2021 College Leadership Team Notes

Request to fill the replacement Admissions Assistant position was approved.

The Event Coordinator interviews will finish today.

The Carnegie classification of SUNY Delhi was discussed.

Reminder that January 5 is Assessment Day.

The academic calendars are pending feedback.

The Assistant Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness final candidates will be on campus the week of January 10.

The golf course lease has been signed and sent to SUNY.

Carol Bishop, Vice President for Business and Finance, has submitted her resignation.

The Spring Plan was reviewed and corrections made. The updated version will be emailed to the extended leadership team to share with the COVID Taskforces. Feedback is needed as soon as possible in order for the plan to sent to SUNY by the end of this week. This plan is tentative and subject to change. The academic continuity plans are pending.

For the winter intersession, there will be two students living in campus housing.

The Safety Monitor Committee meeting update included a summary of the discussion regarding boosters for students. The FDA would need to change the definition of “fully vaccinated” to include boosters in order to require them.

Two of the unions have approved testing for employees through September 2022. CSEA is expected to also approve this extension.

The Telecommuting Pilot Agreement extension is being discussed at SUNY.

CIS is testing the data for the updated COVID dashboard for SUNY and is scheduled to be in production by tomorrow.  This is ahead of the January 3 deadline.

Spring registration is currently almost 1,400 schedules for on-campus study. This number is prior to academic dismissals. Fall admission offers are rising although applications are down from two years ago. Currently, there are 26 spring admits.

The revised Sabbatical Application was reviewed with an inconsistency identified. A final draft will be resubmitted after the correction has been made. Any other feedback should be sent to the provost.

Replacement Position Request for Evenden Tower Cleaner was approved.

Replacing one of the transportation buses (that is beyond repair) was discussed and leasing options will be explored. The bus is needed for transportation related to academic programs and job sites, and will be needed for additional service to lower valley campus while renovations are taking place in Farnsworth. The bus needs to be ADA accessible. The other van will need replacing in the next few years. If a new bus is ordered, it would hopefully be here by fall. Approved to move forward as the bus is needed for students to be successful in classes.

Energy Reduction efforts will take place between December 24 and January 3.

The current pilot telecommuting agreement ends on December 31. If this is not renewed, all employees must return to on-campus work.

The AVP Zoom interviews will begin this week.

The first draft of an RFP for the marketing and community needs for the hotel project will commence and be paid for by the county. This is a Delaware County & College Foundation partnership – not a SUNY Delhi project.  

The committee members for the VP for Marketing and Communications search have been finalized.

On the Campus Safety Monitor meeting, movement to require the COVID booster will not occur until the CDC requires the booster to be considered being fully vaccinated.

Spring plan draft was discussed and reviewed. Updates will be made and sent to COVID taskforces.

Academic contingency plans were reviewed. The plans must be consistent and standardized. The plans must be approved by the dean and the provost. These plans will depend on the academic requirements of/for the program and time of the semester in which the conditions arise that may require the need for them. Official communication about implementing contingency plans will come from the provost if/when the conditions for the contingency plans are met.

Rob Piurowski, Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management, submitted his official resignation.

CIS is working on the SUNY data file to submit by next week.

Employee testing for unvaccinated employees coming to campus to work will be done on December 20 and January 3.

Discussed updates from the academic planning committee. The spring plan will be a continuation of current procedures. 

Position Requests: 

- EOP replacement position - funded by SUNY through EOP; approved. 

- Sports Information Director 11 month replacement position; approved. 

- CIS Desktop Administrator replacement position; approved 

- Facilities Operation replacement position; approved 

SUNY PIF High Needs Emergency Nursing Training Fund grant is due January 18, 2022. We are applying for a $250,000 grant to be used for the RN-to-BSN program over two years. Marketing and advertising will be done through SUNY.  

Request for Red Cross blood drives to resume on campus starting this February was approved.  

Open House on Saturday was successful with 81 students attending and survey responses all being positive. Thank you to all who participated and made all the open houses a success. 

Currently there are 1,300 students registered for an on-campus academic program for Spring 2022. There are 218 students with a hold on their accounts who do not have schedules for spring. 100 on-campus students have petitioned for graduation. Retention and overall enrollment numbers were discussed.  

Inclusive campus decorations discussion. An announcement will be put in Delhi Today.  

Health Services update: November 22 was the last day a student was in I/Q space. 

CIS is working on SUNY’s 2.0 vaccination data requirements which include additional information, including identifying of vaccine exemption type. We must now also track information for all students including those in an on-line program. The due date to have the data to SUNY is January 3.  

College Council was canceled for tomorrow evening per request of the Interim Chair Jack Schoonmaker.   

Dr. Shim has accepted the offer for the dean of LA&S.  Dr. Jordan will put a notice in Delhi Today for tomorrow’s publication. 

Position request to fill (replacement position) for the Coordinator of Student Leadership and Engagement was discussed and approved. 

Third party events were discussed. There must be consistency in our pricing and employees of college will receive a 10% discount. 

Dean of LA&S position offer was made and accepted by Dr. Joyce Shim who will start on March 1. Dr. Jordan will fill in for the dean’s position until that time.   

AVP search is underway with an anticipated start date of February or March.  

Giving Tuesday communication went out to the campus this week.  

Michael Sullivan and Carol Bishop have agreed to be the co-chairs for the VP for Marketing and Communications search and that search will be moving forward.  

Due to supply-chain issues, there may be delays with the Farnsworth Hall renovation, although work will still be able to start on the 1st floor of the building.  

Bush Hall elevator project is behind schedule due to additional work that is needed and costs associated with the project. 

State Fire meeting last week went well, although the inspection process will likely change. They have offered to provide resources for additional fire safety programming with the students.   

Residence Life room reconfirmations were completed with over 1,000 students indicating they will be returning in spring and want on-campus housing.   

We are continuing to monitor the information and data regarding the Omicron COVID variant. We have established health protocols in place that have proven to be effective and we will continue to use. There has been no recommendation from the CDC or the Department of Health to make any changes at this time. Continuing to wear masks, washing hands frequently, getting vaccination, and receiving the booster shot are all important proactive steps to remain healthy.  

The University Police Automobile Winter Check Program went really well, with a significant number of students who came to get their cars checked before heading out for the Thanksgiving break. 

There was an update on Spring 2022 enrollment. We are currently down in returning student schedules. There are about 250 students with fall account balances preventing registration for the spring. New and transfer applications for the spring semester are up from last year. A message regarding the spring enrollment numbers will be going out this week to campus leaders.  

Position requests were discussed. The Coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life position request will be resubmitted to reflect the scope of the position. The VP of Marketing and Communications request to fill was approved. 

The search process for the Event Coordinator position has started and Jason Fishner will be the chair of the committee.  

Spring 2022 enrollment projections, based off current registration in on-campus programs, were discussed. Rob will prepare an update message for faculty and staff to go out early next week.  

College Advancement will be holding a faculty-staff donor reception December 10 at Bluestone. 

The Campus Community Campaign has been announced. A special thanks to all who participate in supporting students and programming through these charitable gifts.  

The campus has a meeting with State Fire regarding our annual fire inspection and the on-campus fire this semester. 

Two Fireside Chats with the Provost went well.  Several ideas were shared by and with the faculty, including a Trauma Informed Care course and a Mental Health First Aid course which would provide faculty and staff training regarding awareness of signs to look for with students. The Student Achievement Day also was discussed.  

The dean of LA&S search is being finalized.  

An update on D2L was provided. SUNY Delhi will not participate in the first cohort.  

Bluestone plans have been finalized by CADI and the School of Hospitality.  

Our PESH review required us to update our workplace violence policy wording. Those changes have been made and the policy is on our website. 

We received two requests from student groups (Residence Hall Association- RHA and Student-Athletic Advisory Committee -SAAC) regarding eliminating the mask mandates in the residence halls and other non-academic classroom areas. Leadership discussed the requests and agreed that in the residence halls only masks will be optional pending results of the surveillance testing after Thanksgiving. This decision may be reversed at any time pending changes in our infection rates.  

To clarify, Mac Dining Hall is open to the entire campus community – including commuters.  

At this time, there are two students who will be in residence halls over Thanksgiving due to housing insecurity issues.  

