Faculty & Staff Town Hall: ‘Thank you,’ UND administrators say

Administrators express gratitude to UND faculty and staff for focus on students during pandemic

Following is a lightly edited transcript of the faculty and staff Town Hall, held May 4.

Meloney Linder, Vice President for Marketing and Communications: Welcome, everyone. My name is Meloney Linder. I’m Vice President for Marketing and Communications here at UND. Welcome to our third Town Hall in what has been a most unusual year.

Things are going to be a little different as we kick off the Town Hall. There’s a fire alarm that went off in Twamley Hall, and so President Armacost, who normally kicks off our meeting, had to exit the building along with Vice President Shivers – oh, there he is! I see President Armacost, and Peter Johnson has joined us now as well.

Since you’ve been able to join us, Andy, why don’t I kick it off to you?

President Andy Armacost: Great! Thanks, Meloney.

We’re sitting in the parking lot of Twamley Hall in my car. You can’t tell because of the nice background; Peter Johnson’s with me, and Jed Shivers as well is in the back seat.

We’re all vaccinated, of course. So CDC guidelines permit us to be in close company like this.

I just wanted to begin by saying congratulations on the completion of one of the craziest years that we will probably ever see. And so, I appreciate the great support from across the campus, faculty, staff members – you’ve just done amazing work in really uncertain times.

And you’ve really put some great feeling on the campus, in terms of supporting your students – hold on, I think we’re going to get a little feedback. … All right, we’re getting some things worked out.

My gratitude to each and every one of you for doing great things this year, and really bringing great experiences to your students and making sure that they feel valued, safe and that they’re getting a great learning experience.

There’s still some uncertainty as we head to the fall semester. We don’t know the direction of the pandemic, and we’re really pressing everybody to get vaccinated. Again, that’s a voluntary thing. We can’t mandate that. But we can certainly encourage you to do so.

This way, we can operate as normal in the fall semester. And I think if you see the CDC guidance, they have great diagrams that really talk about the benefits of what happens if you’re vaccinated, and when are you safe. Under all circumstances and gatherings, the best thing we can do is be vaccinated to keep ourselves and each other safe.

So, we’ll plan to be fully open in the fall semester. And as the summer progresses, the Pandemic Group and the Executive Council will make smart decisions on behalf of the University, trying to minimize risk for everyone.

We don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like. But believe me when I say that the team is working really hard to get thorough guidance. Last Friday, the governor revoked some executive orders; the CDC keeps monitoring and modifying guidance appropriately.

So, our main thing is to keep our eye closely on all that guidance and make decisions that are in the best interest of our campus community.

But I’m really proud of each of you and our students, how you’ve come through this year with all the uncertainty.

I’d like to highlight the fact that on Saturday, we celebrated just over 500 of our graduating seniors and our grad students as well, in what we’ve called our Grad Walk. This was a wonderful event put together by our University Events and Ceremonies Group under the direction of Fred Wittmann to build a ceremony that would safely honor all of our graduates.

It was great to see everyone there, congratulating them, looking them in the eye and saying, “We’re extraordinarily proud of you.”

It was a great event. Each graduate walking across the stage was captured on video. And that will be part of our virtual commencement ceremony, which happens on the 15th of May. So, please tune in and see that ceremony, and honor our graduates the right way.

Finally, we just finished with the legislative session. All in all, if you look at a balance sheet of the activities that happened, I’m happy to report that our fully funded baseline budget for the university is in place. As you recall, the governor had recommended a 7 1/2 percent reduction in what the funding formula tells us we should get, and the Legislature ended up not reducing us by 7 1/2 percent. They kept the full budget in play, both for UND and also for the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

That’s great news. But then in addition, a large number of other initiatives were funded as well, and so we were very pleased with what happened.

The session wasn’t without controversy. There were some debates about our Challenge Grant program, which had an amendment added to it that addressed issues of partnerships with abortion providers in the state of North Dakota.

We’re still waiting to see the final outcome of that; it’s in front of the governor right now. We’ll keep the campus posted about the impact of those and any other decisions or legislation upon any of your activities as researchers and scholars.

More to follow on the outcome of that legislation.

With that, let me now turn it back over to — Jed, in the back seat. I think he’s probably going to try to emcee this. Jed, is that true?

Jed Shivers, Vice President for Finance & Operations: That is true.

President Armacost: OK. So I will shut down now, and my backseat companion will take over from here. Jed, over to you.

Jed Shivers: I just want to start with a little bit of preface that focuses on where we’ve been and where we are, because I think it’s always valuable to keep that context in mind.

As you know, all of us who’ve lived through this, we went through a very, very difficult fall and winter period, with all kinds of people getting infected, hundreds and hundreds of people being quarantined and isolated, both at home and in the hotels that we’ve provided.

