Residence housing officer Thomas Crowhurst is experiencing orientation at Loyalist for the first time.
By Beatrice Toplitsky [1]
BELLEVILLE – While officials express deep concern about parties and mass gatherings of students at other universities and colleges across Ontario, Loyalist College’s housing officer says it is not a big problem on campus.
Loyalist’s residence housing officer Thomas Crowhurst said students are behaving themselves so far.
“We’ve been really blessed,” he said, “We’ve been very good that everyone has been very respectful.”
The same can not be said for Trent University, where a mass gathering of students being referred to as the “bridge party” on campus lead to the university issuing a statement asking students to avoid large social gatherings.
Similarly, Queens University has expressed concerns about large student parties in Kingston.
Crowhurst said that, on the other hand, Loyalist students are for the most part compliant with social distancing regulations.
“It’s a very different campus experience, but I think it’s one that we all have to kind of embrace.”
It’s been two weeks since the college had its official move in days for residence. With social distancing measures in place on campus, many students are having to find new ways to connect.
Gone are the ice-breaker events, the pub nights, and the mingling of years past. Instead, this year’s orientation week happened entirely online.
Crowhurst said these internet festivities went well.
“I couldn’t have asked for any better,” he said. “We thought participation would have been lower than it was, however, we reached out to over 1,000 students.”
Turnout was especially impressive considering fewer students are on campus as many classes are now being delivered online, says Crowhurst.
Andrew McGrath-Santowski says students showed interest in his club during his appearances in the online orientation week.
One of the guests at the online orientation was second-year recreation and leisure student Andrew McGrath-Santowski. On top of being a full-time student at Loyalist, he single–handedly runs the gaming club. Engaging students to participate is very different.
Leading the club comes with big changes. This semester the club meetings are happening over the video conferencing platform Zoom, as well as on the messaging application Discord.
“As of right now, my only certain plan is to see who shows up and see what they want to do,” says McGrath-Santowski, who is leading the club for the first time.
For the first meeting of the year, which took place on Sept. 16, he had a variety of online games to choose from. The first meeting featured Scribbl.io, an online spin on the classic party game Pictionary. In the past, the gaming club previously relied on consoles owned by the school. This semester creative solutions are required to avoid social gatherings.
But clubs are not the only social gatherings affected.
If students want to meet face-to-face, many options lie outside of campus as several bars and restaurants downtown have reopened. Many students also utilize the hiking trails, which feature fire pits perfect for socially distanced meetups.
“As long as people are doing things safe, there’s nothing stopping them from going out for dinner,” says Crowhurst, “but making sure they’re doing in responsibly.”
While things are going well for the time being, Crowhurst said every must be vigilant.
“There’s always going to be teachable moments,” he said.
He explained that many of the young adults coming to campus are still learning, saying “It’s our role obviously to help educate them and to help them understand the impacts of their decisions.”