Creating academic community during a pandemic

[Hegemony]

I'm faced with managing a small department during our current conditions. There are ten grad students in total — it's only a two-year program, and so every year there are five second-years and five new students. They've always been a tight-knit community.

We have a couple of weeks before our semester starts, but the powers that be have designated our particular program all-online. For various reasons, it looks as if about half the cohort will be doing their online courses from somewhere else, not from in town, so an in-person gathering wouldn't be possible even if it were advisable.

So I'm tasked with creating community despite all these obstacles. This is where I'd love your help.

One problem is that because of our complicated set-up, most of these students won't be in seminars or classes together. Normally we'd have departmental events and so forth to help them get to know each other.

Another program at the university has instituted a thing for their grad students where they're going to have a weekly Zoom "professionalization" session for their grad students. So I'm wondering if I can adapt that idea somehow, and devise a weekly session that would fulfill some useful educational function, allow the students to interact, and create community at the same time.  Some possibilities might be:

• A weekly mutual work session of a couple of hours. I participate in several of these myself. We all log on at a specified time once a week, talk about what we're going to be working on, get to work (either with Zoom on or Zoom off), and after two hours check in again and mention how it went. The work can be on anything: writing, reading, filing, whatever.
• A regular (weekly? monthly? fortnightly?) mini-seminar in which a visiting professional chats about their work and jobs in the field.
• The same only with university faculty related to the field
• Part of our field (think: new media) involves the study of video games and other games. We could set up an ongoing "seminar" in which people try out games with another student (games to be assigned/designated and funded by the department), and report on the kinds of issues we talk about. Could be fun and useful both?

The problems are:
1) I feel these would need to be required, or else students would be too shy, intimidated, distracted, or disinclined, which defeats the point of having a central event that gets everyone together.
2) My colleagues think these are terrible ideas, that no student should be required to do them, and that the students should just be left to their own devices.

I hope you can sympathize with my aims, even if you don't think these particular ideas will fly. We all know that disengaged students tend to get demoralized, and what I'm hearing from students who've already started their all-online semesters elsewhere is that they do feel isolated and discouraged.

Tell me what you all think, ideally in a kind way. And if these ideas don't sound workable, what would?

[polly_mer]

To summarize what I read:

* You have a program with only 10 students, but somehow they don't have classes together.

* You have a program that includes study of games, but you don't already have mechanisms/courses/seminars that involve students playing the games and discussing them in the scholarly manner that you could just move online.

* You have a program that looks as though it is designed for non-academic jobs, but you don't already have a seminar/workshop career exploration series you can move online.


I have to agree with your colleagues that the ideas proposed are unlikely to led to the kinds of social bonds desired.  Establishing a regular series of career exploration seminars/workshops would good, but with such a tiny program, they would have to be mandatory to get enough discussion.  As a student, I would be quite annoyed about a new requirement of that type that wasn't discussed for a term or year to really plan for something worthwhile with substantial input from current students and recent alumni.

[mamselle]

I was in independent study programs throughout my degree studies, and the ones with the required seminars or outreach programs definitely created more bonding than the one without.

If they're into games, maybe just a " games night" for openers, but go to presentations on methods, research, conference participation, and modeling of how to listen to a paper, offer appropriate scholarly critique, etc.-- and maybe some of the Q/A that arise here from grad students on " when should you publish?"

Or "what level of participation is appropriate in scholarly settings where you're still "only" a grad student, but your work is getting some attention in the press?"

Or "how do you maintain a life of scholarship and contribution to your field if you find yourself isolated in a place with few incentives or support structures for your work? (Which looks to be, increasingly, the case...).

Open up the field to the kinds of discussions we have here about the differences between humanities, social sciences, and lab sciences in terms of degree expectations, grant and funding structures, research institution communities, etc.

You could help socialize them into the wider academic world as well as their smaller community, and yes, I'd require it, with a reflective paper or two on, say, 1st half, "Research issues and methods;" second half, "Participation in the world of academic work (or not)" (..i.e., explore alternative models as well ).