We had extremely robust contact tracing; we had extremely robust testing. Could we have done more? I think we probably could have, but I think we used every single resource we could lay our hands on, to do about as much as we could.

Our rules were clear. It was actually a rather unambiguous time: you knew what the rules were, you knew what you had to do as an institution and, by and large, as individuals.

One of the really cool things that’s coming out now, is the notion that with so many of us being vaccinated – and so, I should tell you that I’m sitting here in the Presidentmobile (laughter) with the president and Peter Johnson, and we’re all vaccinated, right? So we don’t feel like we’re an ever-present danger to each other.

So, many of us are now vaccinated. I think it’s likely that we probably won’t reach the levels of vaccination that we would love to see, but we’re probably going to get close.

And we can turn to Josh Wynne for his opinion on that subject.

But I think the the key thing is, things are opening up. And with that opening up is going to come, for a while, a sense of “not clarity” and some ambiguity, as we all try and figure out what the rules are, and what institutions could do.

I think one of the basic messages in what is really, fundamentally good news, is that because of the increasing vaccination and much lower case rates that we’re experiencing right now, we are asking you to just exercise some patience, as we work our way through the changes that are taking place as we all start to open up a bit here.

With that: Now, I usually have three screens that I run in order to do a good job of this, and right now I have my little laptop here in the backseat of the car … notice how I sit in the backseat? That’s OK! (laughter)

President Armacost: First come, first served. (laughter)

Jed Shivers: So I do see one question and answer. Let me just read this; it says, “This is to President Armacost.

A few moments ago, you mentioned that the campus will be fully open during the fall semester. Because we cannot expect everyone will be vaccinated, what, if any, precautionary measures will be taken/implemented during the fall?

President Armacost: Thank you. Again, the No. 1 protection we have against the spread of this pandemic is our vaccinations.

You’re right; we know that not everybody’s going to do it. But I think there are still some safe precautions we can take advantage of, such as the things that the CDC has been highlighting for a while, including hand washing and wearing masks when you’re in the presence of others whom you don’t know if they’re vaccinated.

Those are still great precautions.

The question is whether we’ll have a mask mandate on campus, or mandate other behaviors, such as 6-foot distancing. It’s likely that we will ease some of those restrictions. But as I said earlier, it’s still unfolding in time.

And the guidance that we’re getting from the CDC is being updated. The guidance we’re getting from State Health is being updated as well.

We’ll be very patient as we make calls for what we think is going to be safe for the fall semester.

Again, as far as mask mandates right now, we don’t know what’s going to be the mandate in the fall. Over the summertime, we’ll expect people to continue to wear their their masks and face coverings. But in the fall semester, TBD.

I think by the first of August, we’ll be able to make that call about masks.

In terms of density of the classrooms, we’re planning on being back to the density that we saw pre-pandemic. We think that’s a safe bet at this point, but we’ll monitor and keep you updated.

I know Dr. Wynne might have some additional comments from a medical provider’s perspective.

Joshua Wynne, Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean, UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences: Thanks, President Armacost. What I would add to that is that, as you said, UND, under your leadership, will use CDC guidelines and Department of Health guidelines, but there is going to be regional variability that we’re going to see, so that these plans will be dependent – I would predict, based on what’s going on (at least for the main campus in Grand Forks) – on what’s happening in Grand Forks.

It may be different in Williston, and it may be different in New York City.

So while the guidelines will be helpful, I think that President Armacost will be making those decisions based on what’s going on in our community. And as he said, to some degree, we just have to wait to see what evolves. But certainly the trajectory is good.

As for the people who’ve been vaccinated, I would just echo and support his plea for everyone to get vaccinated, and to do your job as educators to try to respectfully interact with others who may be on the fence to help answer queries they may have about being vaccinated.

Remember, most of the people who are hesitant, are simply hesitant. They’re not opposed. And an example is often a good way of convincing people that it’s the right thing to do.

So thank you, President Armacost.

President Armacost: OK, thanks, Dr. Wynne. Let me stress one of the most important things we can do is when we have solid information, we will communicate with you, just as we’ve done the entire year.

I’ve been so impressed with all of the Healthy Hawks information that’s been put on our website. Thanks to Vice President Linder and her staff for making that happen.

But all that information is a result of the work of our Pandemic Committee that’s been meeting since March 11 of last year, and they’ve done a great job of talking through issues, putting policy proposals forward and then we adopt them and communicate them.

Rest assured that that we will communicate heavily with you through the end of this semester, and also through the entire summer to make sure you have the information that you need.

Jed Shivers: Thank you. One of the delightful things which I like so much is people do have questions about things that are not strictly related to the pandemic, which we will most definitely get to. I just want to keep the theme a little (cuts off suddenly)

Meloney Linder: Jed? You’re muted.

