Minnesota State Family Orientation Podcast 2021: Recent Episodes

View Details

In this episode of the Family Orientation Podcast, Dr. David Jones discusses what you should remember for upcoming classes, resources for any more specific information, and plans for returning this fall.

View Details

In this episode, Dr. David Jones chats with the Director of the Kearney International Center regarding what international students might expect in regards to the upcoming year. They touch on events, advising, academic support, visa and transfer processes, and much more!

View Details

David Jones: Welcome and hello listeners, thanks for joining another episode of the podcast, Minnesota state university, family orientation podcast. Appreciate everybody, uh, choosing to listen into us again here today. I probably say this every episode, I'm excited about the topic today, but that's definitely true yet again, as we talk about The more in-depth aspects of how we support students academically here during their time.

And it's obviously they're gonna learn some incredible things in the classroom. And today's guest is going to tell us a little bit more about the things they do outside the classroom to make sure that in the classroom experiences phenomenal. And so, I'm welcomed here today and I'm going to let you introduce Sarah, your whole title and everything, cause I will goof it up, I promise you. Sarah Granberg-Rademacker, here joining us for today's episode, Sarah, why don't you first welcome. Thanks for agreeing to do this.

Sara GR: My pleasure!

David Jones: Share with our listeners who you are, what you do here at the university.

Sara GR: Awesome. Yeah. Thank you, David. My name is Sara Granberg-Rademacker, my role is the director of our university advising department here on campus. And that means I have the great privilege of working with the professional advising community that helps our students as they're navigating their college experience all the way through to graduation. And it's, we have an awesome team that are here to support students along the way.

David Jones: Excellent. Excellent. So how long have you been at MSU now?

Sara GR: Oh, goodness. I'm going to have to do some math. I think we I've been here about 16 years and have been serving in a variety of roles. Working with students who were majoring in the college of arts and humanities before then moving over to working with students who weren't sure what they wanted to major in to now serving in this role. As we continue to develop our advising resources for students.

David Jones: Wow, you've had quite the journey and I could see why you'd be the expert on all things advising at this point here at the university. So over the 16 years, I'm sure you've had a lot of experiences worked with thousands and thousands of students.

What's your favorite part of working here at Minnesota state?

Sara GR: Honestly, David, when I think about my favorite part, it comes down to the people and the possibilities. It's such a pleasure to work alongside people who are so committed to our students, their journeys, their success here and are looking for ways to help positively influence that.

Having worked with the undecided students, I will tell you, I think we are a great campus when you're not sure what you want to study, because we have a broad range of majors, we are not a school known for one thing or a school known for a little bit of everything. And similarly, we have brought opportunities outside of the classroom as well.

If that's things like study abroad, getting some leadership opportunities and registered student organizations, all of these things that really make. a college experience complete. The classroom piece is essential, but then those out of the classroom internship opportunities or opportunities to hear guest speakers who are experts in their own field is just, is phenomenal as well.

Like to think that, at Mankato, we're small enough that you can find your connections and find your circle of folks, but we're big enough where you can also Let yourself get a little intentionally lost in, in, in the fray and enjoy the experiences around you.

David Jones: Wow. That's a great way to put it.

Yeah, we are that kind of special size and a lot of ways that you get to the exposure to things you may not come across day in and day out before your experience here, as well as during your time here. So that's great. Well, thanks for all you do as well. I have the pleasure of seeing the, the success of your students, who you work with and your team works with. And so, that parts super fun, super fun to see that kind of thing. So, we're recording this. I always share the date today is June 8th, 2021. So as we reference COVID anything we share today is what we know as of today.

So, as with most things within the state of Minnesota, the governor and the Minnesota department of health may drop new news on us tomorrow, and so, something might be out of date, but what we shared today will be accurate as of today. So this whole past year, you know, Sarah has been clearly defined by the pandemic and the work that you've had to do and everything.

And I know last year we shifted a lot of it to virtual work or online orientations and things like that. As we're looking ahead to fall 2021, what is the classroom registration or course registration, and what are our new students experiencing? Getting ready for the fall?

Sara GR: Absolutely. No, that's a great question.

