While Camosun College’s campuses remain quiet, students and staff are gearing up for a semester that is, in every way, new. The college is offering most of its student services remotely for the fall semester, and so is the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS).
An exception to that is part of the UPass validation process, where, through the Camosun website, students can book an appointment to come and pick up their UPass, which will have a BC Transit validation sticker on it.
Most other CCSS services, says CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte, are available online. Students can opt out of the health and dental plan, for example, through the CCSS website.
WalkSafer has been postponed for the fall. The program has both volunteer and paid positions; Turcotte says the CCSS isn’t doing any new hiring right now.
“We tend to have a policy with any good employee, [if] they’re coming back, we’ll try to hire them again,” says Turcotte. “In those situations, we’re going to try to give first preference to those individuals in relation to outreach hiring that we might do.”
Turcotte says there won’t be as much hiring as normal, given what’s going on with the COVID-19 crisis.
“It’s just harder,” says Turcotte. “It’s difficult. We have to have a role for people to perform before we can hire them.”
Some services that typically result in people gathering, like the student food bank, “don’t work quite as well in the COVID reality,” says Turcotte. But the CCSS has focused on other student services: for example, the student society put $25,000 towards the college’s Erasing Barriers to Education Fund and $10,000 towards the Camosun Cares Campaign, a project that gives hampers featuring food prepared by the Culinary Arts program to students.
“We’ve also invested money in a food hamper project being run by Camosun International to distribute food,” says Turcotte. “It’s not just international students, from my understanding.”
The CCSS has also contributed “close to $10,000” to the college’s Financial Aid Fund.
“We’ve been seeking to address student needs through that, and other people have come to the plate, as well,” says Turcotte. “People are trying to help, but it’s difficult to meet all the needs.”
See camosunstudent.org for more info on the services the CCSS is providing for students this fall.