Jed Shivers: Can you hear me now? Great. Sorry. You know, the crazy part is that people have moved back into Twamley, but we’re still sitting out here in the car to provide you with continuity. So no sacrifice is too great. (laughter)

Anyway, one of the questions, which I think is a really wonderful one, is – again, keeping on the pandemic theme for a minute – is there anything specific that we as faculty and staff can do to ensure the fall semester goes off well, apart from getting vaccinated, of course? President Armacost, do you want to address that question?

President Armacost: I think one of the main things to do for faculty members is to prepare your courses as you would in a normal semester with the same sense of innovation and interaction with your students, but also do so with the notion of uncertainty in mind. And just knowing that there could be unknown twists thrown into the semester, as has happened in the past.

And then finally, I think there are probably things faculty members have learned in the online setting that might translate nicely to your classroom setting that you might be able to augment the work that you’re doing in the class with good online experiences. I like to think that education isn’t an either/or proposition, but it’s a combination of the two. So look for ways to kind of synergize the work that you’ve done in those two different worlds. Jeff Holm might have some additional comments.

Jeff Holm, Vice Provost for Online Education & Strategic Planning: Thank you, President Armacost. I agree. I think that one of the really exciting things coming out of this will be to see how creative faculty are able to put these different skills, different modalities together. I think the idea of online education and on-campus education, those boundaries are totally blurred. I really think that is yesterday’s way of talking about education.

Tomorrow’s way of talking about education will be to serve students. We talked about this in the Task Force on the Future of Higher Education, to serve students as flexibly as possible to provide them what they need to make their way down their academic journey. I really encourage you – if you have questions about that or want some assistance – TTaDA is ready any time over this summer to work with you.

President Armacost: And then one final component, too. Human interaction is a wonderful thing. Whether you’re on campus or online, finding ways to make that connection. If anything over the past year, we’ve learned the importance of doing that. So figure out ways to make that deep, personal impact on each and every one of your students. I always challenge you to know them by lesson two, but that might be an impossible task. Nonetheless, make the effort to get to know them as individuals. I think education happens best in those close personal connections. Make the effort to do that.

Jed Shivers: Here’s a question. Are there clear indications of the next biennium budget based on legislative bills or conversations?  The essence of the question is: do we know what’s going to happen in the biennium following this one? Well, the generic answer to the question is really a function of what the forecast is for the state’s economy. They really come to a final decision during the session in the March time frame. One of the really dramatic things, which I’ve talked about in other meeting, is the extent to which that forecast changed from a fairly pessimistic forecast in the fall to a much more optimistic forecast in the spring. That shows you the dynamic nature of the forecasting that goes on when the state’s economy is concerned. And, of course, the reason for that is that when you’re highly dependent upon commodities, such as agricultural commodities and oil, you’re subject to market fluctuations that many other states may not experience quite as much. So the answer is really going to depend on what that forecast does at that time.

However, I think one extremely interesting development that occurred, which could bode well for higher education and UND, is there was some real discussion about developing a stabilizing fund for higher education. I think it’s a very significant development because it would tend to blunt some of those fluctuations that we’ve experienced as a function of each biennium forecast. I’m going to return to President Armacost.

President Armacost: There were several key items that struck me as a result of this legislative session. The first was the great respect and appreciation that has been placed into the funding formula for higher ed. This as been through the efforts of the Interim Committee on Higher Education over the last eight years or so. Rep. Mark Sanford has been critical to its development. What I saw was a very strong deference to the methodology and to the results of that funding formula. So to the extent the revenues Vice President Shivers talked about, we get the revenues the way it’s allocated. There’s a real appreciation among the legislature. I think that offers some predictability for the future.

The second part I thought was really important is the commitment by the state to use a portion of the Legacy Fund earnings. The Legacy Fund is this big pot of money that’s been created largely by oil revenues. The question always arises: what do they use that money for? The good news is that the decision was made in this biennium to use a portion of those funds for research activities at our universities. This is really a good sign for the future, as well. It’s been about a four-year journey to get that into the budget. I think it’s a good, strong statement for what will happen in subsequent biennia.

Jed Shivers: Another quick item that I think is an interesting question that I’m going to address to President Armacost: What are your thoughts on President Biden’s proposal for free community college? And if something like that passes, how may it impact enrollment/budgets at UND?

