May 6, Operational Update
May 6, 2020 Update (View on YouTube)
Transcript:
President Feinstein (00:00):
Well, good morning everyone. It's Wednesday, May 6th. And this is our daily operation
status update. There's only a few days left to finals. And Friday, as you know, is
the last day of school, and it will also be the last day for update videos in their
current form. We will still be sharing these updates but much less frequently over
the summer, more likely once per week. Remember that you can contact me or any of
the cabinet leaders directly at any time with your questions, comments and concerns.
And we will also continue to keep our coronavirus website up-to-date on a regular
basis. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dan Maxey, our chief of staff,
to moderate conversations with our coronavirus task force leaders. Dan.
Dan Maxey (00:49):
Thank you President Feinstein. And I'm still having trouble keeping track of the days.
Yesterday I called my sister; I thought that it was May 6th. Called my sister and
wished her a happy birthday, and she reminded me that her birthday wasn't until today.
So it's difficult to keep track. But it is another beautiful morning in Greeley. Really
another blue sky morning here. And hope that everyone has a chance to get outside.
I had a chance to get out yesterday for a quick bike ride. And again, want to wish
all of our students the best during finals week, and remind them to finish strong.
Cabinet and coronavirus task force both meet today. A little tongue twister here.
But have a handful of issues to discuss as we continue our planning for the next few
weeks and months. As our daily panel gives reports, please remember to unmute your
microphones and turn on your cameras. First up is the chair of our coronavirus task
force, Associate Vice President for Administration, Blaine Nickeson. Blaine.
Blaine Nickeson (01:49):
Good morning Dan. And like many of you that are parents in this time of challenge,
I have an office guest with me today doing her schoolwork, and she likes attention.
So you can see that. UNC is having preliminary discussions with the state about hosting
a drive-through community testing site in partnership with Kroger, the parent company
of King Soopers. We have additional meetings with the stakeholders later this morning
and hope to be able to announce more details soon. Good news, if you're in need of
a driver's license renewal, the DMV here in Greeley is reopening today. Like most
things that have reopened, it won't look like normal. You'll need to wear a mask.
It's appointment-only, and you'll have your temperature screened. Don't worry though.
The DMV experience that we all know and love will still remain the same.
Blaine Nickeson (02:40):
As a reminder, the Colorado Air National Guard will fly two F-16s across the Front
Range to high country today to honor our frontline personnel. If the schedule holds,
you can expect them to fly over Greeley at approximately 4:35 this afternoon. For
statewide data, 17,364 confirmed positive cases, up around 700 since yesterday. That's
a larger jump than we've been seeing in prior days. But it's hard to know if it's
because of a surge in the virus or because of an increase in testing. If there was
targeted testing, that can also skew that number a little as well. The current number
of people hospitalized for COVID-19 is 650. That's down 49 since yesterday's report,
and the lowest number of folks hospitalized for the virus since April 1st. Just shy
of 86,000 folks tested, up about 2,700 since yesterday. That's still well short of
the governor's stated goal of 5,000 tests per day by early May.
Blaine Nickeson (03:39):
Colorado is currently reporting 903 deaths. That's up 52 since yesterday, which is
a significant jump. Weld County has unfortunately eclipsed 2,000 total positive cases,
and it's reporting 2,020. It's up about 50 since yesterday. Deaths are up too, at
109. And Weld County remains number three in Colorado for case counts and total deaths.
The continued prevalence of the virus in Weld County as a main driver for the possible
addition, a possible additional drive-through testing site that I mentioned at the
beginning of my report. So those are my updates for this morning. I hope folks will
get outside around 4:30, and try to see if they can catch a peak of a couple of F-16s
flying overhead. I'll go ahead and turn it back over to you, Dan.
Dan Maxey (04:26):
Blaine. I do have a shout out for the Greeley DMV. Two years ago I went there to receive
my Colorado driver's license with my wife and son, and we had the best DMV experience
ever there. So just saying.
Blaine Nickeson (04:40):
OK. I think the movie Zootopia changed my world in thinking about the DMV.
Dan Maxey (04:49):
Well, I'll tell you, living in Los Angeles will really change your way of thinking
about the DMV if you ever want to try that.
President Feinstein (04:56):
That's what I'm talking about.
Katrina Rodriguez (04:58):
LA to Greeley.
Dan Maxey (05:02):
Andy knows what I'm talking about. The California DMV.
President Feinstein (05:04):
And San Jose wasn't much better either.
Dan Maxey (05:09):
Alright. Next I'll turn it over to our Dean of Students Tuck Tucker for a report on
impacts of student life. And I see Katrina chiming in. Are you giving the Tuck's report
today?
Gardiner Tucker (05:18):
Oh, not yet.
Dan Maxey (05:20):
Okay. Katrina's face showed up on my screen.
Gardiner Tucker (05:25):
So the first student impact I'd like to talk about today, and this is May 6th, for
those of you who may not remember, is students continue to experience financial hardships.
