Financial Aid Access During the 2020 Pandemic Period

During the 2020 period of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education delivery changed drastically. Using document analysis and interviews with staff and students, in this article I address how the practice of financial aid changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff reported that these changes created problems with technology and radically increased workloads. Student stories indicate how changes in financial aid practice could exclude low-income students, and how access to certain technologies delayed students' receipt of aid. © 2022 NASPA.

The Consequences of a COVID-19 Campus: Student and Staff Views of Financial Aid Practice the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic closed many college and university campuses as education moved online in 2020. Using interviews and document analysis methods, this article describes how the experiences of campus closure impacted financial aid staff and the students interacting with them. Specifically, it applies the theory of sense of belonging to both staff and students to investigate the question: how did campus closures impact financial aid practice and student and staff sense of belonging? The paper includes recommendations for both legislators and administrators to improve financial aid, even after the pandemic.

‘Going digital’ - Lessons for future coastal community engagement and climate change adaptation

Recent decades have witnessed a steady increase in efforts from a range of actors to facilitate and support meaningful and effective engagement with coastal communities and stakeholders. Indeed, this move towards improved participatory approaches are increasingly framed as being integral to successful and sustainable management of coastal resources and spaces, including in the context of climate adaptation The effectiveness of the processes, structures and frameworks underpinning coastal community engagement has always been subject to external and internal drivers;however, the global threat posed by COVID-19 presented, and continues to present, an unexpected shift in approach, and the need for rapid adaptation by those of us working within these spheres. Using the Coastal Communities Adapting Together (CCAT) project as a case study, we explore how engagement with coastal communities and stakeholders in the project areas of Fingal, Ireland, and Pembrokeshire, Wales, has been impacted and forced to adapt as a result of COVID-19. Through a qualitative data collection process, we explore how project teams across different scales have rapidly adapted their models of community and stakeholder engagement, identify successes and failures, and explore challenges that have been faced. Finally, we consider if the legacy of COVID-19 has provided an opportunity for coastal community engagement approaches being used across the globe to become more diverse, adapting to new technologies and increasing accessibility and effectiveness. Insights identified as fundamental to successful adaptation and enhancing resilience include: a rapid response to change, adoption of a diversity of techniques, broadened participation and supported social learning and knowledge exchange.