President Armacost: Yes, President Biden’s proposal is to fully fund community colleges has gotten the attention of the University System. I was on a call this morning with the chancellor and one other four-year school within our system. And we’re concerned about the impact of enrollments on the four-year schools. However, that concern is premature because we don’t know what the proposal looks like right now. It was articulated in a speech and there’s been no firm proposal to back it up. So we’re eager to hear what the details are. I know that the Association of Public [& Land Grant] Universities – APLU – weighed in already to the White House almost immediately about this proposal and what it would mean on four year colleges. So we’ll wait and see. We’re concerned with what we heard on the surface, but often as policymakers go, what actually emerges is quite different. And we’ll keep you posted on what we hear. But it definitely caused our ears to perk up.

Jed Shivers: Another question, sort of a thematic question, is about people coming back to work. I’ll summarize it with one question: If the campus plans to be fully operational in the fall semester (and I think it’s fair to say that we absolutely do plan to do that) will you be requiring any staff who are working from home to be back in the office full time. Let me let me try and answer that. You know, the interesting thing about the pandemic, of course, as we’ve seen across America and across the world, to a certain extent, is the fact that it enables people to work by not physically being in their office via Zoom. It actually works quite well. I think it gives all places of work a certain degree of additional flexibility, keeping in mind that we have to constantly be aware that there has to be the same level or better productivity and accountability for people doing their work, when they are utilizing the greater flexibility.

So in my mind, to answer your question, that’s really a decision that each manager makes in terms of what’s appropriate for that job, right? And what’s the best match between the job the person doing it, and the circumstances that they’re in. So there are some jobs, I’ll say in my division, that are really jobs that have no front-facing activity. They don’t interact with students or faculty or staff in any particular way. And so if that manager said, “Hey, you know, my folks could work remotely because it works great for them. I get all the productivity and accountability I want; in fact, more so. It’s working out even better than it did before.” I would certainly be open to that continuing to occur for some period of time – maybe indefinitely, I think that’s something that we’ll have to see.

On the other hand, there are other managers who will say, “You know what? This job actually requires the person to be at work. It is the nature of the position that requires on-campus physical presence.” That’s going to really drive the bus. It’s those conversations between supervisors and staff, management and staff, etc., determining this.

But I think the key aspect here is, let’s think creatively, but also responsibly, and try and make use of this additional flexibility that we have. I think, in some cases, the ability to recruit and retain extremely high-quality people who are going to be working remotely is going to provide us with a very significant advantage. It tends to overcome what we would acknowledge are the occasional difficulties we have in recruiting people to Grand Forks. So let’s make use of that flexibility, but keep in mind the principles of the required productivity and accountability.

President Armacost: I think we also need to recognize that our business is a human endeavor. And I think it’s easy to say, “Oh, I’m more productive at home because I can just get stuff done.” We should always remember that there are important connections that happen across the campus, within our offices , even if you’re not a student facing function. The relationships that you have with your colleagues are important to getting the work of the University done. And so let’s not underestimate the power of these connections.

And, when we’re together, we tend to be more innovative, we tend to have conversations. I know this for a fact. I look at my own office, and the conversations we’re having by being together are far richer or they’re more spontaneous. They’re far more effective than they were when we were all working by distance. There’s a power there. And when you’re dealing with creating new educational programs for students and delivering the next generation of leaders for our society, there’s something about being together that’s really important. I echo what Jed said, but in addition, we can’t take a mechanistic look at production lines and say, “I’m productive, and therefore I’m going to stay home.” Being together is what we do. And I asked supervisors to really consider the power of the team in the work that we do as you’re making your decisions as a remote worker.

Jed Shivers: Keeping in mind that sort of humanistic perspective. I want to go to the next question for President Armacost: Thank you very much for establishing inclusion ambassadors throughout the UND campus. I am very grateful for our university’s emphasis on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion. Would you be willing to comment on your vision about how the inclusion ambassadors will work on intersectionalities and multiple types of diversity, including not only racial and ethnic diversity, but also other facets of diversity, such as supporting the LGBTQ+ members of our community?

President Armacost: That’s a great question, and I give full credit to Professor Tamba-Kuii Bailey and Provost Debbie Storrs for creating the notion of the inclusion ambassadors. And kudos to all the deans for adopting this program and actually building these ambassadors within the walls of their colleges and schools. You hit on all the great points, that all types of diversity matter to this institution. I think having the connection to where our educational programs are delivered is an essential piece to making that happen, both in terms of the education, but also what happens and the human relationships that exist within each of those colleges is essential. So hats off to the ambassadors program. I leave my comments at that. I wish Debbie were here. She’s on travel today, but she could actually give some more information about the program. But as that program becomes more robust, perhaps a UND Today article will share more information about the value that we’re deriving from that program.

Jed Shivers: I’m laughing because I think this is a good one, so let me just read it for the interest. On a lighter note, once there is no mask mandate and social distancing is less than six feet, it’ll be fun to have a graduation with all the colleges having their faculty, staff and students throwing their masks in the air like it was graduation day – just a fun thing to do for what we have all experienced at the outbreak. The question is who is going to clean it all up, says the person in charge of maintenance.

