The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) board members who were elected in to their positions in April are settling in and looking forward to the fall semester, attempting to determine the best plan of action in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. CCSS external executive Quinn Cunningham says that even with classes being moved online temporarily, it’s business as usual for the CCSS.
“It’s definitely different with the current situation, but it’s been working out good,” says Cunningham. “It’s mostly online meetings; nothing too out of the ordinary other than that.”
The CCSS is still working mostly off campus, but there are still some staff on campus ensuring students can still access the UPass system. As far as Cunningham is aware, the WalkSafer program is the only CCSS service to be temporarily cut due to COVID-19, simply because there is no demand for it if there are no students on campus.
“[WalkSafer not running] is unfortunate because that supports students and it’s for students, but there’s not really a need to employ that until we go back to on-campus classes.”
The CCSS encourages students to connect with them over email, and are currently working out how they can offer orientation services in upcoming semesters.
“[The fall semester is] kind of our biggest exposure time for new students; we’re sort of thinking of a guerilla tactic where we have lots of people around campus so we don’t need to have big social-distancing lineups to get information,” says Cunningham.
The CCSS is funded by student fees; Cunningham says that the probability of decreased enrolment in the fall semester creates a financial concern for the student society.
“Enrolment is going to drop because a lot of services are going to be offered online as opposed to in class, and that’s not what a lot of students signed up for, so we’ve been discussing contingency plans,” he says.
Still, Cunningham says that he doesn’t believe that student services will be put into jeopardy.
“We don’t really know what that’s going to look like in the fall,” he says. “I imagine as we get closer and we have better numbers for enrolment that might be a topic, but so far in our board meetings we haven’t discussed cutting any services yet.”
Cunningham says that the CCSS is trying to work out how they can still hold events like CamFest while keeping crowd density to a minimum.
“CamFest is kind of our opening-week festival. We’ve discussed maybe having different cohorts approach at different times so we can socially distance that way,” he says.
Cunningham says that CamFest will probably be spaced out across the Interurban and Lansdowne campuses.
“It’s a really important event, because students need to know where to get their UPass and their student ID, so trying to reach all of our membership in the scenario where we’re not allowed to be on campus [is a challenge],” he says. “We’ll try to get as much participation as possible, whether it be through contests or livestreams, that sort of thing.”
Regarding new services introduced in response to COVID-19, the CCSS has contributed to Camosun’s Erasing Barriers to Education Fund emergency relief program, which students can access if they’re facing difficult financial situations.
“[It’s for] students who really need money right now, whether that be for rent or a grocery bill,” he says. “There is a cap to it, but we’re trying to access as many students as possible.”
Learn more about the CCSS and its services at camosunstudent.org.