Barring setbacks, UND leaders expect normal operations in fall

Editor’s note: The following is a lightly edited transcript of the Student and Family Town Hall meeting that was held with President Andy Armacost and UND leaders on March 9. Topics covered in the Zoom meeting – the video of which is above – include returning to normal in the fall, vaccinations, housing, aviation, and more.

President Andy Armacost: Thanks for joining us this evening. I’m UND’s president, Andy Armacost.

And as we get ready for this nice respite coming up over Spring Break, we wanted to pull everyone together to answer any questions that you have and to give updates on what we think are important goings on, on campus and across the state.

And speaking of across the state, let me offer my thanks to all of the student leaders who have represented the university and the student body, and all the students from around the state at the ongoing legislative session that’s happening out in Bismarck.

Their voices have been instrumental in making sure that UND and the student body get the funding and the resources that they need to be successful.

Couple quick notes on the pandemic. I’m sure there will be some questions here during the session. But if you’re a student – or even if you’re a parent or a family member, or a staff member, faculty member – if you’re going away for Spring Break, test before you leave, and test when you return. You can get those great Binax tests, in which they swab both nostrils, and within 15 minutes, you have the results. It’s fast and easy.

And we encourage all of you to test frequently and take care of you and others.

And then also, get vaccinated. North Dakota is moving quickly through the prioritization list, and when your time comes up, make sure you go get it. It’s easy, and it’s important for public health to make sure that we all are vaccinated.

I’m sure there’ll be more items regarding that during the question-and-answer session.

Just so you know, our plan for the fall semester is to return to normal operations as you come to campus. I know when you make that choice, you certainly hope for the great human interaction that is emblematic of a UND education, the great education that we offer here. So again, the plan is to open up with normal or close to normal operations in the fall semester.

For Commencement, you’ve heard from me on this before, and I might as well address it upfront: we continue to play it safe by offering ceremonies virtually, with the opportunity to honor each student face-to-face before the day of the ceremony. So this is a couple of weeks in advance; I’ll have a chance to meet with all of you and celebrate your accomplishment.

I know this is not what’s normally done. But given the pandemic, given yesterday’s CDC guidelines and the uncertainty of what’s happening with the variants, this still remains the prudent option.

By August, we’ll be in a much better place, both locally and nationally. And we welcome all graduates – their families, their friends – to return back to Grand Forks for an in-person commencement ceremony in August.

Just so you know, several programs on campus have historically operated differently; they offer their own commencement ceremonies. So this year, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as the School of Law will hold on student-only events for their limited number of graduates, with family members and friends joining remotely in those cases.

Finally, in honor of Women’s History Month and also to tie it to commencement, let me recognize our first graduating class of six women and two men. Most notably, Dr. Cora Smith King, who was a part of that graduating class, was the first woman to receive a medical license in the state of North Dakota, and was a fierce advocate for women.

So congratulations to those eight, who graduated a long time ago, but we tie that into Women’s History Month as well.

Let me thank you all for attending tonight. For the panel that you will see on the screen, and to Dr. Cassie Gerhardt, our associate vice president for student affairs and diversity. Please welcome her.

Cassie, thanks for moderating tonight’s session.

Cassie Gerhardt, associate vice president for student affairs and diversity: Thanks, President Armacost. As a reminder for folks who have joined us for previous Town Halls, we are recording tonight’s session, and in the next few days, we will post a transcript of this event to our COVID website if you want to refer to it later.

I also will ask my colleagues: as you answer a question, if you could please introduce yourself with name and title to help provide perspective to people, that would be appreciated.

And audience members: as you have already started doing, if you have questions you would like to have answered today, please feel free to add those to the Q&A feature. Some of my colleagues, if the questions are very individual and specific, may answer those in the chat, and others we will add to the queue to be answered in the live format.

Let’s get started. We know there are a few questions that have been out there, as we’ve received them from parents with students. So, we’re going to start with some of the more frequently asked questions.

President Armacost, I am going to tip this first one to you. Lots of questions lately about wearing masks, and plans to wear masks in the fall, and plans to wear masks starting tomorrow in light of changes in county mandates.

Could you address mask wearing for the remainder of the spring semester as well as thoughts for the fall semester?

Andy Armacost: Right. So, the guidelines for masks will remain the same on campus for the spring semester.

Keep in mind that we had put that same requirement in place well before Grand Forks County had issued its mask mandate. And now that the mandate is off, we’re going to continue with what we think is safe and prudent.

We appreciate all the efforts that students, faculty and staff are making to keep masked up.

For the fall semester: right now, we don’t know. We’ll pay close attention to what’s happening with the pandemic. There’s a chance that we’ll continue masks because the guidance from the CDC and the State Department of Health might indicate that that’s still a prudent measure.

But we’ll keep you posted on what happens in the fall semester. It’s easy: if you’re concerned about it taking up much space in your suitcases, don’t worry. Put a couple extra masks in there. And when you show up in the fall, if we’re going to wear them, you’ll be all set.

If not, then not. So, thank you.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks, President Armacost.

Rosy and Dr. Wynne, a question about vaccinations. Can you please discuss, will students be required to be vaccinated before coming to campus in the fall?

Rosy Dub, director, UND’s COVID medical response: I think President Armacost may have answered that earlier today at the noon session, but students will not be required to have the COVID vaccine. They’ll be highly encouraged, but it will not be mandated.