But, you know, I think at a certain point in time there will come a day when we feel fairly back to normal where the virus won’t be gone, but it will be a background element in our lives as opposed to a foreground element in our lives. I would hope that we would mark those days in some way, not only for the freedom it provides us but also to remark upon the efforts of our entire community to get through this in the way we’ve gotten through this. It’s a really nice note to think about, and I’m looking forward to that time.

A couple of items – this is sort of a difficult topic, I think. But one question relates to SB 2030 and specifically the language about Planned Parenthood, and I think there is a certain amount of understanding about it, probably some degree of misinformation about it, but one of the questions is: If SB 2030 is signed into law – so here, keep in mind this is currently with the governor, having been passed by the legislature. I’m not sure whether anyone knows whether the governor will sign it or veto it or line item veto it, so we’ll see. If it is signed into law, will faculty be provided with guidance on how the amendment of the bill targeting abortion related issues may impact faculty teaching on such topics? So, I’m sorry to turn this into the constant President Armacost show, but let me just turn it to you, President Armacost, and see if you have any thoughts about that.

President Armacost: I do. In my opening comments, I did make a remark about this. As we learn more about 2030, we owe you information about how it impacts your scholarship, your class projects and what you teach in the class. We will engage whatever legal counsel you need to make sure that we have a good, clear reading about the impacts. So, the answer is yes, but let’s stay tuned and see what the final legislation looks like when it comes out of the governor’s office. I don’t want to jump to conclusions.

Jed Shivers: Quick question is, will there be employee raises this year? Good question. The answer is yes. I’ll explain it as clearly as I can, but it will be with the proviso that I’m speaking on the basis of verbally derived understanding, and we haven’t seen anything in writing. That’s probably because those bills that relate to those things are still awaiting gubernatorial signature.

The basic idea for the first year is that all eligible employees, faculty etc., will receive a $100 a month payment. To be eligible, one must have a satisfactory merit review, and have a merit review. That’s sort of like the baseline. That means that people making less than $80,000 a year will get an increase that’s greater than 1.5 percent. That’s a minimum, there’s no maximum – everybody who is eligible is going to get $100 per month. We have made the determination that our faculty – one FTE faculty – they will get $100 a month times 12 months, not nine months. So they will receive a $1,200 base merit pool.

Now, what happens for the people at the $80,000 and over level? Nominally that would suggest that everybody else will get less than 1.5 percent to work with because that money shifts over to people under $80,000. That’s not the case, to the extent that it pays for it, which is about a third of the total the state’s appropriated additional dollars to make the merit pool whole at 1.5 percent. The University through all of its revenue generating entities will do the same. So, everyone else will have the 1.5 percent pool to work with, less the $100 a month. So, what will really happen is you’ll need to distribute this in a good, pragmatic fashion as merit, but recognizing you’ll really have fairly small dollars to work with. So that’s the best way I have to explain it. Year two, it’s a two percent merit pool. It’s strictly a merit pool that will go along normal guidelines.

There are those who wish us to give a shoutout to the CIO and UIT for having the foresight to know that some of us would need great WiFi in the parking lot. So, I do shoutout to them but I’ll also say that I’m using my phone as a hotspot. But I think Peter is using the WiFi because he trusts things.

Let’s see, at this point I’m not seeing questions that I haven’t dealt with directly or indirectly. Are there any other questions that people are seeing that we need to address at this time?

President Armacost: There was one question that came my way. Has there been any effort by UND leadership to voice opposition to bills that will impact our ability to hire talented faculty members, specifically, bills that will make our state less inclusive and less friendly to a diverse workforce? On those, we did lots of work with individual legislators. I actually drafted a note to the Appropriations Committee on the House side, as well, to talk about the impacts of the amendments to SB 2030 on several facets of how we operate, including the research programs, the ability to attract talented faculty because of state policies or state laws.

Those conversations happen in a variety of settings. They happen by phone, they happen in person, but I and other members of the team strongly advocated with our legislators to get information about good decision-making. On the transgender bill, there were lots of discussions with the system offices as well. The NDUS has a number of staffers putting together a well-crafted argument about that bill. We provided direct input to them and said here are some additional points that we think you should make. But, all in all, it was a real team effort. The presidents came together on a number of issues as well. Specifically on SB 2030, we fed information to the chancellor and to the board chair that they included in a note to the entire assembly as well.

There is a whole variety of ways that you try to influence decisions, but also respect the power and the decision-making authority that’s vested in the State Legislature. It’s an important dialogue to have, and I think your leadership across the board at UND did a great job during this session this year engaging and providing information and really trying to get the legislators to understand the very specific positions that are out there. Again, we’re still waiting for the final word on the bill 2030 but again we’ll get information out about it as that one has passed, what it means for the campus.

