Messages from the Provost - June 2020

June 29 - Decrease online fee, faculty forums, online stats, Phase II prep

June 22 - Town hall link and recap, faculty forums

June 16 - Student Sierra Germany passing, faculty forums

June 8 - Fall schedule planning, online stats, faculty forums

June 1 - Phase I reopening, return to work/campus certification links, attendance tracker link, faculty forums

June 29, 2020 - Decrease online fee, faculty forums, online stats, Phase II prep 

A few updates as we look forward to the holiday weekend:

• Just a reminder that Banner will be down for maintenance over the holiday weekend, and will be unavailable all day this Friday, July 3rd. This will affect systems such as My Tri-C Space, Banner Self Service, UC4 and DegreeWorks.
• As we continue to plan for fall semester, we have made the decision to modify the per credit hour fee for online courses by decreasing the fee from $10 to $5 per credit for fall 2020. Our student accounting teams are working to make adjustments for any students who may have already registered for fall and paid the $10 per credit fee.
• Our faculty development team has a new week of professional development and faculty forums scheduled for you to participate in. This week’s offerings can be found here: Faculty Forums and Professional Development: June 29- July 3
• Our OLAT and CLE teams have compiled information about the use of some of our online services from the week of June 17th through June 24th that I’d like to share with you:
  • Total number of active users in Blackboard: 17,839
  • Average time a Blackboard user spends per login: 13minutes, 37 seconds
  • Total number of Mediasite video views: 10,154
  • Total number of new Mediasite presentations created: 2,262
  • The Blackboard help desk answered 335 calls and engaged in 77 chats
  • ProctorU reservations: 420, with 363 exams completed
  • CLE consults: 127
  • Faculty Development sessions offered: 7 with 67 total participants
  • Total ALLY different format downloads: 811

We are still looking at our facilities and classrooms at our campuses to confirm occupancy limits, finalize social distancing protocols and make any physical changes necessary to support approved on-ground courses for fall as well as our service footprint. We look forward to sharing our Phase II opening and updated campus re-entry protocols with you soon. 

June 22, 2020 - Town hall link and recap, faculty forums

• Thanks to everyone who was able to join the President’s Town Hall last Friday. If you were unable to join the meeting, you can view the recorded Town Hall by clicking here: https://livestream.com/tri-c/facultyandstaff61920/videos/207665255
  
• During the Town Hall, Magda Gomez, our Director of Diversity and Inclusion, spoke about a new initiative at the College to discuss and promote racial justice. This new group will begin to meet to discuss how Tri-C can be a part of the local and national conversation and work being done around issues of diversity and justice, and will include activities such as hosting College-wide events, providing training and education to staff, students and faculty, pursuing advocacy and calls to action, and working with our partners to promote these ideals in community-based events. We look forward to having many of you join in this effort as we move forward. More to come…
• Additionally, during the Town Hall, the team discussed a communication to students that describes the types of courses being offered for fall semester. You can find this student communication for your review here: June 18 email to students
• Our faculty development team has a new week of professional development and faculty forums scheduled for you to participate in. This week’s offerings can be found here: Faculty Forums and Professional Development

June 16, 2020 - Student Sierra Germany passing, faculty forums

As you may have heard, our Tri-C family lost a member this past weekend as Sierra Germany, a student in Metro’s Optical Technology program passed away on Saturday due to complications from COVID-19. Sierra was very active in many student organizations and Tri-C events, and was honored by our College as a recipient of an academic merit scholarship at the Frances Franklin Luncheon. Sierra, her family, friends and fellow Tri-C students are in our thoughts and prayers, and Dr. Johnson will be reaching out to her family to see how the Tri-C family might support them through this time. We send our deepest sympathies. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

On the professional development front, our faculty development team has a new listing of professional development and faculty forums scheduled for your participation. This week’s offerings can be found here: Faculty Forums and Professional Development: June 15-20

June 8, 2020 - Fall schedule planning, online stats, faculty forums

I am very pleased to report we had a very successful limited opening of our campus facilities on Thursday. I want to thank all of you who were not only on the ground last week, but have provided input and guidance about our Phase I reopening over the past weeks that allowed us not only to welcome back those students who need our in-person services but to provide those on ground classes necessary for students to complete their courses.

