Category: Speeches & Communications

Dear UW-Green Bay Faculty and Staff,

We have had an amazing response from our community today to come to campus for the drive-up COVID testing at the Weidner Center. We want you all to get tested, but please sign up for times tomorrow or throughout the rest of the week. Of course, if you are symptomatic, please contact your health provider.

As a reminder, here’s the registration link: https://doineedacovid19test.com.

Please continue to help us get the word out about this important community effort.

Best,
Michael Alexander
Chancellor

Dear UW-Green Bay students,

UW System and UW-Green Bay announced today that we will host a drive-up rapid COVID-19 testing site on the Green Bay Campus beginning next Monday, Nov. 9. Please note that this does not alter the testing site or procedure for on-campus residents. Residential students should continue weekly mandatory surveillance testing at the Kress Events Center Turf Gym.

It does give all students who have not been coming to the Green Bay Campus regularly, an opportunity to test for COVID-19 for free, and quickly. Test results typically take about 15 minutes. UW-Green Bay students who do not live on campus are welcome to test at the Kress Center or use the new drive-up option. The drive-up testing area will be held near UW-Green Bay’s Weidner Center, which allows easy access and traffic flow from Nicolet Drive. Testing will be available to anyone age 5-and-older at no cost, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, by appointment at DOINeedACovid19Test.com. This is a national program and administrators are working to make the registration link for the UW-Green Bay testing site “live” sometime today. Please keep checking the DOINeedACovid19Test.com to make an appointment.

Individuals do not have to be experiencing symptoms nor have close contact of someone with COVID-19 to get a test, nor do they need to live in the Green Bay community. We encourage students from all locations to get tested. The state Department of Health Services will be supplying an additional 30,000 PCR tests as part of the effort. Individuals who test negative using the BinaxNOW test but also are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or who test positive but do not have symptoms are urged to get a confirmatory PCR test at the testing site.

We need to do everything we can to slow the spread of the pandemic. We know that those 30-and-under tend to be less symptomatic but can easily spread COVID-19 to more vulnerable populations. This is an opportunity for the Phoenix family to take a leadership role in helping that happen. Please consider getting tested, and encourage anyone in your household, your neighbors, or anyone else in your circle to do the same. Please forward this letter and share the information on social media. The goal is to stop the asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 in our region.

Thank you for helping to keep yourself and all those around you safe.

Best,

Michael Alexander
Chancellor

Dear Colleagues,

Please see below the news release that we sent out yesterday about COVID-19 surge testing that will occur on our Green Bay Campus. We need to continue to do everything we can to slow the spread of the pandemic. This is an opportunity for us to take a leadership role in helping that happen. I encourage all faculty and staff, including those that are not currently coming to campus and those at our Marinette, Manitowoc and Sheboygan locations to get tested along with anyone in your household. Please also encourage neighbors and anyone else in your circle to do the same. Consider forwarding this e-mail, or share this testing opportunity on social media. The goal is to stop the asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 in our region.

Testing will be available to anyone age 5-and-older at no cost, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. by appointment at DOINeedACovid19Test.com. Please note that this a national effort, and administrators are working to get the UW-Green Bay testing registration link “live” today at the above webpage. Please keep checking back to make an appointment.

Thank you for helping to keep yourself and all those around you safe.

Best,

Michael Alexander
Chancellor

Dear UW-Green Bay Faculty and Staff:

When speaking with UW-Green Bay alumni, they almost always cite the names of faculty and staff members who made an impression on them and provided the spark that motivated them to pursue their careers. The ripple effects of your daily interactions with students span decades and has profoundly shaped and impacted our region and beyond. I am acutely aware of the countless financial and personal sacrifices that our faculty and staff have made to keep UW-Green Bay moving forward in this difficult time.

We all give in different ways. If you are able, I encourage you to join me in making a gift through the UW-Green Bay Foundation to the Need-Based Grant-Aid Fund, or one of the food pantries we have on our four campuses. It is another meaningful way you can help students and support the University mission of serving as an access institution. Gifts to these funds are used to support students in need and are a valuable source of financial aid through need-based grants. Thank you for considering a gift to propel us further forward to meet the challenges our students face by making a one-time or recurring payroll deducted gift.

