Changes

The Student and Faculty Emergency Committee would bring students, administrators, faculty and staff together to provide resources to those who are affected by a life changing event. One thing that was shared by many students was that it is difficult to locate resources on campus. The idea is to allow the committee to come up with a whole list of resources that students can utilize and find ways to better serve learning obstacles that may come with a national emergency.

Most students are not solely students. Many are employees, mothers, volunteers, student leaders, and much more. Due to the pandemic, many of the roles that students have are now different with new challenges and uncertainties, but it seems that the university did not consider these roles when shifting to remote learning. For instance, DACA students did not receive any emergency funds or specialized help when the pandemic happened. Other students had to pick up new jobs, were suffering from severe mental illness and more due to the pandemic, but each of these problems were not acknowledged when UNO shifted to remote learning. On top of this, students are overwhelmed with their plates and without the outlets, they previously had available, like studying in public spaces without fear of exposure, seeing friends often, and being able to easily communicate with professors. With this in mind and the knowledge that students were already experiencing high stress before the pandemic, we believe that a change should be made to improve and incorporate the livelihoods of students.

To do this, we want to create a student-focused week. This week would allow students to take a break from the ever-growing assignments and responsibilities and instead relax and remind themselves why they are going to college. First, this week would not have any due dates and instead only completion based tasks. This way students can focus on actually learning the matter rather than being graded. Next, there would be no major tests or projects during this week and the first three days following. This way students can focus on the current material without the burden of something major coming up soon. On top of this, classes should be student-centered that bring in speakers or focus on a topic related to the course. This way students can understand the material from a different perspective and engage in learning typically not offered by the curriculum. We also want to provide students with a week of services that they normally would not be offered, such as, a speaker series, massages, legal services, and other self-care services. Lastly, we want this week to emphasize partnerships. Students, staff, faculty, community members and more should be provided with any resources needed to take part and create opportunities for other students during this week. Overall, the goal of this idea is to provide students with the opportunity to focus on their passions and relax without the stress of traditional education.

====Tactic #4 Innovative, Changed-Focused Spaces (Joey Gruber, Marissa Morales, & Ryan Chapman)====