Humanities and Social Sciences Student Open Forum

Transcript:

Chris Marson (00:00):
Hi everyone. Welcome to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences college forum. My name is Chris Marson. I am the associate Dean in our college. We are here today to answer your questions about returning to UNC this Fall. During the program, you can ask questions using the Q and A button. Feel free to start submitting questions now. We will attempt to have all questions answered either in the Q and A live via our panelists or through a followup email once the program concludes.
Now, we'd like to begin with a special address from our Provost, Dr. Mark Anderson. Dr. Anderson joined UNC as the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs for academic affairs in the Spring of 2019. As Provost, Dr. Anderson oversees everything from enrollment management to advisee. Thank you for being here Provost.

Mark Anderson (00:56):
Thank you so much, Dr. Marson. Thank you for coming today, we very much appreciate it. As Dr. Marson said, my name is Mark Anderson. I'm the Provost here at the University of Northern Colorado and it's really a pleasure for me to welcome you to this open forum. Many of you are returning students and you know in March of the Spring semester, we pivoted very quickly to an online instructional environment because of COVID-19. Since the end of the Spring semester, the faculty and the deans have been working really hard to come up with a plan for how we would instruct our classes in the Fall semester. 
That plan has been guided by our interactions with our community partners, the Governor's office, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment as well as the Weld County Department of Public Health. And our primary concern is the health and safety of our community. One of the things that we've had to do is we've had to look at our instructional facility. And in order to maintain six feet of social distancing, our seating capacity involve our instructional rooms has gone from just about 11,000 seats to just about 3,000 seats or about 30% capacity.
Our faculty have been working diligently to construct a Fall schedule that allows for face to face instruction to the extent possible, but also maintains the health and safety through wearing of masks, social distancing, et cetera. The situation remains a fluid situation as you know in public. The Governor Polis recently instituted a mandatory mask requirement for the state of Colorado.  We're looking at everything we can do, including maintaining the cleanliness of our facility. 
And all of our classrooms, all of our public spaces will have the opportunity for maintaining a clean and safe environment. One of the things that we're relying upon is our community responsibility to each other. And we'll have ability to wipe down teaching stations, wiped down desk spaces with a disinfectant. And we're really asking everybody to be looking out for the health and safety of each other within our community.
In developing our teaching plan for the Fall semester, we've listened to what the community had to say about their interest in a face to face environment, online instruction. We've also solicited our partner institutions, our K12 partners for placement of teacher candidates, professional organizations on how we can best meet the course learning outcomes in health safety and to maintain the health and safety of our environment. 
And today's an opportunity for you to ask very specific questions about our teaching for the Fall, our plan for return to the Fall. And we look forward to answering those questions to the extent possible. It does remain a fluid situation between now and the beginning of the semester, things may change a little bit. I encourage you to continue to look at our website particularly the COVID-19 portion to find out the latest updates. And with that, I just want to once again, welcome you this evening and turn the forum over to Dean Laura Connolly, Laura.

Laura Connolly (04:45):
Thank you Mark. Hi everyone. As the Provost said, I am Laura Connolly. I am the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. And I want to say thank you very much. All the questions about masks I just wanted to show you this really cool UNC mask that I have. I got it at the UNC bookstore, if you really want to show your Bear pride, that's how you can do it this semester.
We do have a few panelists from our college and I want to introduce them now. The first is our Lead Student Success Coach Haley Blackburn, and she is also answering all kinds of questions. You want to say hi Hayley.

Hayley Blackburn (05:25):
Yes. Thank you. Hi everyone. I'm Hayley Blackburn, but you can call me coach Hayley and that's because I work in our Lead Student Success Resource Center. And myself and my awesome staff are really here to help you coach, listen, give you resources and advice on everything from help with class, understanding your GPA, probation, stress management, time management, all of those aspects that we know are important for us students to feel empowered and successful this semester.

Laura Connolly (05:57):
Thanks Haley. Next we have Dr. Fritz Fischer. He is a professor and the Chair of the Department of History.

Fritz Fischer (06:07):
Just want to say professors are super excited to get back to work, whether we're working online or hybrid or face to face, and always will be willing to answer your questions as well.

Laura Connolly (06:20):
Thank you, Fritz. We also have Dr. Andy Creekmore, who is a professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Andy.

Andy Creekmore (06:30):
Hi, welcome everybody. I look forward to seeing you virtually or in-person this Fall and looking forward to hear your question today.