Anybody have anything to add to that?

Dr. Joshua Wynne, vice president for health affairs and dean, School of Medicine & Health Sciences: I would just double down/triple down/quadruple down/strongly recommend it (getting vaccinated), even though for most students who do not have other conditions, your risk is really pretty low.

The important thing is that you also are protecting the community, not only yourself when you get vaccinated.

So we strongly urge you to get vaccinated. Obviously, the decision about making it a requirement rests with the President. But we still strongly urge you to do it from a medical standpoint.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thank you both. A couple other questions related to vaccinations have also been received. So Rosy and Dr. Wynne, one of the questions is: when your student employees have the opportunity to get vaccinated? And along those lines, how do students know when they’re able to register for the COVID vaccine?

Rosy Dub: Okay, I’ll jump in here again. Grand Forks County is now in Phase 1C, which includes all University employees as essential employees – and student employees are included in that band.

So, they should be eligible to call the Altru COVID hotline, or go to the Altru MyChart and register for a vaccine at this time.

The second part of that question was, how will students know when they can register for the COVID vaccine?

If you continually check the UND COVID blog, it has updated phases for where we are. We’re moving through the phases in North Dakota; we’re the No. 1 state in the country for administering the vaccines that we’ve been allocated.

So, our goal is that whatever vaccine we get is to administer it that same week, and we’ve been able to be successful at that so far.

There’s a lot of vaccine coming in; check the COVID blog on our web page.

Also, we would expect it opening up to the general public a lot faster than we had anticipated. Much faster. I don’t want to make any promises, but I think fall is way longer than what we would expect. We’ll have it sooner than that.

Cassie Gerhardt: Dr. Wynne, I’m going to pose this question to you, while we’re still on vaccines. Someone has asked, “With the new variants spreading throughout the U.S., does this change any requirement related to the vaccine?”

Could you speak to the vaccines and their efficacy in relation to changing variants in COVID?

Joshua Wynne: Sure. Thanks for the question, Cassie.

First of all, let’s understand that this type of virus – the so-called RNA virus – mutates as part of what it does. So there’s no surprise that various variants are appearing.

And yes, there is concern about the variants on at least three levels. One that does appear to be true, is they may be quite more contagious than the first one.

Second, maybe they produce more severe disease. And then of course, the third concern that the question relates to is, maybe the vaccine won’t be as effective.

Now, preliminary data suggest that some of the immune response is not as effective with some of the variants as with the original brand, if you will. But from what we’ve seen so far, it still is adequate enough to ensure good protection.

So the pharmaceutical companies are watching this carefully, and it is possible that we may need either a booster or even a new type of vaccine at some point in the future.

But the very good news is that the foundation that we have for making these vaccines is very well established now. And even if we needed a booster at some point in the future, or a different type of vaccine, it’s highly likely that that will be able to be produced in a relatively short period of time.

So we’re monitoring the situation. It is a cause of some concern; but we think we’re going to be okay with the current three vaccines that are available in the United States.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thank you.

We’re getting some questions about plans for instruction in the coming semesters. And so, Dr. Storrs, Dr. Plumm, I’m going to kind of parcel these out to the two of you, based on semesters.

So Dr. Storrs, could you talk about plans for the remainder of the spring semester in terms of instruction following Spring Break, including plans related to final exams?

Debbie Storrs, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs: Sure. Hi, everyone. Debbie Storrs, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. Thanks for joining us tonight.

The plans for the spring semester will continue to operate as typical in your current configuration. So if your class is hybrid, it will continue to be hybrid after Spring Break, so nothing’s going to change for the rest of the semester.

Finals this semester will be online or remote only. So that’s what’s going to happen this semester, Cassie.

Cassie Gerhardt: Sounds good. Next one, and I think you’ve seen this question. People are asking questions about plans for the summer semester. So Dr. Storrs, can you or Dr. Plumm also speak to plans for the summer semester?

And, you know, we’re coming to a fall semester question after we finished summer semester.

Debbie Storrs: I like to refer to Dr. Wynne’s metaphor about sort of red, yellow and green lights. So, the spring semester, highly cautious: we’ve got the mask mandate, we’re doing the remote instruction and hybrid, etc. So that’s how we’re operating this semester.

The summer, we’re easing back into a more normal fall semester. So it’s a yellow light period.

Typically in the summer, most of our courses are offered online. We do have some face-to-face courses, so those will be available as well in the summer.

But most of our summer typically is offered online. Students generally like to go back to their home community; they’re home, they hang out with their families. So that’s why we offer most of our summer classes online. There will be some on campus courses, however.

And then in the fall, we are going to be returning to a more normal fall campus.

Cassie Gerhardt: Dr. Plumm, there was another question related to fall. And the question is, will there still be an online option in classes for students who are unable to come to campus in the fall? So if you could also just visit about plans related to online instruction?

Karyn Plumm, vice provost for student success: Sure. Hi, everyone. I’m Karyn Plumm, vice provost for student success.

The courses will be varied for the fall. We will have some courses listed as online, some courses listed as hybrid, some courses listed as on campus.

We’re currently in the process of getting that updated in the student schedule. So if they’re looking right now, it might look like everything’s still online. But we’re in the process of getting all of it updated for students to see in Campus Connection.

If they can check back after the 15th, they’ll have a better idea of how courses will be delivered.

Our hybrid courses for the fall will specifically be available with the professor, the instructor in the classroom. And then students have the option to be in the classroom or remote.