We've done a lot of pivoting in the last year and we've learned a lot and the good news with that is We have evolved, and come to a process that I think is both welcoming for our new students and provides them with the support they need to come up with a good fall semester schedule so they can hit the ground running come fall.

Specifically we've learned to take advantage of some of our online tools through our learning management system and D2L as students get some background information, when they sign up for orientation, get to see some short videos that helpfully. Help lay-the-land in terms of the courses you need the tools that are available to you.

But at the same time, we place a premium on those connections with students. And so we're offering synchronous zoom sessions on most Mondays in, in the months of June and July and those synchronous zoom sessions involve just some basic general information from both the director of orientation and from me, but then we quickly try to get the students connected, to the areas where they plan on majoring or if they don't know what they want to major the undecided areas. And in those areas, they get more in-depth information just to give them some background and to help them feel more confident in the classes they'll be looking at during that in-depth session, they will also sign up for either individual or small group appointments.

One of the things, the pandemic. Helped move along for us was this idea that we can have individual experiences and a campus of our size, that's not always possible. And so we've had individuals, small group experiences over zoom where advisors are talking directly with the students and helping them make some good decisions about those first semester classes.

And so I'm very excited about. How the pandemic basically brought us to that, because that was something that we hadn't been able to do. Our scale across the university before. And I think it, it gives our students a strong sense of who are some of their advocates here before they actually come to campus.

And so hopefully they have a firmer sense of who those advocates are and some initial developing relationships with them during the course of their orientation, registration, and advising experience.

David Jones: Wonderful. Wonderful. So is the students get did do some of the same activity last year. How did students respond to that kind of support?

Sara GR: Generally? You know, we've heard very positive feedback and that students knew who we were. Now, what's different this year. And what I'm really excited about is the potential that we will be able to provide that spill-over zoom when students need it. But also we'll have the, our in-person part back as well.

Advisers have been here on the front lines, as long as we've had students here. But hopefully now as restrictions are gradually easing and things we'll continue to be able to be even more available to students, because I think sometimes there's just something about having that sense of place.

And where do I find this support instead of always doing it in a virtual world.

David Jones: Yeah, that totally makes sense. And. Well, even to the degree that we're all a little more comfortable on zoom right? Or whatever, the zooms are our tool of choice here. But I mean, whatever tool it might be, but I think, you know what, I see it, I, we have something in common.

We both have high school, high schoolers in that, you know, this past year, my kids have been both in school and distance, and we've kind of bomped around and such, but the students who are enrolling now their level of comfort with technology. you know, it has been, I've seen the growth just within my own household and such.

I don't know if you've experienced the same with your own kid, but to know that all these students is we're providing support, registration, whatever it might be, their comfort is they're pulling along the family in some locations. I know that's even mine to say I got this and whatever it might be. Is that consistent with what you're seeing as well?

Sara GR: Yeah, definitely. We're seeing students for the most part, you know, when we started doing these things over zoom, I think it was still a bit of a challenge, a bit of an unknown. And now you know, we have to start every orientation session, asking people to put their first name and last name in the chat and sending it to all panelists and that happens readily.

And it's not, we don't even before we mentioned it. Audibly it's on a screen in front of them and students are starting to fill it out. And so you do see that comfort level. And that comfort level that that students are saying to us sometimes, Hey, wait a second. This isn't working or I don't know what to do. And we're able to quickly navigate it and hopefully get them to, to the right next stop. And that's been a change. I think that comes with all of us getting more comfortable with the technology because we can speak to those things, but the students also can quickly realize what the issues are they're facing and what they need help with.

So then we're all doing better as a result.

David Jones: Yeah. Yeah. So one of the changes I've also witnessed here, I'm curious how it's manifested itself in our current situation. When we had only in-person orientations, we would have an afternoon where the students who'd go meet with their advisor center for classes at that same time, parents and family members were in a different location receiving important information and everything in a zoom world that they're often sitting on the same couch.

Right? So what's that like, and what's, what advice would you have for the parents might be listening during that experience?