Jed Shivers: Okay, we do have additional questions besides “should we start up a car karaoke type thing.” And that is a budgetary question, and then an activities and daily living question where I get to turn a question over to someone other than President Armacost.

So, let’s do the budget question first: How will the recent budget questions affect previously discussed programs like building renovations, etc.? Will those be on schedule or will they be delayed? I can take that one.

Really, the stuff that we’re working on right now continues. So, you’re going to see the Memorial Union come up and be done this summer. You’re going to see the Nistler College come up and be done the following year. You’re going to see continuing renovation work being done on the academic buildings with the resources that we have in hand.

What you won’t see is any activity take place with regard to Merrifield-Twamley – at least as much as we know right now. We got authorization for the $79 million but no funding. So, that’s something that we’ll have to work on for the next biennium. And we would have loved to start the design, work on that, then get to bid documents for that project, but we’ll see whether or not we’ll be able to do that. I’m not so sure. But I think all of the stuff that you’re seeing taking place around campus will continue, because that’s really being done with existing resources. I hope that answers that question.

One of the questions, and here I’m going to turn to Karyn Plumm and Cara Halgren, is what will the summer look like? It’s a nice question. And so let me turn to the two of you, if you could both comment.

Karyn Plumm, Vice Provost for Student Success: Sure. I’ll take the course section, then turn it over to Cara for events and things that are coming up in the summer. Our courses will be mostly online for the summer. If you all remember, we kind of had this stoplight analogy in terms of coming back for the fall. In the summer, we’re in that yellow light area. So, courses will mostly be online. But that’s not atypical. Most of our courses are online over the summer, even when we’re not in a pandemic.

We will be working with our new students to get them registered and then they will have the option to come to an event for our UND Orientation days in July, so we’re starting to see more activity. It won’t be full-blown back to normal like we’ll see in the fall, but I think we’ll start to see some of that activity. And some of that activity will be impeded by a lot of construction that will be happening on campus over the summer. So, campus will definitely look a bit different, but I think we’ll start to see more people around campus in the summer. Cara, did you want to talk about some of the events?

Cara Halgren, Vice President for Student Affairs & Diversity and Dean of Students: Sure, just reiterating what Karyn said – we have students here during the summer. So, that being said, our residence halls will be open, our dining center will be open. We’ll be welcoming new students to campus in July, in anticipation of having them here at the end of August. So, really, for students, they’re looking forward to being on campus, looking forward to what’s happening this fall, and we’re gearing up to do the best that we can to help them feel acclimated and comfortable with being on campus. I think one of the big things that we haven’t talked much about is that we anticipate probably mid-July that the Union will open up again, and obviously we are very excited about that and what that will mean to density on campus. I know that we have a lot of students who are excited about that as well. So, while we may have fewer students on campus, it’s still going to be an exciting time at the University.

Jed Shivers: Thank you, Cara and Karyn.

Another question for Cara. There are a couple of questions here that revolve around the same thing, which is: any decision on dorms and housing this year, any updates, and are residence halls still going to be renovated?

Cara Halgren: You know, that is a question near and dear to my heart. So we are having conversations right now, talking about what the housing should look like or what the future of housing is at the University of North Dakota.

We are proud of the experience that students have in our residence halls. And we’ve been talking a lot about providing the physical space that matches what happens inside.

We’re not quite there yet. But I anticipate within the next couple of weeks, we’ll have some more solid information for the community about next steps on this.

But just know that there are a lot of us talking about it. It’s a very exciting time, and I’m looking forward to hopefully having some news to share in the near future.

Jed Shivers: Thank you, Cara.

This is for, I think, primarily President Armacost, but others may want to comment as well:

“Thank you for your comments on the legislation regarding transgender students. What steps could the university take to make our UND students who are transgender feel more welcome within our community?”

And I think that would be a good one, not only for President Armacost, but also for Karyn Plumm and Cara Halgren as well.

President Armacost: I think one of the most important things each of us can do is understand what it means to be transgender. In other words, there are some great programs out there offered by our Student Diversity office on ally training, and this is for the whole LGBTQIA community; you can learn a lot.

Jeff gave a great, great session a couple of weeks ago that I attended, and you’ll learn a lot about about the history, about particular struggles and, and ways that allies can actually help.

So, one of the most important things we can do is have that sense of understanding of our transgender students.

And I’ll just say this, while the idea of being transgender might be mysterious to cisgender people, it’s first and foremost important for you to recognize fellow human beings, and treating them with the respect that they deserve.

And so, ally training is one step. But if you have a transgender student, make sure you don’t shy away from creating a good positive relationship with those students, those faculty members, those staff members.

