After the Dec. 13 shooting, the Undergraduate Council of Students launched a community assistance form that paired students with support services ranging from transportation to mental care. The form received over 2,000 responses before closing on Dec. 22.
Over the coming weeks, the UCS also plans to launch a variety of new initiatives to support students as they readjust to campus life.
Anaise Lopez-Rodriguez ’29 saw the December community assistance form “all over Instagram” and used it to seek assistance flying home earlier than originally planned. That same night, she received a response asking how much money she needed for her flight. She decided not to use the funds for her flight, but was instead put in contact with an alum who assisted with transportation to the airport.
“They even helped me carry all my luggage,” Lopez-Rodriguez said. “The fact that I could have had that additional support — it was very comforting.”
Jainisa Baudin ’29 had a “pretty positive experience” with the assistance process, but she felt that some of the finer details were unexplained. When it came time to give her payment information, she said she would have liked more information about what forms of payment were preferred and accepted.
Baudin also hoped the assistance form could “unify” their method of operations, adding that she received emails and payments from unnamed accounts she assumed were affiliated with the UCS.
After the form closed, the UCS focused their efforts on tackling requests that “slipped through the cracks,” according to UCS Vice President Eugenia Bamfo ’27.
“There were so many responses coming from alumni, the outside community, the Providence community,” she said. “It was really hard to make sure that we got everyone filtered through those who actually needed help.”
“We were in the really fortunate position to have more people who are reaching out to help than people who are reaching out for help,” Bamfo said. “It really just shows how much alumni really care.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said.
The UCS efforts didn’t stop after the form’s closure. Throughout winter break, the UCS planned new initiatives to aid students as the spring semester began.
“We want to be able to voice student concerns,” UCS First-Year Representative Cindy Sun ’29 Sun said. “So we've been talking about that and how, in what ways, we can reach out to the student body to get their feedback.”
The UCS plans to collaborate with other student groups on a number of initiatives this semester, Bamfo said. The UCS plans help compile a list of discounts and resources available to students, and hopes to work on a benefit event against gun violence, according to Bamfo, adding that the UCS is considering putting on a variety of events “just to make people happy.”
The group also plans to contribute to the memorialization of the two students who were killed and all others who were affected by the shooting, she said. A card-writing event where students can gather together to write thank-you notes to express their gratitude for those who helped on Dec. 13 and in the weeks following, is also on the UCS docket.
A variety of small businesses, such as Kebab and Curry and PVDonuts, reached out to the UCS to offer student discounts in the wake of the incident, Bamfo said. The Roger Williams Zoo also offered free zoo tickets.
For international students who were unable to return home, these gestures from the Providence community were “opportunities to just have fun” over break, Bamfo said.
“Everyone I know has realized just how precious it is that we get to spend this time with our friends and we get to be part of this awesome community,” Sun said.
Seeing her fellow students and the UCS board members offer to help one another has “really made me feel part of something and not just (like) a student at a college,” she added.