There was a sewage backup in O’Connor Hall over the weekend which has been fixed. 

A partnership between SUNY Delhi and Kanda University (in Japan) was discussed. This program is similar to a visiting student program where students from KU would come to our institution and take a variety of courses that would transfer back to their institution for one or two semesters. Leadership supported moving forward with researching the benefits of this partnership. 

A temporary, six-month admissions counselor position was discussed and approved for a start date in January.  

The inclement weather notification procedure was reviewed and Marketing and Communications will submit a Delhi Today reminding the campus of the established procedure. 

Notification of the resignation of the Vice President for Marketing and Communications was announced and the request to fill the position was approved.  

The dean of LA&S, the counselor in the Counseling Center, and the Operations Manager positions are moving forward and should be finalized soon. 

The director of Health Services has accepted the position and will start in February. 

Our first student NCAA National Qualifier (Seth Bywater - a Mechatronics student) was announced.  

There was a special NCAA meeting held in which there were proposed amendment changes to the constitution which, in effect, would require each division to self-govern. There are major financial concerns with the proposal for Division II and III schools if the changes go through. 

RHA met and drafted a proposal for modifying the mask mandates on campus for activities outside the classroom, which will be presented next week.   

Progress in the curriculum committee was discussed.  

SUNY is reporting SUNY Delhi up about 32% in applications from this time last year, and several of our programs are seeing increases in applications.   

The Chancellor announced $3 million in funds to certain nursing programs to help with the nursing shortage. Applicable programs may apply for $250,000 with applications due by December. The money must be spent on increasing enrollment in the specific program, equipment, and hiring of faculty.  

Congratulations to Susan who was nominated to the Board of Commissioners for ACEN! 

There will be a SUNY financial meeting this week regarding changes in charitable tax law and foundation spending. 

The third round of COVID relief funds for students will be distributed to eligible individuals next week.   

Currently, there are about 200 students (or 25% of total residential students) who have financial holds from the fall semester who live on campus.  

CIS has been working with system administration on data clean up resulting in the COVID-19 dashboard being current with student vaccination data. 

Murphy Hall is housing Delhi Rehabilitation nurses. 

Any requests for changes to the current COVID-19 campus restrictions by any individual or group need to be put in writing and sent to the leadership team for review.  

Discussion regarding the planned late night event with BSU in December. At this time, the decision was made to postpone this event.  

This past Saturday’s Discover Delhi Open House was successful with 133 students in attendance, which is a 76% show rate and surpasses historical trends. In the past two weeks, between open house and other admissions visits, we have hosted over 221 families on campus. Applications are up 21% from last year and acceptance offers are also up by 26% to qualified students.  

The off-campus alumni event in Albany was successful, with a larger than expected turnout and great connections made. 

Any residential student who is housing insecure may contact the Office of Residence Life to make arrangements for the Thanksgiving holiday break. 

Student Life will be offering more programming for students for increased student involvement.

There is an alumni event in Albany on Friday evening, with about 25 total attendees.

Approval to fill the vacant financial aid counselor position.

The lighting for the college entrance sign is being worked on and the new lighting should be in place before the end of the semester.

Sabbaticals for the 2022-23 academic year were discussed. Any time-sensitive sabbatical requests should be submitted for review.

Campus-wide surveillance testing will occur after Thanksgiving break. Volunteers will be needed.

There were a number of bomb threats at other institutions throughout the weekend. SUNY is aware of the situation and SUNY Delhi has a protocol for dealing with such threats.

Residence Life is working with a few companies to look at the fire damage from Thursday’s fire.

An informal offer was made and accepted for the Director of Health Services with an anticipated start date of February.

An offer for the counselor position will be made shortly. 

There are currently about 170 students registered for this Saturday’s Discover Delhi Open House and Fall 2022 applications up over 15% from last year at this time.

The last interview for LA&S dean position is today, with an offer anticipated to being made to one of the candidates by the end of week.

The search committee for the AVP position is set and will receive their charge this week.

Third party authentication was discussed by Shawn Brislin. This process is currently being used with CIS staff and a few others. The new process will assist in protecting our institution from increased security threats and breaches. The college leadership team will begin using this process shortly, and then it will be rolled out to all faculty and staff, with everyone using the new process by Fall 2022. Training sessions to assist the campus community will be scheduled.

The reclassification of the Library Instructional Support Associate position will be postponed until January 2022.

The final LAS Dean candidate will be interviewed this week.

Dr. Jordan will continue with the Middle States and Assessment plans until there is a hire of the Assistant Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness.

The Starfish program is being examined on how to use it most effectively for both academics and student life concerns.

The College Foundation is working with our local agencies to move the proposed hotel project forward.

There was an altercation at 1360 Scotch Mountain this weekend. The four students involved either have been, or will be, released from hospital care. The New York State Police are continuing with their investigation regarding this incident. 

The scholarship donor reception last week was a great success. Thank you to all who attended the event. 

College Advancement is working with David Brower and our community partners to begin a market study for the proposed hotel. The county IDA has agreed to provide $25,000 for the market study. More information will be shared as the project progresses.  

SUNY is updating the data requirements for the COVID Dashboard and will include more accurate data for student vaccination status.    

There was a leak in a steam pipe in Farrell Center. CIS has removed the equipment and the issue is being resolved.  

The first fall Discover Delhi Open House was a success with 117 prospective students, in attendance with a 71% show rate (which is higher than our last open house). A satisfaction survey has been sent to all attendees, and we have received a 25% response rate so far. Of those respondents, all 36 like SUNY Delhi as an inclusive, welcoming community, and all but one said SUNY Delhi meets their expectations and will be attending.  A special thanks to everyone who made this Open House a success. 

Karen Gabriel has offered to help with the transition to the new director of health services, and she agreed to help onboard the new individual.   

We just received notice that the rapid PCR test kits are delayed until early next year. We will be looking for another vendor who can supply these, but in the meantime, this means we will need to continue to follow the quarantine/isolation policy currently in place. There are currently no students in quarantine/isolation.  

The presidents have been asked to submit new capital project proposals for their campuses and we will work with our capital partners on this.  

Some SUNYs have required all MCs to be fully vaccinated. This will be discussed more in the coming weeks.  

Reminder that the candidates for the Dean of LA&S are being interviewed. Please attend sessions, if available. 

A few residence life staff toured SUNY Cobleskill and SUNY Oneonta to see their residence hall rehabs. Russell and Catskill Halls are most in need of renovations. The planning group will meet to discuss options. 

There are currently 156 students signed up for this Saturday’s Discover Delhi Open House.

Admissions is working with CIS and SICAS for application uploads, as there was a patch that was needed. This will help our application numbers align with SUNY.

About 1,500 students went through the surveillance testing last week and there were only 2 positives. At this time, there are no plans for mass testing for the rest of the semester unless something changes and the data indicates we should. Health Services is testing any symptomatic students. They are seeing a lot of sickness but not COVID related.

For spring, SUNY announced all students must be fully vaccinated at least 2 weeks before coming to campus, unless approved for an exemption. Since our students are vaccinated at this point, this message will be sent to any accepted spring students. Those students who were approved for an exemption this semester will not need to reapply. This information will be put on the Accepted Students and Health Services web pages, and will be sent to spring accepted students via email.

Today is Karen Gabriel’s last leadership team meeting. A special thank you to her, as she will be missed!

For spring, there will be testing of students upon their return. There are no plans to test everyone after Thanksgiving break unless the data supports this.

All faculty who come to campus were asked to participate in surveillance testing. There are no plans for mass testing again this semester unless the situation changes.

Clarification: The COVID Reopening Taskforce groups coordinated by members of the extended leadership team, established last year, remain intact, although not currently meeting on a monthly basis. These groups may reconvene when/if needed due to the COVID data.

Officer Patterson graduated from the academy!

Cobleskill did remove their mask mandates in the residence halls. They are the 1^st SUNY to do so. We will not move to make this decision for another week or two and it will be based on data.

Mac Hall will provide meals for admissions visitors and for special events, such as Discover Delhi Open House.

Today is the 1^st interview for the LA&S Dean position. Please attend if you can.

