Monfort College of Business Student Open Forum

Transcript:

Jay Lightfoot (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the Montford College of Business College Forum. My name is Jay Lightfoot. I'm the MCB associate dean, professor of computer information systems, and your moderator for today's forum. We are here today to answer your questions about returning to UNC this fall. During the program, you can ask questions using the Q&A button. Feel free to start submitting questions now. We will attempt to have all questions answered either in the Q&A, live via our panelists, or through a followup email once the program concludes.

Jay Lightfoot (00:38):
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 in the spring of 2019. As provost, Dr. Anderson oversees everything from enrollment management to advising. Thank you for being here, Provost Anderson.

Mark Anderson (01:00):
Thanks for having me, Dr. Lightfoot. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. As I look at this slide, I have to ask the question, who is that young man? Certainly a very old picture of me.

Mark Anderson (01:13):
We are really pleased to have this open forum and give you the opportunity to interact with the faculty and administration for the Montford College of Business. We have been working diligently over the course of the summer to ensure that we'll have a robust, on-campus learning experience. We've posted the final schedule for the fall that has a combination of face to face courses, mixed face to face, which has some component of face to face, some component of online, and then some courses which will be offered online. If you go to Ursa and look at your schedule you should be able to tell the modality of the instruction for your course.

Mark Anderson (01:56):
We did this, we made the schedule with the intention of needing the guidance from the governor's office and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and to ensure the safety and security of our campus. We also did it in consultation with our professional organizations, to make sure that we were consistent with what our professional organizations were telling us about how we could do our instruction in a safe way.

Mark Anderson (02:22):
This semester's going to be a little bit different than what you are used to, but it's going to be great, and we're really pleased to have you here. I want to turn it back to Dr. Lightfoot to introduce the real important people for the panel, the faculty and staff of the Montford College of Business.

Jay Lightfoot (02:43):
Thank you, Provost Anderson. At this time, I would like to introduce Dean Sher Gibbs. She is our new dean, and she has a message for you.

Sher Gibbs (02:55):
Thank you for that introduction, Jay. And I want to thank Provost Anderson for his remarks, and thank each of you for joining us this evening. So for incoming students and their parents, I want to welcome you to UNC and the Montford College of Business. To our returning students, welcome back, we're happy to have you.

Sher Gibbs (03:17):
My name is Dr. Sher Gibbs, and I'm the new deal of the Montford College of Business. And I'm excited to be here with you today. I started at UNC this summer and transitioned from the University of Southern Missouri. My native state is Louisiana, and I was raised in Southern California. My background is in software engineering, healthcare IT, and entrepreneurship, and I hope to borrow heavily from this background to showcase and highlight the innovative and unique business programs here at MCB.

Sher Gibbs (03:48):
I know that these are challenging and turbulent times, and there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty about what lies ahead. But UNC and MCB are hopeful, and have worked extremely hard to ensure that students will return to a safe and secure environment.

Sher Gibbs (04:03):
First, I want to comment on what occurs when you return to campus. All students, faculty, and staff are required to wear a mask when in public spaces, outside, and in the classroom or in buildings, unless they are in the confines of their own dorm room or office. The fall class schedule was published July 15th, and a URL to view the fall schedule is shown on slide six.

Sher Gibbs (04:28):
Dormitories will open August 14th, and each student will be assigned 30 minute time slots to unload their belongings and to manage safe social distancing. If you have questions, please contact UNC housing. Colorado's number of cases and hospitalizations have started to surge a little bit in the coming weeks, but we are doing everything we can for prevention, such as social distancing, wearing a mask, and practicing good hygiene. MCB worked diligently to provide classes in various learning modes that accommodates all student preferences. So to that end, we provide in person classes for students who prefer traditional learning, mixed mode courses, hybrid, and online.

Sher Gibbs (05:14):
Right now, about 60% of our classes are mixed mode and online, and 40% are ... I'm sorry, mixed mode is about 60%, and 40% are online. So we're happy to have you attend the MCB open forum, and we look forward to answering any questions that I know many of you might have. At this time, I'm going to hand it back over to Jay, who will start the introduction of the panel of faculty and staff that are here to answer questions you might have. Thank you.

