October 1, Operational Update
October 1, Update (Watch on YouTube)
Transcript:
President Feinstein (00:00):
Good morning, everybody. It's Thursday [inaudible 00:00:04] and this is our weekly
operational status update call. I want to thank all of you for joining us. We continue
to have a reasonable amount of success in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 on campus.
Thanks to months of preparation, hard work by our students, faculty, and staff to
keep one another safe, and our good working relationship with Weld County Public Health
and Environment and state authorities. I want to personally thank everyone for doing
their part, and please keep it up.
President Feinstein (00:37):
The university is concluding planning for the spring semester. Provost Anderson will
provide information this morning about a faculty forum we will be holding tomorrow
to share updates with faculty and answer questions about our protocols for spring
as we bring more courses into in-person and hybrid modalities. We are also already
beginning planning for fall 2021. At the end of next week, we will kick off our homecoming
from home activities, and I encourage all of you to visit uncco.edu/homecoming to
explore our events and hope that you will join us for these activities that we have
planned. With that, I'm going to turn the floor over to Associate Vice President for
Administration, Blaine Nickeson, for a weekly report. Blaine.
Blaine Nickeson (01:28):
Thank you President Feinstein. Good morning, everyone. As we wrap up the sixth week
of the semester, our teams continue to be busy. Our health services and dean of students
office staff are working day and night to respond to and monitor the various cases
we have associated with the campus. Unfortunately, these things don't just happen
in business hours. The most common cases that we're working with are folks that are
symptomatic and they're getting tested for COVID-19. But, the good news is that the
bulk of those tests have ended up being negative. I reported last week that we've
received some rapid test kits at the student health center. We've been using these
tests when clinically appropriate. Generally, they're a quick diagnostic test, and
then we follow that up with a much more accurate PCR test that needs to be sent away
to a lab.
Blaine Nickeson (02:18):
The same machine that does rapid COVID tests can also do rapid flu and strep tests,
and we're actually seeing quite a few cases of strep throat. As a reminder for folks,
if you've been told to quarantine because you were a close contact with a positive,
you can't test your way out of quarantine, so trying to run in and get a rapid test
or any kind of a COVID test isn't going to release you from quarantine, because you
have to allow that course of time to run in case you develop symptoms. It doesn't
happen right away.
Blaine Nickeson (02:50):
But, we're currently monitoring 81 individuals through our tracking protocol. That's
the same number as last week's report. As a reminder, this includes positive cases
in an isolation period, close contacts with those that were positive who are serving
that two week quarantine, as well as symptomatic individuals who are awaiting their
test results. We have a number of people that are going to come off of that tracking
list today that were associated with the cases I mentioned last week within the sorority
house, but our staff needs to be able to speak with them and check on their condition
before removing them. A plea for folks, if you get a voicemail or a text message from
somebody in Public Health or UNC Health Services, please respond to them. Getting
in touch with you is important for your health and for the health of our community.
Blaine Nickeson (03:36):
A data point that I shared last week is the number of resolved contacts. That's at
284 right now, up from 211 last week. There's a variety of reasons why we might've
been monitoring these contacts. The largest group is, as I said, individuals who were
tested because they were symptomatic, but then they had a negative test. The group
also includes folks who have completed an isolation or quarantine period, perhaps
because they were a positive case. Currently, we're monitoring 21 COVID positive individuals
associated with the campus, and of those 21, they're all students. Only four of these
are living in an isolation room on the campus, the rest are off campus. Of our approximately
80 isolation and quarantine rooms on campus, we're currently as of this moment using
20. You can see that the bulk of those rooms are being used for preventative quarantine.
Blaine Nickeson (04:26):
Tracking, 21 positive cases as a high watermark for us. I need to reinforce that the
reason we've been able to make it through the first six weeks of the semester is that
our community has been taking this virus seriously and doing things that reduce risk.
We can't afford to let our guard down now, especially as we head towards the winter
months. For those of you that are paying attention, the outbreak at CU Boulder continues.