Laura Connolly (06:40):
And we have one more panelist. I don't know that we'll ask her to answer a ton of questions. But Deborah Lewis, who is the Operations Manager for our college and knows more probably than almost anybody in the whole university about HSS. Debbie, do you want to say hi.

Deborah Lewis (06:59):
Hi everybody, I'm Debbie and I'm the Operational Manager, as Laura said. And I also handle the scheduling for our college. If you have any questions about your classes or scheduling, feel free to contact me and I will help you as best I can. 

Laura Connolly (07:14):
Great. All right, thanks to all our panelists. I'm going to turn it back over to Chris to do the moderating. Dr. Marson, thank you.

Chris Marson (07:21):
Thank you, Dean Connolly. I'm grateful to have all of the panelists with us today and to be joined by all of you. We have about 50 students today. 46% of you are returning Bears and about 54% of you are new Bears. Welcome to UNC or welcome back to UNC. We will now start to answer your questions. As we mentioned, some of the questions will be answered live and others will be answered via the Q and A. We will respond to each of your questions either publicly or privately depending on what that is.
Without further ado, sorry, I just need to switch screens here. And that's taking a little bit longer than expected. Sorry, my internet is slow right now.

Laura Connolly (08:27):
And it's like probably [inaudible 00:08:28].

Chris Marson (08:28):
Bryson, could you help me with the first question please?

Laura Connolly (08:34):
Bryson.

Bryson Kelly (08:35):
Absolutely. Hello folks. My name is Bryson. I work in the Office of Admissions. Our first question is, has anyone in the humanity and social science community whether that be professors, admin assistant, students or janitors have been known to come down with a virus already? That may be a question for Dean Connolly or the Provost.

Laura Connolly (08:57):
Not that I know of. I haven't heard of anyone in our college. There are some people who may have, but nobody's tested positive. I don't know for sure whether that's the case. Mark, I don't know if you have more information.

Mark Anderson (09:13):
No, that's correct Laura. That there have been some members of our community have gotten sick. They've been tested, but nobody on the faculty staff side has tested positive yet. We have as also found in the Q and A, we have had some students who have tested positive for COVID-19, but so far nobody in the faculty or staff, thankfully.

Chris Marson (09:43):
Thank you. Will professors that hold the classes online still have office hours?

Fritz Fischer (09:52):
Do you want one of the professors to answer that one?

Laura Connolly (09:54):
Yeah, go ahead Fritz, thank you. 

Fritz Fischer (09:56):
The answer is definitely yes. I think most people are planning to have both in-person and online office hours, whether they're face to face or hybrid. If you're only doing an online class it might just be online office hours. But certainly every professor always has to have office hours. And as I said, "If you're doing a face to face or hybrid class the professors will have both online office hours and in-person office hours."

Chris Marson (10:28):
Thank you, professor Fisher. We have a question about self-quarantining and what would happen to our in-person classes, would a student still be able to complete their work for those classes online?

Laura Connolly (10:44):
I've had that conversation with several of our faculty already. Yes, we're treating it the same way as we would if it was a normal semester and you were to get sick or injured the faculty will work with you for whatever accommodations it will take to finish the class. It might depend very much on the situation, but we will do everything we can. We certainly will make sure you complete the class. 

Chris Marson (11:09):
Okay. Thank you. And I'm waiting on the next question. And Dr. Finley, could you also talk a little bit about the quarantine situation in-housing and if you are in-housing?

Jenna Finley (11:21):
Sure. If a student has to self-quarantine because they have been exposed or symptomatic and awaiting test results are self-isolate because they are sick. We have single rooms set aside for isolation and quarantine. The rooms are single, have their own bathroom, and meals will be delivered to those students for the length of the time that they're in quarantine. I saw the question about how confident are you that we won't have an outbreak? 
And I will say that the outbreak it is possible. And certainly our success as a community is dependent on what we all do in terms of preventions. Our commitment to one another in wearing masks, and washing hands, and staying socially distance. Are all the keys that we know at this point, that will kind of make or break us in terms of what will happen when students are back.

Chris Marson (12:21):
Okay. Thank you. And Dean Connolly, could you please answer when will professors decide which days the hybrid classes are happening in-person?

Laura Connolly (12:32):
Thank you. They actually have already decided that. If you look at the schedule it'll show the days and if it has a day and a time and a room, then those are the face to face days. However, many of our faculty will be teaching half the class on one day, half the class on another day. It may vary so that we can fit everybody in the classroom. I may let a couple of our faculty members talk about their process for that and what they know from other faculty members. Dr. Creekmore, would you be willing to address that?