Jay Lightfoot (05:45):
Thank you, Dr. Gibbs. We have a number of panelists, and let's go to the next slide so that everybody can see their names. There we go. You just heard from Dr. Gibbs, she is our dean. I am Jay Lightfoot, I'm the associate dean. Dr. Daniel Brannon is the undergraduate program coordinator, Dr. Cris de la Torre is the graduate program coordinator. Dr. Pat Seaton is the chir of accounting and CIS, Dr. Mike Martin is the finance chair. Dr. Keiko Krahnke is the management chair, Dr. Denny McCorkle, the marketing chair. Ms. Rosa Law is the director of student advising, Mr. Nate Raugutt is the academic advisor, Mr. Chris Vegter is the director of academic technology and information resources. Ms. Kim Lebsack, student and faculty support specialist, and rounding it out, Ms. Janie Voris, business operation manager. So as you can see, we have quite a large group of people here to answer your questions.

Jay Lightfoot (06:51):
This time, I am very grateful to have our panelists with is, and I am also glad that you're here, because we have over 65 current and future bears with us. We will now start to answer your questions, and as mentioned before, some questions will be answered live, and others will be answered via the Q&A. And I was going to start with the first question that I see up here, it says how are professors planning to coordinate teaching students who text positive for COVID-19 during the quarantine? So I believe pretty much anybody can answer that one. I could route it to Dr. Gibbs, or I could route it to Provost Anderson.

Mark Anderson (07:36):
I will go ahead and start and then defer to the others. Really, a student who tests positive for COVID-19 would be treated very much like a student who gets sick in any normal semester. If you get sick in a normal semester, we hope that you won't attend the class so that you can take care of yourself. In the case of getting COVID-19, we ask that you don't attend the class so that you can focus on getting better, but also so that you can protect the health of the community.

Mark Anderson (08:07):
So anybody who tests positive, or even just shows symptoms, we encourage you to quarantine yourself, and you will contact your faculty and work with your faculty so that you can continue to get the material for the course and continue on your learning journey in that particular course. We don't see it as anything different from what it would be in a normal semester for a student who gets injured or sick.

Jay Lightfoot (08:38):
Thank you very much. Next question, how will extracurricular events such as the freshmen and alumni dinner be affected by COVID-19 protocols? Will students see the same amount and type of professional-style events? I think Miss Law, director of student advising, would be a good one to answer this question.

Rosa Law (09:01):
Hi there. So we are working on turning those events into virtual events, I know, due to social distancing measures. The first year and young alumni dinner always happens in spring, so we are hopeful that for the spring semester we might be able to resume some of those normal activities. But in case we can't, we are working at alternatives to deliver those programs online and virtually. We do have a large welcome event schedule for the Friday before classes, and we have moved that to a virtual platform. So we will be reaching out to the first year students and inviting them to participate through Zoom and have that welcome as well as breakout sessions to address transition and some of the program requirements.

Jay Lightfoot (09:47):
Thanks, Rosa.

Sher Gibbs (09:49):
Jay, can I just address a question from earlier?

Jay Lightfoot (09:53):
Yeah, sure.

Sher Gibbs (09:53):
In regard to classes and students that come down with COVID-19, MCB has the technology capable to record all course lectures, so if you are not able to attend class, course lectures will be posted and made available to through your Canvas course [inaudible 00:10:13], so you will have access to course materials and the lectures.

Jay Lightfoot (10:17):
Thank you. And actually, that answers one of the questions, a question was, "Will there be more," oh, actually, it got close to it, "Where there will be more homework for hybrid classes?" That's an interesting one. Perhaps one of the chairs would want to jump in for that one?

Michael Martin (10:35):
Well I can jump in. Hi, I'm Mike. Speaking for at least my department, and I think it's probably the same for most, I don't think hybrid classes are going to have any more homework than a traditional class would. There's no plan on doing that. There will be differences, of course, and you'll do more of your work online, but the amount of work should be roughly the same. Obviously individual professors may vary, but no problem to have more homework in hybrid versus face to face should be the same amount of work required.

Jay Lightfoot (11:10):
Thanks, Michael. Okay, another question. Will online professors have in person office hours, and kind of a related part of it, are there any official plans or guidelines for how professors will be conducting office hours? Again, a chair or perhaps the dean for that one.

Sher Gibbs (11:32):
Okay, yeah. The administration has allowed faculty, based upon their own personal situation and needs to decide if they plan to do both in person and online office hours. There are some faculty who naturally have preexisting conditions that are concerned for their health by conducting in person office hours, so those faculty will be allowed to conduct primarily online office hours. However, there are many faculty who will be available in the offices to meet with students.

Jay Lightfoot (12:06):
Very good, thank you. Okay, this is moving on to the professional experience. The question is, Melissa Hoffman has left as the professional experience coordinator, some of you who've been here for a while might have known that. Has someone new been hired, and what will the professional experience process look like for this semester, especially for students who are needing to complete an internship?

