WKU News

WKU has passed the six-week mark since the start of the fall semester, following lots of safety precautions amid the worldwide pandemic.

In this week’s View from the Hill, WKU’s Amy Bingham tells us about a Student COVID-19 Task Force that’s been assembled to provide as much support as possible to their peers.

“They are a phenomenal group of 16 individuals who just bought into this.”

This is WKU’s Student COVID-19 Task Force.

Dean of Students Lynne Holland says it made sense to gather students from all four corners of campus to help navigate the pandemic.

“Residential students, commuter students, athletes, non-athletes.

Senior Mya Peoples says she was nominated for the Task Force by her advisor for Black Women of Western, one of several groups she’s affiliated with on campus.

 “Come together and kind of  be like a focus group for broader parts of campus so people know what’s going on in individual groups through the eyes of the students.”

Will Downing, President of Phi Delta Theta, says the task force is looking for ways to motivate and encourage students during this unusual semester.

“We all have the same goal of staying on campus and not just being able to stay on campus and kind of not just for it to be day-to-day survival thing but for students to have a positive experience.”

Being six weeks in with all the restrictions, Peoples says it’s become more important than ever to provide support.

“For the most part I feel like everybody’s at the point where they have mask fatigue. They don’t want to wear their masks anymore. They’re still doing it but it’s not as fun, it’s not as cool.”

“Yes there’s an element of fatigue. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t think wow, how much longer? Well we don’t know, we don’t know  how much longer. As a result, we’re just gonna do it.”

Meeting once every two weeks via Zoom, the task force members offer feedback and strategize different messages encouraging students to hang in there and stay the course.

“I mean they were home for months. That does something to your mental health, that does something to your spirit in a way and I think just to be back with their friends and with people that are kind of going through the same thing as them. I think they are following the rules.”

The Student COVID-19 Task Force will soon launch a social media campaign encouraging students to celebrate positive things that have come out of the pandemic.

• More: Healthy on the Hill