Sara GR: Absolutely. Well, parents, I, what I would respectfully ask is, Hey, you're welcome to be at the couch. You're welcome to be sitting there listening alongside your students. What I'd encourage you to do is make some notes as you're listening to the things that your students going over with the advisor.

And really let your student drive the bus. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't ask questions, but let them kind of take the lead and get through some of this. And then at the end, bring up the questions that you have and still have, and work with the advisor. They're certainly there to assist you along the way and they're happy to do so.

I think the big the big piece is though, we want to really help empower the students to know what they need and to know how to navigate this. And one of the best ways we can do that. Is work alongside with you as, as parents and family members supporting your students as best we can.

David Jones: Oh, that totally makes sense.

We we had an experienced a little earlier. I'm sharing more about my family, but my son, the school, he's going to a different university and they had an award, orientation type thing going on. So we're proud of him, but it was weird because they were clearly addressing the students, but we were there as hanger ons in that experience.

Cause you wanted to share that experience with your kid cause it's kind of fun and you only get to do it once for the first time. And so it was kind of a, a good, eye opening experience for me in a way that I'm like. Gosh, I'm now walking in the shoes of what so many of our other thousands of students and parents have walked through to get a sense of Oh, I get this, you know, I think one of the things that we, we do have a family orientation office and we have a family newsletter, we have stuff that goes out all the time. We know our family members, especially when it comes to advising such like this much like, uh, families are the most influential or help that hold the most opinion on the selection of the institution. When a student chooses to go someplace that ultra that experience, families may know if there's trouble before we do if the student's struggling, whatever it might be.

And so we have some resources available and we'll talk about those in the future. Uh, podcasts and everything, but to know that Sarah and her team responds with that now, cause they are the people who will do some of that. Follow-up when you raise your hand and say little Billy's struggling in chemistry.

And so they would be the one to reach out and find out, Hey, Billy, how are you doing? How do you think you're doing? Let's figure out what resources you may need and everything. And I think that's been a growth area. Can you talk a little bit more about how that work has shifted?

Sara GR: Sure. Sure. Um, professional advising has taken over more of a forefront at Minnesota state Mankato we are trying to be.

Just incredibly aware of the unique student needs that come across our desks, and so sometimes that is somebody reaching out and saying, Hey, I'm concerned about my student in this way. Um, and, and then, you know, we do what we can. The hard part is we can't always turn around and give the parents a full scoop of things.

Sometimes family members, you know, one of the best things you can do is say, Hey, check it back with that advising office that you talked back at summer orientation. And if the student shows up and says, Hey, listen, I'm struggling. Now that the advising community is aware of those struggles, it's nothing will be the first time we've heard it, and so just come over, touch base with one of us, and we'll get you routed to some resources to help, but also lay out the options for you. I think sometimes there's perception that advisors are here to basically dictate what comes next, but in reality, advisors are there to help lay out all the different options.

Maybe help a student evaluate pros and cons, but ultimately the student gets to decide, and that's where we really like to see the student take the lead, but family members, if, if they if you're aware of struggles you're welcome to reach out and know that. We, we do our best to reach out as well.

It's just hard that we can't turn around and tell you everything that happened. We just need to be able to know what's going on with your students and see if we can assist.

David Jones: Yeah, that totally makes sense. And, and Oh, well, it sounds weird. I want to compliment compliment us as university is we've made some intentional decisions in the last 18 months to invest in that area to make sure we have more support for students.

So, that, that continues to be one of the hallmarks about why we're seeing our students retain at a higher rate and having an improved experience here at the university. So I share that because I know Sarah and her team had been. Instrumental in our success in that area. So thank you, Sarah for all your leadership in that area.

Um, we've got just a couple of minutes left here. I always liked kind of wrapping up with advice. You've got again, some great years of experience here at our university as well as others. What, what advice would you give our incoming students and families as they both for the time they have now until the fall, then what they do and experience when they get here.

Sara GR: Hm. I love that question by the time you have now, I'd say, you know, just be present with it and be paying attention to what's going on around you. This is exciting time, even though it's that transition before you come here and you're a Maverick it's still really incredible time to be just honoring and attending to all of the developmental experiences that come with graduating high school and, and proceeding, and then students might, my big, biggest piece of advice for you coming forward in the fall is, these are your years.