• Change of status requests and promotions that were submitted in June were discussed and approved.
• Approved position requests for: Callas Center Instructional Designer, AVP for Institutional Effectiveness, Facilities Capital Contracts Administrator
• UUP discretionary rosters were distributed to the vice presidents and academic deans representing 1/2 of 1% as merit. Please complete them and return to Human Resources.
• NSF grant proposal as a sub-recipient collaboration with Morgan State University was approved.
• Discussed the land swap and hotel project. Key reminders: there was absolutely no monetary cost for SUNY Delhi or the College Foundation; the land will be owned by the College Foundation which will lease the land to a hotel developer; and the approval for the land exchange was the start of a process that is likely to take two to three years.
• Dr. Jordan has a Veterans Affairs program application that needs to be completed and asked who is responsible for Veterans Affairs while that position is vacant. Larry Mannolini is providing oversight.

The governor signed the land swap legislation which will allow the process to begin to move the hotel project forward.

Health Services and the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities are following up with seven students who are still in process for vaccine compliance and are currently restricted from campus.

The student surveillance testing process will change as of next week. A nurse will be overseeing the collection of surveillance tests in the upstairs loft area of Farrell Center.

All employees coming to campus will participate in surveillance testing next Monday. Weekly testing will continue for unvaccinated employees. There will not be testing Thanksgiving week.

Classes are in session and the Admissions Office will be open on Veteran’s Day. Administrative offices will be closed.

Open House Update: October 30 – currently have 138 students registered; November 13 – currently have 100 students registered.  The goal for each event is 150 – 200 students.

Several programs are being planned or scheduled for the spring and summer semesters that involve middle and high school students coming to campus for workshops or camps. Currently, masks will be required and other COVID-related restrictions may be required. However, there is support to be able to offer these events on campus.

Enrollment Services Update: 

• Met with Marketing and Communications staff to develop Instagram takeovers with our student ambassadors in different academic programs.
• There are currently 9 student ambassadors and are hoping for at least 2 more – will be reevaluating how they compensate them to be present for Open House.
• We currently have over 850 student leads from SUNY College Fairs.

• Counselors are finishing up visiting high schools in Otsego County - will begin in Delaware County next week.
  
• Individual visits/tours at SUNY Delhi now include meetings with the academic departments.
  
• Working on developing group visits with up to 25 students that will include academic presentations.
• Utilizing text and email services.
• Working on live stream videos to also attract students.
  

• Admissions is working on a digital campaign for 3,500 student names they purchased.

The Continuing Education Department is offering programming such as Notary Public, Etiquette Dinner, Red Cross CPR, and Safety Drivers Course. 

The nursing department has begun a retention effort for the new nursing students with peer mentoring and peer support group.  

The Delhi Today reminder announcement regarding volunteers for success coaches was successful and many individuals signed up. Training will be provided in the coming weeks. 

The psychology faculty position and the replacement automotive faculty position were approved. 

The culinary students will run Bluestone on Thursday evenings in the spring semester. 

The criminal justice program is hosting a domestic violence program at SUNY Delhi on October 27. 

The School of Nursing just completed their accreditation process. The program was approved for all four of their standards. The process is now moving forward which will take some months to complete. 

The School of Applied Technologies and Architecture' Construction Technology Department finished their accreditation last week. Improvements have been and will continue to be made. 

The Catskill Hudson Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is once again inviting our BSN/MSN students to participate in their interprofessional Healthcare Scholars Program. The commitment is from 2021-2023, includes 80 hours of didactic and 80 hours of clinical, and the program is completely virtual. It includes a stipend upon completion, and the hours can be applied to one course in each program. We currently have 4 MSN students in the program, and now have 4 (total) BSN and MSN applicants. The program will begin at the end of October. Those students who have participated enjoy it very much and feel it as an excellent learning experience. 

Currently onboarding several new adjunct faculty who are former graduates of our MSN in Nursing Education program. 

Memorial service held on Saturday for Michael Barnes and planning something at SUNY Delhi. 

Next week, there is campus-wide testing for all students. Volunteers are still needed to assist. 

New Process for Absent from Class Notification: Beginning October 13, Health and Counseling Services will be using Starfish for notification when a student will be out of class for an extended period of time. Office personnel will raise a flag in Starfish, prompting an email to go to all professional individuals who have contact with that student, indicating the student will be out of class for medical or personal reasons.  Per policy, a reason for the absence will not be disclosed and notifications for a one-day absence are not given. When the student is cleared to go back to class, the flag will be lowered in Starfish and another email will be generated notifying individuals the student has been cleared back to classes.

If a student is in a positive surveillance pool, they are instructed to stay in place until the reflex test comes back. The student is asked to reach out to their faculty to let them know they will not be in class that day. Students are instructed that they are responsible for missed work.  Notifications and notes do not get sent out for this situation.

There will not be surveillance testing on Monday or Tuesday next week due to fall break. Everyone (faculty, staff, and students) will all test the following week.

Dr. Katie Bucci has resigned effective December 31, 2021.

There are 50 students in the process of being fully vaccinated and they should be complete by the end of October.

There have been a few issues with the third-party software that is used to send out Delhi Today and Delhi Today Extra notifications, causing delays in when individuals receive the emails. The company has been notified.

A letter from the president will go out this afternoon as a Delhi Today Extra, highlighting information from the budget webinar.

Due to supply chain issues, the Octobeerfest will be postponed until next year.

Director of Human Resources replacement position approved.

Announcement: Adam Haney will be our new legal counsel at SUNY as Penny Ploughmen is retiring at the end of this month.  

An update on the academic plans for our programs was given. These plans were developed in collaboration with the academic deans.

Mary Morton, Director of Human Resources, announced her retirement at the end of December.  Carol will move forward with the replacement position paperwork. 

2 Position Requests 

Replacement Resident Director in Russell Hall position – approved 

Replacement Veterinary Science Internship Coordinator – approved 

Extended meeting with the academic deans, admissions team, and assistant director of athletics to discuss enrollment and initiatives to attract and retain students. 

Thank you to everyone for the Welcome Weekend events including today’s surveillance testing today and tomorrow.  Overall, the schedule and events went very well. 

Bluestone Update: Students will be at Bluestone as of today and will have theme nights this semester. It will be important to get the word out so they can be well attended and successful.  

As of today, 1,178 students have checked into campus residences for fall semester. There are 10-12 students who will be showing up later this week due to special circumstances, and Residence Life is following up on a few other students who have not shown up or contacted them. Everyone who showed up was compliant with our rules.  Admissions is processing late accepts and withdrawals, and will report final numbers next meeting.   

Surveillance testing was very busy today and will be tomorrow. After this week, fully vaccinated individuals will be tested periodically and others will be tested weekly.  

We will keep watch on hurricane Ida and how it may impact us.  

The FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine this morning. This will impact our non-residential students and faculty and staff who are not yet vaccinated. More information will be forthcoming.

Purchasing guidelines were emailed last week.  If there are questions, please contact Carol’s office.

Currently, we have about an 80% vaccination rate for all students living on campus.

Currently, community members cannot use the library or other campus facilities.

Reminder that convocation is this Thursday.

CIS is working on the student vaccination verification process.   

College Leadership approved filling University Police Department’s two open dispatcher vacancies.

Resident Assistants come back to campus today. Student athletes will arrive on Wednesday, August 18, 2021. EOP/Orientation Leaders will arrive Saturday, August 21.

This year will mark the 20^th anniversary of September 11.  We would like to have a special ceremony with local Boy Scouts in attendance and invite the families of two alumni who lost their loved ones.

The College Leadership reviewed the purchasing process for critical needs.

The theme for convocation will be RAD. Responsible, Applied knowledge, and DEI. The focus will be realizing your dreams. 

The Academic Council retreat will be Tuesday, August 10, 2021.

George Spielman will set up a meeting with Dawn, Tomas, Karen, Denise, and Carol regarding surveillance testing for students, faculty, and staff. 

Dawn reported that some campuses are not allowing food and drink in classrooms and labs to reduce masks being removed.  Many of our labs and classrooms have a no eating and drinking policy. This will be brought up and discussed at the Academic Taskforce meeting this week. 

A few more decisions will need to be made, which include: who will be required to use the daily health screening app and how often; will mandatory surveillance testing of all campus members be for the first and second week, or just the first week; and consideration of rapid testing all students upon arrival at Welcome Weekend.  More discussion will occur on Wednesday.     

