Be sure to join open house initiative to help students feel connected

With the fall semester upon us, we’re looking for ways to help students connect with their campus community in ways that are safe and meaningful. Because of the pandemic, it will be easier than ever for students to stay in their dorm rooms or at home, becoming disconnected from the people and offices who are here to help them. We have to be proactive to ensure that doesn’t happen!

With that in mind, we are coordinating a two-week open house initiative where every office sets aside an hour each afternoon for students to drop by. The student life team is generously offering to fund small snacks (PO details coming!), and the marketing communications office will design a map of campus showing all the stops students can make.

Here’s how you can join the fun:

  • Agree to be available for students to drop by for conversations and relationship building from 3 to 4 p.m. every weekday of the first two weeks of classes.
  • Agree to purchase small pre-packaged snacks for students to enjoy while they’re visiting your office. (i.e. candy bars, bags of Goldfish crackers, popsicles, ice cream bars, etc.) Please let Sarah Reid know what you plan to purchase so we can advertise it!
    • Purchase 100 items to start. Hopefully you’ll need to order more soon because of how many students stop by!
    • While root beer floats and hotdogs would be fun, we need all snacks to be pre-packaged to mitigate any cross-contamination during the pandemic.
    • Maintain social distancing guidelines, find a place to host your open house (ideally outside, but indoors if occupancy limits are observed), and take other precautions to keep students and staff safe.
  • Please do not request tables or tents from Event Services for this. It is meant to feel casual, relational and organic as we seek to connect students to their community. 

Interested? Here are your next steps:

  • Contact Sarah Reid (sreid@georgefox.edu) by Tuesday, Aug. 18, at noon to confirm your participation. Please include the name of your department.
  • Share the snack you’re providing.
  • Confirm the location where students can find you.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Sarah. Thanks for helping our students feel welcome!

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2020 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Newberg employee news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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