There are few things more embarrassing than your cat walking across your keyboard while you are on a Microsoft Teams meeting with the President and Provost of your University. As COVID-19 has moved our professional lives online, that’s the new reality for me and every other student advocate with a lot more on their plate this summer than they had bargained for.

I was elected as the 2020–2021 Student Body President back in March — right before the University of Louisville announced that Spring Break would be extended and classes would go online for a while. Obviously, we never went back to in-person classes on campus. Though UofL’s campus never truly closed, many never returned to campus at all, short of packing up their dorm rooms and moving out.

I had to stay on campus, though — not because I was the president-elect and had meetings to attend, but because I didn’t have the reliable internet at home that I needed to finish my classes. When I ran for the position of SGA President at UofL, my main objective was to create equity where inequities have persisted in higher education and at UofL. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made these disparities more apparent.

If you look at a UofL campus committee roster, student leaders often only have one seat at the table in which they must speak for the challenges all students are facing. (We are lucky to even have a seat consistently provided, since there are many campuses where this isn’t the case.) It’s already difficult for one person to represent the concerns of over 22,000 students, but it is even more challenging when you can’t see those students on campus to talk to them about their concerns, their fears, their hopes. How do you accurately gauge student voice when campus is almost entirely deserted?

In early May, the elected leaders of SGA (also known as SGA Top 4) spent hours on FaceTime together trying to figure out how to provide more student perspective to University administration as we planned for the fall semester. I’m not going to say that the UofL SGA did it perfectly, but I think those early brainstorming sessions were pivotal in creating a framework that put students first.

Our Top 4 initially used our personal social media stories to informally ask students about their concerns for fall and what resources they would need to be successful in the coming semester. The response was overwhelming. It became clear that students had a lot more to say, and it was our job to figure out how to make it happen.

We provided those original informal responses to University administrators as initial plans for the fall semester were being considered. Those responses helped shape the first draft of UofL’s fall reopening plan, which was made available in early June. After the first draft went live, we again gave students a chance to respond with feedback. This time, we were prepared, knowing that a more formal survey was needed. Academic Vice President Ben Barberie and I worked with the University to design a survey intended to capture students’ responses to the plan.

This 10 minute survey was emailed to over 13,000 students across the University. We were somewhat worried that students wouldn’t check their email over summer break or see the survey, but I should have known better than to doubt our students. By the end of the survey window, over 25% of students had responded. Overwhelmingly, our students wanted hybrid options and preferred asynchronous course delivery that allowed them to keep their schedule adaptable to changing priorities. This survey also measured anxieties about the fall, preferred platforms for online meetings, and concerns about food and housing insecurity. These results were again provided to University administrators, faculty, and staff, who will all benefit from the time and thoughtfulness our students put into their responses.

COVID-19 has changed the landscape of higher education and created unprecedented challenges for University administrations and students alike; however, we are presented with the opportunity to re-evaluate our systems in ways we haven’t before. As we plan to reopen our campuses for fall, we have a chance to create best practices where none previously existed. This is most evident with hybrid learning structures, which could change the face of accessibility in higher education for the coming generations of students.

It remains to be seen whether equity considerations will be at the forefront of syllabi in the fall, but as students, we are entirely in control of our own advocacy. Moving forward, student leaders should continue to advocate for bold policy change and speak up about the inequities in higher education, even when it is unpopular. Across the nation, student leaders have met this moment boldly, with a willingness to step up in new ways and encourage our universities to put students first.

Sabrina Collins is a senior at the University of Louisville majoring in Political Science with a track in Law and Public Policy and a minor in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. Sabrina serves as the Student Body President and has represented students in various committees working to safely reopen campus for the fall semester.

For more information about how the University of Louisville SGA is advocating for students, visit their Instagram page @uoflsga.

The opinions expressed on the Forum represent the individual students to whom they are attributed. They do not reflect the official position or opinion of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence or the Student Voice Team. Read about our policies.

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