Also, I wanted to mention that you will be hearing more about the United Way effort in the weeks to come. UW-Green Bay is proudly part of this community. We embrace community partners like United Way in reaching others in need in our communities. United Way helps numerous social service agencies meet the needs of families down on their luck who simply need a helping hand. Further information on the United Way and a link to donate will be announced in the coming weeks.

As members of the Phoenix community, I know we are compassionate. Every gift makes a difference in the life of a student.

Employee Giving Portal

External Giving Links:

• Need-based Grant-Aid Fund
• Campus Cupboard – Green Bay Campus
• The Marketplace – Manitowoc Campus
• The Closet – Marinette Campus
• The Food Pantry – Sheboygan

Best,

Michael Alexander
Chancellor Best,

Dear UW-Green Bay Students, Faculty, and Staff,

As you may have heard, in recent days local health departments across the region have issued Public Health Emergency COVID-19 alerts due to the high levels of COVID-19 cases, which have resulted in increased COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. The recent surge in cases in the region certainly causes all of us to be on high alert. I am sure many of you have wondered how UW-Green Bay plans to respond. At this time, we have decided to stay the course and continue our current state of operations.

In recent weeks, our testing capacity has increased, and our students in Residence Life are being tested each week. They have committed to keeping each other, and the rest of campus safe. We have also expanded testing to others coming on campus. To date, we have an amazingly low positivity rate of 1.13 percent positive for tests conducted. When we do have a positive test result, students are quickly moved into isolation housing, preventing spread to the greatest degree possible.

As of today, fewer than 120 classes are meeting solely in person. Students are using the dining delivery feature in great numbers. There are very strict restrictions on gatherings. As a result, there are very few people on campus. Working together, we have created a “bubble” that is helping to keep our campus community safe. You can review all our testing information on the Phoenix Forward Dashboard.

We are consulting daily with our health partner, Prevea Health. Prevea leaders have encouraged us to stay the course. Part of the strategy is to ensure those who are safely in the bubble on our campus, stay there. While we want to be a thoughtful community partner, we feel the best way we can do this at this time, is to keep doing exactly what we are doing:

• daily monitoring (and swiftly move positive cases to isolation);
• continue as a campus to commit to following the three W’s (Wash your hands, Wear a mask, Watch your distance) even when we are away from campus;
• quarantine and stay away from campus when symptomatic.

We are also encouraging everyone to get a flu shot this year as the yearly influenza can pressure medical facilities that have a greater need to treat COVID-19 patients. Students, please use the Prevea App to schedule one at The Wellness Center. Faculty and staff please seek a flu shot at your local healthcare provider.

Later today, we are going to ask campus operational leaders to review their Resumption of Operation Plans that were submitted in August and make certain that as we continue our state of operations we are also providing the greatest amount of safety for everyone involved. This may include reducing staffing on campus in the coming weeks for offices that have public-facing operations to work more remotely.

We do know this virus can force situations to change quickly. While we continue to monitor and react daily, we continue to plan about what it could mean if COVID-19 gained traction on our UW-Green Bay campuses. In the meantime, we continue to be appreciative of the role you have each taken during this unusual season to protect one another. Please continue to be diligent and be safe.

Best,

Michael Alexander
Chancellor

Dear UW-Green Bay Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Each morning at 7:30, I meet with campus leaders to discuss our COVID response and make sure we are taking every step we can to keep our campuses safe.  Every metric we can look at shows that our students, faculty, and staff have done a remarkable job to this point of the semester in preventing the spread of the virus.  As of this morning, our positivity rate is 1.17%, the capacity we have in campus housing to quarantine or isolate students that are COVID positive or symptomatic is only 13% full, and as of this week we have essentially doubled our capacity to test students to prevent an outbreak on campus.  Despite the national rhetoric that college campuses have contributed to the rise in COVID cases across our state and country, we are far below the rates of positivity in our surrounding communities and that is due to everyone’s careful attention to safety.