So hybrid is an option for those students who want to remain remote, along with the online courses. And of course, students who are in a distance-only program would have their online courses available as well.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks. Shifting gears a little bit, Dr. Halgren. I’m going to send this one to you. Why does UND continue to not offer intramurals to students? Other schools in the state proceed as normal, but there is very limited offering for UND students. So if you could speak to intramurals?

Cara Halgren, vice president for student affairs and diversity: Sure, thanks. My name is Cara Halgren, and I serve as the vice president for student affairs and diversity here at UND.

There are still a number of options that are available through the Wellness Center. So, I would encourage students to go online. As COVID mitigation strategies change, the Wellness Center can update the offerings that they have for people.

So again, those are being reviewed constantly and changing. I know that there was a question not too long ago about the ability to play basketball, and surprisingly, our director said, “Well, students can play basketball on the courts here.”

I would encourage you to check out the Wellness Center and see what options are currently available, because I know that they’re working really hard to provide those connections for people.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thank you. Rosy, another question related to vaccines. This one is, if I’m an out-of-state student employee, how would I know if I qualify for a vaccine?

Rosy Dub: First of all, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. I’m Rosy Dub and I’m serving as the director of UND’s COVID clinical response. As for that question, the guidance that we have from the North Dakota Health Department includes people eligible for the vaccine if they’re a North Dakota resident, if they have a relationship with a North Dakota health provider, such as people from Minnesota who go to Altru. And also if you’re employed in North Dakota. So, you are eligible for that vaccine if you just tell them that you’re working in North Dakota. You should be able to receive the vaccine.

Cassie Gerhardt: Troy, I have a question for you related to housing. Will students be sharing dorm rooms, or residence hall rooms, in the fall?

Troy Noeldner, director of housing and residence life: Thank you Cassie. I’m Troy Noeldner, director of housing and residence life. We are planning on moving back to a more traditional assignment process for our residence halls, which would include students having roommates. We’re counting on the fact that things are heading in the right direction as everybody has talked about here, and vaccines are going to support us. Everyone is ready to go back into that environment. Primarily our first-year students will see those roommates coming in, and we’ll still have some single-room options available for returning and upper-class students who still want those options.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks. Dr. Storrs, a question for you in terms of maybe how we consider some things. And this question is: Was there any consideration toward allowing students to attend class in-person? And I assume that’s meant to be regarding the spring semester. So, perhaps, some of the consideration regarding in-person classes this spring.

Debbie Storrs: Sure, we absolutely did give it a lot of consideration. We know that students want to be in the classroom. So many of our faculty were supported this summer to develop these hybrid courses where they can bring students in, in a safe number with the appropriate physical distancing. So, yes, we absolutely considered that. Many of the faculty are giving students the option if they want to remote in. Many students surprisingly have taken that option, preferring to remote into the class rather than physically come in when they have the opportunity. Students are making some choices and faculty are trying to be as flexible as possible. We know the in-person instruction works better for some students, and we’re trying really hard to accommodate that.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thank you. Rosy, this one might require you to get out your crystal ball. Do you know what percentage of faculty will be receiving the COVID vaccine?

Rosy Dub: I do not know that, and we would not be asking that question. As Dr. Wynne said, we would double, triple, quadruple encourage faculty and staff and students to receive the vaccine. However, that is a personal choice and I’ll borrow a comment made from my colleague Jess Doty at the noon session: we need to be respectful of everybody’s own choices and not bully anybody into getting the vaccine. We educate them, we encourage them, we remove barriers and we hope that people will accept the vaccine, but we really are not to retaliate against anybody who chooses not to. It is a very personal decision and we hope that you choose to be vaccinated. But there is no requirement to turn in, or tell your supervisor whether or not you were vaccinated.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks Rosy. Dr. Halgren, question for you: Is the Wellness Center fully open? Do you still need an appointment to utilize the Wellness Center?

Cara Halgren: Cassie, thanks for that question, I just included some information in the chat, along with some links for the Wellness Center. You still need to have an appointment to use the Wellness Center, but it does have information about intramurals in that link. So, by all means, there is information available there.

Cassie Gerhardt: Shifting gears, Cara, one of my most exciting topics – the Memorial Union. So, we have a question not related to COVID. For people who don’t know, the MU is my favorite spot on campus. Cara, when will the MU be finished and open to students?

Cara Halgren: We anticipate that people will start moving into the Memorial Union in the July timeframe. We’re working out the final details in terms of when it’s open to the public, but certainly are looking to have it open for this fall and to welcome students back to campus. All I can tell you is that for those of us who have had the privilege of walking through it so far, it is absolutely beautiful. And the thing that I am most proud of is that Cassie and I, and many others, worked with as many as five different generations of student leaders to get to this place. When I look at the building, and everything they’re doing, I see a reflection of those five generations of leaders and everything they asked for, and hoped for, and wanted to see as part of this building. I’m incredibly proud that we have maintained their vision through that process, and just really excited not only to share it with the general community, but also to welcome our former student leaders back to campus to show them what their gift means to the University and for the next generation. It’s pretty incredible.

Cassie Gerhardt: I just want to put an asterisk by something Dr. Halgren said. You worked with five years of student government leaders, not five generations. We are old, not quite that old! Thanks Cara, I agree with everything that you said.