Andy Creekmore (13:09):
Sure, absolutely. I think one of my classes, for example, is a methods course and we have a number of things we need to do hands on. And I'm working to schedule those so that we won't exceed the capacity of the room, the safe capacity of the room or move some of those labs outdoors. And I can't speak for all of my colleagues, but my sense is that we're all working pretty hard at this right now trying to get our syllabi organized so that we could get those dates out to students as soon as possible.
But I would encourage you not to hesitate to contact your professors and ask them directly, see if they have an idea. Don't be shy about doing that. They'd be happy to respond to give you a sense of what's in the works for a given class.

Chris Marson (13:54):
Thank you.

Laura Connolly (13:54):
Dr. Fischer, do you have anything to add?

Fritz Fischer (13:57):
Yes. I think the main thing is contacting the professors. Every professor is doing it a little bit differently. The more confusing ones if you have a Monday, Wednesday, Friday class that's a hybrid class. You can count on meeting either Monday or Wednesday every week because most professors are going to split their class into two or in some cases three, but usually two. Half will meet on Monday, half will meet on Wednesday and then they might do on every other week thing. Some weeks you'll have two days in-person and some weeks you'll have one. 
And for Tuesday, Thursday class, most of my colleagues that have that we'll have a one day in-person. They might do the second day even by if you're going in-person one day, the second day that you might have a Zoom and see your other classmates in that Zoom depending of the technology in the room. It's really all dependent on the room each professor has and each individual professor. The best thing to do is to contact your professor directly and they'll be happy to give you a general idea now and in a couple of weeks a more specific idea. 

Laura Connolly (15:08):
Thank you. One more thing I would suggest is the canvas shells for all of the classes. For those of you who are new students we use a system called canvas. And as soon as you're registered, you will already be able to have access to that. And a lot of your faculty will be posting information or contacting you through canvas. And one thing that's really important is be sure to check your Bear's email because that's the email your faculty will use to contact you and give you information.

Chris Marson (15:39):
Okay. Provost Anderson, I will address the next question to you please.

Mark Anderson (15:47):
Already. 

Chris Marson (15:48):
Okay. What are the steps that we are taking to ensure a student safety related to COVID?

Mark Anderson (15:59):
That's a great question. And I think it follows up on something that Dr. Finley mentioned earlier about how can we guarantee? Well, the fact of the matter is we have responsibility to each other, the whole campus community. And we are going to be requiring that students wear masks in public areas and public areas include the classroom. We're going to have some reasonable accommodation because there's a lot of classes, for example, foreign language that require people to speak and to be able to see each other speak. And there'll be accommodations for taking off masks, but doing so in a way that's socially distance and responsible. 
One thing that we've done which affected our Fall schedule was we took an inventory of all of our rooms, and we changed the capacity of every room so that students could be spaced out by at least six feet of separation. And that the faculty could hold the class and maintain that distance. We are looking at the flow of students in and out of buildings and we will designate certain hallways or certain stairwells as up and other stairwells as down. We will be controlling the flow of students around Candelaria and [MC 00:17:22] and other buildings. 
We'll have entrance points and exit points so that we can try to maintain as much distance as possible. We will be having higher levels of cleanliness, I suppose. In that, spaces will be cleaned with much greater frequency and deep cleaned every night. We'll have disinfecting solutions and rags available in every room, students will be able to wipe off their desk space when they arrive. And then we would like them to do that as they're leaving as well to prepare for the next group of students.
We will be looking at public restrooms and maintaining their cleanliness, but also asking the community to do what they can to assure responsibility for each other. I think the clear and the most important thing is we're going to provide a lot of education. And we really want to have the community be very responsible to each other so that we take responsibility for the health and safety of each other. 
And then finally we are asking our students if they feel sick to self-report, quarantine if necessary. And tell somebody so that we can give you the appropriate attention. We want to make sure that our classes are safe and part of having a safe classroom is making sure that students don't feel an obligation to attend if they're feeling well.
And something that Dean Connolly referred to earlier, "If a student is in self-quarantine, they will be able to continue their class. They will have opportunity to continue to engage with the material of the class as they would in any semester if they're ill." I think the most important thing that we're doing other than taking all the preventative measures that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment are asking the community is that we're going to provide a lot of education and really emphasize the responsibility that we have to each other in the community to assure the health and safety of our community. 

Chris Marson (19:44):
Thank you, Provost. We have just a small follow up question to that. And some professors tend to be more strict with their attendance policy. As you've mentioned, those students self-quarantining or working online, could you please speak to that?

