The outbreak of COVID-19 forced many student events and campus activities to move online. Students — especially freshmen — said this resulted in a struggle to make friends, find things to do and create or attend engaging activities.
Social work and pre-law freshman Sydney Flynn said in an email the struggle to find in-person involvement opportunities during her first year made it extremely difficult to make friends.
“I came here with no one — no one from my high school came here, and I didn’t really know anyone else from other schools coming to OU,” Flynn said. “It’s just been really difficult to try and find people to be friends with without really having in-person outlets to meet people.”
Flynn said although she got involved in a variety of groups such as OU’s Class Council, the Black Student Association, the BSA Brigade, Cru and the OU Dance Marathon, all of these organizations have been affected by COVID-19 safety protocols.
“We hardly have events, and when we do, there are (only a) few people there,” Flynn said. “I’ve heard in years past it has been super fun and enjoyable. This year (has been) fun, but it was just so much sitting around. It felt like everything was off.”
Flynn said finding things to do outside of the groups she participates in was extremely difficult. She said social distancing and virtual events impacted her ability to make friends, which eventually caused her to stop wanting to go to events altogether.
Senior President of the Union Programming Board Riley Mainord said the UPB tried to make virtual and in-person events as engaging as possible.
Mainord said the UPB board put on multiple events over the past two semesters, including movie nights over Netflix Party, virtual trivia nights and UPB meetings where students could get involved in planning things on campus.
“It is hard because there is ‘Zoom fatigue’ out there, where everyone's spent all day on Zoom doing interviews or Zoom classes,” Mainord said. “We try to engage people using the chat feature, and we try to keep it to somewhat of a minimum, so it doesn't disrupt presentations that are happening and things like that.”
Several studies focused on Zoom fatigue have been conducted since the COVID-19 outbreak. During Zoom meetings, some people feel they have to focus more for fewer social responses, and others feel they cannot control their personal space when viewed over a screen.
Stephnee Hiserodt, a staff counselor and licensed clinical social worker at the OU University Counseling Center, also spoke to how COVID-19 isolation and distancing negatively affected students and staff.
“Humans, whether they're introverted or extroverted, are social creatures,” Hiserodt said. “I've seen isolation affect relationships with roommates and partners. Even for ones that prefer living alone and are more introverted, the isolation has really taken a toll on mental health.”
OU students have also felt COVID has taken a toll on both mental health and the ability to communicate with others. An overload of Zoom and virtual activities have resulted in psychology freshman Annie Murray feeling like she’s missing out on a true college experience.
“I was looking forward to (in-person) lecture classes,” Murray said. “I feel like that’s a quintessential college experience, to be in a massive lecture hall with lots of peers, be able to meet all sorts of new friends, and soak in the feeling of being at a big school. Instead, I was on Zoom, where I didn’t get to meet my professors or classmates.”
Murray, who is also a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, said Greek life was also altered by a lack of in-person events due to COVID-19.
“(The pandemic) has drastically changed the way we operate,” Murray said in an email. “We don’t have date parties or sorority-sponsored mixers. Our sisterhood events are seriously limited in number and activity type.”
Murray said the Panhellenic rules requiring certain sizes and locations for Greek philanthropy events have affected her ability to connect with members of the sisterhood.
“(These rules) makes it hard for all members of the sorority to join in sometimes,” Murray said. “It’s not anyone’s fault at all, it’s just the way things are right now. The girls on our executive team are working really hard to make things fun and amazing and get us really involved as much as we can with our philanthropy. It’s just not going to be the same until COVID is no longer a pressing topic.”
Mainord said the UPB explored ways to engage and create fun events for students. Although UPB’s annual OU Dancing with the Stars event — a show usually held in Meacham Auditorium — went virtual, she said there wasn’t a significant drop in attendance.
Mainord said upwards of 100 people came to the show. She said this number could be even higher if they took every Facebook participant into account.
In the beginning, Mainord said UPB events mostly consisted of virtual movie or trivia nights. Since then, the UPB board has “gotten a lot more creative” with what to do with a virtual format.
“I'm incredibly proud of the team that we put together this year,” Mainord said. “Our whole motto is to bring life to the union, and that was hard for a little bit whenever we were supposed to stay away from that space. So I'm just incredibly proud of our team and all the hard work that they put into this year, and I'm glad that I've been able to work with them.”
President Joe Harroz wrote in an email on March 2 that OU plans to return to fully in-person classes in the fall 2021 semester with necessary safety precautions in place. However, he also wrote changes will occur as the pandemic progresses.
Not only will in-person classes resume, but Harroz also announced the university’s plan to hold football games at full capacity, allowing for some normalcy to return to the OU campus.
Despite the reopening of campus next fall and the efforts made to create unique virtual events by organizations like UPB, Flynn and Murray said the COVID-19 precautions taken for campus activities have negatively affected social interaction.
“I think that COVID has really affected how people can even interact with each other,” Flynn said. “It’s hard to be approachable with a mask. I think that, in the beginning, COVID also placed a fear in people that prevented (them) from going out.”
Murray shares Flynn’s opinions that COVID-19 has altered relationships between students.
“COVID has made it so hard for people to connect,” Murray said. “Opportunities have been cut and changed significantly. Classes are different, campus events are radically changed and we don’t see one another the same way from behind masks and screens. It’s stifling human connection.”