Troy, a question for you regarding the residence halls. So, this person observed that students are not always wearing face coverings in the residence halls. Is there a way to ensure that students make wise choices in this regard?

Troy Noeldner: Thank you for the question. Mask-wearing, as we all know, has been an important part of our ability to remain open on campus here and keep us on-campus, in the residence halls, throughout the year. So it’s an important piece of our overall COVID response. There are times where students are not always making the choices we would like them to. If there is an ongoing or persistent situation happening in one of our buildings, that you’re aware of, talk with one of our resident assistants on your floor, in your building or with your hall staff. We always encourage face-to-face interaction in a respectful manner, if you’re comfortable doing so. But we know that’s not always an easy thing to do for our students. So our staff is there to support you in helping to confront, and help identify those students and help them understand the importance of wearing those face coverings. So, keep working with us and we’ll keep doing our work. We’ve been enforcing it all year when we’ve noticed that there are issues, and talking and working with those students through our conduct process as needed.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thank you, Troy. Meloney, President Armacost, a question about the commencement, grad walk and photo op options. If you could discuss maybe some of the preliminary plans for the May 1 event for students to be able to have a commencement-like event. If you could visit about some initial plans regarding that event.

Meloney Linder, vice president for marketing & communications: Yes, I can take that, President Armacost, if that’s all right. We have an event where all graduates who are eligible to graduate, we’ll be sending out invitations. If they haven’t already gone out, they’ll be going out soon. We’re inviting them to the Chester Fritz Auditorium for an opportunity to dress in full regalia for commencement. They’ll be able to walk across the stage and they’ll be able to receive their diploma and have a photo op with President Armacost. Those images will be captured on video and that will be edited into the virtual commencement that we’ve seen with the other commencements, so we really believe that it adds a nice flavor of what people love and enjoy about the in-person commencement. They’ll be able to still have that experience, even though it’s a virtual event.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks, Meloney. Bill Chaves, I’m going to send this one to you. People are clearly watching winning sports teams at UND these days. The question is: Why does UND allow 25 percent capacity for sporting events when other schools such as NDSU are allowing 50 percent?

Bill Chaves, athletics director: Thank you, Cassie, my name is Bill Chaves, I’m the director of athletics and thank you for the question. So, correct, we have looked at all of our facilities and we are still requiring the facilities to be physically distanced. When we sold tickets, we sold those tickets with the thought that you’d have six feet between patrons. So at this point, even though you could have more in at this point, Cassie, we’re going to continue on with that particular manifest of each of the facilities.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks, Bill. Rosy and Dr. Wynne, a few more questions and clarifications on vaccinations. So, either one of you are welcome to answer. First question: Once vaccinated, is it recommended that people continue to get tested?

Joshua Wynne: I also forgot to introduce myself at first, despite the suggestion to do it. So, I am Joshua Wynne, vice president for health affairs and dean of the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences and a practicing cardiologist. That’s a little far from infectious disease but I’ll try to pass muster, in any event. What is now recommended is that once the period of two weeks after you’ve been vaccinated, which is once the immune response becomes pretty robust, it is no longer recommended that you undergo routine surveillance testing. However, if you were to develop symptoms that could potentially could be due to COVID, that’s a different issue and their diagnostic testing might be appropriate. You might need to check with your healthcare provider, but for routine surveillance testing, it is not recommended.

Cassie Gerhardt: I was waiting for Rosy, but given that she’s muted herself again, I’m assuming she thinks Dr. Wynne covered that one. Thanks Rosy. Another question is: How many students, faculty and staff members actually tested positive for COVID during the spring semester? It does not seem to be as big of an issue on campus anymore. So, positivity results from tests.

Rosy Dub: I apologize for not having an exact number, but you are right. It’s much different than it was this fall. As you’re probably all aware, our state, our city and our University peaked in November/December to a very dangerous level. And we were extremely concerned at that time. Spring semester has seen a decrease in the number of people testing, and we’ve seen a decrease in the positivity rate as well. The decreased positivity is a good thing. We are not sure about the decrease in testing. We know that there’s a certain amount of people that were positive that were in those 90 days of positivity, that they don’t test during that time.

At this point, we know that vaccine is affecting our testing rates, which is also a good thing. We are seeing less COVID on our campus than we were this fall. So we are reacting accordingly, and we’re very pleased that we’re seeing decreased rates.

Joshua Wynne: While Rosy is absolutely correct that the number of positive cases and new cases is much lower than it was before, it’s not decreasing very rapidly over the last little bit. It’s going down, but it’s somewhat plateauing. So there are still cases going around. The second thing is related to the prior question, in that we don’t know what might happen here when the variants get here. There have been a couple of cases, they will increase, and if we get a substantial influx of some of the variants that are more transmissible, we could have a problem. So, while I join Rosy in saying things are obviously dramatically better than they were before, please don’t let your guard down quite yet. Because this could come roaring back. I don’t think it will, but I would urge you to continue being careful and do the things that are both UND policy, like wearing a mask as appropriate, and also showing personal responsibility by avoiding large gatherings and washing your hands, and so forth.

Rosy Dub: I might add to Dr. Wynne’s comments too in that our vigilance needs to stay high. We’re looking at Spring Break. We’re looking at NCHC. We’re looking at all kinds of big high school tournaments going on, along with the variants that he mentioned. So, looking at all those things, our mask mandate was just lifted. We are cautiously optimistic, but the phrase I heard last evening is, “We’ve run a good race, but we are not done.” We need to finish the race. We’re not there yet, we’re definitely in a better place, but we’re not done.

