Faculty/Staff Resources

CW Emails and Provost Messages

Oct. 21 - Collegewide email

Last week, Gov. Mike DeWine announced that Cuyahoga County has been upgraded from Level 2 (orange) to Level 3 (red) due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in our area. He has stressed the continued importance of social distancing, frequent handwashing and mask-wearing.

As is to be expected, this increased spread has not left our College community untouched. Please see below for details on several cases that have recently been reported on our campuses and the measures taken to ensure the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff.

Eastern Campus

A student at Eastern Campus tested positive for COVID-19 this past weekend. The student was in EMHC 119 on Wednesday, Oct. 14, and began experiencing symptoms the next day. The student did not report visiting any other areas on campus.

Plant Operations fogged and sanitized the classroom and, as an added precaution, the nearest restroom.

Western Campus

A Vet Tech staff member tested positive for COVID-19 this past weekend. The employee was last on campus on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the Vet Tech lab, office and surgery areas.

Risk Management and Plant Operations worked with the Vet Tech program director so that the area could be fogged and sanitized while keeping the animals safe.

Additionally, there were three unrelated exposures at the Public Safety Training Center (PSTC):

• A police officer from an outside agency tested positive for COVID-19 after being at the firing range on Thursday, Oct. 15. The officer did not access any other areas of the building.
• A PSTC administrator, last on campus on Friday, Oct. 16, also tested positive this past weekend.
• An instructor, last on campus on Tuesday, Oct.13, subsequently tested positive. This instructor was outside for most interactions with students and other staff members.

Plant Operations fogged and sanitized the firing range and all PSTC and Police Academy offices.

Westshore Campus

A Health Careers instructor received a positive test result on Monday evening. They were last on campus on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in SHCS 253 (as well as the adjacent control room).

Plant Operations sanitized the lab and control room on Thursday, Oct. 15; however, the areas were treated again in light of the positive test.

Students, faculty and staff who were in contact with the above-mentioned COVID-19 positive individuals have been notified, advised to self-monitor using the College’s health assessment, and provided with testing information.

If you are concerned that you or someone you know may have contracted COVID-19, we remind you that Tri-C offers free testing through our partnership with Care Alliance. Anyone can get tested at the Care Alliance Health Center (E. 30 and Central) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or on a Tri-C campus every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Visit tri-c.edu/covidtest for the most up-to-date testing dates and information. Testing will take place at the Metropolitan Campus this Thursday, Oct. 22. NO APPOINTMENT NECESSARY. NO COST. NO ONE TURNED AWAY. Testing is free and open to the public.

Tri-C COVID-19 Resources

• Tri-C/Care Alliance COVID-19 hotline: 216-317-1250 (for students, faculty and staff)
• Return-to-campus guidance
• All Tri-C COVID-19 updates and information available at tri-c.edu/coronavirus

If you should begin experiencing symptoms or test positive for COVID-19, please email the College’s Risk Management department.

Oct. 13 - Provost Message: Black Diamonds Conference, Employee Town Hall, Faculty Development, Library and LC Success, Inside Higher Ed Article, Faculty Email Excerpt

Happy mid-week everyone! Sending out my newsletter today to remind you about some important and timely opportunities for engagement coming up as early as this week. 

• Tri-C is excited to once again present the annual Black Diamonds Women’s Conference this week on October 15-17. Led by Tri-C faculty and staff and in collaboration with educational institutions, community organizations, corporate partners and individuals throughout our community, the Black Diamonds initiative focuses on expanding readiness, access and engagement among young women of color while promoting opportunities and economic mobility for African American women in Northeast Ohio and beyond. In addition to offering events throughout the year, our Black Diamonds initiative presents an annual conference which this year is being broadcast virtually. There is still time to register for this event and view the program. Please visit: https://www.tri-c.edu/student-life/black-diamonds/index.html
  
• If you were unable to join us at this week’s staff and faculty Town Hall, you can view the entire presentation by visiting here: Watch the livestream here
  