Jay Lightfoot (12:29):
I can actually jump in on that initially, and then somebody else can follow up, perhaps Rosa. Yes, we are planning on hiring somebody to replace Melissa. We have not started that yet. Yes, we will continue to have professional experiences, and those students who are in the midst of the ... It will be taken over by the new person whenever she or he arrives. If anybody else wants to add to that, go ahead please.

Rosa Law (12:54):
I can go ahead and add. So I know that before Melissa left, she did have the schedule set for the fall, so our fall mock interviews, resume writing workshops are all set. We will be making those available to students so that they can continue to sign up. As for the actual experience right now, Kim, who is our student support specialist, is taking care of the actual paperwork and tracking students in the meantime, so if you currently are in a professional experience or going to start one, Kim would be your contact while we do hire someone permanently.

Jay Lightfoot (13:30):
Okay, and hang on just a minute, Rosa, because this one might also impact you. Will students still be allowed to have internships this school year, or has COVID-19 disrupted these experiences? And I'm assuming they don't mean internships, I'm assuming they mean professional experience, because internships are different. Could you comment on that, please?

Rosa Law (13:49):
Yes, we'll continue to help students. We also have the Center for Career Readiness helping us with that process, so we do encourage students, if they do find something, to just work with us to let us know so that we can have it cont towards their professional experience. There are some companies that are still hiring interns remotely, and that would be enough to fulfill our experience.

Jay Lightfoot (14:13):
Thank you. Okay, next question. How can the quality of online instruction match that of in person classes? Perhaps the dean or perhaps the undergraduate coordinator for this one.

Chris Vegter (14:28):
If it's okay, I'd like to jump in a little bit. So I've been working with faculty already. Chris Vegter, director of technology. Been working with faculty on teaching synchronously from the classroom to face to face students and distance students alike, and so the students will be able to participate live, and again, this is based off the instructor preference, but they will be able to participate live, or asynchronously later. So we've been really working together, I've been offering training for the faculty members, and I've had quite a few already start the process of going through that. So the quality's pretty good.

Daniel Brannon (15:06):
I can jump in and speak a little bit to the quality. I think what you'll find is that basically, kind of like Chris mentioned, that we have the technology, basically, to upload all of the content that would typically be found in the class. We also have the technology where we can pretty consistently meet with the students online. So I would say that in my personal teaching experience, I thought the hybrid classes actually were a value add for some of my classes, because it made me create content that I hadn't done before, so I wasn't doing Panopto lectures, for instance, and I took a lot more time with my online content to try to make it clear and explain it well. So I can only speak to my own experience, but I know that the other professors are working pretty hard to make sure that students have a really similar online experience to an in person experience.

Jay Lightfoot (16:11):
Okay, thank you, Daniel.

Sher Gibbs (16:14):
And, Jay, that all of our classes and syllabi are reviewed and go through a review process. In addition, the learning outcomes, goals, and objectives for each class are exactly the same whether that class is face to face or online. Our faculty are amazing and experts at what they do, and they will deliver the same quality of instruction whether that class is delivered face to face or online. So I just want to reassure you that that will be the case.

Jay Lightfoot (16:46):
Yes, I agree totally. I have a question for Dr. Anderson or Jenna. What happens if I forget my mask and class is starting? Will I be marked absent for grabbing required materials, or should I just not wear a mask?

Mark Anderson (17:01):
That is a great question. We are going to have masks available for those who forget them for the first part of the semester. One of the things we want to really emphasize is that this is a community responsibility. The safety and security of our community is our primary concern, and that should be the primary concern for everybody. And so we recognize that this is a new environment and people have to get used to a new environment, and so they might forget their mask. But one of the requirements moving forward is that students are wearing a mask everywhere on campus, with the exception of when they're in their dorm room. But any time they are in a public environment, if you forget a mask, we will have some that you can use on a temporary basis, but I'll take a little bit of Dr. Finley's thunder, we're asking people to bring a wardrobe of masks so that you have enough to wear throughout the day and throughout the week so that you don't have to continuously do your laundry.

Mark Anderson (18:10):
We will have, in classes, masks available, at least for the first part of the semester. We will also have disinfectant and wipes available so people can wipe down their workstations, and we'd like people to wipe them down before they leave, to prepare for the next student who comes in.

Jay Lightfoot (18:29):
And a related question to that, it says if my roommate tests positive to COVID-19, do I have to quarantine in another room?

Mark Anderson (18:41):
I will let Jenna answer that, but we are going to be doing contact tracing, and anybody who's had close contact with an individual who tests positive, we will ask to quarantine and get tested.