Cassie Gerhardt: Okay. Kristi Okerlund, you’re sending me questions and I’m sending a question back to you because you’re the best one to answer this one. People are wondering what plans we’re working on to welcome students this fall, plans related to Welcome Weekend for this fall.

Kristi Okerlund, director of student involvement & parent programs: Hi everyone, my name is Kristi Okerlund, director of student involvement & parent programs. Thanks for joining us tonight. We are planning Welcome Weekend 2021, which will take place in August, in conjunction with residence hall move-in, to be live in-person. We’re looking at it two-fold. One, as we welcome the class of 2024 back for their second year, we know that as you started this past fall it wasn’t quite the same. So we’re planning some special events just for the Class of 2024, as well as events for the class of 2025. So it’s all currently being developed. As details and schedules become available, just be watching your email and the Welcome Weekend website. We’re very excited about the opportunities that August will bring, and we look forward to seeing you all there.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks Kristi. Troy, a residence hall move-in question for you. So, what suggestions do you have to avoid two moves? For students who are planning to stay for the summer, right now they’d move out of their current residence halls into a summer location, and then move out and in to their fall assignment. Is there a way to avoid some of the moves, if you could speak to that process?

Troy Noeldner: Yeah, I sure can. First of all, thank you for choosing to stay with us through the summer and also into next fall. We’re glad you’re choosing to remain on campus. We always like to see that. There are a variety of options that are available. The reason why you’re having to move – I’m assuming at this point the student is in the residence halls – the number of students that we have on campus reduces quite a bit, so we reduce down to basically two halls for the summer. This summer it’s going to be West Hall and University Place.

So, students who would like to avoid that second move going from summer to fall could choose to use University Place. That’s a 12-month option. You’re going to have an option to sign a nine-month or a 12-month contract in that building. You could also re-contract to West Hall for next year. So you could move into West and we could see what we could do about keeping you in your same room heading into West for next fall.

The other option is that we have a number of apartment options that students aren’t always are of, that we manage on campus. They are part of campus housing operation. Those run as 12-month operations, so once you get settled into that you can stay in those apartments until you graduate, if you would like. If you’d like more information, please visit us at the housing office by calling or emailing or visiting our website at housing.und.edu, and you can find out more information about our housing options.

Cassie Gerhardt: Troy, I’m going to have you keep your mic live. Another question about summer housing, and this one is specific for students who are only looking for summer housing for one to two weeks, so if they’re taking a shorter summer semester. If you could speak to housing options for that short session.

Troy Noeldner: So we’ve worked on some things with Dining Services to encourage students to use our summer housing options this summer. So the building, like I said, is going to be West Hall. That’s going to be our short-term stay location. We’re going to have a weekly rate there. So, basically, the weekly housing rate – and you’ll have to have a meal plan as well, as part of that, because there are no kitchens in the rooms to have food while you’re here – is about $100 per week and Orlynn can confirm this maybe but it’s about $130 per week for dining. So we looked at trying to find some more economical rates this summer, trying to encourage opportunities for students to live on campus and take advantage of our services.

Orlynn Rosaasen, director of dining services: Troy, the dining plan, if they choose the 14 meals per week, is about $98 a week.

Troy Noeldner: An even better deal then.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks Troy, thanks Orlynn. President Armacost, a question for you, and it comes with a little bit of a precursor. So, COVID numbers have been really low since the return to campus in January. The level of distance or restrictions including graduation with a very low level seems excessive. Why is the fear still so high? The death toll and serious response to COVID at UND is extremely low.

President Armacost: I wouldn’t characterize it as fear, but rather prudence. As we’re receiving information from the CDC and the State Department of Health, it’s important for us to keep the caution flags up, at least until we get to a certain level of vaccination. The key is getting out and getting the vast majority of our campus vaccinated. Let me doubly, triply, quadruply urge you to get your vaccinations, and when we’re there, we’ll be in a much better place. But at this point, we still have a ways to go before we can sound the all-clear on COVID. And, Rosy and Josh, you might have some additional comments as well.

Cassie Gerhardt: I will pose the next question for them if they don’t have a further comment. So, Rosy, Dr. Wynne and perhaps Vice President Shivers, another question: Will UND be looking for new strains of COVID on campus, and what actions will UND take if there are outbreaks of the new strain?

Joshua Wynne: Let me start, and then I’m sure Rosy and others will have other comments. There is routine surveillance that the North Dakota Department of Health does on samples that are provided to it, specifically looking for the strains. So, this is being done routinely. I would parenthetically say that this is something that in the future UND can be of assistance to the state in helping to have even more surveillance in the future. But right now the Department of Health does it, does it effectively and is looking for the variants. That’s ongoing, as we speak.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thank you. Dr. Wynne, this question is for you too because I think it takes the “M.D.” behind your name that none of the rest of us have. Can you talk about the mask mandate in the community and the impact on numbers? The question was, isn’t it also true that the mask mandate helps decrease the numbers? So maybe just speaking to the impact of the mask mandate.

Joshua Wynne: This has become somewhat politicized, obviously, but the science is clear based on any number of studies that have been done. Masks clearly help reduce the transmission and the receipt of the virus. So you’re protecting yourself, and you’re protecting others.

