After a year of adapting programs and meetings to comply with COVID-19 regulations, student organizations are now allowed to host in-person gatherings and events.
According to an Aug. 23 university announcement from Cary Anderson, Ed.D., vice president for Student Life and associate provost, and Zenobia Hargust, M.S., SPHR, chief human resources officer, the only current limit to meetings and events is a requirement to wear masks indoors on campus, and limits events to 1,000 people outdoors “without individual seating,” in order for attendants to stay distanced.
“We hope that student organizations and student events can happen in-person as much as possible, because it’s great to have the vibrancy of campus back, and to have the energy back on campus in numbers we did not see last year,” said Beth Hagovsky, director of Student Leadership and Activities.
According to Hagovsky, the process for planning both indoor and outdoor events looks similarly to how it did before the pandemic. Moving forward, any necessary changes or adjustments to tighten or open gathering rules will be made as guidelines are changed.
“Last year, you needed approval to be able to have events. There was a much more stringent process that was in place to get the space,” Hagovsky said. “But this year, you just have to put in a request for space and then that’s all you have to do.”
An Aug. 23 university announcement said the policy on events and meetings, social and educational, will continue to be evaluated over the semester, with many events already approved.
“We will continue to use our best judgment for social and educational events and activities based on our experience,” Anderson and Hargust said in the announcement. “At this point, we have approved events and performances for the fall semester, knowing that we are a highly vaccinated population with good safety practices.”
Nic Schoppe ’22, president of Hawk Hill Productions (HHP), said this year all of HHP’s events will be in-person.
“We don’t have any virtual events which is nice now that we’re back on campus fully as a university,” Schoppe said. “We’ve been able to offer new things that we wanted to in the past before Covid hit.”
Beth Ford McNamee, ’99 ’00 (M.S.), assistant director of Campus Ministry, said Campus Ministry has been holding in-person events and following all of St. Joe’s guidelines after not being able to be in-person last year.
“Retreats and immersive experiences were difficult last year because they involve going away overnight somewhere and traveling,” Ford McNamee said. “Our plan this year is to have that. We have retreats scheduled [and] we have immersion experiences scheduled.”
Alyvia Benson ’22, president of the Black Student Union (BSU), said after holding their meetings and events over Zoom last year, they are still planning in-person events for this semester, but are doing so cautiously.
“This semester, we’re focused on the quality of our events, not the quantity,” Benson said. “It’s more for the safety of everyone that we’re not gathering as much as we used to two years ago.”
In order to maintain a level of caution, there are groups on campus, like Campus Ministry, that are also offering virtual options to certain events. Campus Ministry is continuing to stream Weekly Services and record their Sunday 11 a.m. Mass on YouTube.
Benson found in-person meetings to be much more effective for BSU because in-person meetings call for much more involvement and engagement than there is on Zoom. Benson said if any general members requested a Zoom option, the club would still provide it.
Abra Verzola ’23, secretary of the Asian Students Association (ASA), said that after hosting meetings online last semester, ASA will still offer a Zoom option to accommodate students in different circumstances.
“We’re doing an integration and trying to hold that online option for students,” Verzola said. “Not even just for people who don’t feel comfortable coming out in person, [but] for our commuter students that are part of our organization so that they can still attend events.”
Benson said although BSU will be continuing with limited in-person meetings, she still finds that there is a new level of excitement this semester among students looking to get involved on campus.
“I think that a lot more people are just excited to be able to not have to sit on Zoom for hours on end,” Benson said.
