UND Today

University of North Dakota’s Official News Source

UND event planners help students ’Stay Social while Staying Safe’

Even during a pandemic, some tried-and-true rules apply: Join a club, stay engaged and try new kinds of events, planners say

Photo by Shawna Schill/UND Today.

Hanna Donahue, a junior pursuing nursing at the University of North Dakota, is making new friends through the study groups and practice rotations built into her curriculum. Her experience, though, may be somewhat of an outlier amid COVID. Logging into remote lectures from their bedrooms and avoiding large gatherings, students around the nation are reporting feelings of isolation.

Even as UND allows in-person courses and in-person events of up to 50 people with physical distancing, a lot of the hallmark events that enliven campus in the fall – think Homecoming – have shifted to mostly online versions this year. This has left Donahue and her peers with fewer opportunities to interact face-to-face. It is especially hard for freshmen, many of whom are struggling to form new relationships away from home.

Cassie Gerhardt
Cassie Gerhardt

“Students feel lonely and unable to connect right now,” said Cassie Gerhardt, associate vice president for Student Affairs & Diversity and associate Dean of Students. “Moving to college is a transition, and some challenges are being amplified due to COVID.”

Yet, as a student intern in the Office of Student Involvement & Parent Programs, Donahue is determined to help her fellow Fighting Hawks connect with one another. “This year, it’s very different compared to most years,” Donahue said. “But we are doing our best to keep it fun and interactive for students to meet new people and find ways to get involved.”

Virtual engagements

Stephanie Lee

Donahue works under the supervision of Stephanie Lee, coordinator of Student Organizations & Programs. Lee said that one pivotal question is shaping the mix of virtual and in-person events she organizes: “How do we develop programming that is meaningful for students?”

The Office of Student Involvement & Parent Programs has lined up a variety of virtual events, ranging from trivia nights to online games. Just recently, Donahue hosted a Harry Potter-themed trivia get-together, which pushed her to learn more about the boy wizard than she’d ever known before.

“I did a lot of research on Harry Potter stuff, which was fun,” she said. “It was fun to see how many people are into Harry Potter.”

Director of Student Involvement & Parent Programs Kristi Okerlund said that virtual events tend to draw modest crowds. “Those are a little bit smaller events, but very meaningful for those that attend,” she said.

In-person events

Okerlund and her team have also coordinated creative in-person events that allow students to enjoy college life in a safe manner. So far, they have hosted a movie night in partnership with River Cinema in East Grand Forks, which some 180 students attended. They gave out passes to about 250 students to go golfing. They teamed up with Jersey Mike’s to give out more than 1,000 free sandwiches to students.

“There’s not a lot that’s happening in person, but we’re really trying to capitalize on what we can do,” Okerlund said.

Kristi Okerlund

But, there are constraints. For one, it is harder to advertise events among students this semester. In past academic years, students would simply walk by an ongoing event and decide to join. Today, however, with COVID-related attendance restrictions, students have to sign-up in advance if they wish to participate.

“We’ve had to reach students in a different way,” said Gerhardt. “We’ve had to be more intentional in how we connect with them.”

Emails and text messages are the primary means of communication to students. Yet, sometimes those get lost, ignored or deleted. So, for everyone involved – the staff organizing the events and the students attending them – staying engaged takes more effort than before.

Nonetheless, both Donahue and Lee encourage students to seek connections on their own. Student organizations and intramural sports, for instance, continue to hold meetings, either online or in-person. Even simple actions such as knocking on a neighbor’s door in the residence halls can lead to a new friendship.

“It sounds stupid to go knock on their door and be like, ‘Hey,’ but that’s something you can do,” Donahue said.

Gerhardt is also seeing students engage online through the University’s social media accounts, which can serve as conduits for offline interactions, too. To stay involved, she is asking students to think outside of what they would normally consider conventional.

“Take the risk and log into a Zoom event that a peer shared with you, or ask a potential new friend to walk down to Wilkerson Commons to get lunch together,” she said. “You’ve got to take a little bit of risk.  Sometimes it’s all about stepping outside of our comfort zone and taking that risk. That is my advice to any student, COVID or not: try some new things, and you might be surprised.”