Whether students chose to study on campus or learn remotely, Bradley organizations and individual departments are looking for ways to engage with them in activities to maintain social connections.
ACBU organized the “Quarantine Series” which consisted of eight activities that were either held on Zoom or Airmeet from Sept. 10-22.
“These times are not the best for anyone right now especially being stuck in your room and not having a lot to do,” said Ian Fournie, ACBU president and senior public relations major. “We try to do things that people usually cannot do by themselves and we give out cool prizes so that is another incentive to come.”
After Bradley enforced its all-student quarantine for two weeks, students had to find ways to cope. ACBU took this as an opportunity to interact.
“I figured the quarantine was going to happen sooner or later, but being cooped up in my room got to me after a while,” said Hannah Ivy, a junior English education major. “The ‘Two Deep Breaths’ event that ACBU hosted definitely helped me take a step back and not feel as stressed about being inside.”
ACBU organizes events for all of campus, but individual colleges have also taken initiatives. They are conducting a variety of activities that are not necessarily limited to students in that particular college.
“COM Connect” was one of the initiatives taken by the communications department that started off with a trivia night on Sept. 15, organized by assistant professor Cory Barker.
“I have been hosting trivia nights from time to time since the pandemic started with friends, so as I have a little experience, we thought that it would be easy to import this into the student-faculty environment,” Barker said. “Our plan was to have a social event in the beginning and then go on to more educational events like graduate school info sessions.”
The trivia night had six rounds with about five questions in each one and ended with a Final Jeopardy style question. Chairperson of the department of communications Tony Adams said meeting with students over Zoom has made it easier to connect more efficiently.
“This was an attempt to try to facilitate the connections with students that we usually see in the hallways or during an office hour,” Adams said.
The engineering department took a different route to connect with the students of their college.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning engineers at Bradley are inviting speaker William Bahnfleth to talk to students virtually about how COVID-19 can be spread inside spaces in the heating and ventilating system.
“It’s so easy to be isolated,” said David Zietlow, professor of mechanical engineering. “Especially because now it looks like we might be in this for a longer period of time. It is important that the students are connected with each other and a professor.”
Though this year looks different, Bradley faculty and organizations are focused on giving students opportunities to do something, whether it is from a couch at home or the dorm desk.
With all in-person events moved online for the semester, campus recreation and student services had to come up with creative ways to carry on fall traditions like Lighting of the B and Homecoming while making sure students weren’t losing interest or weren’t feeling connected.
“We want to do all we can to help both new and returning students find their community and feel a part of the Bradley Family,” said Tom Coy, executive director of student involvement. “There is a place for every student in our community and through offering programs, we hope students will find the people that they connect with.”
