By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Change is almost always stressful and, with Fort Hays State University students asked to quickly adapt to the transition to online courses and many moving off campus for the rest of the academic year, the university has developed a network faculty staff and fellow students to ease the difficulties many students are facing.
The care teams initiative is being spearheaded by Taylor Kriley, assistant vice president for student affairs and student engagement.
Over the next two weeks, a group of around 75 faculty, staff and student leaders will make nearly 10,000 phone calls to students to check in on students and asses their personal and scholastic needs as the semester continues.
"We want to see how they are doing during this somewhat challenging time," Kriley said. "We wanted to jump in right away and show the true tiger spirit of care because that is one of the best things we can do right now, is just care for one another."
The teams are all serving on a volunteer basis.
"It's really exciting that we have everyone joining together rising to this occasion to lend a hand to all of our students that are transition in whatever situation they are in," Kriley said.
'It's really the Tiger way.'
The teams will work to address student safety and security concerns, share insight on academic support and help students to figure out what comes next, she said.
"We are really trying to be creative in the way we are tracking student success," Kriley said. "There will come a time when we reach tomorrow with COVID-19 and when we do we want to make sure our students are successful and ready to go."
The teams will have different areas of focus group of students, based on their classification, location and modality of learning with support for upcoming graduates to help them transition to the job market.
The program will also help locate local resources for students that are no longer able to use support programs on campus, while the Kelly Center will continue to work with students in need remotely.
"As our care team follows up with students if we identify a student that could use a call from our counseling team we definitely connect them with the counseling center to get the support they need," Kriley said.
"It warms your heart in a time like this to be able to see our community come together and provide support," Kriley said.