Jay Lightfoot (18:57):
Very good.

Jenna Finley (18:58):
You will not have to be the one that moves. The individual that is sick, we have quarantine rooms or isolation rooms available, and the reason we do that is because they are single rooms with their own bathroom, and meals are provided to those individuals, so they only have to leave for medically required reasons. So I apologize, I think that was a primary piece of your question, but no, you will not have to be the one that moves.

Jay Lightfoot (19:30):
Thank you. Getting back more to classroom type questions, will students be able to stay after class and talk with their professors, or do they have to email and schedule a time?

Mark Anderson (19:47):
Again, that's a super question. We talked a lot about this. The one thing that are are concerned about is sort of groups of students aggregating before and after classes. Each of the learning spaces on campus have been reconfigured to accommodate for six feet of separation, and we're asking folks, as you're entering buildings and entering classrooms and leaving classrooms and buildings to try to maintain six feet of separation of the health of the community. I think there will be opportunity prior to and at the end of class to ask questions, but we ask that people do that in a respectful way for the safety of the community. But similar to the question about office hours that was asked earlier, there will be opportunities, but that really is going to be dependent upon the faculty, what the faculty member as well as the students of the class are comfortable with.

Jay Lightfoot (20:58):
Thank you [crosstalk 00:20:59]-

Mark Anderson (20:59):
We've not changed our schedule, so we'll still have 15 minutes of time in between classes.

Jay Lightfoot (21:10):
Okay, and another question for you, Provost Anderson, what if a student has a medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask?

Mark Anderson (21:17):
We will be working with individuals, and I'm going to ask Jenna to help me out here, but students who have a medical condition that precludes wearing of mask, I think we want them to work through the Disability Resource Center to get an appropriate accommodation. Is that correct, Jenna?

Jenna Finley (21:37):
The appropriate accommodation, unfortunately there really isn't an accommodation for not being able to wear a mask, so the accommodation that the Disability Resource Center has indicated at this point that it is taking online courses as the accommodation. So you'll need to work with your healthcare provider and then also with DSRC, but there really isn't a medical accommodation, or an accommodation on campus for not being able to wear a mask, and the primary reason for this is that you are putting others at risk and our community at risk by not wearing one.

Jay Lightfoot (22:15):
Question about this that says how can students get tested, and how often can they do it?

Jenna Finley (22:24):
It's generally recommended that you get tested if you've been told you've been exposed through contact tracing, even typically it's just monitor yourself for symptoms. So you may be told if you are exposed that you should self-quarantine, so self-quarantine is what happens if you need to monitor for symptoms, and if you develop symptoms is typically when you get tested.

Jenna Finley (22:51):
There is testing available at the health center. This testing does need to go through your insurance, without insurance it is not free, I think that's important to know. It's really not recommended by the health department or the CDC to regularly screen or test. So just be aware of that as well, there isn't a plan to mass test everyone upon arrival at school, and the reason for that is simply that you can test one day and the next day be exposed, and it gives, I think, a false sense of security.

Jay Lightfoot (23:29):
Okay, I was going to move to some more MCB-specific questions. This says, is tutoring available in person, and will the business tutors be available, and how will that work?

Chris Vegter (23:41):
All right, I'll go ahead and take that one. So our tutoring, the plan right now is that they will be offering some face to face tutoring. However, they're also going to be doing all tutoring available online. So we did do that during the spring semester and we had great luck using it. They were using the Microsoft Teams platform for creating it, and some people got a lot out of it because they were able to go back and review even the material at their own speed afterwards, so tutoring will definitely be available still.

Jay Lightfoot (24:12):
Okay, this might also be for you, Chris. For Milne Auditorium, will this space be used this coming semester, and what changes are going to take place?

Chris Vegter (24:21):
Yes, so Milne Auditorium actually is a great space for teaching because we can have up to 30 people in the room. Unfortunately we went down from 198 to 30, but we do have a tracking camera in the room, microphone system, and the professors can teach in there with 30 students, safe distance at six feet away.

Chris Vegter (24:42):
The auditorium itself, it provides all the projection equipment, everything that's needed. Students will be able to meet there and they will still be able to have things online, and I think I saw about eight or nine classes scheduled in there as of this morning.

Jay Lightfoot (25:02):
Thanks, Chris. Will my attendance grade be affected if I must quarantine?

Mark Anderson (25:13):
So we are asking faculty, actually telling faculty that they cannot count people's quarantine against them when assessing the student outcome for assignment of letter grade. So no, you will not be impacted by your grade for self-quarantining.

