Adjust and Adapt: Resnick Center Grades High in Pandemic Learning Environment

When the world abruptly changed in March of 2020, within Temple's Athletics, every facet of the department had to adapt in dramatically different ways. The Resnick Center, the department's academic and professional development team, had an immense amount of weight on their shoulders.

The Resnick Center reports up to the Office of the Provost, specifically the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Assessment & Institutional Research. This placement within the University structure allowed them to play a key role in the school's response to the pandemic.

Senior Associate Athletic Director for Academic and Career Services, Justin Miller has led the Resnick Center's successful and agile response to the pandemic. Miller also sat on the steering committee for the University's return to campus this past fall.

Of course, there are two main focuses for the student athlete, academics and athletics. When the pandemic reached the United States, the decision to have all classes move to online came a few days before the official decision regarding the shutdown of spring athletics. Miller's team had to react and ensure that student-athletes were prepared for the transition.

"We got wind of the decision to transition classes to being remote, and the most important thing was to ensure that technology for our staff and our student athletes was sufficient" said Miller, "We had to ask students if their homes were even wifi-connected."

Miller added that "it quickly became business as usual." The student-athletes demonstrated resilience and adapted well to the new dynamic of learning.

The student-athletes were similarly impressed with the quick adaptation by the Resnick team. Temple lacrosse player Bridget Whitaker explained this in saying, "there was no break with tutoring the second classes went online. Right away the Resnick Center found a way to get us the tutoring help we needed. This was a combined effort between the advisors and the tutors for being so available!"

Golfer Matt Kristick shared his thoughts as well. "My advisor Nick Plack has done an amazing job helping us through these difficult times," explained Kristick, "we as a team have always considered Nick to be the backbone of our team and it couldn't be truer than during these times.

The lockdown in the spring, in many ways seemed like a temporary measure, however, in terms of the way business and academia get done, this has started to become the new normal. Over the summer, it was now the job of Miller and his team to ensure that student-athletes were properly placed for the fall, and that they were keeping track of schedules that were seemingly changing daily.

"Getting students in the correct courses was paramount, and then discussing with individual students on their preference of mode of learning" Miller added.

In addition to the volatility of academia, the Resnick team had to address the professional development aspect of their services as well. Miller explained that having over 100 graduates entering a desolate job market was a major challenge. However he noted some of the advantages of the virtual setting, "over the summer and into this fall, we were able to double down on alumni engagement because of the ease of the virtual setting" he said, "we engaged with alumni from all over the world."

In addition to student-athletes, Miller had to keep in mind the safety and circumstances of his staff consisting of more than 10 employees. "It was difficult to balance putting the student-athletes first, what the student-athletes need and what the advisors, as employees feel comfortable with", Miller said, "heading into the fall, we were planning a rotation of hours, seating plans and more, then when we transitioned to all online, that kind of pulled back."

Within academics, major corporations and many different areas, the way of working will likely be forever changed. This is similar within academic advising. "I think that advisors miss the student-athletes and the act of performing non-traditional advisor roles, such as providing general guidance" Miller said.

The ability to conduct sessions remotely and other positives to come out of the pandemic are aspects that Miller sees as long-standing changes for good within the Resnick Center.

Temple University Athletics

Adjust and Adapt: Resnick Center Grades High in Pandemic Learning Environment

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