Five years after CovidStudent associations
It’s easier to talk mental health
Door Giulia Fabrizi
By Giulia Fabrizi
Giulia Fabrizi
Van uit de hand gelopen studentenfeestjes tot bezette universiteitsgebouwen en van kamertekorten tot dreigende bezuinigingen: Giulia houdt al het nieuws in de gaten. Ze praat graag met de mensen die het aangaat, schrijft erover en begeleidt freelancers bij het maken van nieuwsartikelen. Eerder werkte ze als stadsredacteur Groningen en gemeenteverslaggever Haren voor Dagblad van het Noorden.With the Covid pandemic far behind us, life has gone back to normal. But has the virus had any lasting effects on the university, and if so, what kind of effects? What, if anything, has improved, and what things will never return to the way they were? In this series of articles, UKrant looks into how the pandemic affected education, student association life, and our social behaviour.
‘The board was flummoxed.’ Student association Cleopatra averaged fifty or sixty new members at the start of any given academic year. But in 2020, they suddenly received 140 applications. ‘We only have five hundred members, so that was a significant number’, says external officer Danique Schuiling.
Other student associations also saw a rise in registration. Bernlef, which usually gains twenty to thirty new members, suddenly had fifty new applications, when the association only had 120 members at the time. ‘It was a pretty big challenge for the board; we suddenly had to organise bonding activities for fifty people at a time when this was particularly difficult’, says Jildou Bouma, Bernlef president.
Drawing lots
Larger associations, like Vindicat, Albertus, and Dizkartes had to draw lots for the first time in years. In 2021, Dizkartes had 1,090 applications, when they only had room for three hundred new members. At Albertus, 1,632 new students applied to the five hundred available slots.
‘Drawing lots was completely new to us’, says Wibe Kaak, Vindicat rector. The association upped their number of available spots to 450, but even that wasn’t enough. ‘We still haven’t returned to the numbers from before the pandemic. Every year, we have twice as many applications as we have slots available.’
He’d love to see a change, be able to accept everyone who wants to join. ‘We take our lots to a solicitor, who then gives us a list that states who’s in and who’s out.’ While people who’ve applied for a second time get a double lot to increase their chances, there are always disappointed people. ‘It really sucks when a board member has to tell their brother they can’t join.’
Strange time
The social student association flourished during Covid. In spite of the lockdowns, social-distancing rules, the closed pubs, and the lack of organised activities, students still flocked to associations en masse. The summer of 2020 saw a rise in applications, and the trend continued the next year.
We had to actively work to bring some committees back
‘I myself joined in 2020’, says Schuiling. In Cleopatra’s case, the large influx led to thirteen ‘tribes’ (this is what Cleo calls its year clubs) instead of six or seven, and many of the new members were unfamiliar with ‘regular’ association life.
‘It was a strange time to join’, Schuiling recalls. ‘We went from dancing, chatting, and getting together at the club house to suddenly not being able to do any of those things.’ Since not all associations have their own student houses, their members were dependent on meeting at the club house. ‘A lot of people from those years ended up becoming inactive or leaving altogether.’
However, the ones who did stay were extra motivated. ‘We’re the kind of association that doesn’t have any obligations; people come here when they feel like it. I think that’s why people were so eager to come over. When the club house opened up again, we were filled to the brim in no time.’
Relearning
But it was clear things were different. For instance, when the associations needed to set up committees to organise activities once those were allowed again. ‘Under normal circumstances, committees would be passed down from one year to another. But some committees were so inactive we had to work to bring them back’, says Schuiling. Without the benefit of the experience from the previous year, some committees had to practically reinvent the wheel.
Students who’d become used to life at their student house also needed some time to reintegrate into ‘normal’ association life. ‘We were allowed to go back to class and we were allowed back in the club house. We had to relearn how to combine the two’, says Bouma. It also took a while to get used to each other again, she says. ‘We hadn’t seen each other for a long time, and to walk in and see all these new members was a whole thing. We were like, who is everyone?’
House parties at the same time as association events were unheard of before
At Vindicat, which has a lot of members that live in houses that belong to the association, they noticed different effects. ‘People went from getting together at the association pub to getting together at home’, says Kaak. ‘Early on, people even organised parties at home at the same time as a scheduled association event. That never would have happened before the pandemic.’
People were also wondering how to behave once they were allowed back at the pub. ‘It was clear that people felt more connected to their own house. While they felt connected to Vindicat in name only; they weren’t familiar with any of the traditions of association life.’
One example is the get-togethers where everyone sings their year club song. ‘Normally, people would stop talking and sing along. But now, no one else knew the words and they would just keep chatting to each other.’
That kind of behaviour is unheard of for anyone at Vindicat from before the pandemic. ‘The only thing we can do to keep these traditions alive is to keep going until everyone is used to it again.’
More drug use
There was another effect of people staying home or only going to house parties. ‘Drug use has increased and become normalised among students’, says Kaak. ‘There’s no two ways about it. It’s probably one of the scariest effects of the Covid pandemic.’
While before, students might only do drugs at a specific party, they now do them in public, he knows. ‘People were doing drugs in the living room during the pandemic, which has lowered people’s inhibitions about where else to take them. But we’ve always had a zero-tolerance policy at the association, and we’ll continue to that policy in the future’, he says. He can’t police what people do in their own homes. However, if members get caught doing drugs at the club house, they will get expelled.
Sometimes you just have to be strict about your policies
This happened with a handful of members during Covid, says Kaak. These people tested positive for drugs while at the club house. ‘We don’t do random tests. There has to be a good reason. If someone is clearly under the influence, for instance’, he explains.
Of course, not all members who test positive necessarily took those drugs while at the club house, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences. ‘Sometimes you just have to be strict about your policies to set a good example’, says Kaak.
Bouma agrees. There were a few drug-related incidents at Bernlef as well. ‘Four years ago, the board came up with a zero-tolerance drug policy. After we enforced that policy a few times, the number of incidents decreased. Sometimes, you just need to take action.’
They don’t drug test at Cleopatra, but they did notice a ‘small spike in drug use’ near the end of the pandemic, says Schuiling. ‘We’ve made it clear over the past few years that we don’t tolerate it, and it hasn’t become a habit among our members. If someone does look strung out, we’ll start an investigation. That could result in suspension or expulsion.’
More room
But there are also positive things that have become more normalised, such as talking about your feelings. The pandemic led to students feeling increasingly lonely and depressed, and they turned out to have a great need to address this. They’ve partially turned to their associations for this.
‘It’s one of those things we’ve really started focusing on after the pandemic’, says Kaak. Vindicat set up a committee on well-being, and hired both internal and external confidential advisers. ‘People really needed to talk to someone at the association, like a confidential adviser. We’ve also realised how important it is to talk about things like regular or seasonal depression. I’m really happy that we’ve all become more open about that after the pandemic.’
Cleopatra has also noticed this need among its members. ‘There’s much more room to discuss mental health these days. We’re at the point where people just talk about it casually at the pub’, says Schuiling. ‘It’s become easier to talk to each other’, Bouma agrees. ‘Not because people feel pressured, but because we’ve become more aware of it. ‘It’s become much easier to check in with people and ask how they really are.’
So if there’s anything positive about the pandemic, the associations agree, it’s how much more open we’ve become about our mental health. ‘People become very close when they’re part of an association. So when we all feel the same way about something bad that happened, it’s much easier to talk about it’, says Schuiling. ‘That might just be the secret power that associations have during times like these.’