What has become controversial is the mandate part of it. What’s important, as I’ve emphasized, is behavior. So, if people choose to wear the mask, that’s the critical thing. How we get there is less important than the behavior. I routinely wear my mask. I follow UND guidelines, even when I’m not on campus. Now, I’m expected to because I’m a faculty member. But I also do that because I try to be a responsible member of my community. Quite frankly, I don’t need the mayor of X town or Y town to tell me what to do. I know the right thing to do, and the right thing to do is to wear a mask in appropriate settings.

When I’m out for a walk in the country, with no one within a mile, I have a mask in my pocket, but I’m not wearing it. But when I have any encounter indoors, I’m wearing a mask.

By the way, because I’m a healthcare provider, I’ll be seeing patients on Thursday, I’m fully vaccinated as is my wife who is also a physician, and I still wear a mask in all of those situations. The answer to the question is that there is no question that the use of masks has helped reduce the spread of the virus and the number of cases. No question.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks Dr. Wynne. Shifting gears completely – Brian Willis, question for you. If people are planning calendars, is there any plan for an Aerospace Family Weekend this April?

Brian Willis, UND Aerospace director of safety: I wish I could give that answer as a “yes.” I’m Brian Willis, director of safety for UND Aerospace. The whole weekend is going to be virtual for both students doing a career fair and then also a virtual career speaker series that’s going to be on the 15th, and a scholarship award banquet is going to be a virtual-type event. So, no official family weekend out at the airport. We’d love to get families in the airplanes, but it’s just not going to happen this year.

Cassie Gerhardt: Sounds good, Brian. So we’re going to jump to the fall semester and talk about Family Weekend for all students. Kristi Okerlund, could you discuss: Is there going to be an on-campus Family Weekend for Fall 2021?

Kristi Okerlund: Great question. My answer to that is yes. We don’t know exactly what the schedule will look like, yet, but there will definitely be opportunities for families to visit campus this fall. More information to come in the future.

Cassie Gerhardt: Kristi, do we have a weekend held for Family Weekend this fall, do you have access to that? I thought we picked a weekend already. Sorry, I put Kristi on the spot. I know it’s a weekend in October, and I believe it’s a weekend that we don’t have a home football game, just because there were some scheduling challenges.

Kristi Okerlund: October 8-10, 2021. Thank you for your patience.

Cassie Gerhardt: My understanding is hopefully plans for home hockey that weekend, if I’m not mistaken. Sorry Kristi, I know you’re trying to send me questions but you were the best one to ask that question.

Kristi Okerlund: Yes, we’re excited. So, more to come about October 8-10.

Cassie Gerhardt: Bill, question for you: Is UND going to do anything about the ineffective student ticketing process. The website crashes every Monday when tickets go on sale.

Bill Chaves: Good question, Cassie. Obviously there’s some great demand right now. But let me get back to that particular person after I talk to Heather Reardon at the Ralph.

Cassie Gerhardt: So, more information to come. We’ll assume that one is from a student, we can get some information out.

Orlynn and Troy, can both of you – there’s a question related to housing options for spring break and dining. Troy, if you could speak to what housing looks like for B reak, and then when you’re done, Orlynn, if you could speak to dining during Spring Break.

Troy Noeldner: Very simple for housing, we’re open completely over Spring Break. It’s included in the rate for the contract with residence halls. Students don’t need to do anything different. I can turn it over to Orlynn to talk about meal options.

Orlynn Rosaasen: I’m Orlynn Rosaasen the director of dining services – I didn’t actually introduce myself last time, when I spoke. But Wilkerson Dining Center will be open over Spring Break. We’ll be operating with limited hours simply because there aren’t enough students on campus to keep the facility open straight through each day. To see the operating hours for Wilkerson, I would encourage you to go ahead and check out the dining services website. They are listed there, and that is www.dining.und.edu.

Cassie Gerhardt: Orlynn another question for you, people are wondering: Are there any plans to reopen Wings Cafe at the airport?

Orlynn Rosaasen: Reopening the cafe is going to be contingent upon density on campus. The main reason we closed it down was that there just wasn’t enough people or enough density. So once we’re confident that students are back on campus, we’ll reopen the cafe.

Cassie Gerhardt: Sounds good. I am just looking because Kristi is sending me questions, and I have one more, and I think we’ve answered this but Dr. Storrs, Dr. Plumm, in a more nuanced way, the question and a statement reads: With the decreased positivity rates on campus and continued dispersal of the vaccine, why did UND choose to remain online this semester when every other school in the state returned to in-person classes?

Debbie Storrs: I’ll just say that this semester we offered this semester both online and hybrid. So we offered both options. Hybrid provided some face-to-face instruction for students. We have offered both of those in the spring. Referring back to President Armacost’s notion about being prudent and careful: many of our faculty are at higher risk for infection, and even though our COVID numbers went down greatly and of all of the things that we’ve mentioned, we just really wanted to be prudent and to make sure that until all of our faculty and staff are vaccinated. We were cautious.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thank you Dr. Storrs. A couple more questions about masks in the residence halls. So Troy, Cara, maybe some for you. One is: How does wearing a mask work when sharing a residence hall room, which, we don’t have people sharing residence hall rooms right now. Another part of that is, have there ever been thoughts on removing the mask rule within the residence halls, at least when you’re on your own floor? I feel making residents wear masks on their own floor, at least in the Wilkerson Complex, is comparable to making someone wear a mask in their own home. Thoughts on that?