Mark Anderson (20:00):
Again, we are asking our faculty to be empathetic to the situation and recognize that students will have to make decisions for the benefit of the entire community. And then part of that decision might be to self-quarantine if they're feeling symptoms. We also want to emphasize that students need to participate in their classes. Attendance is important and they should be encouraged to attend and participate to the extent that they feel comfortable. But we are not asking for a doctor's notes for excused absences related to the coronavirus. 
Attendance in and of itself is important, but what's more important is to be engaged with the material and there's different ways of doing that. And I think as Professor Creekmore and Professor Fisher said earlier, "Reach out to your faculty, particularly during the course of the semester so that they know what's going on with you and your health." 
As a faculty person, I have a high level of concern for my students. And if students aren't attending my class I really want to know why, so I can help. And I think the most important thing with respect to attendance is open and fairly consistent in communication with your faculty members so that we know what's going on with you.

Chris Marson (21:45):
Okay. And I have one more question that is similarly related. And if somebody tests positive in-person or hybrid class, would everyone in that class be sent into quarantine?

Mark Anderson (21:59):
I think initially yes, everybody would be sent into quarantine. We'll be doing a lot of contact tracing. And one of the really important aspects for maintaining the health and safety of our community is the contact tracing that we will be doing. And we want to assure that everybody who has been exposed to somebody who tested positive, knows that they've been exposed and asking them to take appropriate measures and get tested themselves so that we can meet the public health standards. 

Chris Marson (22:40):
Okay. Thank you. The next question is for Dr. Finley, are there any quarantine requirements for students when they move on to campus? 

Jenna Finley (22:55):
There are not any quarantine requirements for students as they move out onto campus. We do recommend you consider at the two weeks prior to coming to campus to do self-isolate as much as possible and limit your contact. But as you come onto campus, you will not be required to self-isolate or quarantine, you'll be required to wear a mask in public areas. You'll be required to keep social distance not gathering groups.
If you live in the residence halls, you will not be able to have roommates or guests. You'll have roommates you won't be able to have guests in your residence hall room. And we're still determining whether or not there can be guests in the common spaces of the buildings. 
I think there was going to be a question of how is quarantine relates to this. And I saw that how is quarantine or self-isolation enforced or these other policies enforced. They do relate to the current code of conduct, which requires students to comply with state law. Our mask is now something that is covered under state law as well as complying with the request of university officials in our current health and safety policies. Everything that we're putting in place is something that is enforceable. 
And I think depending on what happens. I think if someone, for example, is sick and breaks their self-isolation, I think people will need to know upfront that that is something that you can no longer be. You will risk your status as a student. It can go through the conduct process and result in suspension. These are things that we'll be talking with students as they arrive on campus, that we're working on the policy pieces still. But everything that we are asking for students is something that is enforceable through our policies.
But I think we also just really want to emphasize our responsibility to one another's health, not only U.S. students, but the health of our faculty and staff that are on campus to serve you. And how important and how seriously we take the measures that we're asking you to comply with. 

Chris Marson (25:07):
Okay. Thank you. The next question is for Dean Connolly. For students who are taking classes in-person, are they expected to wipe down the seat desk in that room before and after using it?

Laura Connolly (25:22):
Yes, that's what we're requesting for all students to do is just to be courteous to the other students, both in your classes before and after you and also for your own protection to make sure that all the classrooms are as safe as possible. That is a request that we're making of all of our students and the faculty will be wiping down their teaching areas as well.

Chris Marson (25:43):
Okay. And the next question is for you to start and then we'll have our faculty weigh in.

Laura Connolly (25:43):
Okay.

Chris Marson (25:48):
A lot of students are worried about losing academic quality, how can hybrid and online classes be as beneficial as in-person instruction.

Laura Connolly (25:58):
That is an excellent question. As the provost said, when he first started his introduction, our faculty have been working really hard all Summer to make sure that the courses are really high quality in many ways. And they're having to be really innovative a lot of times. We do have a lot of faculty who have a lot of experience teaching online courses already. But even for those who don't, we've been helping them design the classes, figure out ways to interact in different ways.
We acknowledged that in the Spring it was very uneven the quality of the classes across because of the different levels of experience. I'm really confident that this Fall it'll be much better because we're prepared for it, everybody's planning for it. And I would very much like to have the faculty weigh in. Dr. Fisher. Oh, I see Provost Anderson.

Mark Anderson (26:54):
Sorry, I'm just going to interrupt here real quick. 

Laura Connolly (26:56):
Okay.