Jay Lightfoot (25:39):
Okay, and can a face shield be worn instead of a mask?

Mark Anderson (25:50):
Right at the moment, we are focusing on masks. For some classes where there is an importance of being able to see the face, for example, foreign language courses, the American Sign Language courses, there is the possibility for some accommodation of, I believe the CDPHE guidance is for a mask and not a face shield. Jenna?

Jenna Finley (26:19):
That was just what I was going to reiterate, the face shields are not approved as a substitute for wearing a mask. And there was another question about the masks that we provide as temporary masks, can they be reused? Those I believe are going to be the disposable kind that if you take care of it for the day, you could wear it for several hours, but if you're taking it on and off, touching the fabric, all the things that you're not supposed to do with a mask, you won't be able to reuse that. And that's, again, why we strongly suggest you get used to carrying a fabric mask, and maybe multiple, during the day, and I think we'll see people with masks on carabiners and things like that on their backpack. But it's going to be important to know how to take care of a mask, how to put it on, take it off, all of those things so that they are effective.

Jay Lightfoot (27:12):
Very good. What can students do if they see someone not following health and safety protocols?

Jenna Finley (27:22):
All of our health and safety protocols are enforceable through the student code of conduct. The mask wearing is a piece of state law, or a state order. So all of that is enforceable, and so ultimately that means you can go through the conduct process through the dean of students' office. I think generally, for most things we want to be a community and just remind you to wear a mask, or you'll be told you can't enter dining, you can't enter a public space, your classroom, if you're not wearing a mask. If we see groups of students together in close proximity without masks, again, that can be something that if you're not complying with what we ask, that you could ultimately go through the conduct process.

Jenna Finley (28:13):
Some students typically ask, "Well, then what do I see if I see students?" And we hope as a community that we talk to one another, and again, "Hey, put your mask on," becomes a part of our kind of nice vernacular with one another, because having to escalate something to a conduct issue isn't necessarily where we want to go first.

Jenna Finley (28:36):
And I will say there are some things such as if you are ill and told to self-isolate and you don't comply with that, what I want students to know is that is something very significant, and can ultimately mean that you are not a student with us anymore. The reason that that's significant is, when you think about students, yes, you can get sick, and yes, that can be serious, but what we know by looking at the illness right now, our faculty and staff that are committed to serving you are at greater risk for illness, and significant illness. And that's where we take this very seriously, our responsibility to one another so we can come together and learn and be in community and have as normal of an experience as we can. So longer answer to is this enforceable, but yes, yes it is.

Jay Lightfoot (29:31):
Thank you.

Sher Gibbs (29:32):
Can I mention something, Jay, that the Montford College of business, for those students who will be here with us on campus, we do plan to provide you with what we call care packages, a mask that is reusable that should be washed regularly will be given to you, along with other items like sanitizer, vitamin C, all the great stuff you need to deal with the situation. So that's just a small token of our appreciation for our students here at MCB and UNC.

Jay Lightfoot (30:07):
Okay. Will Tobey-Kendel Dining Hall be open during the fall?

Jenna Finley (30:21):
I believe so. There might be some changes to our service at Tobey-Kendel in particular, but the plan is to have a lot of options for students. Holmes will have dine-in and carry-out, we're also adding a couple places where people can pick up meals to go. But there are also some things that we have to reduce because of budget purposes, and those are still being decided. And some of that is based on occupancy and where our occupancy is at. So the intent is yes, but some details of that may change.

Jay Lightfoot (31:00):
This question's probably more for one of our chairs. If a class has both face to face and online components, can I pick which I do or do I have to attend class in Kepner?

Michael Martin (31:17):
I'll jump in for this. Some of this depends on individual faculty member and how they decide to set up their class. For the most part, if you want to be online, you're going to be able to be online. There is a question that's not necessarily what was just asked, but some classes may require you to be online at a certain time, like the scheduled time, if it's, let's just say 8:00 to 9:15, others will let you log in and watch the class any time, you can do it in the morning or evening, whatever. That will depend on the individual instructor, trying to decide whether it's held synchronous or asynchronous. For the most part, yes, if you want to do it online, you'll be able to. The in person, face to face classes, most are going to be hybrid, and for those hybrid ones, the instructor will set exactly how many classes that they'll want you to come to face to face versus how many will be online. So it's kind of a mix between the professor.

Michael Martin (32:18):
They should all, and I think we all are, we'll be emailing our classes fairly soon, within the next couple days, outlining what we intend to do with regards to our individual classes, if that hopefully answers the question.

