and courses at the moment are suspended. So in two weeks, I will have to transition my seminar to an online format, where I'll resume teaching via zoom. But at the moment, we are sort of on a break to to adjust our teaching loads and schedules to accommodate that online format. And in the meantime, I've been able to spend a lot of time at home since my son's daycare is closed, playing with him. And you know, that's been like the silver lining of this show so far.
Adam Mutschler 01:44
Yeah. And I think that that's, you know, when I talk to friends, I have to remember all the things that I know that listeners won't know, but I think that's a really great sort of highlight that you shared, being a professor, you know, being a teacher. I don't know the technical term is I don't want to call you a professor by accident.
Rob 02:00
Yeah, that's that that's like, that's bad luck in my field. You have the exactly the credential in hand. Yeah. So yeah.
Adam Mutschler 02:07
So being a PhD, PhD student instructor, and the impact that it's had, which right now has been small hiatus and wrapping your head around, completely changing your format.
Rob 02:24
Yeah, it's really wild too, because this semester so previous semester I taught graduate students. I taught other sort of first first year PhD students in the department this semester on teaching first year undergraduates, hmm. And they like I'm really impressed with their resilience. But it's also amazing like, the the expectations that are put on them by the university, right, like they're sitting here trying to wrap their arms around, like what a normal spring semester is supposed to be like. And they're trying to continue to stay in contact with me and work on like research projects. And I have to keep reminding them that really, from my perspective, a lot of this can take a backseat, right? You know, they need to get home and and, you know, be with their families if that's possible and come sort of focus on doing what the rest of us are doing, which is staying home and avoiding getting sick or spreading an illness. And not, you know, so much worry about the trajectory of the course because honestly, like, I think it would be unreasonable for instructors to have the same level of expectations of their students during sort of unprecedented time like this.
Adam Mutschler 03:41
Yeah, this is definitely uncharted territory for literally everyone. I mean, even people that very comfortably work remotely, right, Kathy, your wife, right? Does that you know that you live with her? Right? But But I think even if you already have that rhythm, Your family members being home, your co workers doing something new. It's impacting everyone in very different ways. And I would say, my reflection is what a great space to create for your students to say, to remind them what, where they should be focusing their energy, right? Because when you were younger, and I think about this, you know, retrospectively all of the pressure we put on ourselves that we inherit from society on what we should be doing, and how important it is to remember the things that you just mentioned. So what has it been like? You're definitely home more than you used to be? Yes, you're definitely going out less than you used to.
Rob 04:41
also true. I am one of the I like yourself, I think I am one of the the more extroverted people who are going I mean, again, Adam, you're familiar with my my Instagram feed for example. I am. I am doing everything imaginable to try to Generate and sustain interaction with others. One because I crave it as an extroverted person. And two, because I think if I had to channel all of my social energies into just my relationship with my wife, she would in fact, kill me.
Adam Mutschler 05:16
You're not the first person that I've talked to you that's concerned about murder. So, I think would be interesting. What are some things? How well first, how long have you been really focused on? Let's say social distancing? Wait, when did that start for you and your family?
Rob 05:36
Yeah, great question. So I think in earnest, it really started on St. Patrick's Day.
Adam Mutschler 05:42
Okay.
Rob 05:43
Yep. We we were home for the day. Well plan sort of day off already. And I don't I don't teach on Tuesdays, so I'm usually not in the office. Anyway, I had gone to work on Monday. But my office was closed. So Cornell had suspended instruction the Friday before, okay. And I went into my office alone, right? The idea was kind of to get some work done, like in my workspace at my office on campus on Monday, we took the plan Tuesday off, and that night, I received word from someone who was had prior information that the daycare, my son goes to Cornell's daycare, and that that would be closed the following day. And so we really kind of had a little bit of a lead time, like make that transition, but from from Tuesday night, Wednesday onward, we've been, you know, quote, unquote, socially distancing. Mm hmm.
Adam Mutschler 06:47
And we're similar timeframe. I think we started about that Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Mm hmm. So like, I think 1415 ish. And then really heads down six. tene 16th of March Yeah. What so as a as a super extrovert yourself, and I know you reference IMG, what are some things that you're doing? What are some have you done? Like, what are some things that you that you're doing to help navigate this?
Rob 07:18
Yeah, so one of the things that I have done is an idea I actually cribbed from someone I follow on Twitter, Ray paletta, who had come up with this idea, at least to my knowledge, she came up with it for for friends to get together and do brief presentations on random topics. And sort of do like a Google Hangout or a zoom Hangout, have people present those little impromptu educational happy hour. And so I liked the idea and I decided to implement it myself and so on. You know, during My non parenting responsibility hours last week I put together I think six folks to do that on Friday night. Which you are well aware because you have dissipated Erica
Adam Mutschler 08:13
cookies, which is no surprise.
