Caroline Hall connections

Caroline Hall connections: Residence Life adapts to new restrictions

Words Emily Cabaltera | Photo Allyson Gebauer | Design Ann Tran

Walking through Caroline Hall, an eerie silence hangs in the air. Doors that lead to residents’ rooms remain closed. The floor lounges that were once filled with the sound of laughter remain silent. Signs reminding students to wear their masks and remain socially distant are posted outside the elevator, kitchen and lounges. The COVID-19 pandemic that shook the Mount Mary campus in March changed what it meant to live in Caroline Hall. The lively energy from semesters before is nearly gone, except for the eye-catching bulletin boards created by the resident assistants. On the third floor, the large bulletin board is decorated with a colorful tree made of orange, yellow and red paper. Across the center, a clothesline holds letters of the phrase “Happy fall, y’all.” Advertisements for events held by resident assistants and other campus organizations are plastered across the board. “This semester, (the goal) has just been to really pump out the programs, really let students know that we're here, that Residence Life didn't go anywhere,” Bryn Bowden, assistant director of student engagement and residential living, said. “We really value them (residents). I want them to see what we're involved in. We want to be there for them.” Residence Life has been working hard to offer programs for residents to enjoy, all the while following COVID-19 safety guidelines. “You have to be able to socially distance in spaces,” Bowden said. “We're trying to really make sure that we offer as much space as we can with programming, so a lot of our programs are in the Caroline Hall lounge.” Students in the residence hall who choose not to attend events in person because of COVID concerns or cannot due to quarantining are still able to attend events virtually. “If you're isolating in your room or you don't feel safe coming, that's fine,” Lauren Nylund, resident assistant, said. “All the supplies will get dropped off. You can follow along in real time on Zoom, and then submit or keep whatever work or products you get.” Some memorable aspects of programming in the residence hall can no longer be happen due to COVID concerns. “I was kind of bummed out that the events that I wanted to do are not possible in the variation that I wanted to do,” Nylund said. “We have to minimize food consumption. Any food we do has to be prepackaged.”In past years, resident assistants were each assigned a night of the week where they would host an event. The weekly events ranged from watching The Office to study nights. Due to COVID, these events are no longer possible. “It would be hard to make them socially distant and, overall, we are trying to minimize in-person contact,” Nylund said. Taylor Roberts, resident assistant, designed an event called Pen Pals to connect residents and accommodate these new requirements. “I wanted to get into doing pen pals myself, so I thought that would be a really cool thing to do here, especially with COVID,” Roberts said. “It's not all in person, but it's not all online. I thought that it would be a really good hybrid program to do, especially for the first month.” Roberts hung brown paper bags on the doors of each participating resident that contained all of the letter writing materials they may need. Participants of

the Pen Pal event wrote letters to other residents that they may have never connected with before. At the front desk, a box served as the pickup and drop off spot. Participants wrote to their pen pals as little or as often as they wanted and watched the box for a response.

“It's a different way to get connected that we haven't done in the past, which is fantastic,” Nylund said.

Kaitlyn McKnight, junior at Mount Mary, praised the event for encouraging new connections.

“I loved the pen pal program,” McKnight said. “I actually found a girl who is a transfer student just like me. I didn’t know any transfer students until her.”

McKnight and her pen pal wrote about what it was like to be a transfer student and one of their shared interests: cooking.

“We are actually exchanging recipes,” McKnight said. “Because I was a transfer student, I made friends with incoming freshmen, but it was cool finding someone my age.”

Each resident assistant is tasked with finding new and creative ideas to engage the Caroline Hall community. It is more important now than ever that students are reaching out and connecting with others.

“The Pen Pal event had you looking forward to something. I was always checking the box for another letter,” McKnight said. “It really did put a smile on my face. This definitely should continue after COVID because it is a mental health booster.”

Engaging with residents extends further than just hosting events. Bowden and the resident assistants are making an effort to take advantage of each interaction with residents.

“When they are getting personal interaction, (the resident assistants) are really maximizing that personal interaction and are staying a little bit longer and talking a little bit longer,” Bowden said. “People are having a really hard time getting that personal interaction and so the RAs are trying to be very intentional about staying a little longer or catching people in the hallway and just being like, ‘how are you?’”

Even the students in the isolation dorms are considered when it comes to making people feel connected and cared for by Residence Life.

“We're delivering meals to our students in isolation. I deliver them every morning by myself,” Bowden said. “That's because I really value that face to face contact. Even if it can’t be literally face to face, if you're in quarantine, you know that I'm going to come as the assistant director to your room and give you your food.”

Despite COVID, residents are also finding their own ways to safely connect with each other.

“A lot of things just happen behind closed doors,” Nylund said. “I'm sure there are connections that I just don't know about. From what I can see, it's just different. It's like everything is more hidden.”

The residents are still laughing — just behind closed doors and 6 feet apart.

Resident Assistants Amiyah Jones, Margaret Dishaw, Taylor Roberts, Destiny Rodriguez, Lauren Nylund and Nashia Bass excitedly prepare for Reverse Trick or Treat, an event where they knocked on doors of residents in Caroline Hall and delivered candy and a note.

Resident Assistants Amiyah Jones and Margaret Dishaw deliver candy and a note to Alexis Avalos, freshman resident, for their Reverse Trick or Treat event.