However, it is important for us to remember that our campuses in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Marinette, and Sheboygan do not exist in a vacuum.  We are fully integrated into our communities and our communities are struggling.  It is essential that we redouble our efforts to stay safe and not contribute to the alarming positive rates we are seeing in our region.  We also need to be accountable to each other.  Even when you are on your own time, please stay safe.  If you are doing things off hours that put you at risk, please isolate from work and campus.

I urge you to be safe, take proper precautions, don’t get complacent, wear a mask, wash your hands, and practice social distancing. If you have not already received the influenza vaccine (“flu shot”), please schedule that as soon as possible as cooler temperatures favor respiratory viruses.

I am so proud of our campuses for how responsibly we have handled the difficult circumstances of the fall.  Thank you.  Please keep safe, persist, and support each other.  Our communities are relying on us to do so and turn the curve of the pandemic in the opposite direction.

With gratitude,

Michael Alexander
Chancellor

Dear UW-Green Bay Faculty and Staff,

As communicated in the attached email from August 12^th, the UW-Green Bay Council for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion has agreed that training on inclusivity and equity will be required of all ongoing faculty and staff during the next academic year. During the month of October, we will be welcoming Dr. Nicole R. Robinson, Founder and CEO of Cultural Connections by Design, LLC, who will be facilitating diversity education training for all ongoing employees. Nicole’s organization “employs creative, innovative, and ‘out of the box’ processes to support organizations in creating an inclusive culture of belonging.” Please see attached for more information about Cultural Connections by Design, LLC. Her proprietary game-based learning tools have garnered notoriety in academic, corporate, and healthcare institutions. These sessions will allow our campus to share a common vocabulary and perspective on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Topics covered include systems of oppression, privilege points, and the responsibility each person has within their own sphere of influence.

All ongoing faculty and staff will be required to participate in this professional development opportunity during the month of October.

Faculty & Instructional Academic Staff:

For Faculty and Instructional Academic Staff, this professional development opportunity will be held in academic units. Please see below for the schedule of instructional faculty and staff participation:

Date	Time	Academic Unit(s)
Friday, October 2, 2020	3 – 5:30 p.m.	Natural and Applied Sciences
Friday, October 9, 2020	11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.	Nursing & Health Studies, Education, Social Work
Friday, October 9, 2020	2 – 4:30 p.m.	Humanities, Communication & Information Science
Friday, October 16, 2020	2 – 4:30 p.m.	Human Biology, Resch School of Engineering
Friday, October 23, 2020	11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.	Democracy & Justice Studies, Public & Environmental Affairs, Psychology
Friday, October 23, 2020	2 – 4:30 p.m.	Art & Design, Music, Theatre & Dance
Friday, October 30, 2020	2 – 4:30 p.m.	Austin E. Cofrin School of Business

Faculty & Instructional Academic Staff will automatically registered for their session based upon their primary academic unit. Please watch for an email from support@ccbydesign.org which will provide links to the virtual training. You will start receiving emails approximately five days prior to your applicable session. If you are unable to make the specific time/date for your department, please contact Melissa Nash at nashm@uwgb.edu for information on registering for one of the non-instructional staff sessions.

Ongoing Non-Instructional Academic Staff, University Staff, and Limited Employees:

Non-Instructional staff will have four options for dates/times:

Date	Time	Session
Thursday, October 8, 2020	9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.	Staff Session #1
Monday, October 12, 2020	1 – 3:30 p.m.	Staff Session #2
Wednesday, October 21, 2020	9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.	Staff Session #3
Tuesday, October 27, 2020	1 – 3:30 p.m.	Staff Session #4

Non-instructional staff will receive communication on Friday, September 25, 2020 from support@ccbydesign.org providing a link to register for one of the four sessions. Please register for the session that works best in your schedule no later than Friday, October 2, 2020. Once registered, watch for an email from support@ccbydesign.org which will provide links to the virtual training. You will start receiving emails approximately five days prior to your applicable session.