Rob 08:15
Yeah cookies and sandwiches. Excellent, excellent topic, a much less interesting topic presented by myself on shelling asked focal points in Game Theory. But we also had some really interesting presentations on on I think German marketing of appliances and sort of the gender and gendered implications of that. We had an interesting presentation by two friends of ours who are scientists on narwhals. So it's been a lot of fun, and I think we're going to keep it up. I think people really enjoyed participating in that.
Adam Mutschler 08:52
I mean, I enjoyed it. And I and I learned something also, about about cookies, surprisingly, but also about about game theory.
Rob 09:00
I mean, the cookie presentation was great. I made sure that I acquired some cookies, you know, in a socially responsible way. But I did get cookies the next day.
Adam Mutschler 09:12
So one of the things that we were talking about, and this is offline, was sort of you're in Ithaca. You're at your home. And this conversation of, of heading to North Carolina, right. And I heard through Erica, all of a sudden, you're in North Carolina, like, yeah, you're like, I think the last time we spoke, I was like, yeah, sometime in the next 48 hours. And then next thing I know, Eric is like, Robin Cathy drove all night and they're in ethica. Mm hmm. Can you I mean, like, there's this like, there's this like, energy of fleeing. That's that some people are experiencing like we came from we came out of DC. To my folks in Maryland, I just talked to someone who right legitimately fled Argentina to Brazil and Brazil to the Midwest. But can you talk a little bit about that the decision to sort of go from Africa to North Carolina overnight driving with a child like,
Rob 10:03
yeah, yeah, it's tough. I mean, it was a tough decision to reach to begin with. You know, there's the there's the sort of dueling incentives, right? The one is to sort of privilege everyone's health and safety and stay home home. Right, not just like, don't go out. But actually don't leave your own home, don't leave the place that you're at when this tournament really started to blow up, especially in New York. Right, which is, in the United States, I think the most significantly affected area, as its ranking globally. I mean, I think it's,
Adam Mutschler 10:40
yeah, it's behind Italy.
Rob 10:42
Yeah, right. Which is, you know, so it was a tough decision to reach also, because, you know, we didn't want to, we didn't want to expose ourselves on it on a trip. We didn't want to expose my parents who were now who were now staying with us. At the same time, we also had to weigh, you know, the the the work expectations, right. So I'm expected to resume teaching soon. As I mentioned, I'm expected to I'm a PhD student, as I said, so I'm expected to put together my dissertation. And there's not a whole lot of clarity on whether or not timelines will be adjusted for those things. We're optimistic, I think that they will, but I do need to be able to continue to work. And it was a long conversation with my parents, making sure that everybody, you know, was on the same page, making sure that we were all you know, healthy, obviously, there's plenty of asymptomatic people out there. So it was still a pretty scary decision to ultimately reach But for us, it was, it was a it was a tough decision. We made this call. We're going to stay down here. And the logistics of the actual travel, literally, we got in the car, and I drove straight down North Carolina from Ithaca and we stopped for gas And that was it.
Adam Mutschler 12:02
That's intense man.
Rob 12:04
It was pretty intense. It was pretty intense to 12 hours. Yeah, we gotta stop and you got to feed the small fellow even if you don't get another car.Yeah. So yeah, it was rough.
Adam Mutschler 12:15
Did he sleep?
Rob 12:17
He did sleep for all but a three or four hour stretch. And he was a little vocal about his displeasure about being stuck. He's at that age. You know, he's younger than your son. He's at that age where they really want nothing less than to be strapped into their car seat.
Adam Mutschler 12:39
Sure.
Rob 12:40
And so unfortunately, I couldn't reason with him, though. I tried,
Adam Mutschler 12:45
right. Yeah. That is what what I'm what I'm hearing and so part of it is what you see on social and stories that you hear but what I'm getting from these conversations for this for the show. Are these Like, really unexpected and hard decisions? Yeah. And like things that you might never do in a different circumstance like no, I'm not gonna drive 12 hours overnight with my child. Like, that doesn't sound like a good idea. Yeah, putting yourself there, you know? Or, you know, leaving vacations early or leaving? Or, you know, all the all sorts of conversations that have come up. You've been in North Carolina for a couple days per day. 24 hours. A thing? Just about 30 hours now. 30 hours. Okay. What What's it What's it like? Sort of at this point? Your your, your Yeah, your guests?
Rob 13:47
Yeah, yeah, well, so first, I'll give you a little bit of color commentary because what was truly amazing and what and what worries me actually a little bit is, I think also offline. You and I have talked a little bit about the sort of differential impact That this that that the communities are experiencing because of I think in part, the way and the source through which they receive their news with respect to this pandemic, and going through New York State and Pennsylvania, you had nobody on the roads. Truly like I was on a long stretches of highway where you didn't see another car. And that was, to a large extent, also the case in Maryland. And I remember I got off the highway in West Virginia to get some gas and we drove past a mall, and it was a full parking lot. It was incredible. Like truly, truly not at all what I expected I uh, I got out to you know, pump the gas and I said something to the made some sort of joke when attended about how it looked like I was driving through New York City by comparison and It was, I mean, they really had a very belated response. And I think it was actually the day after we arrived in North Carolina, that some of the southern states that we drove through started to implement some of the same precautionary measures that you're seeing in New York. But it was really, it was really wild. And I'm hoping that, you know, they're not going to experience sort of significant lagged effects of illness as a result of that, because it really didn't seem like they were as prepared. You know, I've got to give a lot of credit credit to Governor Cuomo in his response.
