While in an ongoing pandemic, there are many challenges that have come up and there are going to be many that continue to arise. One challenge that many people are having across the country is doing college online, staying positive, and having social relationships. Students and faculty have been “encouraging students to stay positive and still have interactions” stated UW-Platteville, but there are some activities that students may not realize are available to them on campus and online.
One contributor to the student activities is CPR, also known as Campus Programming and Relations. CPR is a student-run, paid, organization that provides a fun area that you can attend between homework and classes. Currently, they have one faculty member, Rebecca Vaassen, with Abigail Gnewikow starting in January. After talking with a few members of CPR, I can tell that they enjoy their jobs, and love to see students attending events and having a good time.
With COVID-19, “CPR has been very cautious. We are making sure to enforce capacities and mask policies” said Micaela Murphy, who has been a member of CPR for three semesters.
CPR is ensuring everyone that they are following all campus regulations regarding COVID-19, which includes mask mandates, maximum capacities, monitoring attendees’ temperatures, and sanitation. They are trying to ensure safety precautions within their events.
CPR has social media accounts that you can follow to keep up to date on activities such as “@cpr_platteville” on Instagram and “@Campus Programming and Relations “on Facebook. They also send out weekly updates through the school emails. CPR does activities such as painting, bingo, and even have done a selfie scavenger hunt.
On December 10, starting at noon, CPR will be giving out holiday grab and go bags for free in Pioneer Crossing. These bags contain an ornament decorating kit, hot chocolate mix, candy, and more surprises! Be sure to get one quick though, because Grab and Go’s tend to go quick.
As well, there will be a concert held in Pioneer Crossing on December 11, at 7:00 pm by Grayson DeWolfe, where you can enjoy some pop music while decorating cookies and make pompom wreaths to get you into the holiday spirit! If you aren’t able to attend in person, you can also view it on zoom.
“Virtual attendance hasn’t been ideal,” says Michaela Murphy, “but compared to last semester the virtual attendance has gone up.”
A few of the members from CPR such as Michaela Murphy, Kelley Nelson, and Rachel Coulthurst had all mentioned that the zoom activities don’t have as much interaction and attendance, while the in-person events have maxed out on capacity many times. On Zoom they are seeing anywhere between 10 and 30 attendees and can only have 50 people at in-person events, and usually have to turn people away. Pre-COVID-19. they would see over 100 attendees at some events, says Rachel Coulthurst.
They had also said that the Grab and Go events, which are bags that are made to come and pick up and take back to your room with you that have an activity within them, are very popular. This semester CPR had 10 virtual events and 8 in-person events. Some events were both held in Pioneer Crossing and on Zoom. Prior to COVID-19, all events were in-person (Kelley Nelson). They all agreed that they would like to see more interaction with students overall. They want to see everyone be happy and help to give a morale boost to students in these hard times.