By Sanaa McPherson
Tallahassee Community College Student Government Association is continuing to encourage student engagement in campus activities despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Student engagement helps promote deep personal development, according to Campus Compact, a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents.
Charlie Davis is the director of Student Life at Tallahassee Community College, whose role is overseeing student activities like clubs and organizations. He said getting students to attend extracurricular activities online is difficult.
“We just have to continue to be creative with platforms that we utilize and different engagement opportunities that we do,” said Davis.
Davis said SGA is not getting the level of participation the organization is used to in a normal semester. He has noticed that more students tend to be involved in fun activities such as the virtual dance party, where students gather on Zoom to dance and listen to music with their peers.
“Our virtual dance party of course was a hit,” said Davis.
Students already spend so much time in Zoom classes that they tend to not show up when there are guest speakers organized by SGA because it feels like another class.
In addition to the guest speakers and virtual dance parties, SGA members are coming up with new ways to keep students engaged. Periodically, SGA holds giveaways where students can stop by and pick up a gift card or a semester get-ready gift bag. Information about these events is distributed in text and emails.
¨We’re still planning and getting plans so that we can see if we get approved for certain activities,¨ said Davis. “Majority of them will still be virtual.¨
