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Pandemic Work and Accomplishments
This has been a year like no other!
I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like this again in my lifetime…
Easily, the most challenging thing I’ve ever faced in my professional career.
These quotes all came from Resident life staff members… After the mold issues of 2018-19.
Little did we know that barely more than a year later we would face a challenge far greater, larger in scope and longer lasting than even that very difficult year of mold. Over the course of the last fourteen months, Resident Life staff members have risen to the challenge of a global pandemic and performed phenomenally on behalf of our students and each other.
Some of us volunteered to switch jobs. Some of us took on tasks we had no prior experience or training in. All of us had to figure out new ways to do our jobs under stressful and trying conditions. We had to learn how to use new tools and how to support each other from afar. We had to find a way to bring structure and sanity to bear on a situation that none of us had ever faced. That we did all of this while coping with the stressors of caring for and educating children, supporting parents and other family members, being away from family, friends and other loved ones, and attending to our own personal health and safety is nothing short of miraculous.
Any attempt to create a list of the amazing achievements of Resident Life staff over the course of the pandemic will necessarily fall short. Consider this a partial list, a down payment of sorts on our story of the pandemic.
Immediate transition to remote work
On March 10, 2020, UMD announced plans to finish the week of classes before spring break and then transition to online learning exclusively beginning on April 10. By
March 13 we had closed most of the residence halls for spring break and developed a remote work plan and by March 18, the first work day after the weekend, we implemented the plan.
Spring Break and Emergency Housing
As students made or updated their plans for spring break and the transition to online learning, more than 1,000 students in residence halls and 1,300 in our P3 communities signaled their need for housing during spring break and the period immediately afterward. Staff across units worked together to care for and provide services to these students, sort out when people were leaving, and respond to emergencies.
Re-engineering of Spring Semester processes
Room Selection, P3 Leasing, Staff Selection, RA Class, and a multitude of programs are just a few of the examples of processes and programs that ordinarily take place in the spring semester that had to be re-imagined and re-engineered.
Communications with residents, student staff and professional staff
There were more questions than answers last spring and every Resident Life staff member had students, parents, student staff, and others clamoring for answers. We all tried to gather information from many disparate sources and make sense of it in a coherent and consistent way to try to allay the fears and frustrations that everyone was experiencing, including ourselves.
Introduction of the word “pivot” into our daily lexicon
Things changed fast and frequently causing the need for constant adaptation and flexibility.
Move-out
March 27 - April 5 May 23 - June7 - We did excellent preparation and planning for move-out - twice. Our original plan to allow students to return to campus in late-March and early-April to retrieve their belongings and turn in their keys were canceled days before the activity was scheduled to start based on increasing numbers of cases statewide and concerns of public health experts.
In addition to managing the immediacy of the health crisis and the impact on students, we had to figure out how to plan for a fall semester that no one knew for sure would happen and if it did, what it would look like. Multiple plans and contingencies were considered and adapted as we pivoted (pivoted!) many times throughout the spring and summer.
Reinventing our housing program as a mostly-singles community
In addition to transitioning to a program of mostly single occupancy rooms, our staff bent over backwards to give flexibility to students and families navigating the decision about whether to live on campus or not last fall. We changed and/or extended our cancellation deadline at least five times and extended a guarantee of Fall 2021 housing to this year’s first-year students who preferred to live at home this year.
Planning for fall semester (UMD activities)
In addition to the broad array of planning that it takes to open and manage a residence hall program, our staff were intimately involved in planning and execution for broader university activities - COVID-19 testing, Q/I Housing, Case Management, Early Contact Identification, etc.
Staff Training and Opening
Things that are our core competencies like training our staff and preparing a welcoming environment for students took on a whole new dimension. Not only did we have to figure out new modes of delivery, but we also had to cope with the stress of the unknown of how we could keep everyone safe and healthy in a congregate housing environment.
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Anew way to do check-in
To create the safest possible environment for fall check-in we partnered with
Intercollegiate Athletics to welcome all residents for check-in at Xfinity Center.
We created a new “Set-up and Go” program to expand the options for move-in. We distributed face masks, welcome kits, and Alumni Association books as part of the check-in process.
Enforcing COVID-19 Rules
The good news? An all singles housing program leads to a great reduction in roommate conflicts to manage. The less good news? A large share of the burden of enforcing health and safety protocols fell to residence hall staff. As of this writing,
DRL staff have documented 639 covid-related incidents involving 1,719 students.
Quarantine and Isolation Housing
Several of our colleagues volunteered for or accepted a year-long job transfer to support Q/I Housing. From day one, business was brisk! The Q/I team created the program on the fly and learned and adapted to constantly changing conditions.
More than 1,200 students have used the program since last August while an additional 750 have isolated or quarantined at home or off campus.
Other Health Interventions
We learned and in some cases invented all new housing concepts - Enhanced
Health Precautions, Sequester-in-Place, Clusters and Outbreaks, Quarantine-in-
Place and others.
Academic year breaks
Thanksgiving Break, Winter Break and Spring Break typically represent milestones that help us mark the time of the academic year. We know how to manage them and what student needs are related to them. This year all bets were off as each break had to be dissected and put back together to respond to the needs of the pandemic.
Planning for Fall 2021 and beyond
As we come full circle and prepare for another new academic year, we will face a new set of challenges, a new set of unknowns. The transition back to “normal” has already begun as more and more individuals are getting vaccinated and as businesses, governments and yes, the University of Maryland, begin to plan for a post-pandemic future. As we allow ourselves to look to a brighter future, we should stop for a moment and reflect on the incredible accomplishments that we’ve achieved together these last 14 months. There was no playbook or script; we had to figure things out together. It has always been true and will, I suspect, remain true that we are at our best when we take on even the most daunting challenge -- together.
By Michael J. Glowacki
