Stall Talk was one of the pillars of communication at Capital University in years past, something that was used by students and staff alike to get a handle on who and what was happening around campus. However, with the recent COVID-19 restrictions, the weekly installments of Stall Talk have been put on hold.
“We wanted to eliminate putting extra people in spaces that they did not necessarily need to be in,” said Deanna Wagner, Dean of Student Engagement and Success.
The SCE’s resulting strategy was to look at how Stall Talk would work in a hybrid world. First, having staff members replace old Stall Talks with new ones week in and week out is not the best for preventing the transmission of COVID-19, as bathrooms are some of the tightest places on campus.
One of the solutions was to implement semester-long Stall Talk in the physical place of the previous weekly Stall Talk. The other was to better utilize the platforms of Engage and Corq to the point where they are essentially digital versions of the weekly Stall Talk.
The final decision to invoke this change was made in September just before campus reopened.
Part of the reason the two digital programs are being so strongly encouraged is that they are exponentially easier to use from a logistical standpoint.
“It allows us to give up to date information to students if an organization has to change an event to completely remote,” said Wagner.
With traditional Stall Talks, they would have to reprint all the copies of Stall Talk and replace them due to one change in one event.
It simply does not make procedural sense to use Stall Talk in the paper form, when Corq and Engage, which are supposed to act as a digital version of Stall Talk. These platforms can be used quicker, cheaper, safer, and with more efficiently.
In addition to student organizations, campus offices are using Engage and Corq as well. For example, if everything goes to plan, when the tree lighting happens closer to the holidays, the SCE will likely make a post on Corq and Engage.
Students have shown interest in the return of Stall Talk as well.
Annie Stemen, a third-year majoring in communications and political science, said that she likes to quickly be able to know what is going on and who is producing it.
Nielsen Johnson, a second-year childhood education major, said he liked that it was a more accessible way to get a hold of what was going on around campus.
Regardless of the current situation, Wagner said that the SCE plans to reinstate the good ole’ fashioned Stall Talk this January at the start of the 2021 spring semester.