Mark Anderson (26:56):
I think the key difference between the Fall and the Spring is we've had plenty of time to prepare. In the Spring, we had to move very quickly. The preparation time has been spent not just getting ready for individual classes, but really providing some of the supports so that faculty had the necessary supports behind the scenes to effectively teach in a virtual environment. 
The other piece, which I think is critically important is that a face to face course, a hybrid course and a virtual or online course are going to be different, but they have the same objective and the same objective or the learning outcomes for the course. And by focusing on the learning outcomes and the different modalities of instruction, it's going to be different, but it is the same outcome. And that's really I think the focus that we really have to be, we have to be cognizant of it's different, but the outcome will be the same.

Chris Marson (28:01):
Great.

Mark Anderson (28:01):
Fritz, please.

Fritz Fischer (28:04):
One thing I'll say is the way one of the ways in which we figured out how each class was going to be taught. Faculty were asked a couple of months ago actually, which they would prefer. Most of the online classes the faculty have known for a month and a half now that they're going to teach in the Fall online, they wanted to teach online. They have methodologies to teach effectively online. They've done it before as Dr. Connolly pointed out in some cases. And there's a lot of things you can do online that you can't do face to face and that might fit some professors styles better. 
As for the hybrid classes, and I'm actually excited about the opportunity to have some smaller discussions. Because if you have, I'm teaching one class in a very large room and if I split the class has 35 people, if I split it in an 18 and a 17 the discussions I think there'll be more opportunity for student discussion the hybrid class. There'll be some advantages with the new modalities that professors have had a lot of time to think about and to try to take advantage of. 

Chris Marson (29:18):
Professor Fisher, if you could answer the next class as well or question as well. If your classes online and it includes live Zoom sessions, what happens if the class adds a meeting time during when you have another class already scheduled?

Fritz Fischer (29:37):
That's an interesting question that you might be able to answer because I think that could happen. You shouldn't have a professor adding a meeting time other than the class meeting time, am I correct?

Laura Connolly (29:50):
Yes, you are correct. We schedule those specifically. And Debbie Lewis, do you want to weigh in on how that worked?

Deborah Lewis (30:03):
When we rescheduled the classes to make the changes to the modality, instructors indicated whether they wanted what is called synchronous online teaching. And they had to stay with the days and times that they originally had scheduled for the face to face, which would have eliminated any time conflicts for students. There shouldn't be any issues if you are seeing that on your schedule, you should contact the Registrar's Office.

Chris Marson (30:34):
Okay. Dr. Finley, if you could address the next question about face shields and will face shields be available or will some people be wearing them?

Jenna Finley (30:53):
Masks are what are required by state law. And we will have some provisions if someone forgets a mask there'll be a couple of places on campus that are designated for you to get something that is temporary. But you should expect that if you try to enter a classroom, a dining room without a mask you will be turned away to go get one. What we are recommending is a fabric mask and that you bring multiple. When we think about the mask use throughout a day is a good idea to change them, to wash them, all of that. Know your own ability to do laundry and bring as many masks. The wardrobe of masks that you think you needs to come out.

Chris Marson (31:41):
And Dr. Finley, the next question is for you as well. Do students have to self-quarantine if they don't want to?

Jenna Finley (31:50):
If you are symptomatic or if you have meant to hold by someone during contact tracing that you are exposed, you must stop quarantine. If you are on campus that is something that is enforceable, we will assign you a place to do that. You are expected to comply with that. And there is communication between us and the health department in terms of we are notified when there has been an exposure by the health department in Weld County. So, yes.

Chris Marson (32:27):
Okay. Thank you. This is either for Dean Connolly or Provost Anderson. If a faculty member tests positive will the class be moved online?

Laura Connolly (32:42):
That is a good question. Either yes, the class would be moved online or we will find a substitute instructor to finish the course. It happens once in a while in a regular semester that a faculty member gets sick or injured and can't complete teaching the semester. And it's not an ideal situation, but we often are able to find somebody to teach the rest of the course. If the faculty member is healthy enough to teach the course, then at least for the time that they need to be isolated, then I think we could plan to move that class online.
And related to that as you know, things were always changing and there is a possibility that partway through the semester, we're going to need to be prepared to move back online fully online. We're hoping that doesn't happen, but it all depends on what's happening within the state and the city and the campus. All of our faculty know that that's a possibility and have been preparing for that just in case.

Chris Marson (33:43):
Okay. We had a followup question about wiping down desks and if the supplies will be provided and the answer is yes. The supplies will be provided. We will have spray and paper towels in the classroom areas and other areas there may be wipes. Professor Creekmore, could you adjust how much homework is expected in a standard hybrid class?