Jay Lightfoot (32:33):
Thanks, Mike. Okay, how do students consult with their counselor if they need to make changes in the classroom? I'm not sure if they mean advisor or what, but it says counselor?

Rosa Law (32:51):
I'll answer if it's regarding advising. So if you're wanting to make changes to your class schedule, Nate and I are available right now virtually, but starting next week on the 3rd, we're going to be in the office if the student wanted to come by. Email's probably the quickest way to get a response from both of us, since we are currently virtual, if you wanted to make changes to your schedule. We are available, and there are a handful of classes that are still open. So let's say you get that expectation from the faculty that you have to come to campus and you just don't feel comfortable and you're wanting to switch around your class schedule so that you could do entirely online, we're definitely available to help with that.

Jay Lightfoot (33:30):
Thanks, Rosa. And before you go, will all the required business events be virtual for the fall semester?

Rosa Law (33:36):
So for the fall, yes, we're still looking and making those virtual. I'm not sure how many events we do have planned. For the first year students, the etiquette luncheon would be moved to a virtual platform just to accommodate social distancing, because we can't fit all of the students in one room. Again, hopefully for the spring semester, we're looking at a much better situation and can continue more of the face to face events.

Jay Lightfoot (34:02):
And the question says, how do I get involved in research opportunities?

Rosa Law (34:12):
So if you're interested in research, I would suggest working with the faculty. They're always a great resource, depending on what their research interests are. If you are interested, you can always talk to the chairs and they might have a better idea of which faculty member that you could probably participate with.

Daniel Brannon (34:29):
I'll speak to that really briefly. I've worked with a few students on some specific research, and none of the things we have to work on really require ... It could all be accomplished via Zoom meeting. So I would recommend anyone interesting in research to first, just like you always would, find a professor that's working on something that you seem interested in, and then reaching out to that particular professor, and they should be able to accommodate you like they would any other semester, basically.

Jay Lightfoot (35:06):
Okay, question says if there is an outbreak on campus, will professors and classes be ready to move completely online if needed?

Mark Anderson (35:20):
We are ready to move completely online if needed. We have taken every appropriate action and precaution so that we don't have to do that, but we're not in control of what's happening in the rest of the state, and so we are prepared to move to a completely virtual environment if we have to.

Jay Lightfoot (35:44):
Okay, and semi-related question. Does the Student Health Center provide prescriptions, specifically hydrochloroquine?

Jenna Finley (35:57):
I think our physicians at the health center are able to prescribe anything that a normal physician would prescribe for medical reasons. So whether or not that particular drug is prescribed, or whether a not a student that is ... A lot of our students who may be sick, they may seek care on campus, so they may also end up seeking care from their primary physician off campus, so there's, I think, multiple responses to that, and there are physicians that think that that should be prescribed and some that don't, so ...

Jay Lightfoot (36:40):
Okay. Thank you. Likely this is a question for Chris, are there places in Kepner for group study sessions, and what about general places on campus for group study?

Chris Vegter (36:51):
So group study sessions, we're going to be removing chairs, and isolation, and the practice rooms, the study rooms that were traditional, if there's not six feet of distance, there's not going to be chairs for more than one person, or whatnot. And same in the common areas. We are social distancing, we're removing chairs in order to accommodate social distancing. I do know the library has put a lot of effort into making study spaces, but again, if it's not six feet apart, then it is not safe for us to have it out there.

Jay Lightfoot (37:29):
Okay, and I have two more for you, Chris. This one's-

Chris Vegter (37:31):
Okay.

Jay Lightfoot (37:32):
... near and dear to my heart, is the Coffee Corner going to stay open?

Chris Vegter (37:36):
Actually, I'll refer that to Jenna, but Jenna?

Jenna Finley (37:40):
The Kepner Coffee Corner is not staying open-

Jay Lightfoot (37:43):
Oh.

Chris Vegter (37:43):
Aw.

Jenna Finley (37:43):
... I am sorry to say.

Chris Vegter (37:46):
[crosstalk 00:37:46] but there is a coffee shop directly across from the parking lot, and so there will be coffee nearby.

Jenna Finley (37:53):
Michener Coffee Corner is staying open, and then there is also coffee at Einstein's.

Jay Lightfoot (38:02):
Okay, now this one, I'll let whomever, says am I allowed to eat in class if I have a mask, or it says if I have to wear a mask, but I'm leaving in if they have a mask.