And in yesterday's report I mentioned the Disaster Relief Fund and donations for that
fund are growing. So thank you everyone. So one of the ways that we used the disaster
relief fund was, one of our students has a visual disability. And when we went to
virtual and alternative formats, was unable to read certain documents for classes
on the computer. And they didn't have the funds to buy their own printer. They were
using printers on campus and in the Disability Resource Center, which were now closed.
Gardiner Tucker (06:07):
So the staff let the Disaster Relief Fund team know about it. And they were able to
acquire a printer for the student to use during while they were going online. So that
was a great success story, and why these funds are so important. So thank you for
your donations. Our next report comes from Housing. Jenna Finley is here to give us
an update. Jenna.
Jenna Finley (06:31):
Good morning. We are in the period of time that we're both focused on what is happening
in the moment and what is happening this fall. We are seeing students move out fairly
rapidly at this point. We as of yesterday had 465 students still on campus. That is
divided between Arlington Park apartments and the residence halls. As we're speaking
with students, probably a small number of our out-of-state students that went home
at spring break and have not been able to return. I've not been able to work with
their hall director to find a checkout time in the month of May.
Jenna Finley (07:10):
We have a few people that are in Hawaii, and a few other places that we are working
with on a case by case basis to figure out what's gonna work best for them. We are
also getting ready for summer school housing even though classes are remote. We do
have 18 students signed up for summer school. And they will be living in Lawrenson
Hall this summer. Meal plans, we do not offer meal plans in the month of May. We do
offer Bear plans starting June 8th when summer session starts. These meals will be
delivered in the same way that we're doing now. Students will be able to pick up meals
Monday through Friday, three at a time, and pick up their weekend meals on Friday.
So that will be continuing through the summer school period.
Jenna Finley (08:02):
Arlington Park apartments is a 12-month contract. But we are anticipating about 250
students who stay in AP this summer. As we look to fall, we are starting to pay close
attention to our application report. First-year applications are down about 23% in
today's report. Renewal contracts, so our returning student population, has actually
been higher than this point in time last year. So our net downward trend for applications
is about 12% overall. We look at this period of time as being a fairly decent indication
of where fall will be at typically because we're past the deposit refund period at
May 1st.
Jenna Finley (08:51):
However, I think we all know that this year is just not going to be like any other
year that we've experienced. So we are doing our best to predict what is going to
happen in fall, and also trying to decide what a fall move-in and welcome looks like
in a socially distant manner. For example, we can't have all the majority of students
converging on campus in a day or two. That would need to be spread out. So we're turning
towards planning for those types of things. And I think that's all I have. Thank you.
Gardiner Tucker (09:28):
Thank you Jenna. And that you're right, there's so many mechanics to work out for
the future that haven't been done before. And trust you and your team are working
on that. So thank you. And we'll hear from you in the future for how Housing is moving
forward. And so the next student impact is a continued time for resilience as we face
all these different challenges in our lives, and wrapping up the semester. So we want
to continue to share important perspectives. So I've invited Dr. Katrina Rodriguez,
Vice President of Student Affairs, to come back and share some more insights on resilience.
Katrina, the floor is yours.
Katrina Rodriguez (10:03):
Thank you, Tuck. I'm going to talk a little bit again from the book When by Daniel Pink who... I like this book because I think we all strive to be as productive
as possible. And when we're not, that doesn't feel good. And yet especially now it
just feels like there's just so much on our plates that we're trying to negotiate
as we figure out what to do next, what we're doing now, those kinds of things. So
I found a few things that I thought might be interesting in terms of helping us with
that. And so again, he uses a lot of research to back up his information here. And
he talks about studies that have been conducted about traffic accidents. And they
seem to happen across the globe between 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM maybe not surprising,
but 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM in the middle of the day are also when they peak.
Katrina Rodriguez (10:57):
Also thinking about, when do we take breaks, and what are the opportunities that we
have to take small breaks throughout the day. One study indicated that if we focus
for 52 minutes and then take a 15 minute break and then back on for 52 minutes, that
actually has more... we're more productive after those short micro breaks than we
would be even maybe taking the whole afternoon off. So that's helpful because it's
hard to take the whole afternoon off every day. So how do we kind of figure out what
those look like for us? So it really does make a difference in terms of we have to
work in the afternoon. So how do we do that? I also mentioned before Danish school
children, they found that if the children could go out and play for 20 minutes, 30
minutes before their standardized exams, that they actually increased their scores
by so much. It was almost like adding three weeks onto the school year based on their
productivity. And so thinking again about how that recess, how that break makes a
difference.
Katrina Rodriguez (12:06):
Mornings tend to also be better for folks. We rise in the morning in terms of our
productivity, take a dip before lunch, come up, and then dip back down. Researchers
indicate that in one study, 2:55 in the afternoon is like the worst moment of time.
So thinking about how do we break before that time. Again we'll leave variability
for individuals and different things. They were talking about how... or he mentions
that having surgery in the morning is better than having it between that 2:00 and
4:00 period in the afternoon. So if doctors and nurses are not taking breaks, that
could also be a factor in terms of how surgeries come out. So it's interesting information
about that 2:00 to 4:00 PM.