Order food to be delivered to their homes wherever they are, if you have a budget for that, so it becomes a pleasant time of shared meal conversation as well. I've done that several times now with friends--called up whatever they wanted and charged it to my account--whether in-town or halfway across the country.

We Zoom, munch, and talk....almost like being in a restaurant, without the worry about those pesky germs...

It's a cool way to underscore the "getting together to chat" dimension while also, just a bit, compelling attendance since they'll know you know they have a sandwich, etc. waiting for them, and that underscores how much you want their presence.

Our seminars were every Monday the first term, and every Wednesday the second, with lunch served by the folks from the faculty dining lounge...not the school caf....to underscore the professional aspect for us.

We had paper presentations by faculty on a rota, with discussion to follow over the meal.

Very civilized--and I'm working on a short position paper on theological anesthetics for a colleague from that program this week--now many years ago, but it worked, we're still in touch.

M.

[Hegemony]

The games element is a new specialization and this is its first year; that's why we don't have it readymade to move online. The games part was supposed to begin in spring semester, but we could move it forward informally.

One third of our students go into academic jobs, one third into a certain kind of field in the work world (specifically into one of two major kinds of jobs), and one third into a whole range of more or less related fields. Because of this variety, there are a whole lot of courses at the university that they can take, and so the courses they do take tend to have one or two other students from our department, and then a whole lot of students from different departments. The diversity of careers also means that it's a challenge to find professionalization topics that are relevant to the whole cohort.

Of our current ten, one will be in western Europe and one will be in eastern Europe, so I don't think ordering food for them would be a simple business.

Of course it would also be a benefit if whatever option we choose does not require massive arranging and arm-twisting of colleagues on my part, since current conditions mean that many of us (and me in particular) have been working long hours all summer trying to find a way to make the fall semester work, and responding to the weekly drastic changes of plan handed down by the university. And many of us (and me in particular) don't have the bandwidth for many more initiatives that take a great deal of time, effort, and energy. So I was hoping for something that would not need massive micro-managing — hence the communal work sessions idea.

[Parasaurolophus]

On the games front, it depends exactly what you're talking about, but it may well be that an online version is available through, e.g., Steam, and that would allow department members to play together (although you'd have to get a licence for each player, of course). Many board games are available this way these days. You might not have the funds for multiple games, but it could be pretty fun to set up regular inter-departmental Carcassonne matches, for example. Or a regular departmental round of D&D, which apparently plays well over Zoom.

I think that a regular online brown bag talk/professionalization workshop is a great idea. So is a regular colloquium (every two weeks to once a month). I don't think the challenge will be getting students to attend--rather, I think it's your colleagues who are the weak links here. If you don't already have a colloquium tradition, or a brown bag talk tradition, the people most likely to blow it off are your colleagues. And if too many faculty blow it off, especially early on, then that will infect the students. But if it's clear to everyone that everyone is expected to attend and attendance is generally high, then social conventions will do the work of enforcement. So to pull it off, I think you really need to chivvy your colleagues into the first few meetings. But if it's like a colloquium series, then they'll be getting good research bang for their Zoomy buck.

Your colleagues can help, of course, by building attendance to these events into their classes somehow. So, for example, with a colloquium series, it's not uncommon for departments to set things up so that every student in the pro-seminar has to read an article by the scheduled speaker beforehand and formulate some questions, or a reflection on the article. That requires some pre-planning, of course, and might be harder to set up at this point; but you (or they) could also have students write up a brief debrief reflection after the talk. Or something to that effect.

[polly_mer]

Big picture: Hegemony, what's the purpose of trying to make these students form a cohort?  They won't really be colleagues and peers for decades.  It doesn't sound like they can help support each other through shared classes and related activities.  Nothing seems to indicate a welcome to the extended community of alumni and all their contacts.

The work session idea implies a workflow/home life that isn't true for many people.  I would greatly resent being forced to participate in someone else's idea of how creative work progresses, especially for a regular time that doesn't match my preferences (who's ready for the 0500 session on Sunday morning or the 1900 session on Friday night?).  My kid is pretty occupied during 9-4, but I know that's not true for everyone.  I've had to screen calls from family members and far flung friends who don't seem to realize that I'm still busy most normal business hours (I'm writing now during lunch) during the pandemic.  I can imagine grad students having that same problem.

but it could be pretty fun to set up regular inter-departmental Carcassonne matches, for example. Or a regular departmental round of D&D, which apparently plays well over Zoom.

