Promise Coaches Now Assisting Students Remotely

By Elise Person, Staff Writer

Promise coaches are working from home after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order requiring all nonessential business personnel to work from a remote location, or from home.

Michael Berthel, executive dean of students, sent all students an email on March 24 informing students about the promise coaches’ move and how students can reach them. The coaches also put together a video explaining how they can help students and posted it to the LIU Promise’s Instagram: @postliupromise. Resume help, online class assistance, registering for the fall semester, and financial aid questions are all ways the promise staff can virtually help students.

Promise coaches can be reached by phone, text, email, and through one-on-one zoom meetings. Each student received an email from their promise coach that included their work cell phone numbers and a more personalized message about how to contact them and schedule meetings.

The promise coaches’ transition from working on campus to their individual homes was decently smooth and went without too many problems, according to students. The transition hasn’t changed too much about how they contact and communicate with their promise coaches.

Freshman Gina Toscano, health sciences major, said, “I usually email my promise coach rather than going into the Promise office anyway, so this hasn’t been much of a transition for me. My promise coach helped me with my fall registration with no problem, almost like I couldn’t even tell he was working from home.”

Any problems that have arisen from the promise coaches’ location change have been minor.

“I have been able to get into contact with my promise coach and she has helped me with resources for my online classes,” Amanda Masullo, junior nursing student, said. “Recently it’s been sometimes taking her a little longer than normal to respond. But I’m sure that’s just because now that they’re working from home and students are probably emailing more than ever with all this craziness going on.”

The promise office reiterated multiple times through Instagram and email that they are here for students and want to continue to offer help in anyways they can during this time.