Shawn sent out information regarding the SUNY portal that will track vaccinated students, which will be part of the dashboard. The link is not working properly, so they are trying their best to fix it in a timely manner. 

We have received 11 vaccine exemption requests so far. The accommodations committee will be meeting twice a week, and students will receive notification of approval decision through email.  The complete vaccinated rate so far with residential students is at 49%. 

Please provide Michael with a slide of the four most important updates from your area. 

Leadership discussed sabbaticals for the 2021-22 academic year.

Leadership discussed the Residence Life restructuring proposal. John will make changes based on the discussion and move forward with the plan. Equity/change of status conversations will be held until the budget request.

Cody Ruff was promoted to Grounds Supervisor and the replacement position was approved to be filled.

Marketing and Communications will be working on guidelines for Delhi Today notifications for situations regarding the passing of active community members. SUNY Delhi cannot include endorsements for fund raising that are not managed by our organization.

A statement will be added to the Fall 2021 plan regarding unvaccinated individuals who contract COVID this fall and the impact it may have on their academic pursuits.

Admissions and the hospitality department hosted 14 families interested in the field of hospitality. This program will hopefully be replicated across academic departments to build interest in programs with high school students.

The Alumni Office is working on identifying well-positioned graduates in the hospitality field who will work with our students in securing internships and other career opportunities.

The Academic Council Retreat is on Tuesday, August 10.

The Convocation theme this year is being finalized – proposal includes #BroncoRad (Responsible, Applied Knowledge, & DEI) with a sub-theme of Ready & Dedicated.

Discussed the announcement regarding the Fall 2021 health protocols and the plan to require all athletes to get vaccinated as well. More information will be forthcoming on this decision.

Please submit updates to Michael for the opening meeting by August 13. Use the new SUNY Delhi logo power point template. Announce new hires/promotions for the past two years.

Health Services is working with our local health department to secure vaccinations for any student who may need them in August.  A plan is being developed for how we handle unprepared students who show up for Welcome Weekend or to begin classes.  Health Services is ordering rapid tests with the help of the Purchasing Office.  Medicate (the student health portal) is being updated to handle the exemption requests.

Decision was made to make the fall health protocols effective immediately to avoid confusion. This includes the indoor mask mandate for everyone and not requiring masks outdoors. 

Reminder that there is a process for when a student requests to be released from their housing contract and it is not automatic. Students who are requesting to move off campus due to COVID reasons should first submit a health or religious exemption, if applicable, and then request to be released from housing. These requests will go through the normal process.

The Academic Taskforce will have a meeting soon to discuss the fall plans. Although some members may not be on obligation and are not required to attend, they will be invited to participate if they so choose.

The fall plan was discussed and decisions were made regarding the health protocols that would be followed to help ensure our SUNY Delhi community remains as healthy as possible this fall semester. The following decisions were made:

• Masks will be required to worn by everyone in inside all buildings, with exceptions of being in a private office or residence hall, and while seated for eating/drinking.
• Residential students will be required to be fully vaccinated prior to the start of the fall semester, unless approved for a health or religious exemption.
• Everyone, including non-residential students, faculty, and staff are strongly encouraged to get fully vaccinated.
• The Mac dining hall will be for residential students and residential staff only.
• Everyone (students, faculty, and staff) will be required to take part in the surveillance testing the first week of classes. After the first week, vaccinated individuals will test periodically, and unvaccinated individuals will be tested weekly. If exposed to a positive COVID case, vaccinated individuals do not need to quarantine while unvaccinated individuals are required to quarantine for a minimum of 10 days.
• Social distancing in buildings will no longer be required since masks will be mandatory while indoors. Social distancing is no longer required outdoors, however, it is requested that unvaccinated individuals social distance when possible.

Position Requests:

• Renewal of the current Veterinary Science Animal Husbandry Part-Time Temporary Assistant position at lower valley campus/farm was approved.
• Renewal for the Visiting Instructor position for the Golf and Sports Turf Management Program was approved.

There was a meeting with SUNY Human Resources Directors on Monday, June 21 regarding the requirement for wearing masks on campus. Another meeting has been scheduled with SUNY legal tomorrow, Thursday, June 24.  We will update the campus after the meeting. 

Position Requests: 

• RAAC Administrative Support replacement position: Thomas & Katie to follow up with Jeff to look at potential alternatives and get back to leadership. 
• Math Tutor replacement position: Thomas to look at potential alternatives and get back to leadership. 
• Third Party Events Coordinator (part of enrollment reorganization plan) position was approved. 
• Assistant Director of Fraternity & Sorority Life replacement position will be revisited next week.
• Card Access/Security Access Coordinator (new) position was not approved.
• Director of Health Services replacement position was approved.
• Assistant Dean Applied Tech position (reorganization) was approved. 

No updates for today. 

Waiting for changes to health protocols from SUNY for summer and fall. 

We heard that the daily health screening tool may no longer be necessary for students, faculty, and staff, and are awaiting official notification/verification from SUNY. 

Approval given to renew the positions in CPASS, EAP, and the Center for Faculty Excellence in Innovation as one-year temporary positions.  

Decision to table the discussion of the filling of the administrative support position in the RAAC until next week when Dr. Jordan will be present.  

Approval given to fill the administrative role in the Health and Counseling Center.  

Dawn and John will meet regarding the new college ID image for new cards for students, faculty, and staff. 

We are going into our second round of interviews for the Director of Counseling position starting next week. 

Brook Denison’s sabbatical was approved for the fall semester. 

Susan will have Thomas bring the new sabbatical policy to Dean’s council on Thursday, June 17. 

Julia Lang will be joining the admissions team as the Coordinator for the Assistant Manager of Continuing Education and Workforce Development. 

Reminder to the Leadership Team to review the documents sent from Rob regarding SUNY enrollment. 

Sabbatical for Brook Denison was approved in a prior semester and delayed due to COVID, and the request was made for approval for this fall semester. Contingent approval was given pending modifications to his application.  

Discussion regarding PDs and current structure for extra service and release time. More information and research will be done.  Carol and Thomas will meet and we will revisit.  

Strategic planning and assessment was discussed. Katie sent proposal for a plan for this summer to move forward. All VPs and area representatives are asked to send days/times when meetings can be scheduled to discuss.  

The request to fill the in-person librarian position was approved. The position will be posted at a $45,000 starting salary which allows for a $750 savings for this 10-month position.  

Rob Monroe will be our new assistant athletic director. The request to fill for his replacement was approved as an 11-month position which will coach three sports (at a cost of $55,000).  

PRODiG was discussed with support of this initiative.  However, SUNY has yet to announce the details of the new proposal, so there are a lot of unknowns at this time. 

At this time, campuses are not authorized changes of work status for employees. Campuses were asked to return to pre-COVID in-person staffing levels and that is our current plan. 

Campus Admissions Visits Policy – the policy for the campus visits did change after the summer guidelines were posted last week and the website has been updated. Admission visitors do not need proof of a vaccine or negative COVID test, as long as they complete the health screening form at UPD and wear their masks. This change is consistent with other colleges and the flexibility given to campuses for visitors per the summer guidelines.  

The leadership retreat is this Thursday. Rob will send out some information regarding enrollment tomorrow for review. 

The land exchange agreement passed both the House and Assembly and will be sent for approval to the governor and SUNY board, which is fantastic news. 

Residence halls did open up for campus visitors for the summer.  Visitors to the residence halls must show proof of vaccine or negative tests, and this process will be handled through Residence Life.  

Karen is tracking student vaccination rates, and currently just under half of our students are either partially or fully vaccinated. 

Human Resources is required to put vaccination information in the SUNY system although the details (what information and how to do it) have not been finalized.  

Reminder: supervisors are not allowed to ask anyone about their vaccination status. 

The solar project at lower campus has been canceled due to market conditions and financial viability of the project.   

We are still testing everyone who comes to campus once per month for periodic testing, regardless of vaccination status per the summer SUNY guidelines. The agreement for employee testing ends June 30, and we will adjust our plans, if necessary, once new guidance is provided. 

The nonacademic campus services had their meeting today and they will be meeting every week on Mondays at 9 a.m. All the notes are online and meetings are open.  

There will be required testing for everyone coming back to campus in the fall. Clarification and logistics are still being figured out and will be communicated as soon as things are finalized. 