They're up over 1,600 positive student cases, which, I would mention, is larger than
our freshmen class. But, yet, they still only have 12 positive cases amongst faculty
and staff. That hasn't changed in the last week.
Blaine Nickeson (05:04):
Today, in partnership with a group called COVID Check Colorado, we're beginning NCAA
required screening testing of our student athletes, and later this month, we plan
to start weekly testing of approximately one-quarter of our on campus resident students.
A reminder that any symptomatic students, staff, or faculty can be tested at the Student
Health Center. Same goes for if you believe you've been exposed to a positive case.
Please just make sure to call ahead to schedule your test, but they should be able
to get you in the same day. As Andy mentioned tomorrow, I'll be participating in a
town hall for faculty led by the provost. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to answer
any questions faculty may have about our COVID protocols, our response to how we handle
cases, and what steps we're doing to help keep people and the campus safe. That's
all I have for this morning, and I'll turn it back over to you, Andy.
President Feinstein (05:55):
Thanks Blaine. Now, let's hear from Student Affairs and Academic Affairs. I'll turn
the floor over to Provost Mark Anderson. Mark.
Mark Anderson (06:02):
Thank you, President Feinstein. As President Feinstein and Blaine just said, we are
going to have a faculty forum on Friday, beginning at one o'clock, and really going
on is, we have it scheduled for an hour and a half, but as has been the normal case,
we'll try to keep it going as long as there are questions. In addition to Blaine and
myself, we'll have Stephanie Torres, Angela Vaughn, and some folks from Student Affairs
to answer questions about how we're preparing for a more robust on campus experience
for our students in the spring semester. I'd like to thank the deans and the faculty
for really working hard on the spring calendar, or the spring semester schedule, really
working hard to get a more robust in person experience for students.
Mark Anderson (06:54):
We've put out a survey to our students, a random sampling of students to ask about
their experiences during the fall semester. We've over-sampled the first year students
to get a better sense of their experience, what's going well, what's not going well,
and that will allow us to integrate some of that information into the trainings that
Siedel and IDD perform, but also to get feedback to faculty so that they can be mindful
of the student experience as they're preparing for the spring semester.
Mark Anderson (07:31):
We also would like to acknowledge all of our faculty. We, again, had an early alert
process this fall, getting assessments, low stakes assessments out early to students
so that we could see and monitor those who were doing well, but more importantly,
those who are struggling so we can provide some interventions. That information has
gone back to the advisors. The advisors have been reaching out. We had a record number
of reports, but also a record number of students who've responded to the outreach
efforts, and we feel that that's really critically important, as we work very hard
in support of the SESS plan's goal of increasing our retention numbers fall to spring,
but also fall to fall.
Mark Anderson (08:17):
I'd also like to acknowledge, with respect to the spring semester, our enrollment
management team. They're reaching out to our students who confirmed that they were
coming, but either deferred or ultimately did not register, to try to convince them
to find out what they did and to encourage them to return to UNC for the spring semester.
The enrollment team also this past week sent out the first acceptances for fall of
2021, and that's really good, and we're starting to see an uptick in the participation
of prospective students and their families in on campus tours of our facility. That's
going to increase and become more and more prevalent as admissions for fall of 2021
increase. We need to be mindful of that activity on campus, and it's following all
the health and safety protocols as well. We're doing that in an environment, the new
environment of COVID-19.
Mark Anderson (09:27):
We also are planning for the fall semester, and it just seems like we're just about
ready to publish the spring semester schedule, that will be published on Monday. It's
roughly five weeks before the beginning of the spring semester. Enrollment Management
is planning an email campaign out to students to help them with the registration process,
but also to encourage them to speak to their advisor and get ready for the registration.
Mark Anderson (09:56):
We are preparing for the fall semester, and the fall semester preparation is one of
great uncertainty. We don't know how things will change. One thing that Blaine has
continued to emphasize with me and others is that our ability to test students is
getting stronger and stronger and stronger, and the cost of the testing is going down.