Adam Mutschler 15:38
I mean, I think there's so many things at play. One, I think that that's a really interesting thing to observe, during this time, is driving through states and traffic and I'm sure some of it had to do with the times that you were driving, but going to a place where there's a parking lot full of cars, and it seems kinda like everything's normal, is really interesting. And also We are seeing the, like astronomical differences in governing now. Yeah. Right, like this is being managed at a local level. Yeah. But so far, you know, right dates. And so it is it is there are stark differences. You know, and, and I think to cromoz credit, like you said, He's, he's doing everything he can. And New York is, is a unique scenario in the United States because of the density. Right. In Manhattan. Right. You know, and, and in the sort of, there's not a lot of driving, there's a lot of public transit, there's a lot of walking in a way that let's do like almost exact opposite example, New Mexico, where Eric is from, right. It's a driving heavy culture. You know, everyone has homes with yards. Mm hmm. No one really lives downtown. You know, so the this spread and the stories are way different. Mm hmm. So I do think we're still Sort of seeing that almost the cultural and societal differences of states and in governing it's very, it's very interesting. And while this is a really intense and mostly sad experience, there are also these lessons and distinctions that we're going to witness. Um I kind of want to see what are you? What are you thinking? next couple weeks next month or so are you in North Carolina through the end of the school year?
Rob 17:39
I'm in North Carolina for the foreseeable future. It's unclear to me where the where the horizon for that for that time window is okay. Um, so another thing that I do is as you know, as I'm the Chair Have a public safety and Information Commissioner in the city of Ithaca. And at the moment our meetings are suspended to sort of practice social distancing. If those were to resume in May the April meetings are canceled if it was to resume in May. You know, I might need to be back there for that. I'm just not sure at the moment. What I don't think anyone's really sure. I think in the same way that the decisions to, you know, go to your folks or go, you know, for me to go to my folks were tough decisions. I think any idea of what the future is going to be is likewise, you know, unclear I think another problem is, as you're seeing, I don't know if you watched the President's press conference last night or hadn't heard anything today, but the you know, there's he's talking now about The country being quote unquote, open for business, again, by Easter, which is under a month away and seems I all accounts from what I'm hearing from my more informed colleagues on the health side seems like there would be a very pre emptive move, and not in sort of line with the recommendations that we're hearing from health officials. And so, you know, I don't really know what things are going to look like, you know, a month from now. Yeah.
Adam Mutschler 19:33
So living with as many people living with a decent helping of uncertainty.
Rob 19:42
Yeah.
Adam Mutschler 19:45
That's a lot. Uh, let's, let's go, let's go in this direction. And then I think maybe we'll wrap up, but if we zoom out, we think sure Global we don't think we're not No, no, no politics, no work. What what are some thoughts or reflections that you have based on? What you've been witnessing and paying attention to? Sort of at a macro?
Rob 20:14
Yeah. So I think it really is interesting to see the varied responses and trying to stay away from academic talk. The varied responses in in how different governments responding to this, I think the most conservative and cautious measure implemented at a at a sort of state level I'm sorry, as at a at a national country. When I say state level, it's been Germany's response, or Angela Merkel recently announced that gathering gatherings of more than two people are going to be prohibited in Germany. Which is incredible. Because, again, we can't get people to stop going to the mall in the United States in some places. Yeah. So it's going to be really interesting to see if that if that holds in, in Germany because I think I remember a week ago, they were concerned that up to 70% of Germans could could end up with the, with the virus. Um, you know, it's, there's not a whole lot of good news out there. But I'm just crossing my fingers that we're going to hopefully start to see some decline in Italy, because I think it's just it's it's, like a global tragedy to see how I mean, obviously, this is affecting everywhere, but it's really just heartbreaking. You know, I'm an Italian extraction. I have parochial interests in Italy as well, but it's just really heartbreaking to See how bad the situation has gotten there? And and like how it just feels still like wild out of control?
Adam Mutschler 22:09
Yeah. And they've been on lockdown for a while. Yeah. Like, I don't even know, over 10 days for sure. Yeah. That's a lot. I mean, I think that some of these conversations and I think this is no exception. They're heavy. Yeah, these are heavy things to think about and to reflect on and to and to be occupied with for now. weeks. Right. Yeah. I look, I want to thank you for coming on the show. You know, we we have we have a we have a long, long time friendship. And I appreciate you know, how you think about things and how you look at things. And also, us sort of adding your perspective here and sharing. It was very meaningful to me. Thank you.
Rob 22:57
Well, I'm happy to do it. Thanks so much for having me
Adam Mutschler 22:59
and I want to thank the listeners for listening to socially distance. This is your host Adam. Stay safe and remember we are all more connected than we ever imagined.