By Anonymous Contributing Writer
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, operations of campus life have been anything but normal. As a junior, I’ve only had one regular semester of college life.
Now, none of the complications revolving around COVID-19 are in any way the fault of the university, and I applaud them for their efforts to keep students safe (from COVID-19) and allow studies to remain on campus for the most part. However, the university has devoted so much time, effort, attention, and money into building their COVID-19 safety measures, i.e. regular testing, campus hygiene centers, remote learning, that they’ve become relaxed revolving other vital areas to campus life.
If you search “Susquehanna University jobs” on Google, 83 job listings come up. Eighty-three! They range in degree of importance, from Assistant Baseball Coach to Director of Residence Life, but they are jobs nonetheless that the school is failing to fill. T
he Director of Residence Life position has been open for a year now, with no hope in sight of filling the position. Though I wouldn’t blame the hirees as the office is currently operating with one professional staff member and 80 some student workers who secretly, but not-so-secretly, hate their jobs. (That’s tea for another section.)
The Center for Academic Success and Career Development Center will soon be operating with no directors and less staffing than required to handle the number of students they cater towards. I recently asked a staff member of the Office of Student Life if there was any chance of hiring processes being expedited, or paid attention to more, because of the abundance of open positions of authority on campus.
Their response was that they’ve never heard of anything being expedited at Susquehanna University.
Back to the news surrounding the Office of Residence Life. Following the departure of two professional staff members, they are left with one Area Coordinator who only began working for the office back in July. Director of Student Engagement Jill Franklin will now serve as the interim director of the office, as well.
There are approximately 80 students working for the office as Senior Community Assistants (SCAs) and Resident Assistants (RAs). I say “approximately” because that number is fluctuating weekly at this point as more students become fed up with the operations of Residence Life and the lack of compensation.
At one point last year, in the middle of the surge of COVID-19 cases in November, RAs were being asked to actively engage with their residents while they were in lockdown! A lockdown that started because someone in the building tested positive, but they didn’t know who! Luckily, SCAs and RAs were able to talk Student Life and Residence Life out of that decision. But for a campus that preaches how devoted they are to student safety, that should’ve never been an option in the first place.
I will end on another note about student safety. When I started here my first year, within the first semester it became abundantly clear how SU REALLY handles Title IX cases.
There’s a lack of professionalism surrounding the way the victims of these reports are taken care of. More attention can be paid to victims and the resources they need to continue at this institution after such events. There also needs to be quicker action taken against the accused to bring some sort of peace of mind to the student body.
As a smaller campus, word travels quickly, and it puts students on edge. Such anxiety can be avoided. Consensus is overall quicker action is necessary for this university to succeed.
