March 28, Operational Updates

March 28, 2020 Update (View on Youtube)

Transcript:

President Feinstein (00:00):
Well, good morning. Saturday, March 28th, and this is our daily operation status report. I'd like to start out by introducing Dan Satriana, our General Counsel, who's going to play some music for us, and then I'll have Dan Maxey, our chief of staff moderate the updates. So, Dan Satriana, take it away.

Dan Satriana (00:21):
Thank you, Andy. We've got some songs dealing with social distancing, some snippets for you. Enjoy.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
(singing)

Dan Satriana (02:44):
And there you have it.

Dan Maxey (02:47):
Thank you, Dan. We appreciate that music to start our day, today, and if you want to come by and DJ my Saturday morning routine later, I'd appreciate it. Happy Saturday, everyone. We made it to the weekend. The Coronavirus task force and cabinet will not meet formally today, although a number of activities, naturally, continue through the weekend. Today we are practicing our contingency plans for the transition of incident command responsibilities, in the event that our Coronavirus task force chair, Blaine Nicholson, were to fall ill at some point. We hope that doesn't happen, but today we are joined by Kirk Leichliter, who is going to give a report on developing issues. Kirk will stand in for Blaine, in the event that Blaine is unable to fulfill these responsibilities. Before we have Kirk give his report-

Nichelle Nicols (03:40):
Mr Spock, we've pierced the interference locally.

Leonard Nimoy (03:42):
Can you raise Starfleet?

Nichelle Nicols (03:44):
No, sir, but I've got ship to ship communications back. Picking up Captain Kirk.

Leonard Nimoy (03:48):
On audio, Lieutenant.

William Shatner (03:51):
Enterprise, Enterprise, come in. Mr Spock, I am still in command and I will speak for this ship.

Dan Maxey (03:56):
I think that was Blaine chiming in, reluctantly turning over his responsibilities. Kirk, in our other reports, this morning, always if you will please be sure to unmute your microphones and turn on your cameras, when it's time. I'm going to turn it over to Kirk. Captain Kirk.

Kirk Leichliter (04:14):
Well, mine's not nearly as entertaining. Hopefully Blaine's not lurking in the background, and he's getting a day off. Okay. Some overall update information. Yesterday, Governor Polis provided a detailed presentation on some research from the Colorado, well, from CU, I can't remember which, public health folks, I think, really talking about the data behind social distancing, and the impact to hospital capacity. Talked a lot about changing the R0, right now between three and four, so every person that gets ill right now is probably transmitting it to between three and four other people, and needing to lower that number. So it was a pretty interesting presentation. A lot of data, though.

Kirk Leichliter (05:05):
Weld County received another shipment yesterday for the strategic national stockpile, so they're distributing what they did receive. I know that they never get the full order they're looking for.

Kirk Leichliter (05:18):
The Greeley Cold Weather Shelter is open. We had talked about that last weekend, when we were part of those conversations. They had 66 clients, but they do have five people they are quarantining, and they're in 24 hour operation this weekend.

Kirk Leichliter (05:34):
Statewide statistics, there are 1,734 positive cases, which is an increase of 304, as Blaine has indicated in the past, this includes positive tests and assumed numbers for people that have symptoms, and have had close contact with a positive person. 42 counties involved, 31 deaths in the state, that's up four. 239 people hospitalized, that is up 55. 11,676 tests, that's up 1,554. In Weld County, we have 147 positive cases, that's up 20. Six deaths, that's up two, and 31 people hospitalized. That's actually down by three. So feel free to reach out, if anybody needs assistance with anything today, and I will do my best to help. That's it for the Blaine show.

Dan Maxey (06:41):
Great. Thank you, Kirk. Next, I'm going to ask Provost Mark Anderson to give his report on our current impacts of the academic mission. Mark?