Cara Halgren: So, Troy, if you’re ok with it I’ll start on this one. I think the challenge always is that we want to make the residence hall environment as safe for as many people as possible. And what we recognize is that individual students, while they may share a space on the residence hall floor, often have bigger lives that span beyond that residence hall. They’re meeting with friends, or working different places or having different kinds of contacts, which means that when they come back to the residence hall, they may have been exposed to other people who are positive.

So, again, part of the continuation of wearing face coverings – even in that setting – is back to Dr. Wynne’s comments that these are the things that we know are effective in terms of mitigating the risk of COVID. So, believe you me, I’ve heard it as most of us have here, that people are tired of wearing masks. We get it. The only thing I would say is that, again, as you’ve heard all of my colleagues say tonight, we know that it’s driven by the science. We know that as long as COVID is here, it is a way to help keep people safe and healthy. And really, for us as an institution, to remain open. So, we appreciate everyone’s support and their recognition of this as we continue to move forward.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks, Dr. Halgren. Troy, a question about initial planning related to move-out in May: Will it be similar to COVID, back in the spring or the fall, when people had to sign up for a time and that was more coordinated? Any initial thoughts on your plans for move out in May?

Troy Noeldner: I think it’s going to probably be a little bit in-between last May and where we would be in a normal year. The great thing is that the campus is still open this year, and I’m feeling that it will still be open at the end of the spring semester. We will be asking students to set up a checkout time. We always do that every year. We will work to make sure we’re doing that checkout appointment, which is usually an RA meeting with the students in some capacity to verify that the condition of the room is being left in a way that’s not going to cause the student any charges or damage charges once they leave. We’ll do that in a way that we’re not creating any issues with distancing or physical distancing or other things like that. We haven’t finalized that process yet this point. But, there will be a schedule, you will sign up for a time, and there’ll be an opportunity to have a staff member work with you on that checkout process. So, watch for more information coming up after spring break about the move on process.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks, Troy. Brian, a question regarding aviation. Is the Aviation Department planning on easing any restrictions? I’m assuming that means related to masks and some of the other protocols you have in place?

Brian Willis: Yeah, that’s a great question. We do take it day by day. Just a shout out to our organization: we’re the number one airport in the nation, March 1, 2 and 3. So, Atlanta, O’Hare, you name it, Grand Forks was right there. And I’m gonna put that back on the COVID, because what’s allowed us to do that is some of the restrictions that we have in place.

It’s a burden to wear masks when flying an airplane, sanitizing that airplane… you know, the hand sanitizer stations, the screening form that we all fill out daily at flight operations. But doing that allows us to fly the way we have for not only the past week, but the past nine weeks. We have eased some restrictions for those that are at the airport: the screen table is no longer there. So, you don’t have to check in physically every day and get your color dots for the day. We’ve opened up more access doors, but a lot of the precautionary measures both Dr. Wynne and Rosy have talked about, we’re going to leave those in place because we are in a high risk scenario when you think of enclosed cockpits. So, we’ll take it day by day. But for right now, I don’t see easing other restrictions in the near future.

Cassie Gerhardt: I’m going to take a little privilege as a moderator to say kudos to Brian and everyone in Aerospace for all that they’ve done to keep our students safe, the protocols they’ve put in place. We’ve got testing out there on a daily basis. And Brian and his colleagues and our students for their patience in doing things – just can’t say enough. So kudos to Brian and everyone in the School of Aerospace Sciences. You have set the bar pretty high.

Another question. Orlynn, people are getting excited about the Student Union. Again, no one more than me. Any of the dining dollars you cash work at the retail food locations? And, maybe just clarify specifically for Starbucks.

Orlynn Rosaasen: Sure, Cassie. Yes, dining dollars will work in all the retail locations in the Student Union, including Starbucks.

Cassie Gerhardt: And, in case you’re wondering before the next question, you will also be able to earn stars and remote order to Starbucks. So, before you ask that question in the chat, parents, you’ll be able to earn stars at the UND Starbucks.

Next question: Troy, a question related to U Place. So, if a student is interested in living at U Place on a 12-month contract starting this summer, should they register during the fall registration or wait for summer registration?

Troy Noeldner: Yeah, so we have a few processes going on right now. So, students who are living on campus currently should participate in our room signup process for next year, and that includes students who would like to live in University Place for a 12-month period. Visit housing.und.edu, or you can go directly to your housing self-service. There’s an application for room sign up there. There is also lots of information about the other options that are available. And, I would be happy to spend time with anybody who needs more information about the housing room signup process.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks, Troy. I think we’ve maybe confused people because we’ve talked about masks now, and maybe masks in the fall. So, just a clarification regarding the fall semester, will roommates have to wear masks in their room when sharing a residence hall room this fall?

Cara Halgren:  Again, we have not talked about this specifically. I have a hard time seeing where that that is going to be reasonable. At the same time, I recognize that there may be some students who feel comfortable wearing a mask while they’re living with someone else. And so again, we would not discourage that. But, I don’t see that that will be something that we would mandate, if you and your roommate are sharing a space, or within a suite with other people.

Cassie Gerhardt: Troy, a question again, and how we transition between spring and summer housing for students who are planning to return home after their last classes in May, but then returning on May 18, for the start of summer classes. When can they move out and then get in again? Just how does that work?

