Campus clubs look to the future amid pandemic

With the coronavirus pandemic closing NKU’s campus for the Spring 2020 semester, several campus organizations are in disarray, and organization leaders are wondering how to plan for the fall semester—if there even is one.

Emily Coy, outgoing president of campus radio organization Norse Code Radio, has been scrambling to find new members as “almost their entire e-board is up for grabs.”

“We’ve been focusing on finding members who are ready to take on more responsibility and finalizing e-board roles and responsibilities,” Coy said.

However, they aren’t having any meetings at all, as the pandemic has made it much harder. They also aren’t currently broadcasting either. 

“We figured out a way to stream remotely, but there wasn’t much interest from members in continuing their shows,” Coy said.

Coy said being able to host their live sessions—as they did in November, December and February—is the thing she misses most about being on campus. The organization was planning to host another one of their “Live at the Loch” events on March 27 featuring Louisville-based riot grrl band Shark Sandwich, but it was canceled when NKU’s campus closed down for the semester.

Kayla Augsback, president of NKU’s scuba club, said their club also hasn’t transitioned meetings online. 

“We didn’t feel that there would be enough content to keep an online appearance with the shutdown, as we have no ability to plan for any trips until we are sure things are open again,” Augsback said.

However, they are selling new merchandise for the club online that members can purchase and ship to their house at any time. For the fall semester, they are rescheduling all of their planned trips once everything is safe, including their planned “Try Scuba” event and a club trip to the Georgia Aquarium. They’re also planning to make a splash at NKU’s annual recruitment event FreshFusion next semester, and are looking into fundraisers to help with the cost of trips and equipment. 

Augsback said she misses everything about campus, from the club to her friends to even just attending class in person.

“I miss seeing everyone’s faces and getting to talk to people and tell people about scuba club! I feel like we’re still a pretty small club and have a lot of room to grow,” Augsback said.

Ray Archer, president of the campus organization for queer men and masculine-aligned people Friends of Dorothy, has moved the club online by utilizing social media and the communication app Discord. However, the organization has temporarily stopped all meetings or events to focus on completing final exams.

Archer said he posts regularly on Facebook and other social media to keep in touch with other members. 

“We’ve tried to get together over Discord or Zoom, but it’s hard to while everyone is still working on school work, so we’re planning to do more once finals is over,” Archer said.

Archer said that an e-board has been selected and the organization is planning to sell t-shirts as a fundraiser in preparation for the fall semester. They’re also planning to attend FreshFusion as well. 

Friends of Dorothy had just started a few weeks before campus shut down, so Archer said there wasn’t even much of a chance to build up a membership. Next semester, he hopes to hit the ground running and grow their club as much as possible. Archer said he misses being able to see everyone and wishes he could be back on campus.

“This semester I really felt like I’d finally found my place at NKU and then it was kind of ripped away from me. I definitely won’t take anything for granted once we’re back,” Archer said.