There was a discussion regarding the process of notifying campus about new hires. As a reminder, typically with leadership positions, it is the hiring authority who sends out a message thanking the campus community for their assistance with the search, and once the official employment contract is signed, a formal announcement is placed in Delhi Today.  Beginning with the June Bronco Brag publication, on a monthly basis, Human Resources will be providing the Office of Marketing and Communications information about new hires/retirements/changes in position which will supplement these formal announcements. 

Michael Barnes' emeritus status request was discussed and approved.

The request to fill the vacant head women’s soccer coach position was discussed and approved. 

The SUNY Summer Guidelines were discussed and reviewed. A new Summer Information web page is being developed that will outline the guidelines, as soon as all the information is received from various areas.  The guidelines are effective immediately.

Proposed status changes for staff were discussed and may be included in the budget requests for 2021-22, after the budget discussions at next week’s retreat.

The Office of Marketing and Communications will have limited services this summer for photography, videography, graphic design, and story writing.  Please plan ahead and put in Marketing Requests as early as possible.

Rob Monroe accepted the Associate Athletic Director position. Athletics will move forward with hiring a Men’s Track & Field coach for the replacement.

The land exchange legislation is on the active list for Senate and may be voted on this week.

Reminders:

Shared governance meetings are today.

Assessment day is tomorrow.

The Summer Leadership & Deans Retreat was discussed.  It will be held on Thursday, June 10, starting at 9 a.m. at Bluestone.  The budget, enrollment data, the strategic plan, communication flow, and DEI will be discussed.  

Please send a timeline for, and copy of, all major (mass) Fall 2021 messaging going out to students this summer from each area to Dawn Sohns.  She will catalog the messages, check for consistency, and provide a timeline to the Communications Task Force group.  This information will be helpful to all front-line customer service staff, the digital and social media manager, and others across campus. From each area, please provide a list of what messages are being sent, when, and by whom.

Thank you to the Employee Appreciation Day committee for a well-done celebration.  A follow-up announcement will be made in Delhi Today tomorrow regarding the Delhi Heroes Awards. Moving forward, it was suggested that the committee become more representative and make deadlines for awards earlier next year. George and Andrea will be working on these recommendations. 

The lead programmer replacement position request was approved due to the essential nature of the position/function.

The first day of Fall 2021 semester classes has not changed.  However, classes will be held on Labor Day.  All administrative offices will be closed on Labor Day.

The Office of Marketing and Communications proposed a new addition to the Bronco Brag monthly publication, to be placed after the “brags," called “(Month) Transitions.”  There will be three categories which will include: (1) New Hires: Welcome to SUNY Delhi; (2) Retirements/Departures: Wishing you well in your future endeavors; and (3) Position/Status Changes: Congratulations on your new title.  The information for each will come from Human Resources.  Leadership approved the addition and Cabrina will work with HR to gather the information, starting in June.

The LA&S Dean position search is still in progress. 

The draft of the Updated Guidance Review from SUNY was reviewed and a list of concerns and comments was made to share with SUNY this afternoon.

There was a discussion regarding status change requests for employees.  A review of all planned status change requests will be done on Wednesday, June 2.  All requests with justification and salary increases are due to Carol, George, and Michael by June 1.

The Non-Academic Campus Services Team has not yet met and therefore notes are not posted on Confluence. There was discussion regarding the charge of this committee. The College Leadership Team and President Laliberte gave suggestions on what the team can be working on for the fall semester. A meeting for this group will be set up.

Position Requests:

1. Regional Admissions Recruiters: SL-1 status - entry level. The purpose is to have these individuals saturate NYC and Staten Island areas for student recruitment. Approved.
2. Custodial position in the residence halls which is vacated due to a retirement. Approved.
3. Welding faculty position open due to retirement. Approved.

Update on Campus Projects:

1. Summer painting will be done by students in the residence halls.
2. Evenden Tower Project will span over 2 summers (this summer and next), and includes window replacement and brick maintenance.
3. The elevator in Bush Hall is being replaced.
4. Lower Valley Campus work will begin to create space for Farnsworth faculty/staff during their building renovation.
5. Labs in Sanford Hall are being switched.
6. Catskill Hall will have boiler replaced.
7. This summer, installation of cameras in the residence halls will be finalized.
8. The steam leak that was temporarily fixed will hopefully be completely fixed this summer.
9. Transformer in Applied Tech will be fixed this summer.
10. There are spaces/buildings that need to be cooled this summer. If there are issues, call ext. 4020 to report them.

Summer Retreat Update: The summer retreat with the College Leadership Team and the Deans is scheduled for the second week of June, on Wednesday, June 9. George Spielman is working on identifying a location for the retreat (possibly Bluestone, Farrell, or Catskill) and will let everyone know when finalized.  Rob will gather the enrollment data and Stephen will also do a budget update at the retreat.

Leadership Meetings: Starting this week, until August, leadership will not meet on Fridays unless there is an emergency or urgent matter. Extended leadership will meet on Mondays, and the Leadership Team will meet on Wednesdays, at 11 a.m.

Middle States Self-Study Standard 7: John Padovani and George Spielman will set up a team to work on the campus organizational chart and information flow for Standard 7 for the Middle States Self-Study. Each area/division should have their own chart that is updated by that area annually. The overall Organizational Chart can be housed on the HR web page. The process of decision making is topic dependent, and several flow charts may be needed. Input gathering and information sharing is different than an approval process, and those need to be clearly identified as well in this process.

Thank you to the entire Commencement Committee for all of their work on the virtual Commencement Ceremony this weekend.  A special thank you to Julee, Elizabeth, Riikka, Kenny, Peter, Dylan, and Abbey who worked tirelessly to make the virtual ceremony a success.  

Residence hall move out was successful, with a few students remaining until Sunday. All students will be in Dubois for the summer. RATS camp students are in Murphy Hall.  The Barnes and Noble Café is open for the campus community, and students who are here can use their Bronco Bucks until the end of the month. Starting June 1, residential students will supply their own meals. There will be about 18 residential students on campus this summer either due to work, being housing insecure, or homeless. 

The nursing pinning ceremony on Friday was a huge success.  

The Operations and Academic Planning Taskforce groups will meet this week. 

The Moodle upgrade is May 19-24. 

The Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences candidate has rescinded her acceptance for the position due to personal reasons.  Dr. Jordan will be working on the next steps. 

Enrollment is trending upward, with about 50 new students compared to last fall. The numbers will continue to fluctuate between now and the start of classes. 

There was a request from UUP Labor Management to have a seat at our leadership team meetings for planning purposes. All of the reopening taskforce committees report to this group already. There may be some confusion with the title of this group, as on the website for the taskforces it is labeled as the Campus Planning Taskforce Workgroup. This group is the extended leadership team, so the request was not supported and the title will be changed on the website to reflect the title accurately. 

Reminder: All taskforce groups need to be posting notes on Confluence consistently.   

Reminder: By this Friday, please send George your anticipated vacation schedule for June and July so that the summer retreat and weekly meetings to be scheduled.  

The announcement and link for the On-Campus Gatherings form will be sent to the leadership team today to share with their departments/areas, and will be in Delhi Today starting tomorrow.  Any gathering on campus with over 10 people must be approved through this process, to ensure proper health protocols are being adhered to. 

The Fall 2021 Information web page is being developed. The content for the page is being verified by leadership prior to publication. The task forces make recommendations for the fall for leadership approval. If approved by leadership, then the information will be added to the web page. 

Dylan, Riikka, and Kenny are working diligently behind the scenes to make the virtual commencement ceremony a success.   

Abby Mott started today in her new role as the Digital and Social Media manager. Please welcome her in her new role.  

Reminder that Assessment Day is a month from now. If anyone needs assistance, please reach out to Monica or Katie for assistance. 

The Oracle upgrade went really well this past weekend with no issues. 

We received 82 deposits over the weekend and are up 10% from last year at this time, although we are still behind from Fall 2019.   

Congratulations to Tomas on his award.  More information can be found in Delhi Today this morning. 

The interviews are finalized for the Applied Technologies' Dean search, and the LAS Dean search is also being finalized.  