Katrina Rodriguez (12:53):
So some of the tips are five areas. And one of the things that he talks about is again,
at 52 minutes on, 15 minutes off, and sort of having that as a regular time. Also
moving around beats a sense of just staying stationary, and granted being that we're
all, I've heard many conversations, we're sitting in our chairs, and we're on these
conversations. And we're doing a lot more sitting without the opportunity to go to
a different building, or a different space in between meetings. And so really having
a moment to move around is really the best thing. Taking a five-minute walk or doing
something outside is better for you in terms of productivity.
Katrina Rodriguez (13:37):
Having an opportunity to connect with somebody else during a break is also beneficial.
And taking those breaks, not doing email, and not doing work-related things really
makes a difference in that five minutes. Even not connecting to social media, those
kinds of things. Taking a break outside. Again, nature is better than four walls.
Even if you have a window. So getting outside for a couple of minutes, or even having
a green plant, or some green things around you if you can't get outside, is better
than not. So interesting research anyway.
Katrina Rodriguez (14:16):
And then finally, again being fully detached. We're so used to our devices, we need
them, they're our work tools, it's critical. And disconnecting from that for that
little bit of time, every hour, or for breaks in the day, we know multitasking is
not something that we do well. We think we do, but we don't according to the research.
And so really having the opportunity to physically detach is really important. Having
those five-minute breaks or 10-minute breaks away from our devices is OK. We can recover
what we need to do in that amount of time.
Katrina Rodriguez (14:55):
So anyway, just a few tidbits to think about how we take care of ourselves, how we
help each other take care of ourselves, each other, and just having an opportunity
to recover a little bit. So hopefully those are tips and tools, and recommend the
book for lots of other tidbits that could be helpful for productivity. So thank you
all so much. And thanks Tuck.
Gardiner Tucker (15:18):
Thank you Katrina. I liked the micro breaks, and avoid 2:55 in the afternoon. So put
stuff on your challengers. And it's good study tips for students during these last
couple of days to balance their energy and their focus. So thank you very much for
presenting that. And that concludes my report.
Dan Maxey (15:35):
Thank you, Tuck, Jenna and Katrina. Appreciate those updates and friendly reminders
to help us to maintain our sanity through this. Next I'm going to turn things over
to Provost Mark Anderson to give his report on impact to the academic mission. Mark.
Mark Anderson (15:52):
Thank you Dan. Good morning everyone. Thanks Katrina for those really great tips that
unfortunately I have not been following very effectively recently. I'd also like to
thank DJ Satch for the music every morning. I must confess however, that recently
I've needed a little bit of a heavier playlist, so I've taken to my own that's been
focused on Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Metallica, and my personal favorite Nazareth.
So thanks for that. As Tuck said, today is Wednesday, May the sixth. It is also National
Nurses Day. Next Tuesday, May 12th is International Nurses Day. So we're actually
entering into national or International Nurses Week. And I want to take the opportunity
to acknowledge our School of Nursing, the faculty of the School of Nursing, the staff,
the School of Nursing students, and alumni of our Nursing program. They've been at
the front lines for treating the public during this pandemic. And I think we should
take the opportunity to thank them.
Mark Anderson (17:03):
One of the things the School of Nursing has been at the forefront with is working
with our colleagues around the state to loosen some of the requirements, and really
think about the clinical requirement a little bit differently, so students who were
just about to finish were able to graduate this spring. And Faye Hummel really took
a leadership position in the state in making recommendations on how we could get students
who are at the end of their programs through the program. I'd also like to acknowledge
that Faye, the director of the School of Nursing, is retiring at the end of the spring.
And so we want to thank her for all of the good work that she has done and her colleagues
with respect to educating the next future generations of nurses. I think we all are
very much appreciative, and very much aware of the value and the importance that those
alumni bring to the country and the state.
Mark Anderson (18:04):
Finally, I'd like to remind people that today between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM Frasier
and Butler-Hancock will be open for people to access their offices and collect materials
for summer teaching and their scholarship. And then between 2:00 and 4:00 PM this
afternoon, Michener and the Arts Annex will be open for faculty and staff to access
their office and collect materials. Just a quick reminder that if you do go into the
office that we want to practice appropriate social distancing, and other public health
best practices, wear masks, et cetera. So with that Dan, that is my report for this
morning.
Dan Maxey (18:53):
Thank you Mark. And with just a few days left of daily updates, it may not be too
late to give you a guest spot as DJ.
Mark Anderson (19:03):
As my wife would say, nobody wants to listen to the music that I listen to.
Dan Maxey (19:09):
Well, it's worth a shot Mark. And I do want to point out also Tuck mentioned the emergency
relief fund or the Disaster Relief Fund. And I did check in on that this morning,
and it looks like it is within 750, $800 of its current goals. We'll have to talk
with Allie about stretching that goal. But if you have a chance to jump on there and
make a contribution, I know that our students who need some assistance during this
time will appreciate that help. We have no reports from Human Resources or Facilities
today. So I'll turn things back over to President Feinstein. Andy.
President Feinstein (19:50):
Thanks Dan. And thanks again everyone for your presentation. And as always, stay safe,
be healthy, and for a few more days anyways, we'll see you here tomorrow morning at
9:00 AM. Take care everybody.