Again, just keeping at the forefront of every one of your actions and your statements the sense of humanity and dignity that we owe each other.

Let me turn it over to the others for their comments.

Cara Halgren: So I’ll just jump in. I’m not sure people are aware of this, so I’ll just to do a plug. But Jeff and Stacey and our Student Diversity and Inclusion folks do a great job of, as President Armacost said, providing education and training around these issues.

If you didn’t know it, Jeff is available to do things in terms of departments and smaller groups. So again, if this is something that you would want to have a larger discussion with your department about, this is something that could happen.

One of the things that I find is that sometimes people want to know more, but they’re they’re just afraid to ask that question because they don’t know that they’re asking the question right, or respectfully. And one of the things that I so admire about Jeff is his ability to create opportunities for that discussion where people can learn, and they can learn without feeling uncomfortable or embarrassed about what they’re talking about.

And so again, it’s an opportunity to learn. When I hear students talk about their experiences on campus, I’ve heard them talk about their great and sincere appreciation for faculty and staff and students who do try to learn about what their experiences might be like and how to make their life a little better on campus.

And so again, I think that there’s an opportunity for all of us in this.

Jed Shivers: We got a quick question on Jeff’s last name and his contact information, “so we could invite him to speak with our department.” Could we write that just put it on the chat? (Editor’s note: Jeff Maliskey, jeff.maliskey@und.edu)

Cara Halgren: I will include it in the chat right now.

Jed Shivers: Thank you.

Some quick questions:

Can you share where the funds are coming from for all the new building going on? It seems that there are unlimited funds for new building, but very little for keeping what we have up to date.

The truth is that the big projects that we’re doing – for example, the Memorial Union is funded in large part by an increase in student fees, especially for the purpose of deferring the bond that supports that construction.

The Steam Plant was done pretty much as an internally funded bond deal by altering the economics by using a cheaper commodity and improving the delivery of energy across the campus.

President Armacost: Cheaper commodity? What do you mean by that?

Jed Shivers: Natural gas versus the very expensive transportation of coal.

The Nistler was basically funded with $20 million from the state and $50 million from our wonderful philanthropic community. That’s not having any kind of debt burden or anything associated with it, as is the case with most of our appropriated buildings.

And in fact, we do renovate. One of the principles of that renovation is that every time we raise tuition – so, let’s say we raise tuition, 3 percent or 4 percent, whatever it turns out to be — one of those points goes to accumulating an Annual Depreciation Fund that we utilize in conjunction — a two-for-one: us two, state one – match basis for extraordinary repairs, which we use to fix up our academic buildings.

It’s really all about the academic buildings.

So that, in conjunction with about $40 million from the Steam Plant bond, which is also being used to fixed up the energy systems inside the academic buildings, plus some money that we’ve gotten from COVID dollars, where we were allowed to improve air handling systems (also for the academic buildings), is really what’s driving the ongoing improvement in operations and maintenance and driving down the deferred maintenance.

So I’m going to argue that we do actually spend quite a bit of money in keeping up what we have.

But there’s a long way to go. And one of the realities will be the continuing consolidation of our campus, the reduction of square footage and the destruction of older outmoded buildings, Montgomery Hall being a good example of that. Now going up in its place is the really spectacular Nisler College of Business and Public Administration.

Hopefully, I’ve answered that question.

There’s a question on staff recognition for ’20 and ’21. I’m going to defer that to Peggy; we’ll ask her to provide information, because I’m ashamed to say, I’m not sure I know the definitive answer, even though I probably should.

So when Peggy returns, we’ll let her provide that answer.

“Any direction on planning in person events for the fall semester?” I’m going to turn to Cara and I think Cassie is also on. I think basically, the idea here is that we’re hoping to the campus in the fall functions as normally as possible.

But let me turn to those folks and ask them to comment.

Cara Halgren: I would agree, I think that’s exactly it.

And you know, one of the things that’s happened even this semester during COVID, is that we’ve had students who have wanted to stay involved and do things.

I know that there’s a Tech Bingo session coming up in the near future, where you will see lots of students who want to get involved in new things.

So, we’re hoping that this fall there are opportunities for people to do that more so in person.

We want people to be connected. We know that connected students are happier students and have a better experience here. We just hope that come fall, we’ll be able to connect in a different kind of way than we have been over the last 12 months.

But I’m also going to turn it over to Cassie Gerhardt, because I think she just jumped on as well.

Cassie Gerhardt, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Diversity, and Associate Dean of Students: Just to follow up and to add to what Dr. Halgren said.

We’re already talking about what is Welcome Weekend, and what can we do to welcome not just the students who will join us for the first time in the fall as new students, but also the students who’ll join us for the first time because they maybe weren’t on campus this past year.

