Capturing the COVID Narrative

The full implications of how COVID-19 will impact higher education probably won’t be realized for another four or five years. Still, there’s much we already know about the pandemic’s effect: lower than expected enrollments, fiscal challenges, and increased disenfranchisement among students are just a few of the immediate consequences.  

The 2020-2021 assessments in co-curricular and student support services provide authentic and compelling evidence of COVID’s effect on Utica College students and operations. In particular, the report from the Department of Athletics offers a narrative about a year when “all of the plans in place . . . had been compromised,” a year of “twists, turns, starts, and stops” for which there was no playbook.

One method used to assess the student-athlete experience is the “Athlete Viewpoint,” an instrument that measures student-athlete commitment and well-being, team culture, academic advising, institutional acceptance, and, in 2020, the impact of COVID.

A significant finding from the department’s assessment was that more than half of student-athletes who responded to the survey indicated challenges with mental health. The report notes that COVID-19 created a “rapidly changing landscape” and “student athletes did not know what roadmap to follow . . .  to successfully start and complete a season.”

In response to this finding, the department plans to provide student-athletes access to more internal and external mental health and general health and wellness resources.

While the 2020-2021 academic year witnessed countless challenges and disappointments for UC’s Department of Athletics, the report also shows that despite these hardships, our student-athletes persisted and, in some instances, thrived. Close to 90% of conference games were completed, 43.75% of eligible teams finished among the top 4 teams in their conference, 31.25% qualified for playoffs, and over a quarter of the teams advanced to the conference championship.

Assessment is more than quantitative evidence gathered for the purpose of compliance. It is a way to use evidence to tell a story. The report from the Department of Athletics is a story of student-athlete resilience, and, I might venture to add, story of historical significance.