Chris Vegter (38:13):
So Kepner is, part of all of our course syllabi coming out does say no food in Kepner classrooms, and drinks with a screw-top lid only. So again, that could be a little bit more challenging with drinking coffee with a mask on. So we are asking again, practice safety. So no food in the classrooms, but drinks, if you can make it work with your mask.

Michael Martin (38:43):
No food was a policy before COVID-

Chris Vegter (38:46):
Yes, yes it is.

Michael Martin (38:46):
... and what have you, so that's not a change.

Jay Lightfoot (38:49):
Concerning the study rooms, will they be sanitized between usage, and basically who's responsible for that?

Chris Vegter (38:56):
So we're going to have, at least in the Kepner study rooms, we're going to have disinfecting wipes in those rooms. Again, it will be up to the person as they arrive to sanitize it, because you don't know if the person sanitized it as they left. So we're kind of putting some signage up saying sanitize before you use.

Jay Lightfoot (39:18):
Same thing for classrooms?

Chris Vegter (39:20):
Same thing for all classrooms, yes.

Jay Lightfoot (39:22):
Okay, pretty good.

Chris Vegter (39:24):
And there are now hand sanitizer stations at all the major entrances to the building, so those are up and installed this week and already have sanitizer in them. There's signage throughout the building reminding you to sanitize often.

Jay Lightfoot (39:41):
Okay. This one's for the finance chair. It says I have heard about the trading investment class, how will that be run?

Michael Martin (39:53):
Hi again. It's going to be a hybrid class, and I think you're specifically referring to SAFF class, what I'm guessing here. So John Clinebell, Dr. Clinebell is the one teaching it. He is the individual who created the class years ago. He is going to plan right now as he will be conducting the class live, he'll have a on campus down in the computer lab, so he can get all the ... Computer lab allows for few more students than some of the other classrooms. It's going to be on Tuesdays, I believe. I don't have the schedule in front of me, but I think Tuesday, 6:00 to 8:00, something like that, and he's going to have, it's going to be hybrid though. He'll have some face to face classes, and others online, so he's going to kind of do a mix. I think initially he's going to try to go face to face, and then other classes he'll, subsequent, later on in the semester, go back online. But we're going on with the class as normal, and that's one of my favorite, dear to my heart classes so we're excited that he's able to do that still. [

Chris Vegter (41:03):
Okay, to add onto that real quick, we also did just work out an agreement with Bloomberg, so we will have remote access to the Bloomberg Terminals. So there will be 12 simultaneous connections that are allowed with Bloomberg in coordination with that class, and we are going to definitely get some information on out to get people Bloomberg certified, which is a great thing to put on your resume, so we'll be putting together some information on that.

Michael Martin (41:30):
Yeah, thank you Chris, and I should've said that initially as well. The remote access is a nice feature that Bloomberg is rolling out now just because of COVID, and it will allow us to do more with it and open it up to more people, and we certainly want to promote the certification of Bloomberg, because it is a great thing to put on your resume for future employers to realize that you have that certification, because it is a very powerful tool to have at your disposal.

Jay Lightfoot (41:58):
Thanks, Mike. It says can you talk a little bit more about the professional experience and how mock interviews will be conducted? And also, related, are there people who will help me with my cover letter and resume?

Rosa Law (42:13):
So the mock interviews in the spring term move to virtual, so we were able to connect students with our employers, and they would do kind of like a Zoom interview. And so I imagine that that's the format that it's going to be, at least for the fall semester. In regard to help with your cover letter and resume, we are working with the Center for Career Readiness, and we do have their counselors available to help our students, not just in the meantime while we hire someone full-time, but moving forward, this position will also work with Career Readiness.

Jay Lightfoot (42:49):
Thank you. It says will I be able to access tutoring if I'm struggling with a course? Will it be online or in person?

Chris Vegter (43:02):
So I can answer that one again. Yeah, so our tutoring, the plan right now, as we have it, is that there will be some face to face tutoring. Again, six foot separation in some larger rooms, and then also they will be doing tutoring online.

Jay Lightfoot (43:19):
And while I have you on there Chris, are-

Chris Vegter (43:21):
Yes.

Jay Lightfoot (43:22):
... the wipes, the sanitation wipes, safe to use on computers?

Chris Vegter (43:28):
They are safe to use on the keyboards and mice. We don't recommend them for the screen, we've got some different cleaner for the screen, but definitely safe to use on the keyboards, mice, and the surrounding area, the table surface and whatnot. That has been, actually in practice, we've had those in our computer labs or classrooms with computers for quite some time. And someone asked on the Q&A, is room Mt. Evans in Kepner Hall? That is actually at the University Center, I can answer that right now, just up the street, so ...