So, we’re talking about Welcome Back activities and things for the fall. We will follow the event guidelines that are developed as we think about the fall semester. So lots of activities.

I know a number of the folks who do programming around campus have met to talk about different things we could offer, with a goal of having something going on on campus for the first 80 or 100 days, whether that is programs and activities associated with the academic environment, the Wellness Center, the Student Union, student organizations.

So, lots of activities, and if people have suggestions, we are always open to hear them.

Jed Shivers: Quick question for Karyn Plumm: Will students still have the option of pass/fail any of their classes, including major requirements classes like they had for the past semesters?

Karyn Plumm: That’s a great question. In the future, we do not plan to alter our S/U grading policy. We saw some pretty negative repercussions for students that were choosing a lot of S/U, and how that affects their ability to use financial aid and their GPA moving forward.

So, we do not plan to make any changes to the policy. The policy as it is means students can elect S/U grading, but they can’t choose that within their major requirements, and they can’t use that if they are a freshman student, so they have earned less than 24 credit hours.

In other words, students should always check with their advisors or their faculty before they look at requesting to elect an S/U Great.

Jed Shivers: Thank you, Karyn. A quick question for DeAnna, for our alumni folks. “We send a lot of folks to the NHL. Do we see a return from our amazing hockey program?”

DeAnna Carlson Zink, CEO, UND Alumni Association & Foundation: Good afternoon. Yes, we do have a number of our alumni hockey letterwinners who have established endowments – generally for scholarships that help support incoming student athletes – and also get involved in other ways with gifts back for equipment and other programming needs.

Bill Chaves, UND Athletic Director: Thanks, DeAnna. And Jed, I’ll add in: we’re one of the few schools in the country that all three assistant coaches are alums of the University of North Dakota. So, just with that connectivity with all the eras, for sure, we’re in pretty constant contact with them.

And Coach Berry does a great job as well as (Associate Head Coach) Jackson and (Assistant Coach) Goehring.

Jed Shivers: Thank you. Quick question on the American Indian Center, and let’s start with Cara if that’s OK, and Cassie, and we’ll see who else wants to respond.

The question is, “What is the status of the American Indian Center? During a recent forum with tribal college presidents, they indicated one thing UND could do is ensuring Indigenous students have a dedicated space staffed with people who understand their needs and experiences.

Are there serious discussions occurring on how to meet these needs, and to return the Center for exclusive use of Indigenous students?

Cara Halgren: The American Indian Center will continue to operate as it has. And at this point, Student Diversity and Inclusion is looking to post a position specifically for staffing that space.

When the Memorial Union opens, the Student Diversity and Inclusion staff as a larger group will move to the Union. But again, that doesn’t change the American Indian Center’s space or what it will be used for.

Jed Shivers: Thank you. We now are pretty much at the end of our hour. I want to turn this over to President Armacost for his closing comments, and then he may want to answer this question, which will be our last one. Will you hire a Vice President for Diversity?

President Armacost: To the question of a Vice President for Diversity, I think a position like that will be central to all of our efforts on campus to move forward with some of the strategic initiatives and leading those initiatives across the campus and working closely with all the different units at UND.

So, I’ve begun the process. We’re drafting a position description for the Chief Diversity Officer. No sense on the timing; I’d like to move quicker rather than and slower on this one. I think it’s an important element of our campus.

And it’s something that’s been, I think, missing from from our leadership portfolio.

This Chief Diversity Officer would report directly to the president, and then work closely with all the other vice presidents to make sure the initiatives that we have for DEI go forward and make a huge impact on our campus.

In closing, let me just thank everybody for tuning in. I know this has been, again, a crazy year. You’ve stuck with it, you’ve shown great grace, great endurance, and and we’ve gotten through it.

But it’s not over, as I said to start the discussion. We still have work to do to make sure that we monitor the pandemic, that we come out of it and we keep focusing on the health and safety of our campus.

Again, let me encourage everybody: if you haven’t gotten vaccinated, please do so. That will really make a difference. Encourage our students to get vaccinated as well.

Keep in mind all the graduates who are graduating on the 15th of May; keep them in your thoughts, and we know that they’re going to go out and make a huge difference in our world, thanks to all the work that you’ve done to get them there.

So congratulations all, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Q&A

Following are questions that were not answered live during the forum due to time constraints.

Will students still have the option of pass/fail any of their classes, including major requirements classes, like they had for the past semesters?

We do not plan to adjust the S/U grading policy in subsequent semesters. Students can still elect S/U with the parameters in the policy: http://und-public.courseleaf.com/undergraduateacademicinformation/undergraduateacademicinformation/thegradingsystem/ .

Will the new faculty bus tour take place in the fall?

The tour will be paused for this summer with the intent to start it back up in the summer of 2022.