Thomas has been touring classrooms and facilities and he reported that the students absolutely love being on campus and taking classes in person.  He shared several stories of students he spoke with and their desire to take in-person classes this fall. 

Discussion regarding campus gatherings of more than 10 people. These gatherings must only occur with written plans in place that have been approved by the campus safety officer to ensure health protocols are being followed. If food is being served, there are additional rules that must be followed.  Dawn and Karen will work on a message to campus and Shawn will assist in developing an online form for campus events. 

The Barnes and Noble Café would like to offer a summer program to open the café to the community after the semester ends.  More information is needed and a plan will be submitted to leadership for approval. 

There will be a Banner upgrade to new version of Oracle that will start on Saturday morning.    

The last interview for the new applied technology dean is today.  

Thomas is meeting with Fred from SUNY to go over the new programs process and to discuss the process about fading out programs. Discussed the idea of academic minors and/or concentrations, and move toward orienting students toward bachelor’s degrees with minors.  

Thomas has also been doing class and lab visits to talk with the faculty and students.  

The Bluestone meeting went well and students are scheduled to start at Bluestone on August 30, with the first day of student serving to be on October 1.  

The LAS dean search is moving forward and will hopefully be finalized soon. The interviews for the Applied Technologies dean position are this week.  

The Academic Planning Taskforce met and addressed questions.  Remember that all task forces are to be posting notes and meeting days/times to Confluence. Thank you to Shawn for setting this up.  Dr. Jordan met with the Vet Sci department today and is working through scenarios for fall.  

Enrollment is flat overall, although we are closing the gap a bit for on-campus students. However, we are still nowhere near F19 numbers.  The Housing Waiver Form will be promoted to non-deposited students. 

Data Governance did Banner update very well, no disruptions - thank you! 

The pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccinations has been lifted and we still have vaccines available. Health Services will reach out to students who had indicated they were interested prior to the pause. 

Discussion regarding a request for a Vet Sci pinning ceremony on May 7. In order for this to be allowed, there must be fewer than 100 individuals in attendance, must be in Clark, be for internal, weekly-tested individuals only, and follow all health and campus protocols and by RSVP only.  Any proposed internal ceremony such as this must be communicated and the campus must be aware.  SON is having a pinning on Friday, May 14. 

Community Service/Earth Day this past weekend went very well – over 200 students participated.  

Jason Fishner is working on a Residence Life update for F21 to disseminate to the academic areas to address COVID and fall planning/advising. Reminder that there is currently no mandate for residential students to be vaccinated at this time.  

Good news- faculty and staff pool testing results for this week were all negative.

All staff and faculty members who are on campus during finals week will be pool tested.

An open forum for the Dean of Applied Technologies will be held on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Details will be announced in Delhi Today.

The IT department is working on upgrading pool testing technology for the Fall 2021 semester.

Banner and Bronco Web will be unavailable while updating on Saturday May 1 through start of business on Monday May 3.

The operations work group met and they will continue to meet every other week. For fall semester planning, 3 feet for social distancing should be used, knowing the social distancing requirement may be eliminated altogether before August.  

We received guidance from SUNY on how we can spend the $3.2 million of the institutional share for the 2nd round of funds.  More information will be forthcoming but most, if not all, of the funds will cover room reduction costs and costs related to COVID-19 expenses. 

The College Foundation meeting went well yesterday and movement is being made on the land swap agreement. 

Fall 2021 new student enrollment numbers are flat which is similar to other Colleges of Technology.  Admissions is formulating a plan to begin to resume on-campus visits and events for new students. 

The interviews for the Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences position are complete. The search committee meets on Monday.   

The first retention initiative meeting was a great success with a lot of great energy and positivity. 

Students under 18 years of age who are attending Farm or RATS camps this summer are not required to be tested. Adult students and employees who are on campus over summer will need to be tested. 

There were no positives in this week’s surveillance testing. Students will be tested before they depart campus for the summer.  Pfizer vaccines no longer need to be kept “ultra-frozen” and can be stored at the Health Center. 

The Solar Decathlon website and teaser ad was shown to leadership. Neither are finalized at this time but are in progress. 

Visit from Chancellor Malatras was a great success. Thank you to everyone who organized it, participated, and made this event successful with such short notice. SUNY Delhi is receiving a grant for refrigerator and freezer for our food pantry to help combat food insecurity.

Discussion about revising the rule to allow residential students to visit other residence halls. We are watching our numbers and will continue to plan to allow this happen in the coming weeks, if our numbers support this change. Communication will be forthcoming when and if this change occurs.

Discussion about individuals who have been fully vaccinated and whether they need to test weekly, and about what happens when they are part of a positive pool. More research is needed before a decision is made.

Upstate Medical had proposed switching their reporting system to a new system this coming Monday. However, they have decided to make both systems live as of next week and the new system will be transitioned to over the next week or two. There is a lot of confusion at this time and more information is forthcoming. The new specimen collection procedure and increased cost was also discussed.

Delhi Previews for prospective students will be starting up again, which will include strict health protocols and a brief view of an unoccupied residence hall room.

There will be an Employee Appreciation Day this year and the committee is working on the details.  

There were five positive pools this week – 2 student pools and 3 employee pools.

Dr. Jordan went to the Commencement Committee meeting and it was decided that there will be a virtual ceremony in May. The committee is looking at companies and videographers to make this happen. There will be an announcement about Commencement in Delhi Today that will also go to parents and the Commencement website will be updated.

Virtual tours of residence halls are being developed so that prospective students can see what the interior of the residence halls looks like. 

Surveillance testing is going well and the students are coming prepared. They are in and out within 5 minutes. 

There are a number of students who are not compliant with weekly surveillance testing. Lacey and John are working on messaging to go out to the students. 

The provost visited the building site for the Solar Decathlon on Sunday. It will be an excellent experience for our students and we are getting more and more sponsors. 

At the UUP Labor Management meeting, there were a lot of questions about the fall plan.  The reopening task forces will be working on the details to figure out a lot of the plan.  The mandates and guidelines (from SUNY, NYS, CDC, etc.) will continue to change from now until August, so we will have to remain flexible and modify the plan as needed. The details regarding the fall semester are not known at this time. However, at this time, for the spring semester, there are no changes to our expectations and health protocols.  Masks are still required and social distancing is still required.  There are a lot of conflicting and changing messages in the media.  Our message on our campus has not changed.  We will continue to communicate these expectations. 

As of right now, the telecommuting agreement has not been extended until the end of the semester. We are waiting to hear from SUNY about an extension and will communicate a decision once we hear from them.   

Discussion regarding the Commencement Committee meeting that was held yesterday. The goal is to offer our students, especially those who are taking in-person classes and labs, the ability to walk across the stage in their graduation attire and have their moment to celebrate. It was again stressed that our campus is and will remain closed to visitors/guests and that the commencement celebrations would be for only the students (no families or guests). The rules and mandates will continue to change regarding gatherings.  It is too late to offer a traditional full-scale graduation to all graduates and guests, even if it was outside and even if the restrictions were removed to make it possible, due to contracts with vendors and logistics. 

Reminder to the academic deans to provide feedback to Marketing on the new web pages as soon as possible.  

There was a recommendation that anyone who requests Banner access be required to go through training, and to ensure training for current users who have access and use Banner information, in the near future. Leadership supported this recommendation for mandatory training. There is a data reference manual that will go into New Employee Orientation training materials and will be distributed to other campus members. 

Discussion about spectators at events. At this time, we are not allowing guests or spectators on campus. We will remain consistent with our no guest policy. 

Discussion about vaccinating students since access to all students may occur on May 1. SUNY Delhi did apply to be a vaccination site, and we will wait to see if we are notified about giving vaccines to students.   

John and Martin met with off-campus housing students by going door-to-door, giving out copies of the Student Code of Conduct Appendix, reminding them about weekly surveillance testing, making wise choices on St. Patrick’s Day, and having positive interactions overall.  

Rob reviewed initial data on the SUNY4All Initiative. About 110,000 people have been eligible for it, and about 1% of eligible students have taken part in it.    

The Office of College Advancement is working with both the Nursing program and Business and Hospitality to reach out to alum from those programs to inform them about our new programs that they might be interested in.  

