How RGU Students Are Supporting Each Other During Lockdown
As students in the RGU ResLife Team, we find ourselves in a privileged position to be able to support others throughout their university journey, be that helping them to develop new skills or guiding them through new and unfamiliar challenges. Now, two weeks into "lockdown", we are finding that our role, more than ever, is to remain a constant for students who are seeing everything around them changing rapidly.
Typically, a normal week for us would include running an event on site to encourage students to meet and socialise; it might see us chatting to students during our office hours and answering their questions; it would almost certainly include helping resident students who have locked themselves out. Now we find ourselves working to support students who are effectively "locked in"; so we have adapted our service to meet the “new normal”. We are looking towards our social media platforms and online tools to make sure we stay accessible and provide the same high quality service people have come to expect from us as a peer support service.
As we make our way through lockdown together, RGU ResLife are working hard to make sure we are creating the same opportunities for students to keep in touch and stay connected, we are planning new ways for us all to meet, while adhering to social distancing. Over the next few weeks, we are looking at hosting a virtual dinner party and an online meet up to discuss some of our favourite programmes on Netflix. We are also utilising the talents within our team to make sure students are staying healthy and keeping active. Hosted by a member of our team, regular “Woolmanhill Workouts” videos are being posted to our social media platforms to encourage students to follow the RGU SPORT's message of “Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Well.”
One of our key roles throughout the year is to support student wellbeing and to promote a positive student experience, regardless of whether, like us, they have chosen to live in RGU accommodation or in a privately rented flat. We are working to maintain and increase this support where we can to ensure that our students can overcome the challenges we currently face. So far, this support has taken many different forms, from checking in with our students over the phone; creating and delivering food packs to those who have been unable to get to the shop; working with the Student Help Point to direct students to local delivery services; and generally being available for a chat with students who are social distancing on their own. Our main aim at the moment is to make sure that all RGU students know that we are still here for them.
