Mass email risk communication: Lessons learned from COVID-19-triggered campus-wide evictions in Canada and the United States

Abstract

From an out-of-province/state and international post-secondary student perspective, this article (a) explores mass email risk communication facilitation during the COVID-19-triggered campus-wide evictions in Canada and the United States; and (b) develops relative recommendations to improve mass email risk communication strategies for future emergency response. Investigating mass email risk communication-related impacts on students in a tertiary educational context has revealed a significant deficit in emergency response research, practice, and policymaking. Mandatory temporary university and college closures during the COVID-19 first wave provided an opportunity to address this research and practice deficit, as most Canadian and American universities/colleges administered their eviction communication via daily mass email chains. Through a phenomenological lens, this study interviewed twenty out-of-province/state and international students, ten from each country respectively, to examine student eviction experiences associated with intensive mass email risk communication. This research identified four factors linked to mass email risk communication: email chain characteristics, student interpretation, interdepartmental cooperation, and frontline voices. Synthesizing these findings, four evidence-based recommendations were developed: to efficiently convey risk information to students, to understand student perceptions and to inform their behaviors, to enhance interdepartmental cooperation, and to enable mutual dialogue in decision making. These recommendations could assist post-secondary institutions, and other organizations, in strengthening their mass email risk communication strategies and advancing organizational emergency response plans for future extreme events.

Adaptability, Interdisciplinarity, Engageability: Critical Reflections on Green Social Work Teaching and Training

“…In non-disaster settings, macro-level social work strategies advocate for inclusive policies and programs to protect everyone when disasters hit [ 81 ]. Since vulnerable and marginalized populations are always more detrimentally affected by extreme events, social workers should provide a particular focus on these groups in disaster settings.…”

Social Inclusion of Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds: New Strategic Approaches to Educational Counselling and Communication

“…-the need to improve communication, all forms and channels (Aabdi et al, 2022;Landa et al, 2021), the diversification of strategies among all parties involved in the educational act is not new, but it becomes all the more imperative in the post-COVID context (Wu, 2022;Makgahlela et al, 2021;Rubinger et al, 2020); -a priority that all educational actors agree on is the -provision of efficient Information Communication Technologies (ICTs)‖ (Makgahlela et al, 2021, p. 130;Landa et al, 2021);…”

College Students and Environmental Disasters: A Review of the Literature

“…As mentioned prior, much of the recent research on college students and disasters focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic caused widespread educational impacts and college students uniquely experienced these impacts because, in many instances, both their educational and living environments were affected by mandated closures (Wu 2022). Meanwhile, each year college students are exposed to acute environmental disasters like floods, wildfires, and hurricanes, but the consequences of this exposure are understudied.…”

“…Universities should play an active role in disseminating and fostering a culture of disaster risk management among college students and the community. This is particularly important in countries with high levels of risk (Wu 2022). Villasana et al (2016) stressed the critical role of education as a potent instrument for instilling awareness regarding the significance of prevention and deliberate risk management in the development of the nation's future leaders.…”

“…Recent research in the field of disaster studies has centered on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. College students have been adversely impacted by the pandemic, experiencing mental health problems, academic disruption, and socioeconomic issues (Wu 2022). While Soc.…”