Campus Kickoff is going virtual

by Catalina Myers  |   

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Campus Kickoff is going virtual this year, but the student-oriented event celebrating the beginning of the fall semester will still have all the fun, games and prizes as past events. (Photo by James Evans / University of AlaskaAnchorage)

 UAA’s Campus Kickoff is heading into the virtual space, offering online Seawolf Safari fun this Saturday, Aug. 22 from 5-7 p.m. Registration is currently available for students to sign up, but day-of registration will be allowed before the big event.

Despite the minor setback due to COVID-19, Kim Morton, director of Student Life and Leadership (SLL) at UAA, says this year’s virtual kickoff will give the normal event held in the Cuddy Quad a run for its money.

“I think we have a really great lineup in spite of what we typically have lined up in the Cuddy Quad,” Morton said. “We usually have tables with campus departments, student organizations and community partners, but we’ve translated that into a virtual platform called Remo. This platform allows us to recreate a similar experience to the one on the Cuddy Quad with tabling.”

Morton said over 70 departments, student organizations and community partners will be tabling at this year’s event and that students can make their way through the virtual world — meeting and talking with table hosts. In addition to the traditional tabling, on each virtual floor, there will be engaging activities for students to participate in, from a virtual escape room, a scavenger hunt, a caricature artist and a Valorant tournament, a new esports game launched over the summer, but will be hosted separately from Remo’s platform. Additionally, faculty will be on hand for students to network with and ask questions about the university and upcoming school year.

Morton added that no Campus Kickoff is complete without fabulous prizes and this year is no different.

“For the students that participate in the scavenger hunt, we will have a Macbook Pro, AirPods and GoPro cameras,” said Morton. “As they make their way through the platform they’ll be asked to do certain things, which will then enter them into a drawing for one of those prizes.”

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Registration is open for Campus Kickoff 2020, Saturday, Aug. 22, 5-7 p.m.

 Morton said Remo is an amazing event hosting platform with similar capabilities as Zoom, which has been widely used as the “go-to” meeting and conference platform for professionals, but that Remo offers a more intimate experience, allowing students to interact more closely with the departments, student organizations and community partners, similarly to the way they would during a typical Campus Kickoff event on the Cuddy Quad. Similar to Zoom’s breakout rooms, Remo has virtual rooms, but only allows up to eight people per room, plus a host. Additionally, the host will have a virtual “whiteboard” to share marketing information, materials and video for students to peruse while they move from room-to-room.

Morton said she and the SLL team have been working all summer to take a normally 1,000-plus in-person event online and believes that she and her team have successfully created a fun and engaging Campus Kickoff experience for students. Although the traditional kickoff event is a well-oiled machine, this year’s took a lot of creative planning to make sure the event was not only entertaining but inclusive of all students as well.

“In order to make sure that Campus Kickoff is fully accessible to everybody, we will be hosting a simultaneous Zoom room,” Morton said. “If someone doesn’t have the capabilities through their computer to jump onto Remo or needs special accommodation, they can jump on and enjoy the event through Zoom.”

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Kim Morton, director of Student Life and Leadership at UAA, says more than 70 departments, student organizations and community partners have signed up to table at Saturday's virtual event. (Photo by James Evans / University of Alaska Anchorage)

 Morton said that for students who are unable to use Remo but would still like to have a conversation with one of the tabling organizations, they will be able to pull a host into Zoom to answer students’ questions. 

“We will also have interpreters at Campus Kickoff in Remo, so if a student needs an interpreter they will be able to come on screen and walk from room-to-room with them,” said Morton. 

Morton said she is excited about Saturday’s event and hopes that students, faculty and staff will take the opportunity to stop by the virtual event, especially since the campus community has been separated for so long due to the global pandemic.

“It’s great to be able to see faces that you haven’t seen on campus,” Morton said. “While this is an event for students, it’s also a time for us to interact with colleagues and get ready and excited for the fall semester.”

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