SU Packs Fall’20 Defy COVID-19

By: Laila Ali
@laylaayman12

Photo courtesy of the Student Union

The Student Union (SU) has found a way to organize a safe pick-up of their SU Packs from campus amid  COVID-19 ongoing concerns with the fall semester being online.

They also wanted to do something different this semester in order to compensate for the lack of on-campus activities.

The pick-up event will be held on November 21 through an assembly line just like previous semesters. However, precautions will be taken in order to ensure the students’ safety; The pick-up point will be the parking lot of Gate 4 since it is an open air area, and the packs will be distributed over a 10-day period to reduce student density.

Shady Hamza, the general manager of the SU Packs, said that it is the first time ever to host a drive-through event on campus. 

“It’s going to be a very nice experience for them [students] because we have a lot of things planned in order to make the event entertaining and fun,” he said. 

Hamza added that the SU has managed to produce the biggest number of packs in a very long time.

This semester’s SU packs stand out because they are customizable as they contain different items and give students the option to choose the ones they want. 

“Why not do something different this time since we are already faced with the challenge of everything being online?” said Abdelmoneim Hassaballa, chair of SU Services. 

The SU created an online survey one month prior to the distribution of the packs, asking students to choose their preferred items so that they would receive their desired and fully-customized pack. 

However, a struggle that the union is wary of is the hassle which might result from customizing the packs and being able to sort them out, since each one is different from the other. 

Therefore, they will try to be as organized as possible by labeling each pack and making sure everything is in the correct order.

The SU created a point system after looking at the results of the survey in order to keep the distribution of items fair; They discovered that some students would not compromise and accept an item that they are not interested in. 

The point system gave each student a total of 530 points on their account in the SU App. Each item or bag will cost a certain amount of points, and students will choose whichever items or bags they want as long as they do not exceed their maximum given points.

There were 10 different categories to choose from, and each category had items related to it, this way students would easily find items that they’d like to have. The categories were bags, travel, entertainment, gym, mobile, car accessories, clothing, stationery, electronics, and others.

Another new addition to this year’s packs, is that the SU is collaborating with almost all student associations representing different majors and departments in the university.

“We made the initiative, and all associations were helpful and looking forward to it,” Hassaballa said. 

Each association will be adding an unpredictable special item related to their major.

The SU faced an uphill when their app crashed and a lot of students couldn’t customize their packs as a result. They then had to send out an email with new forms for those who couldn’t customize their packs; This was done to ensure that all students had their fair share of picking their items.

Roaa Abdel Azim, an undeclared sophomore, expressed her gratitude for the SU’s effort to overcome this challenge.

“Disregarding the fact that the SU app crashed, the process was very easy and straightforward,” she said.