Andy Creekmore (34:13):
Sure. I think that you could expect a similar amount of homework as you would expect in a face to face or other course. As professors, we have a certain level of workload that correlates to levels of courses that's outlined in different university policies and we try to aim for that. The difference might be that if your course has a portion online and some of that participation will be in the form of perhaps live face to face discussions with other students. Perhaps there will be discussion forums where you post and comment on the students activities or perhaps you submit assignments online.
I wouldn't expect a hybrid course to be double like the online work and the face to face work. Instead, that work will be parceled out into those two environments to be roughly equivalent to a face to face course or wholly online course. 

Chris Marson (35:05):
Thank you. Professor Fisher, did you have anything to add?

Fritz Fischer (35:11):
No. I think Professor Creekmore had it correct. It connects to what Provost Anderson said. What counts is the learning outcomes and the goal of the faculty is to get to those learning outcomes throughout the semester. It won't be necessarily be more or less. The total will be similar regardless of the way the class is taught. I just might be in a little bit different order depending on whether it's online, hybrid or face to face.

Chris Marson (35:45):
Okay. Dr. Finley, the next question is for you. How many students can hang out at once and are there restrictions for socializing? You mentioned, guests and dorm rooms or in common spaces earlier.

Jenna Finley (36:02):
Indoors there's going to be capacities posted in some of our larger community spaces. And I think that will be throughout the campus, we expect things to abide by that. Generally, the recommendation is to hang out in a group not larger than 10 with masks socially distance. There are some exceptions to that outdoors if you maintain spacing, you don't necessarily have to have a mask. And I think that at the beginning of the semester, we will place some emphasis and socializing outdoors, eating outdoors, thinking about that. As we've planned for the Summer, we still want to community building and relationship building amongst students. 
There was a question about will we have social activities and yes, we will. There are still activities in a social experience for the campus. The student organizations are talking about what that may look like think things like perhaps a drive and movie as an activity or an event. And there also be community building virtually as well.
If you're a new student, the group you started with on orientation will continue to be a virtual community [inaudible 00:37:15] participate in with and an RA will help facilitate some activities. You can get continue to get to know each other a little better and we'll continue to host things in small groups.

Chris Marson (37:28):
Dr, Finley, I have two more questions to follow up with you. You mentioned the student code of conduct earlier. And if other students see someone not complying with campus policies, what can those students do?

Jenna Finley (37:43):
On the Dean Students Website there is a place to report students of concern or incidents, that is the place that you can report that. Again, if you live on campus talking to your RA or neighborhood coordinator is another option, if you can't find that form. But we do encourage you to report so we can talk to students. And for some students it's just a moment of education of what they need to do and why. It depends on what you see them doing and our investigation of that. 

Chris Marson (38:19):
One additional followup question. If a student has been exposed or contract traced, do they have to stay on campus for quarantine or is it possible for them to go home during that period and then return to campus? 

Jenna Finley (38:33):
We can't tell you not to go home. And I think that's going to be up to you and your family to consider the pros and cons of that. We do ask that you inform us of where you're going to be, so we know where you're at. And again, there's going to be a reporting form for you to do that. I think the thing to consider and what I will say is the health department doesn't really like it when students who have been exposed go to a different location. 
And this is because you're basically taking that exposure from one community into another or your family that hasn't necessarily been exposed. I think that's something to carefully consider as we head into the year, but we can't force you not to go home for your quarantine. 

Chris Marson (39:30):
The next question is either for provost Anderson or Dean Connolly, will doors to buildings be propped open at all times and doors to classrooms? And I assume this question is in terms of ventilation.

Mark Anderson (39:43):
I think the plan is to have the doors propped open so people don't have to grab hold of the door knobs that sort of thing. I believe Dr. Finley said earlier, "There'll be signs on rooms talking about capacity." There will also be signs on every entrance to an exit to buildings to indicate whether the door is an entrance or an exit on stairwells, et cetera. Classrooms, I think will be propped open in the passing period, but will be closed during the class so that a classroom experience can go on without interruption.

Chris Marson (40:32):
Okay. And the next question is also for you Provost, will the bookstore still be doing buy back at the end of the semester or should students look into alternative electronic materials?

Mark Anderson (40:45):
That's a great question that I'm going to have to ask somebody to get back to you on. We had buy back at the end of the Spring semester, I would imagine that we will for this semester as well. It will look a little bit different than it normally would. And I think everything we're doing at the university we're trying to maintain as normal and operation as possible while maintaining the appropriate standards for community health. 
And at the end of the semester, as the bookstores looking to, as you're looking to sell back your materials. I'm confident, but I'll have to defer to the experts. I'm confident that I will continue to do that, but it will probably be a little bit different than what it's been in the past just in terms of the logistics. 