Mark Anderson (06:49):
Well, I've been watching the chat, and I think Dan Satriana's the DJ for the University, period, not just the COVID-19 DJ, and in keeping with the Saturday tradition, there have been no, gotten through the first week, no major issues with instruction. So for all the faculty on the call this morning, I want to thank you, for really going above and beyond, and converting your courses to an alternate delivery.

Mark Anderson (07:26):
CDHE came out yesterday with some guidance with respect to grading policy. We've had that conversation among the deans, we'll continue as the grading policy came out after the Dean's meeting yesterday. We've communicated to Kirk all essential personnel for academic affairs. We're in lockdown at the campus, beginning yesterday at five o'clock, so key card access is only available to those people who have been designated essential personnel. We're going to be having some conversations about other impacts upon the academic mission, beginning next week, and we'll have some communications. This past week, we are really focused simply on getting the instruction out into the alternate delivery, and really helping our students adjust to the new norm. I think that's all I have this morning, Dan.

Dan Maxey (08:23):
Thank you, Mark. Next up, we're going to bring Kirk back in for our daily update on impacts to our facilities. Kirk?

Kirk Leichliter (08:02):
The dogs are mad at something.

Kirk Leichliter (08:39):
So, for facilities and campus operations update, we have, as noted, made the modifications to the card access system. The lockdown is in place. We initially had trouble with some of the panels not updating properly, but I believe that was fixed yesterday afternoon. As you can imagine, the first building to be impacted was the student health service, so that was a perfect start to the day. As noted before, please let me or the service center know if some of the access isn't working, and we'll get it taken care of.

Kirk Leichliter (09:14):
We're continuing with the routine building checks and rounds. Warehouse and mail seems to be going all right. The number of questions have tapered off. Custodials providing limited service at this point for high-touch cleaning, mostly in the occupied residence halls and dining, a little bit in academic or administrative facilities, but not a bunch.

Kirk Leichliter (09:39):
EHS is still working with Weld County emergency management, City of Greeley, in the hospitals on surge planning and alternate facilities. Spent quite a bit of time yesterday working through confusion related to the emergency cards, versus the travel letter provided by HR. Think we have that information straightened out somewhat, but in general, staff needs to be on the essential staff lists provided by the Provost and the VPs, or there isn't any real reason to travel to campus using either the card or the letter. IT will likely be implementing some technical support one afternoon a week, in Carter, by appointment. If they proceed with that plan, there'll be specific information passed off to the campus.

Kirk Leichliter (10:32):
I believe that's about it. Thank you.

Dan Maxey (10:34):
Great. Thank you again, Kirk. Marshall Parks will next give us a report on our human resources impacts. Marshall?

Marshall Parks (10:42):
Good morning, all, and, Kirk, I do apologize. I continue to regret the fact that I sent that travel letter out in the first place, so apologize for the additional work that's caused. We thought we were solving a problem, and I think we made it more complicated, so my apologies.

Marshall Parks (10:57):
And currently, what we're working on, we're following Congress as they work on a CARES Act, it's called, to assist citizens are struggling with financial responsibilities due to the circumstances of COVID-19. CARES stands for the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act. Specifically, that proposes provisions that loosen requirements on hardship and loan rules, to free up funds for individuals who are impacted by the pandemic. Congress is still finalizing the details, but they expect to have something passed and in place next week. We're working with our retirement plan vendors to communicate with our faculty and staff once the legislation is finalized, if it's applicable and appropriate for them. So, working on that, keeping an eye on that, and that's been evolving fairly quickly late in the week, and hopefully have an update on that early next week. And that's all I have today, Dan. Thanks.

Dan Maxey (11:55):
Great. Thank you, Marshall. Our final report today comes from Dean of Students, Gardiner Tucker, the man with the plan with the earphone, the headphones. Tuck, I'll turn it over to you.