Don't do this 'mandatory fun' unless you do an anonymous survey and everyone agrees.  D&D does play well over telecon, but it's miserable to be forced coerced strongly encouraged to play with work colleagues.

Many 'popular' board games like Carcassonne just suck when there's a big range from enthusiastic modern gamers who sneer at the classics that 'everyone' knows to the people who have trouble mastering the rules of the classics that are aimed at ten-year-olds because they don't particularly like games.

[epistephiliac]

I just became the director of research this summer, which includes heading up our doctoral program, and am facing a similar challenge when it comes to building community. I've set up a series of almost-weekly virtual events on Fridays aimed at doctoral students and faculty, trying to cover a range of topics: guest speakers, preparing for comps, productivity tools and reference managers, etc. Our semester started last week and our first session had a colleague talking about the research group she created last year which has already produced several successful papers and conference presentations; this week we'll talk about how to organize and propose a conference panel.

I'm hoping that the various subjects and the virtual format will bring in both current students and alumni as well as research faculty.

The first session was well attended, so fingers crossed it's a good omen for the future.

[Parasaurolophus]

Don't do this 'mandatory fun' unless you do an anonymous survey and everyone agrees.  D&D does play well over telecon, but it's miserable to be forced coerced strongly encouraged to play with work colleagues.

I didn't get the impression that the suggestion was a mandatory games session. But if they were, then yes, that would be bad.

Establishing regular (voluntary!) gaming sessions seems like a great way to build community. If you can afford to rotate through games, it could provide not just a shared experience, but also some valuable common content for analysis in presentations, essays, etc.

[polly_mer]

Don't do this 'mandatory fun' unless you do an anonymous survey and everyone agrees.  D&D does play well over telecon, but it's miserable to be forced coerced strongly encouraged to play with work colleagues.

I didn't get the impression that the suggestion was a mandatory games session. But if they were, then yes, that would be bad.

Establishing regular (voluntary!) gaming sessions seems like a great way to build community. If you can afford to rotate through games, it could provide not just a shared experience, but also some valuable common content for analysis in presentations, essays, etc.

I don't know about the scholarship of games. 

As an experienced organizer of voluntary games among colleagues to promote socialization, I will mention there are some serious pitfalls because of what 'board games', 'fun', and 'social' mean to broad segments of the population. 

People who really just want to play something like Uno as a nice break with some chatting aren't all that happy at being rotated through Puerto Rico and vice versa.

Better is breaking into groups that have their interests mostly met every week.

[Hegemony]

If we were a different kind of department, the games element would indeed feel like awkwardly forced "fun." But since one of our fields is the possibilities and implications of online entertainment, it might be professionally profitable even if the particular game is not much of a hit. For instance, the Untitled Goose Game (that's its title) may not be the kind of thing everyone would normally do in their off hours, but having spent a couple of hours playing it, in its new two-person format, will mean that players will be able to speak more knowledgeably about the game in their work, to future employers in the game industry, etc. However, in my view I wouldn't require anyone to play the games; I'd just try to get a cohort of games volunteers going, and emphasize that participating now may give them a head start when our games module starts up again, as well as being a pleasant way to "work."

As for why I would want to build community, well, apart from the fact that that's long been one of the strengths of our program, and a good source of networking after graduation — apart from that, I guess it's one of those things where if you don't see the point, nothing I say will be persuasive. Some people value engagement and relationships, some people don't.

[fizzycist]

To summarize what I read:

* You have a program with only 10 students, but somehow they don't have classes together.

* You have a program that includes study of games, but you don't already have mechanisms/courses/seminars that involve students playing the games and discussing them in the scholarly manner that you could just move online.

* You have a program that looks as though it is designed for non-academic jobs, but you don't already have a seminar/workshop career exploration series you can move online.