Chris Marson (41:42):
Okay. Can I have one more question for you? The question is about COVID testing and when will it be required for students or where will it be available for students?

Mark Anderson (41:49):
I'm going to interpret just a little bit. We're not requiring COVID testing to force every student as they arrive on campus. I was on a call earlier today with the Colorado Department of Higher Education, the Colorado Department for Public Health and Environment. And they said that, "The World Health Organization Center for Disease Control as well as CDPHE is not recommending a testing for COVID as an entry requirement." There's a number of reasons for that, but the testing is a point in time.
And you can show up on campus, get tested and come back negative, but still have COVID. It just hasn't generated enough antibodies in your system to show up in a testing environment. We're not requiring testing on arrival for campus. And I believe Dr. Finley also said that, "We're not requiring a two week quarantine on arrival."
With respect to testing, our student health facility has testing and if people are symptomatic or have been exposed to somebody who's tested positive, we have a capacity to test on campus through our Student Health Organization. 

Chris Marson (43:12):
And one additional question about athletics. What is the status with athletics and how will it be determined who can attend athletic events and how many students like first come first serve?

Mark Anderson (43:28):
I'm getting all the tough ones right now. First of all, right now there's no change to athletics. We plan on having a Fall athletic schedule, but we're members of both the NCAA as well as the Big Sky Conference. And the decision on the scheduling, whether we move forward with Fall sports, et cetera is not a decision that we make independent of our Big Sky Conference colleagues as well as the NCAA. But also with Weld County Public Health and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. 
As of right now, our athletic schedule is moving forward as if we will have a full compliment of events. How that will look, I imagine we will restrict the numbers of spectators and want the spectator spaced out. How that will be selected I do not know, but I anticipate that there will be some determination on how that will happen a lottery or something else I would imagine. But I think that will be a decision which just made closer to the beginning of the seasons. 

Chris Marson (44:53):
We have another question you, I think folks are seeing you answering right now. And if the university moves completely online, what is the plan for students and how would this affect academics and campus services? And then the followup to that is what would it take for the university to move completely online?

Mark Anderson (45:16):
I'll start with the last part. I think what it would take would be the Governor and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to really mandate that we go to an online environment. We're going to be paying a lot of attention, but we are working very closely with the state of Colorado on how we're opening in the Fall and how we're going to operate over the course of the Fall semester. To go to a fully online environment, I think would really be at the discretion of the state and really telling us. 
As Dean Connolly said earlier, "We are planning for that contingency." And in planning for the Fall semester, we've asked all of our faculty to be prepared in the event that we have to go to an all online environment. As was the case in the Spring semester, when we did go to an all online environment in the middle of March, we maintained our housing and dining for those students that had to stay on campus international students who couldn't travel, others for whatever reason had to stay on campus.
And I will defer a little bit here to Dr. Finley and see if she could answer the question. But I would anticipate that if we pivoted again, to move to an all online environment that our housing and dining would likely stay open because we serve a population of students who might not be able to leave the campus. 

Jenna Finley (46:49):
That is correct Dr. Anderson. That is what we experienced in the Spring. We continued to house people, to feed them, and we saw a good number of students stay. If students chose to leave, we did issue a credit and that credit could be applied to housing, dining or tuition for the following two terms. That is what I anticipate would happen if the same situation were to happen during this academic year.

Chris Marson (47:27):
Coach Hayley, the next question is for you. How will students meet with academic advisors? Are there only online appointments available?

Hayley Blackburn (47:37):
Oh, that's a great question. And short answer we will meet you wherever you're at. A lot of the advising centers, if you need to meet with an advisor outside of HSS, you have a minor in another college double major. They are preparing for both virtual and some in-person. If you are in like criminal justice, for example, and come to the Student Success Resource Center for advising. We are also prepared for in-person, we are going to space out the appointments make sure that we can sanitize. Everyone will have masks, social distancing, but we can meet you in-person or we can have video chats and phone calls.
Now, when meeting with your faculty advisors for your programs, you'll definitely just want to check in with them and find kind of the best way to meet. I Imagine it'll be similar to faculty office hours. Some of them might have the ability and space to meet in-person. Others might want to meet with you over Zoom phone call. We're really preparing in finding as many kinds of ways to get you the advising that you need and help you get registered for the next semester as we can, so that way you're prepared and set as well.

Chris Marson (48:57):
Coach Hayley, I have another question about where classes for HSS are located. Are they all in Candelaria or spread across campus?