Gardiner Tucker (12:06):
Had to add my hat. So, good morning everyone. The first student impact that I wanted to focus on is, before this transition to alternative forms of education and engagement, faculty would routinely, and advisers would routinely, report to the Dean of Students if a student was missing class on a regular basis, or some sort of pattern. So now that we've moved to the virtual world, this week we've been getting reports from faculty about students missing their online classes. So we're continuing to close that gap by noticing individual students in their participation in the online environment, so that's a healthy sign, and then Dean of Students reaches out to the student to try and figure out what's preventing them from going to class.

Gardiner Tucker (12:56):
The second and final student impact that I'd like to focus on is about online community for our students. So in community development there are five steps to developing a community, whether it's face-to-face or online. Step one is acquaintanceship, which is the "getting to know you" process, where you get to know other members of the community, and why they're there, and who they are. The second step is communication, like we're doing on a regular basis on the daily operations update. The third stage, you can't force, but good acquaintanceship and good communication results in trust, which is the third stage. As trust emerges, people are willing to sacrifice their own goals and interests for the greater good of the group. So it's a tipping point, as you develop trust in the community. The fourth stage is commitment, and that means that you are willing to give up yourself to the community, and you own your role in the community. And the fifth stage is community, which means you identify with the community. So, "I'm a Bear," or, "I belong to UNC," or, "Greeley is my community." Those are signs that you're part of the community.

Gardiner Tucker (14:07):
So students are now missing the in-person, face-to-face community, where their voices are heard, where their questions are answered, where mentoring took place, camaraderie evolves, and lifelong friendships are made. It is not happening in person like it used to be. So our strategy is to develop virtual small communities for students, to maintain the students' sense of belonging and engagement in our campus.

Gardiner Tucker (14:32):
So the example I'd like to highlight today are for two cultural centers. One is known as APASS, which is Asian Pacific American Student Services. The other is NASS, Native American Student Services. So Erica, Charlie, and Johanna Flores and their team of GAs and student staff are moving everything online. They're collaborating together to support students. So they're continuing their virtual support, and phone support, through meetings and one-to-one connections online. They're providing emotional support for students experiencing the stress of all these changing circumstances. They are hosting weekly social gatherings and academic study sessions, using Zoom.

Gardiner Tucker (15:17):
Kelly, the student staff member in NASS, Native American Student Services, is mentoring social into bi-weekly social media videos, for example on art therapy and self-care. They're developing a collaboration with Wells Fargo, one of our community partners for all four cultural centers, and one of our, the workshop will be about budgeting and financial education, and it'll be hosted on Zoom, so that's good.

Gardiner Tucker (15:44):
And then Peter, the GA for Asian Pacific Cultural Center, had to cancel the famous, delicious UNCs well-known luau, and he's now working with the performers who were supposed to come to the luau, instead to host an Instagram live performance. And I'm sure everyone on this call knows how to do Instagram live. Or maybe not. But anyway, they can show you how to do that.

Gardiner Tucker (16:09):
NASS, Native American Student Services, is also planning Instagram performances such as having Frank Wong, a Lakota hip hop artist, come via Instagram live performance.

Gardiner Tucker (16:20):
So I'm very impressed with how these two cultural centers are moving their communities online, and continuing to develop communities with students that help them feel engaged, and like they're still Bears that matter. And that concludes my report.

Dan Maxey (16:34):
That's fantastic, Tuck. Thank you for sharing those updates, and good news about work that's being done across our community to keep everyone engaged. We appreciate that. I'm going to turn the floor over to President Feinstein.

President Feinstein (16:49):
Thanks Dan. Late last night, I did receive a message from United Way Catholic Charities, that they're looking for volunteers to help them with preparing meals and serving meals to some of our most vulnerable population in Greeley, at our daytime homeless shelter. We'll get that information posted up online, sometime today. And if you can help, I know that they would be very thankful.

President Feinstein (17:12):
So again, I appreciate all of your work, all of the updates, stay safe, be healthy, and we'll see you here again tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. Take care, everybody.