COVIDIAN EPOCH: SLOW RETURN TO THE NEW NORMAL In-person classes for COM 316 Photographic Communication transferred to Zoom for the second day class after the instructor’s child had contact with someone who contracted Covid-19. The Prof. Raymond Thompson had to quarantine until the child tested negative. A few students did not get the announcement of the class schedule changes, and stayed for the Zoom lecture in the Dealey New Media Center lecture hall. The Covid-19 pandemic altered lives of students, faculty, and staff of the University of Texas at Austin in nearly indescribable fashion. On the last of classes before Spring Break, March 13, 2021, a mass email announced the cancellation of classes for the week after the vacation and that students would not return to campus and all school interactions would occur online, primarily through Zoom. By the Fall 2021 classes resumed under a new framework and a hybrid structure of in-person learning and virtual classes. The faculty and teaching assistants could not require masks more ask about a student’s vaccination status. Then expectation was not to talk about Covid other than urging students to stay safe. As new variants arise, such as Delta and Omicron, whether or not the school every returns to a state where masks and social distancing are not necessary is uncertain.