What about the co-curricular activities?

Maybe because I view students participating in co-curricular activities as a valuable component of university life, or perhaps because co-curricular activities is my profession, I wonder how students will still be able participate in all the things that happen on a campus outside of the classroom once colleges go predominately online. As I have come to grips of the fact that online education will no longer be a choice, but a reality, and as I read the literature that describes the future of higher education, I have been thinking about how students can still be exposed to some of the same learning and social opportunities that they are today. I am referring to living in a dorm, joining a Greek organization or club, running for student government, sitting on committees with faculty, and participating in intramural sports or even NCAA sports. And so, even when I get excited about learning and thinking about the possibilities of distance learning, I find myself stuck on the co-curricular and extra-curricular aspects of campus life. Ernest L.Boyer in his book Campus Life: In Search of Community (1990) lists 6 Principles of Community that include Purposeful, Open, Just, Disciplined, Caring, and Celebrative. How can distance learning support community?

Okay, so I need to think creatively. Perhaps instead of being on a school athletic team, cities or communities have club teams, maybe Greek communities are locally based along with other clubs. Maybe there are learning bases or communities where students meet to study or have discussions no matter what online college from which they are taking classes. Mark Baulein, in his article Literary Learning in the Hyperdigital Age in the World Futurist Society Magazine, articulates that nondigital space will still be needed to learn classic writing – a balance will need to be made between digital and nondigital outlooks that create a productive tension between technology and the conventional approach to writing. Perhaps online colleges and universities will contract with such centers that offer particular courses like writing and then enable community to be created around opportunities that were once available on the traditional campus. In the name of student development theory and my profession as a dean of students I need to be thinking outside of the box and dreaming of the possibilities to engage students where they are challenged with social, civic,  athletic, and pre-professional opportunities to facilitate the growth for students to become productive and global citizens.