Noah Dantes
Editor-in-chief
The Collegian gathered updates from student organizations around campus from Sept. 3 to Sept. 29. Each update was provided by the student leader of the organization and has not been altered in any way. This article will be updated as the Collegian receives more updates from student organizations.
ASWU
The Associated Students of Willamette University (ASWU) will be holding our weekly senate meeting on Zoom every Thursday at 7pm. Each member of the Executive team will hold weekly office hours on zoom. President Mathews-Lingen will have her office hours from 2:30-4pm on Thursdays, Treasurer Burke from 3:30-5:30 on Wednesdays and Chief Justice Johnston on Thursdays from 11:30am-12:30pm. Vice President Mary Robicheaux will have hers Monday, Wednesday from 3-5 and Friday 3-4. ASWU meetings are open to the public: the Zoom link will be in Today@WU every Thursday.
-Claire Mathews-Lingen
Climate Action Alliance
The Climate Action Alliance will be holding our regular club meetings on Zoom this semester. We plan to work on pushing the university to develop a formal Climate Action Plan, and work in collaboration with other student organizations to engage in the political process with a focus on climate policy. Anyone who would like to be added to our listserv or has any questions about the Climate Action Alliance can reach out to Daniel Smith at desmith@willamette.edu.
-Daniel Smith
College Democrats
College Democrats is still doing a lot of work this semester. We have weekly phonebanking opportunities with local candidates, weekly meetings over zoom (email Jade Macer to get involved), and other election season stuff like postcard writing to young voters, debate watch parties, and voter registration events. Most will be online and over Zoom whenever possible, so email Jade Macer, Quinna Sypher, or Andrew Hull to get involved or follow @collegedemswu on Instagram to see what we’re up to!
-Quinna Sypher
CTCA
For CTCA, we will be doing all of our weekly meetings virtually and will be doing a mix of hanging out, games, watching movies/videos. We're unsure of what our bigger events will look like but we're planning on doing "grab and go" programs where students can pick up goody bags and then use the goody bag during a virtual event.
-Tara Hickman
Disability Advocacy Club
We are planning to meet via Zoom for the foreseeable future, with hopes to do some online events this semester as well. We are unsure if we will hold any in person events at this time during this semester. Our meetings are from 5-6pm every Monday on Zoom. Anyone interested can send me an email and I will add them to the mailing list.
-Landry Ferguson
Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Pre-Health Club
In a typical year our club hosts multiple blood drives with the red cross in Montag Den, brings in speakers to give mini seminars to our club members, and fosters mentor-mentee relationships. The biggest change to the club's functioning this semester will be the inability to host any blood drives on campus as campus is closed. This semester will certainly feel different, but we are going to strive to still help our members build those community connections and experience those guest lectures virtually. We are also going to try to expand our plans to include online volunteering and educational opportunities.
-Sara Streete
Kappa Sigma
Kappa Sigma will be operating completely online for this semester - everything will be held over Zoom, so that we don’t take any risks with improper social distancing and mask-wearing.
-Zachary Haroian
Koto Club
Our teacher will be leading club meetings through Zoom. I was originally planning on having us meet in our normal room and follow along with her on a Zoom call, but since we're a small club, I was thinking of doing the same thing as Sanshin Club and allowing members to borrow a koto.
-Na'aleaukahi Wilhelm
Nerf Club
Currently, our fate for this semester (and potentially year) is mostly in the hands of the Sports Club Union and the Reopening Committee, but for the time being we are planning and preparing on the assumption that we will be cleared to hold meetings and fling some foam in the next few weeks. That said, there will be significant changes to club operation no matter what decision is made.
We are doing our best to adapt to the current policies put into place by Willamette, including but not limited to social distancing, mandatory face mask-wearing, constant sanitization, and limits on group sizes. We will be taking measures to reduce crowding, physical contact, and sharing of equipment, among other things. Our officers have proposed several options for addressing everyone’s collective safety during this pandemic, and as we move closer to hopefully being able to Nerf, we will decide on the best course of action to take, adhering to Willamette guidelines.
-Evan Kohne
Pep Band
Pep Band is not happening because there are no sporting events happening this semester. We are thinking about trying to put on concerts, in person or virtual. But there is further discussion to be had before this becomes a reality.
-Jake Procino
Russian Club
Russian Club is a fun and laid-back club where you can immerse yourself in Russian culture. There will be Russian candy (individually wrapped) at the meetings. Knowing the Russian language is not required! We will be having our meetings every other week on Thursdays from 6-7pm. These meetings will alternate from being outside of Ford and on Zoom, often depending on club member input. We want to maintain Russian Club's relaxed nature while also staying safe, so for in-person meetings they will be outside, if possible, and socially distanced. We will have masks and hand sanitizer at every in-person meeting. Apart from this we have Zoom meetings where we can watch movies and chat. Russian Club is a very welcoming and low-commitment organization that can be very fun while also being educational.
-Christina Clothier
Sanshin Club
We are allowing members to borrow a sanshin to keep in their rooms, and we are planning on meeting over Zoom.
-Na'aleaukahi Wilhelm
Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi is working diligently to comply with any and all COVID-19 and fire safety restrictions. Before the smoke, we were holding outdoor chapter meetings in Bush park on Friday nights. Since the smoke, we have been doing zoom. This includes all other Sigma Chi related meetings. With that said, we are still working towards our goals for community service and philanthropy. This includes a MOD pizza fundraiser this coming Sunday (9/20) with all proceeds going towards the families who lost property in the fires. As for recruitment, no official word, but if anyone is interested in joining our organization please reach out to myself at <whuntington> or our recruitment chair at <edclawson>.
-Will Huntington
Taiko Club
We're still trying to decide whether we will be meeting in person and playing at a distance from each other or if we won't really meet at all. Many students from last year have either graduated or stopped coming, so we need to find out who will still be active in the club.
-Na'aleaukahi Wilhelm
WEMS
Due to the fact that WEMS is a medically-oriented organization that provides real medical care to the Willamette community, we have had to take extreme measures to ensure the safety of our members. Of the measures taken, we have closed requests to provide standby first aid to on-campus events and have ceased to be on-call, meaning we will not be providing free emergency care to the community until our medical director deems the circumstances safe enough for us to continue. This decision did not come to us easily and was the result of us caring for the safety of our responders above all else, seeing that above their position in WEMS, they are students first and we do not want to risk their health or education. Along with this, due to the world shortage of protective medical equipment, we are not currently able to adequately protect our responders from disease transmission if they were to be on call rendering care.
Normally, WEMS is available to provide training sessions on a variety of topics, however, to minimize the risk of spreading COVID, we have stopped taking requests for these services as well (unfortunately, this includes our yearly fall EMR certification course). We have also moved our weekly meetings to be online via Zoom to better prevent the spread of this virus.
In this time of a global pandemic, we have only continued to train and educate our current members to maintain our standards of skills and knowledge even though we are not in service.
-Nathan Brown