Jay Lightfoot (44:05):
Thank you. I had a problem with that question. Let's see, I believe this one to be for Provost Anderson. Will courses be online after Thanksgiving holiday? I've heard about other campuses doing this.

Mark Anderson (44:19):
Other campuses are doing that, we are not. We are maintaining the academic calendar as we have published it previously. We are prepared to pivot to a totally online environment if needed, but we are not changing our academic calendar. So we will continue classes on campus as well as virtually through our Thanksgiving break, and then ask students to return following Thanksgiving break to complete the semester and then hopefully have commencement exercises to celebrate the accomplishments of our graduates.

Jay Lightfoot (44:59):
Thank you.

Jenna Finley (44:59):
One thing I like to remind people with this question is that the residence halls stay open during Thanksgiving break. I know that there are some students who don't want to go home to at-risk family members, and it's okay, we are open and you can just stay through the semester.

Jay Lightfoot (45:23):
Thank you. Rosa, most likely. Will students be able to access the professional clothing closet in the event they need professional attire?

Rosa Law (45:33):
That's a great question. So the closet is available, and Nate and I will be there, but there were some protocols that we might have, to if somebody were to donate an article of clothing, or if students were returning their clothes, that the clothes themselves would have to undergo quarantine. So we are looking into more details. I know, I'll go ahead and I'll call on Kim, she might have a little bit more information on the closet. But as right now, it's still in the same location. There is talk about moving the closet to a more centered location, probably over at the UC or maybe over by Bear Pantry moving forward.

Jay Lightfoot (46:10):
Speaking of Bear Pantry, is it still going to be available to students?

Jenna Finley (46:18):
Yes, Bear Pantry has remained available through the summer, and it will be available during the academic year. It will also have a few of the what I'll call wellness necessities beyond food available.

Jay Lightfoot (46:36):
Okay, back to a more Kepner-specific question. Will the exams in hybrid courses be conducted online or in person? And I can go ahead and jump in. Probably the answer is it depends, but perhaps one of the chairs would want to elaborate.

Pat Seaton (46:56):
Jay, my sense of of testing in these environments is that instructors are most likely to move their testing to an online setting. We can't get everybody together for a test, and I think having them done online is probably the fairest way. Most of my faculty have said that's what their plan is.

Michael Martin (47:19):
I think each department is going to be a little different, but for finance, they're all be online exams, just like Pat said. You can't get everyone in the room together and still maintain social distance, so for finance I know they're all online.

Jay Lightfoot (47:41):
Any other chairs want to jump in?

Keiko Krahnke (47:44):
All management classes will have tests online also.

Denny McCorkl (47:51):
And the marketing classes should be, it's up to the professor, but again, unless it's a small class where everyone can gather it physically in one time period, it would most likely be online.

Jay Lightfoot (48:03):
Thanks, Denny. Can students in online only classes have in person study sessions?

Jenna Finley (48:11):
We'll have spaces across the campus, as we always do, for in person study. The same social distancing and mask wearing rules are in place. In most of our community and common spaces, you will see capacity signs, so those are going to be important. You're not going to be able to put eight people in a four by 10 room, for example, you will see a significant reduction in the amount of people in any given space, including classrooms. So those are just things you'll have to keep in mind. I think we keep talking with students that outdoor stud is a great thing in the fall, and having some fresh air around you as you're having group conversation is probably not a bad idea.

Jay Lightfoot (49:04):
Thank you. Are athletics happening this fall, and will there be a student section?

Mark Anderson (49:12):
Super question. Like many things, we are planning to have athletics. There's been no plans to our change for that. We likely will have to socially distance, so the capacity of Nottingham Field for football, or the Bank of Colorado Arena for volleyball or for any of the other fall sports will probably have a lower capacity. But as I watch the news, many conferences are changing their schedules, and so the athletics for the fall semester is, we're planning to have it, but that's subject to change. We're part of the NCAA as well as the Big Sky Conference, and so those decisions ultimately are a collaborative decision with our partner institutions.

Jay Lightfoot (50:09):
Thank you, Provost Anderson. And I believe that was our last question. So I wanted to thank you all for joining us and asking great questions. And just a reminder, each college has had a forum in the last two weeks, and you can find details for all of these forums at unco.edu/visit. We're very happy to welcome you to, or welcome you back to the Bear community, and we can't wait to see you in the fall. Thank you.

Sher Gibbs (50:39):
Thank you, and we'll see you soon.

Michael Martin (50:41):
Yes, thank you everyone for coming.