Troy Noeldner: So in that situation, this is where it gets a little bit more case-by-case. I would have your students or have you contact our office directly. It’s predicated on the fact that the room that you need to move into for the summer, when did that become available and how do we get the list of dominoes falling in the right place. But, we’re pretty good at making all those dominoes fall correctly. And, so, give us a call. We’ll work through those specifics with you.

Cassie Gerhardt: Thanks, Troy. Brian, in case you’re not seeing it, we have parents who are echoing their thanks to the Aerospace department. So just wanted to make sure you’re aware of that.

Troy, we got lots of housing questions, obviously with that unique time. Because of a co-op working during the fall semester, only spring semester housing is needed. When would students sign up for what would be spring 22?’

Troy Noeldner: We will have a spring application process. Generally, the application is open after July 1 of the summer prior to the spring. But, I would encourage you, in this situation, to contact us because we can work out some things with room signup to see what we can do to get the application in the system for you for next spring and get into the queue for any spring housing assignment that we had available. So, email housing@und.edu and those questions will be answered directly.

Cassie Gerhardt: Sounds good. Thanks, Troy. I’m going to do a last call for questions.  Looking at the Q&A, I’ve seen that we have used up all of our questions that are there. I will also say during this time, we are planning another town hall for Tuesday, May 4, knowing that things could change, that people might have questions going into the summer. That is our tentative plan, to have another one on May 4. Again, things might change. But that is what we have penciled in. And Meloney is giving me a nod, so I think that was right. So, just gonna double check the Q&A. And, there’s a question that was specific and, Troy, you’re gonna answer in the chat. So, we’ve got one that’s about U Place that we’ll get a specific answer.

There is a question about who to contact with further questions about COVID-19. You can email UND.studenthealth@UND.edu, and if they are unable to answer your questions, they will be forwarded to Dr. Wynne.

We are nearing the end of our time. And so, President Armacost, I’m going to send it to you for closing comments, sir.

President Armacost: I have the easy part, which is just to say thanks. Thanks for everybody who signed in tonight to listen, ask your questions and receive the answers. Most importantly, thanks to the members of the team who are here tonight. And their insights and their expertise is, just to me, is astounding. Keep in mind that we’ve been going for about a year under this pandemic. And, so this team has been meeting routinely. At one point, it was at least five days a week, sometimes more. And, currently close to that, and we are just really trying to make decisions for two reasons. One, what is in the best interests of our students? And number two, how do we make sure that we keep the campus safe? So, this is a balance between offering effective educational programs and just taking the precautions we need to make sure that everybody’s minimizing the risk. This is what this group has been doing for a year. Hopefully, I know more than anyone this group probably can’t wait until vaccines take hold and the workload starts decreasing. But my hat’s off to everybody on this Zoom call. So, thanks. And to everyone, have a great spring break. We’ll see you when you get back. Parents, keep the questions coming. Again, you have access to our emails, you can reach out to the right experts on this call anytime. Thanks for tuning in.

Q&A: Following are questions that were not able to be addressed because of time constraints.

• Will finals be in person or virtual?
  Finals for this semester (Spring 2021) will be remote/virtual.
• Will face coverings still be required now that the City of Grand Forks has rescinded the mandate?
  Yes, face coverings are still required on campus.
• We are disappointed about the lack of in-person classes. You should ask the students how often they actually go to class. It is far less than you have committed to in prior town halls. It appears the professors are not engaged. I feel as if the students are teaching themselves.
  I’m happy to chat with you by phone if you want to discuss your (or your student’s experience). Students are given flexibility on by many faculty on how they want to engage in their classes. Faculty are committed to quality education. I’d love to learn more about your concerns and see if I can assist in any way. My number: 701-777-0960. — Debbie Storrs, Provost
• I am a UND student employee, also a North Dakota resident, but no relationship with Altru. Can I still get the vaccine and how?
  Yes, absolutely. You can still register to be on the waiting list through MyChart on the Altru website – even if you do not have a chart. Or, you can call the Altru COVID hotline at 701-780-6358. Thank you for your interest in getting vaccinated!
• Once vaccinated, is it recommended to continue testing?
  Once you are two weeks beyond the last shot (or the first one for Johnson & Johnson), you don’t need to test unless you develop symptoms.
• When can you enroll in Summer classes?
  Registration dates and times become available in Campus Connection under Student Services homepage > Enrollment Dates on April 2. Be sure to check your enrollment date and specific time by clicking Details. Reach out to your academic advisor if you have any questions.
• Dr. Storrs, are all students offered hybrid for all classes? My student has only had two hybrid classes each semester.
  No, some courses this semester are completely online; some courses are hybrid (where students have some face to face experience).  Let me know if you need further information.
• The Housing gentleman did not answer the question about when to register for a 12 month U Place room if you are in the dorms now but want to move there in the summer.
  Please feel free to contact me at troy.noeldner@UND.edu. You would sign up now through the room sign-up process. Happy to also speak over Teams or on the phone at 701.777.6366.
• For clarification, in the fall, students will be sharing dorm rooms or are you still evaluating?
  Students will be sharing rooms in the fall semester. If you have further questions please feel free to contact me directly at troy.noeldner@UND.edu. Thanks.
• As the parent of daughter in the aviation department, I want to commend the precautionary measures.
  Thank you so much for your kind words!
• Great job to everyone for answering all of our questions!
  Thank you!
• This was great. Thank you.
  Thank you for joining us!
• Thank you UND!!