The COVID-19 crisis has created challenging and uncertain times for higher education institutions everywhere, forcing daily operations to rapidly shift to remote work and virtual classes. For student services professionals at the DSSD, this shift comes with the understanding that an institution’s response to this crisis will directly impact the student experience, student retention and student success, and quite possibly the survival of the institution post COVID-19.
“Student services professionals and campus administrators must adopt creative ways of sustaining student engagement and maintaining support to students at this time, and particularly those at risk,” says Dr Deirdre Charles, Director of DSSD. “For at risk students the unlikeliness of continuing studies and even returning to campus is greater.”
In the past weeks of the stay-at-home order, the management and staff of the DSSD have worked assiduously at adapting to the circumstances brought on by the pandemic to maintain quality programming and effective support services for the students. At the forefront of the agenda is ensuring that every student can access the suite of services during the crisis – financial aid, disability support, student engagement, counselling, and others. The DSSD team has made the transition to virtual operations for the welfare of students.
As a vital university function, it is necessary for student services to be strategically positioned and aligned because of the critical role they play in fostering mental, spiritual, social and physical care for students. In this current environment, students are required to adjust quickly to a plethora of changes and challenges. These include access to resources, mental/emotional preparedness, financial constraints, familial obligations, and employment obligations. Our students are experiencing depression, anxiety, anger, sadness and even emotionlessness. There are also feelings of isolation, defeat, disconnection, hopelessness and helplessness. With this is mind, the response has to be one of compassion, and requires flexibility and emotional intelligence.
From the onset, the DSSD established frequent and ongoing communication with students to ascertain their needs and provide support accordingly. This was the single most important student engagement strategy used as a direct response to the crisis in the initial phase. A focused approach was adopted that involved identifying the various subgroups within the student population and assessing their respective needs. This approach continues to guide the process for connecting with regional and international students, students living on and off halls of residence, students with learning and physical disabilities, students in need of financial aid, and marginalised students.
“We have maintained contact with our students and we encourage them to stay connected with us,” Dr Charles says. “We understand that a student’s connection to the institution has great implications for retention. Therefore, student engagement, student success and the overall student experience has to be a campus wide responsibility.”
According to Dr Charles, “at this juncture it is crucial that our online model resembles our usual offerings to attract, engage and connect with our students. Also, our students need to know that their campus support systems are still actively seeking their best interest and success.”
Now is the time to remind students of the vibrancy of UWI St Augustine, and demonstrate that it is focused on student-centredness. The campus community is one of immeasurable strength and solidarity, and now more than ever students need to see this. The current environment has emphasised the meaning of the watchwords of the UWI “Triple A Strategy”. If we are to extend our reach and range and be more accessible, align better globally and become more agile, then technology has to be better woven in our daily operations. Moving forward, the DSSD intends to sustain its use of online platforms for quality student programming and support services. We urge other departments to do the same and continue to engage and connect with students.
