Being a Student during the Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on Undergraduate and Graduate Student Experience

Being a Student During the Pandemic Youtube Link

June 18, 2020 | 10 - 11:30 a.m. PDT | YouTube Live | PowerPoint

The webinar will feature the preliminary results from the SERU Consortium surveys on the impact of COVID-19 on learning, well-being, finances and plans of undergraduate and graduate students at US research-intensive universities. The follow-up discussion will include perspectives from university leadership on institutional responses to the pandemic and plans to improve student experience going forward.

Moderator: John Aubrey Douglass, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley

Part 1. Brief Survey Reports (40 minutes)

Undergraduate Student Experience during the Pandemic: Preliminary Evidence from the COVID-19 SERU Survey
Igor Chirikov, SERU Consortium Director and Senior Researcher at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley

Graduate Student Experience during the Pandemic: Preliminary Evidence from the COVID-19 SERU Survey
Krista Soria, Director of Student Affairs Assessment at the Office of Student Affairs, University of Minnesota, and Assistant Director of Research and Strategic Partnerships, SERU Consortium.

The Impact of COVID-19 and Shift to Remote Instruction for Undergraduates at the University of California
Pamela Brown, Vice President for Institutional Research & Academic Planning at UC Office of the President.

Part 2. Discussion and Q&A with University Leadership (50 minutes).

Discussants:
Catherine P. Koshland, Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, UC Berkeley
Scott Lanyon, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Education, University of Minnesota

Speaker Bios

Pamela Brown is Vice President of Institutional Research and Academic Planning (IRAP) at the UC Office of the President. She began in November 2013 and manages a team that produces evidence-based analyses and reports for university and academic senate leaders to advance strategic and academic planning, address legislative requests, support assessment, and promote transparency efforts.
IRAP is responsible for the production of UC Annual Accountability Report (https://accountability.universityofcalifornia.edu/2019/), UC Information Center (https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter), and UC in California maps (http://arcgis.cisr.ucsc.edu/ucop/) that illustrate the impact of the University of California through data-driven narratives and visualizations. The team administers numerous systemwide surveys, including UC Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), undergraduate and graduate cost of attendance, and graduate student well-being, and the IRAP website (http://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/index.html) includes additional topic briefs and reports on university academic and administrative operations.
Prior to joining UCOP, Pamela worked sixteen years at UC Berkeley where her last role was Executive Director of the Office of Planning and Analysis (OPA).
Pamela received her Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Public Policy and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Mathematics both from the UC Berkeley.

Catherine P. Koshland is the Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Berkeley, the Wood-Calvert Professor in Engineering, professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health and a professor in the Energy and Resources Group. She graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts from Haverford College, studied painting at the New York School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, and received her M.S. and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. She is a former chair and member of the Haverford College Board of Managers. She is a past Cal Parent with 3 Golden Bears: Sarah (1999), Maggie (2002) and Jacob (MBA 2019).
Her reporting units include Summer Sessions, Study Abroad and Lifelong Learning (SSALL); the Athletic Study Center; the Student Learning Center; Research, Teaching, and Learning; Berkeley Connect; Berkeley Collegium; American Cultures Center; and Arts + Design. Her office also advises on enrollment planning and management, and serves as liaison for academic units to fulfill the priorities of the strategic plan to enhance the undergraduate experience.

Scott M. Lanyon has served as Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Education at the University of Minnesota since June 2016. With his leadership, the Graduate School has identified four strategic goals: 1) increasing the diversity of students receiving graduate degrees, 2) advocating for, recognizing, supporting and rewarding excellence in graduate education and postdoctoral training, 3) increasing innovation of best practices in graduate education and postdoctoral training, and 4) providing consistently exceptional service to University of Minnesota graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, graduate programs, colleges, and campuses.
Previous administrative roles at the University of Minnesota include Head of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior (2008-2016) and Director of the Bell Museum of Natural History (1995-2008).
Scott’s research career, first as Curator of Birds at the Field Museum and since 1995 as a faculty member in the Department of Ecology Evolution and Behavior at the Univ. of Minnesota, has focused primarily on elucidating phylogenetic relationships in the New World Blackbirds (e.g., blackbirds, meadowlarks, grackles, orioles) in order to better understand patterns of behavioral and morphological evolution.
Scott earned a B.S. from the State University of New York College at Geneseo (1977), an M.S. from Indiana University (1980), and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University (1985). He has served as Chair of the Board for Minnesota Audubon and as Chair of the Steering Committee for the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas project. He has been a board member for the Association of Systematic Collections, Natural Science Collections Alliance, Society of Systematic Biologists, and Wilson Ornithological Society, and served as both Vice President and President of the American Ornithologists’ Union.

Dr. Krista M. Soria (she/her) works as the Director for Student Affairs Assessment at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and is the Assistant Director for Research for the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Soria’s research includes high-impact practices that promote undergraduates’ development and success, campus climate, the experiences of first-generation and working-class undergraduates, and programmatic efforts to enhance college students’ leadership development, civic responsibility, and engagement in social change. Dr. Soria has published over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, edited five books, and authored a volume on social class in higher education. She is a Principal Investigator on several grants, including a federal FIPSE grant to investigate the impact of community service on underrepresented students’ outcomes and an ACUHO-I/NACURH grant to investigate the impact of leadership in residence halls for socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Dr. Soria also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, St. Cloud State University, St. Mary's University, and the University of Minnesota.