CSUN Students: The Impact of a New Reality

Photo by bantersnaps on Unsplash

College students across the country have felt the impacts of COVID-19. At California State University, Northridge we’ve had to adapt to our new reality of online courses. As the student body continues to adapt and grow, there are still many challenges we face and will continue to face as we approach the one- year mark of being in quarantine.

When I first got word that COVID-19 existed, I would have never dreamt that it would change my college experience for good. My last day on campus before spring break would be the last time, I walked up the library steps, the last time I would work out at the Student Recreation Center and the last time I would see my closest friends for a year.

Throughout the pandemic, students and faculty have had to make the difficult adjustment from in-person to now fully virtual classes. Yearly events that students looked forward to had to be canceled or reimagined for a COVID world. As these changes happened, student engagement and motivation lowered significantly. I would like to know why this is happening and when the decline in student involvement took the biggest drop.

With CSUN having a wide-range of students from all different backgrounds, being virtual has caused students to face many hardships. From bad Wi-Fi connection, to work, to personal hardships this transition has not been easy.

The biggest issue that has come across is students not being given the college experience they signed up for. Students who also are not from the San Fernando Valley aren’t able to use the resources given by the university during these times.

As I finish out my college career, I want to know how CSUN is trying to engage with its students and keeping them motivated. As we enter a year of being in a COVID world, the motivation students had is starting to go down. Instead of getting involved and attending events, students are trying to get through each day at a time while some are hanging on by a thread.

With new information about COVID-19 coming in every day, students and staff and constantly being informed of what is to happen next. I learn this information mostly from social media and I assume most students do as well.

Moving forward, I think that the CSUN student community could be represented better by providing more resources to students who are close to campus but are also further away. I also think that having a better understanding of what college students are actually going through, could better show the effects COVID has had on young adults.