As part of the Fall 2020 Advanced Reporting class, USF student journalists were curious about how student leaders perceived this strangest of semesters. Was it successful? Safe? How difficult were their jobs?
Here is a sampling of what they found:
Teresa James-Scavotto, president, Botanical Gardens Club
“We can only do so much and I have a lot of patience for the University, so with them postponing games, I probably wouldn’t go myself right now but I’m just generally disappointed with the whole situation, I know it’s out of USF’s hands so what could you do.”
“We’ve been around for a long time and we’re the liaison between the gardens and the student body and we can’t be a very good liaison when things are online, so it’s been tricky but a good test of my leadership skills.”
— Thomas Supeau
Julia Johnston, president, College Republicans at USF
“Now we’re not really able to reach a lot of students. It also makes it harder to gain membership when we’re not allowed to have Bull Market or have a table out on campus.”
“If [the university] is allowing students to go to class if they are social distancing and wearing a mask, then we should be able to have club meetings following the same format in person.”
“It is affecting our club specifically because we are the College Republicans. We have a presidential election this semester.”
— Natalie Hernesman
Truman Hoang, president, Hip Hop Club at USF
“Although in person meetings would be better, I am very grateful that USF is having all events online because I live with my grandparents so if I catch COVID it’s a very big deal.”
“Definitely, of course, I feel like we would be able to get more members if we could meet in person, we would have food at the meetings and shirts and of course a lot of people would come just for the food alone.”
“Hip Hop Club is about learning about the culture, about freestyling, collabing and sharing music tastes and I feel like the club has been exactly what I imagined, in the best case scenario.”
— Jack Albury
Ellie Levesque, chapter president, Planned Parenthood Generation Action USF
“People are really trying to get involved right now, especially with the election going on.”
“We’re really just trying to keep things on the safe side… we’re really trying to create a fun environment for everyone to stay active politically and socially.”
— Rayna Kanas