I have to agree with your colleagues that the ideas proposed are unlikely to led to the kinds of social bonds desired.  Establishing a regular series of career exploration seminars/workshops would good, but with such a tiny program, they would have to be mandatory to get enough discussion.  As a student, I would be quite annoyed about a new requirement of that type that wasn't discussed for a term or year to really plan for something worthwhile with substantial input from current students and recent alumni.

I think the bolded bullet above is the best reason for you to give up and work on something else.

Perhaps the students should be building community with the other students they are actually in class with?

I mean this semester is total crap in so many ways, no need to make your life or their lives harder than they need to be.

[polly_mer]

As for why I would want to build community, well, apart from the fact that that's long been one of the strengths of our program, and a good source of networking after graduation — apart from that, I guess it's one of those things where if you don't see the point, nothing I say will be persuasive. Some people value engagement and relationships, some people don't.

I'm a huge proponent of networking and relationships.  That's why I wonder why you're trying so hard to force a particular set of relationships that seem to have only the downsides of time, energy, and effort invested upfront with few/none of the upsides of regular and sustained engagement with the relevant communities.

You've got 10 students who are doing such different things that they don't have any reason to be together while in the program and they are preparing for very different lives postgraduation.  Having a tiny network in the sense of "I know your name and we were at the same institution for a year at the same level" is far less valuable than having a larger network of people who will think fondly of the newcomer and pass along opportunity notices as they arise to help the newbie out.

Nothing you've suggested is strong networking with the alumni and community to learn the non-classroom aspects and become known as individuals to the broader community.  At best, there's the once-in-a-while seminar/workshop proposed on professionalism that might sometimes have current practitioners in the field rotate through once.

So, again, I ask what you are trying to accomplish by forcing engagement in this way, especially when your faculty colleagues point out the suggestions for engagement aren't good for your students?

[Hegemony]

Well, the department wants community and I agree that it's a good idea.

[Caracal]

To summarize what I read:

* You have a program with only 10 students, but somehow they don't have classes together.

* You have a program that includes study of games, but you don't already have mechanisms/courses/seminars that involve students playing the games and discussing them in the scholarly manner that you could just move online.

* You have a program that looks as though it is designed for non-academic jobs, but you don't already have a seminar/workshop career exploration series you can move online.


I have to agree with your colleagues that the ideas proposed are unlikely to led to the kinds of social bonds desired.  Establishing a regular series of career exploration seminars/workshops would good, but with such a tiny program, they would have to be mandatory to get enough discussion.  As a student, I would be quite annoyed about a new requirement of that type that wasn't discussed for a term or year to really plan for something worthwhile with substantial input from current students and recent alumni.

I think the bolded bullet above is the best reason for you to give up and work on something else.

Perhaps the students should be building community with the other students they are actually in class with?

Different disciplines and different programs work in different ways.

There's a lot of value in having interaction and community in a grad program even among people who don't take classes together. Certainly, my grad program was more traditional in the sense that most people never took classes outside of the department and most of the people in those classes were from the program, but I probably still only actually took classes with about half the people in my cohort. However, we all spent a lot of time together and knew each other well. Some of that was because of required workshops and things like that, but it also helped that we saw each other all the time in the grad lounge and the library.

It makes sense that hegemony would want to try to recreate at least a little of that. It isn't going to be the same, but it might help a bit. Maybe you could just send out a survey and gauge interest and availability? Some people might not have the time or bandwidth, but others might really want the chance to interact in an informal setting with people in their program.

[hungry_ghost]

I think community is very important.
I had good friends in grad school who were in different programs/tracks in the same department, and they were just as essential as students I had classes with.
I wonder if it would be possible to communicate with all the grad students, to say, "normally we do A, B, and C, and a good community develops. For obvious reasons, this is not an option this year, and we have considered these possibilities. What appeals to you? What would you participate in? What would you be willing to actively support as a service commitment?" (yes grad students should also be doing service on some level though you may not want to use that term.)
I'm not phrasing this well, but I guess I would say that the grad students themselves need to buy in and actively take this and run with it. And hopefully they will. This would be win-win, less work for you and more beneficial to them. So give them that opportunity.