• Our faculty development team continues to host training and support sessions for our faculty. You can see the latest courses and workshops here: Faculty Forums and Professional Development Opportunities
• Our librarians and learning commons staff have worked diligently to convert services into an online environment, and are continuing to provide access to information and research assistance to faculty, students and our community. Thank you to our librarians and learning commons staff for your continued dedicated work in providing access to these important services to our students and campus community. Some of the highlights of their work since our College transitioned into online work include:
  • Answering nearly 1,000 reference questions remotely
  • Creating online research guides, which have been viewed over 4,700 times
  • Increasing the number of e-book purchase 790% since last academic year
  • Creating over 50 instructional videos that have 1,600 views
• I recently read an article in Inside Higher Ed discussing the continuing challenges colleges and universities are facing as it appears that online learning will continue to be a significant part of the higher education landscape for quite some time. This article provides some ideas for how we might begin to think about online education as a more permanent part of our future and how we can continue to improve how we engage and support students. I wanted to share this article with you and I welcome any feedback or further discussions you may have on this very important issue: Inside Higher Education

Lastly, as we continue to work and keep ourselves motivated in this very different and remote world, I want to share an excerpt of an email I received this week from a faculty member, which is reprinted below. Your stories and feedback continue to fuel and motivate me. I want to share some of this email and this faculty member's words with the hope that you might keep each other in mind, faculty and administrators alike, as it’s not only our students who are struggling during these times, we all feel it. Thank you. Stay focused and stay strong. I keep you all in my thoughts, and WE have your backs.

I was on the most heartbreaking call/session last night with fellow faculty members. I kept thinking, "If Karen was on this call, she would have some good things to say." I can't really disclose the content of what was shared because it was one of those, "Whatever is shared in the room stays in the room" scenarios.

We have some amazingly dedicated faculty members, most of which are the ones trying to do this job while also schooling their children at home, who are completely dying on the vine. They feel like they can't keep up, are being asked to make every accommodation possible to recognize that the students are living in traumatic situations, while they are also living in traumatic situations and don't feel like the college has their back.

Right before classes started, I was faced with a traumatic family situation. Through this time, I felt VERY supported by my dean and my department coordinator. I did not share it outside of them because no one else really needed to know. They were able to help me navigate the first week of meetings and make decisions about which meetings were of the highest importance and which I should utilize my personal time off, knowing that ALL the meetings were important. My dean knew I was hard-working and has given me the freedom to make adjustments as needed while still maintaining my obligations to my contract. I couldn't ask for a more ideal situation.

This may not be the case for others. I am just a small speck looking at things from the outside, but there are some assumptions I can make. When I have had a whole host of students behave in ways to "abuse the system," it is hard for me to look at the person in front of me and take the time to hear THEIR story and decide whether individual flexibility needs to be given. Once I have gotten to know my students, I can see the ones who have been constantly committed and doing whatever it takes to succeed. Such was the case this week when a student who has perfect attendance in a synchronous class suddenly disappeared from our class and was not present when they took a quiz. I knew this was not normal behavior for her and was able to administer her quiz independently.

For my part, I'm just going to try to "adopt" one of these young moms and just give them a listening ear. They are high achieving, amazing women who are trying to do it all and do it perfectly. Major mental breakdowns are on the horizon... I need to remember to surround them with as much loving care as I try to do for my students.

Oct. 2 - Provost Message: Metro Campus President, Nursing Program STEM Award, Town Hall, Faculty Development, Success Week, Attendance Trackers, Service Credits, Help is Here, Supply Purchases

As was announced today by Dr. Johnson, I am pleased to congratulate Dr. Denise McCory on her appointment as our next Metropolitan Campus President. Dr. McCory has served Tri-C for 20 years in both academic and student affairs capacities, including as our current interim Metropolitan Campus President. I would like to especially thank the staff and faculty who volunteered to serve on this search committee to help us complete an extensive national search and work through COVID related delays in our planned timeline. Your guidance and evaluations are extremely important during these processes, and I thank you all for your participation and input in this search. Please join me in congratulating Denise on her new position at Tri-C! I could not be more proud and more pleased.

