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Tremendous Effort to Prepare for Spring
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The spring semester will be upon us in a few short days. Resident advisors returned this week, and the stream of students arriving in Oneonta will continue over the weekend. It’s good to see the rising level of energy at the college and downtown.
We expect upwards of 700 students to live on campus, spread out in single rooms throughout our residence halls. Roughly 1,500 students will take at least one in-person course, and some of the activities that students enjoy will return, albeit in a modified fashion. This is progress.
Another bit of good news is that being fully remote does not appear to have negatively affected student progression in classes. Student progression based on passing a course or withdrawal for fall 2020 is comparable to 2017, 2018 and 2019 (the spring 2020 semester is an outlier because of the pass/fail option we offered due to the pandemic).
Because of the tremendous, ongoing team effort that began with the COVID Response Team’s planning last fall, the college has made great strides toward a safe start to spring. First, I’d like to recognize and thank the many employees on our custodial staff, at MOC, in our heating plant, at UPD and everyone in between who keeps our campus running smoothly 24/7. We simply couldn't operate without you.
Further down the page, you’ll find updates from CIO Steve Maniscalco and Vice President for External Affairs Frank Chambers. Below are just a few of our other highlights.
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Volunteers Take on Task of Pre-screening Students
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| Volunteers have been the backbone of SUNY Oneonta's response to COVID-19. They have worked tirelessly to help our students be safe and healthy, both physically and mentally.
As we look to the spring semester, I want to give special thanks to Sue Clemons for stepping into her role in organizing a team of individuals to aid in the clearing of pre-screening data from students. Additional thanks go to Tracy Hartwell for taking on the mantle of volunteer coordinator, Colleen Brannan for pulling the outstanding volunteer pieces together, and of course, all the volunteers who make us poised for a successful spring semester.
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Health and Wellness Center Overflow Addressed
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| This semester, the Health and Wellness Center has implemented a preliminary plan to handle overflow issues due to COVID. The Center is considered to be at capacity if the wait time exceeds two days. The plan will allow for pool testing of symptomatic students to occur in the quarantine halls in the event the Center reaches that tipping point.
I wish to thank Melissa Fallon-Korb, director of the counseling, health and wellness center, Lachlan Squair, chief facilities planning and safety office, Graig Eichler, assistant director of business services, and Tracey Ranieri, director of athletics, for anticipating a potential need in a critical area this spring and then finding a way to meet it.
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Self-Collection Testing Launched for Employees
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| This week, Director of Collegiate Athletics Tracey Ranieri led the rollout of a COVID test self-collection program for faculty and staff, which will make testing more accessible on campus. Having successfully piloted programs with MOC and Sodexo (and thanks to those teams for helping to iron out the kinks), the college is now in a position to offer the same flexibility to the rest of the campus community.
An attestation form will ensure that collectors abide by proper procedures to assure quality control of COVID test samples taken from their departments. Collectors will undergo training by the testing center on how to administer the tests. A supervisor or designee will ensure that the test kit is properly collected and keep a record of employees who are participating in the self-collection program. Test samples will be dropped off at designated drop boxes Monday or Tuesday each week to be transported to Upstate Medical.
A huge thanks to Tracey and the athletics staff for all that they did to put this together. Thanks also go to Provost Leamor Kahanov, Dia Carleton, personnel director, and Steve Maniscalco, chief information officer, for their contributions.
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COVID Communications Calendar Created
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| A calendar has been created that will help SUNY Oneonta better manage planned COVID-19 communications to the various members of our college and the local community.
This important tool is a product of the COVID Operational Team, which identifies messaging needs informed by changing circumstances, feedback from students, parents, college employees and other stakeholders. The calendar has improved the organization of what already is a steady stream of email, web posts and other content that is sure to continue in the weeks ahead.
Thanks to Hal Legg, chief communication and marketing officer, Lisa Miller, director of marketing, and Danielle McMullen for pulling this together so quickly.
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Compliance and Community During the Pandemic
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| Frank Chambers
Vice President for External Affairs
I am pleased to share an update on the initiatives I’ve set in motion since becoming vice president for external affairs last fall. The college has worked nonstop to prepare for the spring semester. Safety, prevention and communication are the bedrock of this effort. My role immerses me in each of these, and I have sensed — from all directions — a growing energy around our students’ arrival as a step toward normalcy.
Compliance and community building are two of my top priorities for the months ahead.
Preventative measures, such as mandated mask-wearing and social distancing, go hand-in-hand with safety, but only if we all follow through consistently. Especially given the current trend, with the rate of infections rising, none of us can be lax. Those who willfully ignore their responsibilities for public health will face consequences.
Our University Police Department will focus on enforcement of the regulations in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. In the event of an unlawful gathering, UPD will assist the Oneonta Police Department (OPD) upon request, as staffing permits, and help identify SUNY Oneonta students at large house parties. This will expedite our Community Standards referral process, which will render appropriate discipline for behavior that threatens others’ safety.
Community building is well underway. I represent SUNY Oneonta on several bodies formed to ensure safety and advance partnerships. Among these are the:
- City of Oneonta Control Room;
- Bassett Hospital COVID-Response advisory group; and
- City of Oneonta Town/Gown committee.
Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig and I meet monthly. I also have had conversations with the three Oneonta Common Council members that represent the wards in which the greatest number of off-campus students live. Open lines of communication will serve the college and the city as we work more closely to confront COVID.
Students and I spend a lot of time together, as well. I have been a part of several pre-semester virtual town hall meetings with them. Zooming with specific student clubs or athletic teams or connecting with students just because they have concerns positions me to be a catalyst for actions that will move the college forward.
