March, 2020. When everything changed.
Coping with a planetwide pandemic was never going to be easy. College campuses were the first to experience this, and are still dealing with those effects whether they like it or not.
COVID-19 has provided the biggest barrier to higher-education as a whole, and it was clear things needed to change. People needed answers, and no one knew where to look.
Monique Rew-Bigelow, the Director of Residential Life/Living Learning Communities at SUNY Brockport was tasked with doing the impossible. Find a way to bring back Brockport, and keep her students healthy and engaged in their community.
“The safety of all our students was always going to be our first priority, and that’s the only way we knew we could come back…” said Rew-Bigelow. As an administrator looking over thousands of on-campus residents, she needed a way to communicate her directives efficiently and on a timely manner.
“We are still doing everything in our ability to give all of our students that [on-campus] feeling, like they belong here.” Rew-Bigelow — who “grew up” in Brockport (having received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees there) noted how empty campus feels, even with the students back from quarantine.
As the director, it is her responsibility to help her students understand the circumstances that COVID-19 has forced on their community, but she’s finding that job easier said than done. Using her Resident Assistant’s efficiently was “key” but, as she emphasized, without risking their health in the process.
Two hours away at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Courtney Page works as an RA in her own building, and is having trouble engaging with her students, and isn’t finding COVID living easy.
“Students are going to want to party, there is nothing we can do to change that…” says Page, who adds “…we need them to have that experience, but our residents need to understand that there are bigger circumstances to be aware of, or we’ll all be sent home.”
Page acts as a leader of her building, but is still a student herself. Taking her classes online in her single dorm room, getting meals delivered to her, and running on the school’s Cross Country team has not made campus life easy, and her student’s are noticing.
“Campus will never feel the same this year, it just looks out of the ordinary, like something is missing.”
Empty walkways, parking lots with multiple spaces open, and outdoor studying areas set up where students would walk to class. A once typical college campus “has lost its splendor…” says Rew-Bigelow, and as Page stated, “we lost our soul.”
“COVID-19 has challenged us in more ways than one” says Rew-Bigelow, but she is confident in the direction SUNY Brockport has taken to ensure the “survival of our fall semester.”
Page is finding connection to be her biggest issue, as she “can’t maintain a semblance of normalcy, and residents simply don’t care.” Frustrated, she wishes things could change, or at least the RA’s of HWS colleges be allowed more freedom and opportunities. She looked to other schools for inspiration on how to build that student connection she’s been searching for.
“Our RA’s and leadership team are performing virtual programming and interventions to help keep our students engaged” says Rew-Bigelow… “we brought Brockport back, now its our responsibility to protect the nest.”
“I don’t know if we’ll ever go back to normal, but I’m happy with where we are at right now” says Rew-Bigelow, who recently began allowing in-person programming opportunities for her RA’s and students to part-take in.
COVID-19 truly has changed the facet of a college campus. People miss the way things used to be, but if you ask Rew-Bigelow — she believes that new opportunities are on their way, and RA’s like Page just need to be patient and weather the storm.
