By Amani Hassan

‘Student Life’ (SL) and similar student experience-focused entities in universities emerged within the last decade, partly as a response to the importance of “student experience” as a category on international rankings. However, departments such as SL’s Clubs and Leadership Development (CLD) now have an additional significance in the post-pandemic university, as they represent the first profession dedicated to supporting student engagement on campus. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, students’ lives were significantly restructured through encouraged isolation and the expansion of online avenues for participation. For many, this resulted in the erosion or loss of ‘third spaces,’ or reliable social spaces outside work and home. While such widespread digital access is beneficial for ensuring accessibility and equity for disabled students on campus, it has also changed how students regularly interact with their academic environment. 

 In my case, the digitization of every school event after the start of the pandemic had slowly weakened the deep connection I once had to my learning communities. By the time I was starting my first semester at the University of Toronto in 2021, I thought nothing of online orientation and frosh events and had low expectations of forming strong relationships with classmates. It was not until I joined a small program that I began to meaningfully engage with my fellow students: I was suddenly in at least one small class a semester, always full of 15-30 familiar faces who shared similar interests. Yet, for true opportunities to connect, it seemed there needed to be some structure– a ‘reason’ to meet. I thus joined our new course union, which was officially recognized by the university through the CLD. This group has since become my first significant ‘third space’ in the university that enriches both my social and academic life on campus.

Through the formal recognition process for clubs, CLD offers students support in accessing university resources to make such opportunities possible for even the most underrepresented student communities on campus. Their staff also bridges academic and social aspects of university life through workshops, awards, social events, and guidance for student leaders, fostering community in a space where ‘naturally’ getting involved is improbable. However, my research at the department illuminated that there is still much to learn about how it can most effectively foster community in the university. Although they are professionals in the field of fostering student engagement, the staff at SL do not have all the answers. They noted that a comparably small portion of the student population participates in certain events and services. The SL communications department sends out mass emails to promote their events, yet students find the email blasts and web pages overwhelming and not engaging enough to encourage participation. Both student leader and SL perspectives also revealed that the highly bureaucratic nature of many student-staff interactions seems to deter student engagement. Although there is room for improvement, my research and my own post-COVID experience convinced me that the CLD performs an essential role in fostering community on campus by providing students the opportunity to form a ‘third space’ and recover from normalized isolation.