Supervisors of non-instructional staff – if you would like your team to register for a common session, please communicate that directly with the employees within your unit.

Should you have questions about this professional development opportunity, please contact Melissa Nash at nashm@uwgb.edu or (920) 465-2013. If you have registration or other technical questions, please contact Debbie at support@cbydesign.org or (888) 774-2077.

Thank you very much for your engagement with inclusivity and equity initiatives at UW-Green Bay. As a reminder, the UW-Green Bay Council for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion is embarking on a strategic planning process. For more information about this process and contacts to get involved, please see the following website: Strategic Planning Process.

Thank you,

Michael Alexander
Chancellor

Corey A. King
Vice Chancellor for University Inclusivity and Student Affairs

Watch the recording as Chancellor Alexander, Sheryl Van Gruensven, and Kate Burns present at the first Coffee Break of the semester. Campus leaders provided a brief update and allowed the remaining time to take questions from faculty and staff.

Dear UW-Green Bay Students, Faculty, and Staff,

We are very fortunate to have an incredibly dedicated team of University Police that are committed to the safety of our students, faculty, and staff. In an effort to provide transparency to the campus community about our campus safety efforts, have constructive conversations, and provide feedback to our Police from the campus they serve, we have formed a new Police Community Advisory Council. More information on the Council can be found here. I am grateful to Chief David Jones and Assistant Professor Nolan Bennett from Democracy and Justice Studies for co-chairing the Council. Members of the Council are listed below. Thank you to everyone working together on this. I am pleased to see a great mix of faculty, staff, and students on the Council that will provide broad perspectives from across the university on issues of campus safety.

1. Cofrin School of Business representative—Heather Clarke
2. College of Health, Education and Social Welfare representative—Miranda Schornack
3. College of Science, Engineering and Tech representative—Brian Welsch
4. College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences representative—Nolan Bennett
5. Dean of Students representative—Erin Van Daalwyk
6. Athletics representative—Jermaine Rolle
7. University Union representative—Grant Winslow
8. Residence Life representative—John Gerow
9. MESA representative—Cindy Johnson
10. PRIDE Center representative—Stacie Christian
11. Student Representative—Jesse Rehn
12. Student Representative —Jada Patterson
13. Student Representative —Lincoln Panich

Best,

Michael Alexander
Chancellor

Dear UW-Green Bay Faculty and Staff,

I am excited to share that we will unveil Phase I of a vibrant new website on Tuesday, September 22. This summer, we challenged our Marketing and University Communication and Web Development teams to reimagine uwgb.edu. Their charge was to create a site that is better aligned with our mission, is distinct in appearance from other higher ed websites, and puts a high-level focus on the prospective student journey and their search for a university that will rise with them, and alongside them, during their educational journey.

The site we are rolling out next week also offers:

• Improved functionality, including simplified site navigation, a more robust site index and a layout that inspires site content editors to promote the offerings of your area
• Updated, engaging layouts and text that are focused on our unique personality as a university
• Photo, video, and story content that are interactive and engaging, shining a light on the true colors of UW-Green Bay’s students, faculty, and staff

What you will see next week is just the beginning. It represents only the first six top-level pages, which are enabled by more than 60,000 lines of code. Subsequent phases include programming for filtering of majors, building out the Admissions site, and redesigning program pages supported by paid marketing campaigns. In this initial phase, the impact of the redesign on the pages in most areas is minimal and contained to navigation. A member of the Website Redesign Team will reach out to you when it’s time to begin planning for redesign/refresh of pages in your program or area.  Converting our entire site will take years, but we now have staff in place to be continually updating our website so that we do not have to do a complete overhaul in the future.  As the website is the modern “front door” to the University, we will constantly strive to keep it vibrant, current, and reflective of who we are as an institution.  If you are interested, here is a brief preview of some of the changes.

Best,

Michael Alexander
Chancellor