I am also excited to recognize Tri-C’s nursing program as one of eight national winners of the Excellence and Equity in Community College STEM Award presented by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and the Siemens Foundation. This very competitive award honors outstanding preparation and training for high-demand jobs in advanced manufacturing, energy, health care or information technology combined with a program’s intentional outreach and support of diverse populations traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. Part of the $50,000 award has been allocated for scholarships for outstanding students so they can continue their studies or pay off student loan debt. Congratulations to Dean Batch-Wilson and our entire nursing faculty and staff who continually lead our region in excellence in nursing education! Nothing like some great news on both fronts to end a week!

• If you were unable to join us at this week’s staff and faculty Town Hall, you can view the entire presentation by visiting here: https://livestream.com/tri-c/9-29-20faculystafftownhall/videos/211505349
  
  
• Our faculty development team continues to host training and support sessions for our faculty. You can see the latest courses and workshops here: Faculty Forums and Professional Development Opportunities.
  
  
• This year we held our fall Success Week virtually. The virtual College-wide Success Week featured free, short workshops on topics related to students’ lives in and out of the classroom and introduced students to amazing resources and tools for success. To view any of the presentations and workshops, simply follow the link here: Success Week Workshops.
  
  
• Just a reminder that we are asking all faculty and instructors who are teaching on-ground classes to continue to use Attendance Tracker for each class period conducted on-ground from the start of the semester to the end of on-ground classes for the semester when classes move online. This effort is important to help the College in COVID-19 tracing and to promptly send any potential required exposure notifications. Attendance Tracker is located under the Faculty Tab in My Tri-C Space. Should you have any questions, please contact Chris Dorsten, Executive Director of Enrollment Operations and Registrar at chris.dorsten@tri-c.edu.
  
  
• Many faculty have noticed that due to our current remote environment and other issues, the faculty service credit catalog has not been updated. Please remember that you can work with your dean to earn service credits for other projects, including COVID specific projects or course improvements. If you have an idea for such a project, please contact your dean to discuss the possibility of earning service credits. Additionally, our service credit committee has planned to begin meeting to work on updating the existing service credits catalog to reflect the many changes that have taken place at the College these past few months.
  
  
• Our “Help is Here” team continues to provide outreach and resources designed to promote mental wellness for our students, staff and faculty. If you know of a student, colleague or family member who may be struggling with mental health concerns, please encourage them to reach out to “Help is Here”. You can find information and community resources on the “Help is Here” page: https://www.tri-c.edu/policies-and-procedures/suicide-awareness-and-prevention/index.html.
  
  
• The College’s supplier managed services team is continuing to purchase and stock our campuses with sanitizer, paper towels, disposable masks, reusable masks, disposable gloves, thermometers and “care kits”. We are coordinating the purchase of these items through each Campus President’s office in order to obtain the best pricing from reputable vendors while ensuring these items are purchased and distributed efficiently; therefore, if you have identified a need for certain supplies, please communicate that to your Campus President’s office. Additionally, supplier managed services will work with our accounting team to properly fund these purchases from the College’s pandemic relief funds. Please contact Steve Hilbert at stephen.hilbert@tri-c.edu or 216-987-3510 with any questions.

Very excited to end a week on a positive note (two actually)! As we continue to work in this very different remote environment, we sometimes lose sight of the great work we share in and exceptional leaders and colleagues along the way. Cheers to everyone and have a great weekend!

Sept. 29, 2020 - Town Hall link

Watch the Sept. 29 Employee Town Hall - Watch it here.

View past communications:

September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
Week of May 25 - 29
Week of May 18-22
Week of May 11-15
Week of May 4 - 8
Week of April 27 - May 1
Week of April 20 -24
Week of April 13 - 17
Week of April 6 - April 10
Week of March 30 - April 3
Week of March 23 - 27
Week of March 16 - 20
Week of March 9 - 13