THE STUDENT PAPER
Stúdentalíf á umrótstímum Student Life During the Apocalypse GREIN ARTICLE Eva Margit Wang Atladóttir Sam Patrick O’Donnell ÞÝÐING TRANSLATION Ragnhildur Ragnarsdóttir
LJÓSMYND PHOTOGRAPH Sædís Harpa Stefánsdóttir
The heart and soul of university life is Student Services, a non-profit organization run with independent finances. Many aspects of student life on campus are run through Student Services, including Háma, Stúdentakjallarinn, the University Bookstore, student housing, and three daycare centers. “We try to do what we can to make students’ lives as easy as possible,” says Rebekka Sigurðardóttir, spokesperson for Student Services. A SHIFT IN REALITY
Everything changed with the emergence of COVID. “Of course, the first change came in March, when the university decided to shut down all the buildings and lock the doors,” Rebekka says. “Suddenly, all our clients were gone. Of course, we still had children in daycares and people living in student housing, but everyone’s reality changed overnight, including ours.” They had to close all of their services that were located on campus and find other ways to keep their business going. “All our websites have improved greatly,” Rebekka says, adding that students can get all their books from the University Bookstore through the internet. Other services are also available online, which means that there is more service provided through that domain than there was before. “We also added home delivery service on books,” she says. “If you ordered your books before noon, you could have them delivered the same day.” Student housing contracts are now signed online, and other online services are also in the process of being improved in response to the new reality. Kjarni háskólalífsins er Félagsstofnun stúdenta, sjálfseignarstofnun með sjálfstæðri fjárhagsábyrgð. Megnið af allri þjónustu við nem endur á háskólasvæðinu er rekin af Félagsstofnun stúdenta, t.d. Háma, Stúdentakjallarinn, Bóksala stúdenta og Stúdentagarðar ásamt þremur leikskólum. „Við reynum að auka lífsgæði háskólastúdenta eins og við getum,“ segir Rebekka Sigurðardóttir, talsmaður Félagsstofnunar stúdenta. UMBREYTING Á VERULEIKANUM Allt breyttist við tilurð COVID. „Fyrstu breytingarnar komu auðvitað í mars, þegar háskólinn ákvað að loka öllum byggingum og skella í lás,“ segir Rebekka. „Skyndilega voru allir viðskiptavinir okkar farnir. Að sjálfsögðu voru enn börn í leikskólunum og íbúar á Stúdentagörðunum, en raunveruleiki allra breyttist á einni nóttu, einnig okkar.“
A GLIMMER OF HOPE
In May, food services reopened. Around June, things began to look up, and it appeared as though life would go on as usual around campus. “At the end of July, it seemed like university life would be as regular in the fall,” says Rebekka. The staff at Student Services were eager to be up and running again. “Then things changed again. When classes started at the end of August, the guideline was that everybody was to stay at home and study online as much as possible,” Rebekka says. “But the freshmen were allowed to come to campus, and teachers and professors were encouraged to provide classes for
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