That's one thing that we're factoring in. There's broad discussion about a vaccine,
but we don't know when a vaccine will be available. As we prepare for the fall semester,
we really need to be mindful of our current situation, projecting what might happen
in the future, but also preparing for any eventualities. That's one of the things
that, really, is very challenging about getting ready for the fall semester.
Mark Anderson (10:50):
I think that's about all I have. Reminder for the town hall on Friday, we'll be sending
around more information and links to the Zoom, but please plan on coming. Please have
a lot of questions. We'll have people from Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Facilities
to really answer and address any questions and concerns you might have. With that,
I will turn it over to Tobias Guzman.
Tobias Guzmán (11:19):
Thanks Mark. Good morning, everyone. There's a few things to share with you from Student
Affairs. First, today marks the beginning of LGBTQ month. This history month would
not exist without Rodney Wilson, a 29 year old Missouri history high school teacher
who came out to his class in 1994. After teaching about the Holocaust, Wilson shared
that he could have been killed for being gay if he had lived during that time. Wilson's
vision for the informative and celebratory month was to dedicate the teaching of LGBT
history. The Gender and Sexuality Resource Center on our campus is a tremendous resource,
and I encourage all of us to learn more and support our LGBTQ students, faculty, and
staff, by participating in any of the events or activities that I have shared in the
chat box, which I will do right now.
(The Gender & Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) has planned numerous events over the month including:
- All Month: Rainbow Flag Campaign
- October 11: National Coming Out Day
- October 12-16: Coming Out Week - Pride Social Media Campaign (Visit us on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram)
- October 12: 1-4pm: Safe Zone 101
- October 13: 5-7pm: Straight Facts About Queer Life
- October 15: 5-7pm: César Chávez Cultural Center & GSRC- Keynote Speaker River Mason
- October 16: Safe Zone 201
October 22: Movie Screening: Brother Outsider – Cosponsors: The Gender & Sexuality
Resource Center, Marcus Garvey Cultural Center & International Film Series)
Tobias Guzmán (12:16):
Secondly, the Cesar Chavez Cultural Center is celebrating 35 years at UNC. Throughout
this time, hundreds of Latinx students have gone through the center's doors, graduated,
and are now giving back to UNC. Speaking of giving back, we currently have the 35th crowdfunding event going on right now. All money raised will go directly to the Cesar Chavez Cultural
Center Recruitment, Retention, and Educational fund, or the Latina Latino Youth Leadership
Conference fund. The link for this and the 35th anniversary celebration also will be located in the chat right now.
(Celebrating 35 Years of the UNC César Chávez Cultural Center - https://cesear-chavez-center-35th-anniversary.everydayhero.do/. The César Chávez Cultural Center Celebrates 35 Years of History at UNC - https://www.unco.edu/cesar-chavez-cultural-center/anniversary/)
Tobias Guzmán (13:01):
Finally, UNC Homecoming 2020 is right around the corner, themed this year as Homecoming
From Home. Beginning October 5th through the 9th, and homecoming weekend October 9th
through the 11th. The lineup of events is a conglomerate of events that connects all
students and alumni to celebrate bear pride. University Advancement and Student Affairs
offer a great lineup of events for this special UNC tradition. The website, as Andy indicated at the opening, is also in the link, and the hashtag (#BearsStrong
that we hope you all use as well.
Tobias Guzmán (13:47):
As you can see, engaging students and providing them social and educational experiences
is still at the forefront of our work. Although we have been challenged with figuring
out how to do our work differently, we have not lost sight of what we do best in Student
Affairs. We respond to changing conditions by providing services and programs consistent
with students' needs. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Now, back
to you, Andy.
President Feinstein (14:16):
Thank you Tobias, and thank you Mark for your presentations. I want to thank everybody
for tuning in today, and as always, stay safe, be healthy, and we'll see you here
again next Thursday. Take care, everybody.