CARES funding announcement discussed.  There appears to be about $40 billion for Higher Education overall with about $930 million for SUNY. However, there are no details on the funds, what they can be spent on, and what the restrictions are.  It appears it will be the same 50/50 split, like previous stimulus money.  When we receive the details, we will share them with the campus. 

Per the CCIO Sector Call - everyone, other than SUNY Oneonta - is working on some type of in-person ceremony for commencement. 

This week, there were only two positive pools with only two positive students. We hope this downward trend continues.  

Delhi Today Extra went out to the campus community encouraging diligence in following the health protocols.  The faculty will be asked to share this message with students in their classrooms and the coaches will share this information with their athletes. Parents are concerned that the students will fall behind or not pass the classes due to quarantine time. The faculty will work with the students to make accommodations for the missed work.  

The two-week pause to remote learning would kick in at 5% of our current campus population which is about 60 people, which is based off the total number of individuals we are testing on a weekly basis.  If we had to go on pause, residence halls would remain open and takeout food service would be available, but no in-person classes. 

The state has extended the 1b vaccination eligibility to include residence staff (RAs and RDs) and any on-campus residential student who provides in-person programming or service to other students (like tutors, assistants, etc.). George is preparing a list of these individuals. Michael continues to advocate for our custodial staff and other staff members not in the classroom to be eligible for the vaccination. 

There were some issues with longer turn-around times for the surveillance testing this week. Upstate Medical is working on a remedy for the situation. There were 11 positive pools this week with 2 employees and 11 students testing positive. We are monitoring the situation and will adjust practices as needed. There was a software need for some students in Applied Tech who are in quarantine and CIS was able to get the students access.  

A big thank you to John and Kathy for assistance with Health Services. 

There is concern across SUNY about the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day holiday and the possibility of large gatherings and engagement in high-risk activities. Messaging will go out to discourage participation in such activities. 

The redesigned academic majors web pages have been sent to the deans for review. We hope to have them published in the next two weeks.  

In accordance with the Board of Trustees approved gender-neutral restroom policy, we will be identifying all single occupancy restrooms and marking them as gender-neutral with new signage. 

The academic majors web page redesign project is moving forward. Academic deans have received the links to the new pages for review and are asked to provide feedback by the due date. Identification of an email and a department phone number is also needed from each area. 

There is a proposal to redesign commencement for May 2021 and have multiple in-person school specific ceremonies in the Clark Field House over the course of a few days for students and faculty only. The goal is to keep the number of participants under/around 100 per ceremony, keeping everyone socially distanced and wearing masks.  The ceremonies would be brief and tailored to the majors, while allowing the student to walk across the stage and be recognized.  The ceremonies will be live-streamed.  No visitors will be allowed at the ceremonies. The Provost will work with the academic deans to discuss days/times ceremonies could occur, and the commencement committee will meet next week to discuss.  

Middle States recommended that we need a process to evaluate us as a leadership team, which we were working on pre-COVID.  Carol will send the proposed evaluation documents out for review and feedback.  

A document was shared about hiring procedures to aid in the recruitment and retention of a diversified pool of individuals. As a campus, we need to take action to help ensure DEI are integrated into everything we do. Tomas will develop messaging about the DEI committee and how individuals can become involved in this important work. 

Movement on the house/solar decathlon project is going well and we have begun to secure supplies and commitments from sponsors. 

Housing deposits for Fall 2021 are now being accepted and are due on April 5 for returning students. 

Accepted Student events have been added to the accepted student web page for Fall 2021 admits. 

Our response to the New York State Chapter 128 Continuity of Operations Plan for a State Disaster Emergency Involving a Communicable Disease will be distributed to leadership to review and provide feedback.  This will also be shared with the unions for information purposes once the edits are made. 

Reminder to review and add to the assessment data chart Katie sent out last week. 

Discussion regarding cleaning in academic buildings on weekends due to exposure and how to quickly turn off ID access. Per the Department of Health, it is recommended that an area be shut down for 4 to 24 hours after an exposure and after deep cleaning has occurred. Facilities is working on a protocol for weekend issues. UPD needs to be able to turn off card access and lock the area quickly, and we need to have signage on the door and communication to relevant individuals to let them know the lab/area is closed for a certain amount of time. Plans are being developed. 

March kicks off our 2021-2024 Assessment Cycle Planning for planning through June for Fall 2021 implementation. Announcements will be in Delhi Today. There will be a double-header assessment PD session March 16 &17 with an updated Assessment Workbook. Units can contact Katie for individual meetings if desired.  

Surveillance testing is going well. The situation remains steady and busy with the quarantine situation. There is an enormous amount of time spent on managing the communication with students. Arrangements are being made to get the Health Center more assistance. Kathy Hibbard will begin working with them at this time. The only exemption from quarantine time is if someone has had both doses of the vaccination at least 2 weeks ago, or has had a confirmed case of COVID within the past 3 months. 

Reminders: 

• Delhi Today will not be published on Monday due to the holiday.
• Weekly surveillance testing will occur on Monday – see today’s Delhi Today for more information.
• Although some offices/departments are closed on Monday, the Library will be open.
• Library hours for the spring semester as of now are:
  • Sundays, 6 to 10 p.m.
  • Mondays to Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
  • Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• More explanation for the SUNY Dashboard, including an informative video, is on the dashboard web page. Please see today’s Delhi Today for the link.

Some infrequently-used areas of campus buildings may be closed to reduce the cleaning demand on the custodial staff. Notices will be Delhi Today regarding which areas will be closed.   

We need student snow removers and a request has been sent out via BroncoCONNECT to solicit students who may be interested. 

CIS worked on a printing solution in Centennial Lounge in Sanford Hall for students who were in need of a printer when the library was closed. All print requests should be evaluated to determine the necessity of printing. 

CIS asks for patience with in-person assistance, as it may take additional time for staff to get to those requests. 

Upstate Medical has developed a new app that is expected to go live in March for surveillance testing registration.   

Per SUNY, surveillance testing samples collected are destroyed seven days after testing is complete, unless the sample contains a new variant (which will be examined separately and then destroyed at a NYS lab). 

About 850 students are in assigned rooms and we are following up on about 35 students who have yet to move in. There have been about 1,600 student transactions per day in Farrell. 

There were 1,332 surveillance tests completed over move-in weekend which resulted in only five positive pools with four people who tested positive. This is great news! Health Services has been busy dealing with positive cases off campus and testing for late arrivals (23 as of this morning).  

SUNY Upstate Medical requested that we change our pool testing delivery date. We are not in support of doing this as we have a process that is built around the Tuesday delivery date.  

Martin and Tomas will be visiting the off-campus houses downtown to encourage them to participate in weekly testing and to remind them of the importance of following established health protocols. 

The Governor announced that two weeks after receiving both doses of the COVID vaccine, individuals do not need to quarantine if exposed to someone with the virus, for up to three months after receiving the vaccine. We are awaiting a decision on whether this new announcement will also mean that those same people are exempt from weekly testing.  As of right now, they are not exempt from weekly testing and should still participate. 

The redesigned academic web pages will be sent to the academic deans next week for review and approval. Once approved, the web pages will be published. 

Students have begun to return to campus, although this morning was a bit slower than anticipated due to the weather.  Overall, it is going well. 

If a student breaks or needs a new bracelet, they should be directed to Health Services in Foreman Hall, although RAs will have some bracelets as well. 

Construction on the front entrance sign will begin the week of February 15.  The schedule for the project is weather dependent. 

The boiler in the Applied Technologies building is being replaced which means there will be no heat in the building today. 

SUNY announced that are to be no fee increases for Fall 2021.   

Clarifications on Surveillance Testing: 

• There is NO surveillance pool testing this Tuesday, February 9, as all of the surveillance testing is being done this weekend and Monday for the campus community.  Tuesday testing will resume on February 16. 
• Surveillance pool testing is done with no cost to the student or the employee. Reflux (PCR) testing is billed to the person’s insurance. 
• Employees can still volunteer to assist with surveillance testing if they are no longer in isolation or precautionary quarantine or quarantine – as long as they have been cleared. 

• If someone has received the COVID-19 vaccination, they are still required to participate in the weekly surveillance testing.   
• If someone is feeling sick or currently has COVID-19, they should NOT participate in the weekly surveillance pool testing.   
• If someone has had a confirmed case of COVID-19, they should not participate in the surveillance testing for 90 days.  Students should contact Health Services for a testing waiver and employees should contact Human Resources for a testing waiver. 
• Getting the flu vaccine should not skew the COVID-19 testing results and as such, anyone who has gotten the flu vaccine should still participate in the weekly surveillance testing. 
  
