By Donelda A. Cook
AJCU (Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities) student affairs professionals—from administrators to student health services staff to mental health counselors to residence life professionals to exercise instructors—have been in the center of the storm at every unprecedented turn of the COVID-19. Across the network, we have shared protocols, practices, and knowledge of student development theories and upheld our Ignatian mission of cura personalis (care of the whole person) and cura apostolica (care of our institutions and of those who carry out institutional responsibilities). Indeed, we are already beginning to integrate new lessons we’ve learned as we anticipate more normal times.
Beginning in late January, student affairs professionals were all in, joining campus emergency operations groups to institute communicable disease protocols, educating campus communities, executing preventive procedures. Eventually, amid the emerging complications of spring break and cancelled study abroad programs, they were forced to take the major step of practicing and implementing social distancing—this in a profession that’s largely about building community.
At Loyola University Maryland, as elsewhere, we supported potentially exposed students as they entered into a period of quarantine, and they communicated their commitment to community through a desire to quarantine for the good of all. With the news that COVID-19 had now become a global pandemic, the risk forced our university leadership team to conclude that social distancing could only be accomplished through closed residence halls, online classes, and telework.
We now found ourselves not only building communities at a distance but also assisting students with exceptional circumstances that prevented them from leaving campus. We began providing virtual education, mentoring, telehealth, student leadership training, cycling and yoga classes, and Zoom rooms—all designed to assure students that, though visibly apart, they are not alone. Virtual engagements may not take away students’ feelings of grief and loss over the vibrancy of their face-to-face friendships, leadership positions, athletics, affinity group connections, and senior year events, but it clearly means a great deal when student affairs professionals connect about their mutual sense of loss.
Still in the center of the storm, we are planning for the future, including discerning which new initiatives to retain into the future, especially to engage students who tend toward disengagement on campus. We are developing creative ways to virtually engage with accepted students and parents due to cancelled campus visits. We are building new student orientation programming that can be launched virtually, if necessary, over the summer and into the fall. We are discussing additional safeguards in health and wellness of students in university housing.
The sad truth, however, is that we do not know what lies ahead. We know from 9/11 and the 2008 recession that there will be lasting psychological and financial impact for students and their families and university employees and for business continuity. But we do know that, drawing on our Jesuit values, student affairs will weather these storms, providing innovative ways to care for and create engaging co-curricular student experiences.
As we have throughout this crisis, we remain alert and prepared to embrace changes in higher education born of the uncertainties that lie ahead in the path and aftermath of COVID-19.
Donelda A. Cook is vice president for student development at Loyola University Maryland.
The featured cover photo (above) is courtesy of the Office of Marketing and Communications at Loyola University of Maryland.
Student affairs professionals from across the 27 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (above) celebrate the conclusion of the 2015 JASPA (Jesuit Association of Student Personnel Administrators) Five Year Summer Institute at the University of San Francisco. The fostering of colleagueship has paid dividends with the sharing of best practices in building student communities at a distance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy of the Jesuit Association of Student Personnel Administrators.