• Although we have just begun our summer semester, we continue to work towards creating a robust and efficient fall schedule for students and faculty. Under the leadership of our academic and Center of Excellence deans, as we have this summer, we are committed to prioritizing our full-time faculty to ensure their teaching loads for fall, and will add sections to meet enrollment demands as we get closer to the start of the semester. Using this approach this summer, the College was able to improve our course fill rate for summer 2020 to 62% in comparison to a fill rate of 54% in summer of 2019, while surpassing our enrollment goals, even in this COVID-19 situation. Even in a crisis, good things can happen!
• Our OLAT staff are continuing to provide our faculty and students with online support this summer, and I wanted to share some of the statistics from their various services over just the first few weeks of summer semester:
  • Summer 2020 Blackboard courses created: 1,459
  • Number of active users in Blackboard in last 7 days: 16, 383
    • Average duration: 14 minutes
  • Number of Mediasite presentations created: 543
  • Number of alternative format downloads (provided by ALLY): 906
• Our faculty development team has posted this week’s schedule of forums and development opportunities for you to participate in – this week’s schedule can be found here: Faculty Forums and Professional Development June 8-12 and June 15-20. 

Hope you’re enjoying the June weather! As always, let us know if you have feedback that can help us support your good work. 

June 1, 2020 - Phase I reopening, return to work/campus certification links, attendance tracker link, faculty forums

Hoping you’re all doing well as we move into the second week of the full summer session. See my updates below:

• This week we begin our Phase I reopening of our campuses. Beginning June 4, the following student service areas will be open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.:
  • Enrollment Centers
  • Financial Aid offices
  • Technology Learning Centers (TLCs)
  • Bookstores (limited services)
  • Job Link Services — Certification Testing Center
  • Registrar’s Office & College Information Center

During Phase I, the following campus buildings and locations will be open:

• Brunswick University Center
• Eastern Campus — ESS
• Metropolitan Campus — MTLC, MSS, MTC (labs and Job Link Services only), ATTC (labs only)
• Transportation Innovation Center (labs only)
• Western Campus — Galleria
• Westshore Campus — SHCS

We are taking many precautions to provide a safe, healthy environment for students, faculty and staff. Some of these include:

• Maintaining one clearly marked entry point to each building.
• Requiring all students, faculty and staff to wear a face covering that covers the nose, mouth and chin while on-site. Employees, including faculty, will receive a reusable face mask and a bandana. A limited number of disposable face masks will be available for students, faculty and staff.
• Performing no-touch temperature scans. If your temperature is 100.4 degrees or above, you will not be permitted to enter the building.
• Providing markers and barriers to ensure compliance with safe distancing protocols.

Additionally, all employees, students and visitors must complete certain forms before entering our facilities.

• Employees must complete the online Return-to-Work Certification before their initial return to campus, and every Monday thereafter, until further notice. You will need to show confirmation that you submitted the certification in order to enter the building. The online form can be accessed here after logging into My Tri-C Space: http://www.tri-c.edu/returntowork. A copy of the form is also attached to this email for your review.
• Students and visitors will be required to complete the return to campus certification. These forms will be available online as well as at the entrance to each building, and students and visitors must complete the certification form every day they come to campus. This form can be accessed here: http://www.tri-c.edu/returntocampus. A copy of the form is also attached to this email for your review.

All faculty teaching an onsite course this summer must complete an attendance tracker form for each class session. This form is essential for tracing and identifying any potential need for room sanitization, exposure notifications, quarantines, etc., and is in addition to the non-attendance reporting you are accustomed to completing within the first couple weeks of each session. A copy of the new tracking form with instructions is attached, and can be found online here: Attendance Tracker. Instructors are required to scan and email the completed form to risk.management@tri-c.edu at the end of each week.

Our faculty development team has created a new series of Faculty Forums and Professional Development opportunities for you to attend and explore. The offerings for the week of June 1st through June 5th can be found here: Click here. Additionally, if there are any skills you would like to share with your colleagues through a Faculty Forum, including anything from teaching strategies to using technology to wellness information, please contact kara.depaul@tri-c.edu to learn how you can share your knowledge and skills with your colleagues through hosting your own Faculty Forum.

A great deal of work is happening behind the scenes to manage the results of COVID-19 and plan for the upcoming fall semester, but both take a backseat today as we reflect on the past few days here in Cleveland and around the country which are the result of the tragic death of George Floyd, and many others before him. I am devastated to see the damage and destruction at our Hospitality Management Center, in the city, and in cities across the country as some have unfortunately taken advantage of this awful situation. I am even more heartbroken as I wake up today and realize again, we have not come far enough as a nation. The College has always served as a pillar of hope and change for the community. By way of our mission, vision and values, we stand for the underserved and undervalued. We hold high the principles of equity and equality. We value the culture we have created at this institution, and we have an obligation to stand up for what is right and what is just. As I continue to listen to leaders from across the country, I am reminded that each of us has a voice. We can be part of the problem or part of the solution. Equality, respect and human decency is not related to race or religion or gender. We all deserve it. Thank you for being part of this culture I value so much. We are all in this together.