• Procedures for employee testing are being worked on by Human Resources and will be communicated once complete. There were concerns over social distancing protocols.  HR is working on a process that would reduce the number of employees who show up for testing within a given timeframe. There will also be two lines – an express line for employees who have their own electronic device and have pre-registered with everything they need to get tested, and a second line for those who need to use a laptop or other device at the testing site.  Rob P. has offered to bring a few tablets from the admissions office to the testing site during employee testing to help speed up the process. 

• Completing the registration for testing through SUNY Upstate Medical every week is the only way people can get tested.  This requires checking the two consent boxes on the site. 

We tested over 200 employees this past Monday (which was outstanding given the weather). The results of the surveillance test will be reflected on the dashboard. Per established contact tracing procedures, anyone who has been in direct contact with someone who has COVID-19 and is at risk will be contacted directly.    

Reminder: everyone coming to campus for ANY reason (e.g., getting coffee at the Barnes and Noble Café, using the fitness center, eating at one of the eateries, working in the architecture lab, etc.) must participate in the weekly testing.  It is important that any student on campus without a bracelet be sent directly to Health Services to be tested.   

Upstate is working on a new health screening app, although it will not be ready until late February/early March.  

Our School of Nursing is participating in the National Student Association’s Virtual Annual Convention helping with conducting virtual mock interviews and resume assistance.  In return, they will receive complimentary advertising.  

Our current enrollment for the spring is about 5% (under 130 students) lower compared to last spring. The final number will not be known until about 3 weeks into the semester.  

Yesterday, there was a public hearing on higher education. The focus was on the SUNY budget and fees.   

The information on the emergency fund should be available at Monday’s meeting. 

The regular leadership team will begin to have meetings on Wednesdays for non-COVID related information and issues.  

Currently, there are 880 students assigned to campus housing that we are expecting this weekend (about 50 students are already here).   

The Bronco Bus will not run this coming weekend and an announcement will be put in the Delhi Today. 

Provost Jordan met with Fred H. from SUNY administration regarding the process for new programs and other procedures.  It was a very positive and helpful meeting.   

• Enrollment for the spring semester is down 6%.
• Resources have been added to Moodle to help with the first week of classes.
• The Help Desk will be available to students moving in this weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).
• The pool testing volunteer list was updated and sent to the College Leadership Team. We are still in need of volunteers for Saturday and Sunday.
• Resident Assistants were tested today, February 1, 2021.
• There will be a Zoom training this week for those volunteering to make phone calls for pool testing.
• Impact follow-up reports regarding the Emergency Fund include gender balance, ethnicity, and age. The focus will be on demographics and need.
• The first Budget meeting is Tuesday, February 2, 2021.
• Residence Life has been preparing for move-in weekend to ensure it runs smoothly.

There was a Chief Information Officers meeting with SUNY this week and they reported that SUNY Upstate Medical Center is working on update feeds to automatically go into the COVID-19 dashboard. This will assist with reducing the time of results' notification.  Shawn will bring back concerns and issues to the group. 

Reminder: Individuals who have had both doses of the COVID vaccine are still required to take part in the mandatory weekly surveillance testing.  Also, part-time employees with no insurance can still be part of the pool testing. 

Redd will be at Resident Assistant training this week. 

The academic web page redesign is almost complete. Finalized pages will be sent to the deans next week for final review.  

The updated Student Code of Conduct Appendix 11 is now on the website and a Delhi Today announcement will be in next week.   

Thank you for spreading the word; we have a lot of volunteers for moving-in weekend and also for the weekly testing.  Volunteers are still needed on Mondays and Tuesdays. 

Student Life is meeting to discuss ways to improve communication and other areas. 

There was a discussion regarding “restoration days."  There are no campus-wide restoration days (as per the Spring Reopening document – see Academic Calendar section).  It will be up to the individual instructors, in their own classes, to determine when to offer a restoration time/day.  The word “day” refers to the individual class, not a campus-wide day.  There is no formal approval process for how or when instructors can offer a restoration time (day) for their individual class(es).  Instructors should communicate about the restoration time (day) to their students in advance.  

At this time, there are 300 students who have not completed their pre-arrival requirements.  Health Services is making phone calls today to speak with these students. 

Monday, February 15, is the start of full-semester classes and is also Presidents' Day.  Most offices will be closed on Monday and staff should take the day off.   

Reminder that the first spring budget meeting will be on Tuesday, February 2.  

We received 70 new registrations for Spring 2021 semester, so currently we are only down 7% from last year vs. 9% last week. 

Progress is moving forward to make the Human Resources program online. 

We received approval for the bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice to allow for direct entry.  This will be very beneficial for our students.  

• The SUNY president’s meeting was a discussion of the Governor’s proposed budget which is due by April 1. 
• Enrollment for this spring is down 245 students compared to last year. 
• The EIT team is developing an Accessible Academic Leave form.  This will be different than a medical leave form.  
• Health Services is working on updating procedures for the spring semester. 
• CIS is working throughout campus to get ready for the arrival of students. 
• There will be a SUNY Nursing Leadership meeting on Monday, January 25, to discuss the primary access for all nurses regarding Governor Cuomo’s budget. 
• The Middle States Self-Study will identify gaps that will be fixed during the process. 
• Business and Finance has compiled the summary document for the Governor’s proposed budget. 
• Human Resources is working on the 1% discretionary salary pool.
• The search for the Dean of Applied Technologies and Dean of Liberal Arts & Sciences will be posted. 
• Internships for the spring semester will continue as long as the internship location follows the COVID-19 guidelines and students can be healthy and safe. 
• CADI had their opening meeting Wednesday, January 20, and the first round of pool testing was completed. 
• 44 Resident Assistants arrive on campus Sunday, January 24, for move-in and then training. 
• There was a Chief of Police meeting this week and Chancellor Malatras reported that for reopening, all campuses need to be prepared for positive cases as there has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the metro-New York area.   
• The campus will need volunteers for Monday and Tuesday pool testing for the spring semester.  Please ask individuals in your area to see if they would be willing to help with this process. 
• There was a quarterly College Foundation Board meeting Wednesday, January 21. There is a new President and Vice President of the foundation. 

Any employee who did not report to work on campus after instruction went completely remote in November and plans to return to campus will need to be tested on Monday, February 1, 2021. This day will be reserved for testing and details will be sent out via Delhi Today. 

A Delhi Today Extra will be going out today regarding information about the NYS announcement that the phased distribution of the COVID-19 vaccinations section 1b now includes “in-person college instructors.”  At this time, NYS has also indicated there is currently not enough vaccine supply to meet the demand of all 1a and 1b groups eligible for the vaccine.  As soon as more information is available, we will send out additional information to the campus community. 

CIS is updating older system codes and upgrading systems on Wednesdays from 4 a.m. until 7 a.m. and will do so until they are up to date.   

Health Services is working on a new phone tree that will help with call volume and directing the calls to the appropriate offices/departments.  

Governor Cuomo will be addressing the announcement about offering priority access for nurses in his State of the State address today.   

• The College Leadership Team update meetings will be held on Mondays and Fridays for the month of January 2021.
• Reminder that The Health and Counseling Center services are for students only. Faculty and staff members who have concerns about COVID-19 are required to contact their health care providers.
• Discussions at The Health Directors meeting emphasized the importance of following the guidelines/phases for COVID-19 vaccinations. Faculty, staff and students should be encouraged to refer to the New York State website for more information.
• The Spring 2021 semester enrollment is down by 9%, which translates into 225 fewer students than 2020.
• Brook Denison and Michael Sullivan are working on a solar decathlon competition. The competition is a major build and design project which includes architecture. The competition is being sponsored externally by donors and industry.
• The emergency management call was intended as an update to the increase in COVID-19 numbers and the notification that vaccines will be given to first responders and hospitals.
• Assessment Day was well attended. All contributed and a great deal was accomplished.
• The Student Life division meeting will be held next week to discuss preparations for students returning to campus.
• The faculty and staff handbook has been updated and is available on the website.