Supporting Aboriginal students during the campus shutdown

Ellen Bertani Aboriginal Student Engagement Officer University of South Australia

I work at the University of South Australia (UniSA) as an Aboriginal Student Engagement Officer for Wirringka Student Services – the University’s Aboriginal support unit. Usually, my role sees me positioned in the Wirringka Student Centre on campus where I interact, support and contribute to creating a culturally safe environment for Aboriginal students on campus. The main purpose of my role is to support the recruitment, retainment and completion rates for Aboriginal students at the University. Like many employees and my fellow colleagues, I have transitioned to working from home due to COVID-19. Whilst understanding the necessity of the changes for both students and staff to work remotely in order to ‘flatten the curve’, immediate concerns have come to mind about how these changes might amplify the disadvantage experienced by some of the University’s most vulnerable populations.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people continue to disproportionately experience economic disadvantage due to the ongoing impacts of colonisation.

Ensuring that these students would not be disadvantaged due to the move to online studies has become a priority for my team. To help with this, UniSA has announced a financial hardship grant and in addition,

an Aboriginal Supplementary Grant was released for Aboriginal students to apply for funds to purchase technological equipment so that they can continue their studies from home.

Fortunately, the University’s response to these needs has been swift and ensures that students will not be disadvantaged in their studies due to financial hardship. In addition to financial support, the University has allowed a ‘grace period’ to the census date to give students time to evaluate their study choices without financial penalty.

The impacts from the move to study and work online is a transition to which many people around the world are adjusting.

Acknowledging that many Aboriginal students thrive in a face-to-face learning environment, it has become apparent that many are struggling with the isolation from their fellow students and teaching staff as well as the additional anxieties around their own health and that of their families and communities.

It is essential that students feel connected to the University and its support services. So, keeping in contact with fellow students about the support the University has available has become a priority. We have found that calling students directly and asking them how they are going and what they might need is the best way of engaging with our students. Due to social distancing and working from home, we are not able to continue the informal relationship building with our students that is such an important part of this role.

For example, for now, we are not able to continue our face-to-face lunches with students. Therefore, like many educational institutions, we are in the process of developing workshops and tools to increase and maintain a meaningful engagement with our First Nations students to ensure their studies are not hindered and that a certain amount of flexibility is available as well.

In South Australia in particular, we are seeing a stabilisation of new cases of COVID-19 and beginning to hear of intentions to loosen restrictions. As we consider opening the world up again, it is imperative that all institutions, employees and students take the same collective responsibility to ensure the safety of our vulnerable populations. •