For example, I have established a Parents of Off-Campus Student Ambassador program to engage off-campus students’ parents, who care deeply about their children’s experiences while at college. Part of what draws students here is what surrounds the campus. Parents are vested in this community. Many would love the opportunity to play a greater role in our success.
COVID has underscored the importance of and relationship between community and compliance. The work ahead of me is to enhance them both. This already has been a rewarding challenge, and I look forward to further progress and continued engagement with students, parents and the city.
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| ITS Designs and Deploys 4 COVID Tracking Apps
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| Steve Maniscalco
Chief Information Officer
Prior to the spring semester, Information Technology Services staff members have been busy developing four new applications that will help the college stay on track with its COVID activities.
The first app is the Return to Campus Checklist. This helps students keep track of and meet all of their requirements they need to fulfill before their return for the spring semester. They’re able to chart and manage their progress on items such as completing their daily health screenings, precautionary quarantines, signing the Statement of Shared Responsibility, completing the mandatory SMART COVID training course, and submitting their COVID test results. All students are required to do portions of the Return to Campus Checklist regardless if they will be on campus or not.
The COVID Test Upload app will allow the Health and Wellness Center manage and approve the COVID test results that students submit before they return to campus to use any facilities.
The COVID Pre-Screening Compliance Check is an application that was developed so that employees around campus can verify if students have successfully met all the Return to Campus compliance measures.
The COVID Response Quarantine and Isolation Tracking or CRQIT (pronounced “cricket”) application will be used to help staff navigate the myriad of workflows that are required to keep campus quarantine and isolation running like a well-oiled machine.
In addition, ITS has created a COVID Testing Registration page and dashboard. This is used for quality control and to ensure that the college has the most accurate COVID data possible. It will allow the college to resolve discrepancies in testing results and report our testing numbers quickly.
Since the early stages of COVID-19, I continue to be truly amazed by the contributions and collaborative spirit of our IT staff. Contributions such as dual-modality classroom infrastructure, the COVID Helpline, contactless scheduling, the automation of Teams course sites, remote access and support, and the many system modifications necessary to support our college mission. Thanks to the ITS staff responsible for creating these functions and more in rapid time.
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Consortium Identifying COVID Impact and Gaps
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| This map of the townships within Chenango, Delaware, Fulton, Herkimer, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego and Schoharie counties shows the region the ICIC studies.
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| Leamor Kahanov
Provost
Congratulations to faculty members who’ve formed a consortium on COVID research. The Intermountain COVID-19 Impact Consortium (ICIC) consists of five research organizations west of the Hudson Valley region, including Bassett Research Institute, Center for Rural Vitality, SUNY Cobleskill, Utica College, Zogby Strategics, and the PLACES Institute here at SUNY Oneonta.
ICIC organizes research projects that seek to identify broad systemic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region and recently released two publications:
- “Adapting to COVID-19: A Survey of Municipalities in Central New York”; and
- “Practicing Safety: A Survey of Protective Behaviors among College Students in Central New York.”
Contributing to these studies on the college’s behalf were Dr. Alex Thomas, Dr. Greg Fulkerson and Dr. Elizabeth Seale from Sociology, Dr. Jim Zians from Psychology and Dr. Sallie Han from Anthropology.
The projects collected quantitative and qualitative data relating to the pandemic that can identify impacts and gaps across the region, including social, economic, and medical systems. A primary goal is to understand the pandemic as it affects the totality of the regional population, tying together disparate sources of information to provide a “big picture” of how the event unfolded.
Benefits of the consortium will include recommendations about unforeseen issues, updates on trends in the region, and a statistical model designed to understand the specific pathways available for disease spread in the region.
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Richard Barberio Featured on ‘The Academic Minute’
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| Associate Professor of Political Science Richard Barberio was featured in a segment that aired this week on WAMC’s "The Academic Minute." In it, Dr. Barberio discusses the long history of scandals among U.S. presidents and what these scandals can tell us about presidential power.
Dr. Barberio has researched this topic extensively. His most recent book, “Presidents and Political Scandal: Managing Scandal in the Modern Era” was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020. His current research on political scandal builds directly on his established work with what is known as the “public presidency.” A Fulbright grant recipient, Dr. Barberio is slated to teach and conduct research on political scandal with the University of Milan, Italy in its graduate program for the Department of International, Legal, Historical and Political Studies this year.
Listen to Dr. Barberio’s Academic Minute segment online.
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SUNY Oneonta Featured Among Best Music Schools
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| Elizabeth Dunn
Dean of Schools of Liberal Arts and Economics and Business
It’s my pleasure to share that SUNY Oneonta is featured in the “Best Music Schools” section of music education magazine inTune Monthly's January student edition, which went live Jan. 16 and will be distributed to 50,000 middle and high school music teacher subscribers across the country.
This kind of exposure is priceless for SUNY Oneonta. It is an opportunity to build on our already strong reputation as a music industry school and attract talented students in the process. Thank you to all who helped make it happen.
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College Recognized for Affordability, Small Classes
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| SUNY Oneonta has been named one of the “Most Affordable Colleges” in the U.S. for 2021 by Intelligent.com. The online higher education publication singled Oneonta out and classified the college with a unique distinction for “Best for Small Classes.”
According to Intelligent.com, the guide is based on an assessment of 2,277 accredited colleges and universities. Each program is evaluated based on curriculum quality, graduation rate, reputation and post-graduate employment. The rankings were calculated through a unique scoring system that includes student engagement, potential return on investment and leading third-party evaluations.
Intelligent.com analyzed 169 schools, on a scale of 0 to 100, with only 50 making it to the final list. The methodology also uses an algorithm that collects and analyzes multiple rankings into one score to easily compare each university.
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