Hayley Blackburn (49:06):
Yes, they are going to be spread across campus and that's similar to sort of typical or other semesters. But we definitely had to take the time and make sure that we had spaces also large enough your desk could be six feet apart. You definitely can't expect any of your mixed face to face or face to face classes to be spread out over campus. And if you have questions about where this building is, that's absolutely something that my office would be happy to walk you through, give you estimates of how long it takes to get there and help you find that room.

Chris Marson (49:43):
How do students know which classes are required for their majors?

Hayley Blackburn (49:49):
Oh, I love this question. There's two ways that you can really go about it first. Always ask your advisor, they're there to help you understand that degree progression. But also in Ursa, we love Ursa it's sort of the home base for everything you need. But in Ursa there is a button called degree works. And if you haven't gone into degree works or you're not familiar with it that's another thing that I would be more than happy to show you how to get onto that site and how to read it. 
But degree works is our official degree progress tracker. You can look at your degree works as many times as you want in a semester and it will actually show you. Red circles are things that you still need to do they're requirements you haven't met yet. Blue circles are usually things you're registered for right now. It means that it's in progress. And then green check marks are things that are done. As you're looking forward to future semesters definitely log into Ursa, look at your degree works and try find those red circles and then ask your advisor about how to complete that red circle.

Chris Marson (51:00):
And one additional question. Are there study spaces and or campus resources specifically available to HSS students?

Hayley Blackburn (51:09):
Oh, that's a great question. And specific to HSS no, not necessarily. We are all UNC Bears, but you can definitely find some study spaces. In our center, we always have a lot of students doing homework and we'll make sure that there are some spaces that you can be distance and safe, but still make sure that you can get your work done. The library will have some capacity and spaces like usual, but as far as HSS specific, no. We'd like to bring everybody in.

Chris Marson (51:48):
Okay. We have a question specifically about tutoring. And could you talk about the tutoring center? 

Hayley Blackburn (51:55):
Yes. Oh, our friends at Tutorial Services are awesome. For the Fall semester, they are going to have some in-person as well as virtual tutoring services available. And they are able to provide support for tons and tons of classes. And if you have specific questions about if your class is available for that type of peer to peer tutoring support, I will definitely want to look on their website. They actually usually have a list of the classes that they're offering support for and then definitely make an appointment. That if you're on campus and would prefer and feel comfortable meeting in-person, they will have some of that space available. But if you're not in the other Greeley area, you're not going to be on campus. They are going to be able to help you out virtually as well.

Chris Marson (52:54):
Thank you. And our last question I'll start with Dr. Creekmore and then see if Dean Connolly wants to add to that. Could you talk about some of the research opportunities for Fall for students? I know that's an area Dr. Creekmore, that you have a lot of student involvement in your department?

Andy Creekmore (53:17):
Yes, I'm not sure why my video is not coming on here. Let's see, there I am. Okay, I disappeared. Research opportunities, that's a bit tricky because of the face to face protocols, there need to be a couple of things going on. They need to be ongoing research projects as well as projects that can be in sort of an individual basis. 
I for example, have a grant project going on working with our collections and have a few individuals that are working on projects associated with that. At this point, I'm not familiar with the wide range of opportunities that might be available. I don't know Fritz or Connolly, if you're aware of other opportunities?

Chris Marson (54:02):
Thank you. Dean Connolly, did you have any final thoughts?

Laura Connolly (54:08):
I'm thinking about the research question first. And I haven't talked to specifically to our faculty about what kinds of research opportunities. Different disciplines have very different ways of doing research. For example, my background is in economics and we do a lot of work with data and on computers. And that would be something that we could a faculty member and a student could work together on.
Dr. Creekmore is an archeologist, it's a little harder to work virtually that way. I think it depends very much on which area you're in. And that would be another place where I'd really encourage you to talk to the faculty and find out what kinds of opportunities there might be. We pride ourselves on having a lot of opportunities for undergraduate research and so talk to your faculty they would love to work with you. 

Chris Marson (54:59):
Okay. Well, thank you to all of our new and returning UNC Bears and your families that joined us today. Thank you so much to our panelists and for all the wonderful questions that you asked. Each college at UNC has a forum this week or next and you can also find details on our webpage for information regarding UNCs efforts to maintain a healthy campus this Fall. Please view our return to campus webpage. We are happy to welcome you or welcome you back to our Bear community and we can't wait to see you this fall. Thank you so much students and families and panelists.

Laura Connolly (55:45):
And go Bears.

Chris Marson (55:46):
Go Bears.