These are your times to, to shine, to figure out things, to learn more about yourself and, and your steps moving forward. And so I just can't say enough, I really am honored and grateful to be on this campus because we have so many cool experiences. Students take advantage of those, if something crosses your mind as something that might be interesting, maybe it's a guest speaker who's coming, maybe it's, going out to do the ropes course. Just do it. It's, it's a great chance to kind of feel things out years ago, someone once said to me, you know, Oh, you moved, you can reinvent yourself. And at the time I was a little bit put off and had to think about this, but that's kind of the unique part about college.

Many of the students who are maybe listening to this have graduated with kids. They went to kindergarten yet. And, you know, we all for better or for worse get labeled or label ourselves, even along the way. And in college you have the blessing and the curse of not having that label. So you can decide who do you want to be and how do you, how do you want to be what do you want to become?

What are your next steps? So that's where I say, these are your years take advantage of them live them to the fullest by paying attention to what's going on around you and jumping in to take advantage of new opportunities that never know might take you down a direction that you never could have played.

David Jones: Yeah. That makes a ton of sense. It does. And that's actually a perfect, leaping off point to talk about. What will fall kind of look like in those oppertunities actually, it looked like in everything. As I shared before it's June 8 our most recent guidance was given to us on May 28th from the state.

And we do know as we continue to improve our vaccination rates across our communities, that more and more is opening up. So this, this will be my podcast reminder. If you haven't had the vaccine yet really encourage you to consider getting it. It will just open up more opportunities for you and your fellow classmates with what we're able to do fully here at the university.

And, and that's more in-person experiences concerts, those kinds of things. We're pretty set right now. And knowing that we'll be delivering a lot of the classrooms in person nearly all, actually I say a lot, it's nearly all. But it's some of the other larger social activities that are still have some restrictions related to our vaccination rates.

So, please do your part and help us open up things a little bit more and, and we'll keep you updated as we progress towards the fall on those, those things as well with that, Sarah, anything. Anything else you'd like to add in?

Sara GR: Well, I guess I would just tell you that from an advising lens, you know, we hope to do more in person this next fall and plan to do more in person than we have previously.

But we have learned that zoom is actually a really cool technology. While some of us did phone appointments in the past the downside of the phone was. You couldn't read body language or see verbal communication. We couldn't share documents to see what each other was talking about. So it was really hard to do, but with zoom, we're seeing that we can do all of those things.

And so I anticipate that zoom will be part of our future in a different way than it was during the pandemic, but still a tool that we can use so that students, if they aren't feeling well, or if it just is more convenient for them to come in over zoom versus in-person, then that's a real possibility as well.

So I'm grateful in that way for the pandemic. We did learn some valuable lessons as we've moved through this.

David Jones: Absolutely. I think it's a good example. A lot of things were migrating that direction. That pandemic just really was like a steroid on some of these changes and such, and to this, to your point, to this benefit.

I mean, it's great that even our ability to record this here today, this is another benefit from this. So Sarah, thank you so, so much for carving out a little bit of time to spend it with us and share with the student experience will be the summer with registration and, and. And, uh, plans for what the fall will be like.

Uh, again, if all of our listeners, as you have questions about advising, go to the advising website and you can find the information you need there to get in contact, to follow up with any questions you may have after your experience. So with that, Sarah, again, thank you and good luck with all the work you're doing this summer and follow up.

There'll be another podcast out soon. Thanks everybody. .

View Details

Dr. David Jones: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another episode of the Minnesota State University family orientation podcast. I'm thrilled that you're continuing to listen to these, and we have a, another exciting episode for you. We are recording this on June 7th. 2021. I shared that date just so you can reference this is what we know when we talk about reference any COVID information or pandemic related information, and that is particularly important today for today's guest.

I'm joined by Dr. Wendy Schuh she's our director of student health services. And couldn't be more thrilled for the work that she's been doing for many years, but especially during the pandemic. And we'll ask her to share a little bit more about that, but to start us off, Wendy how long have you been at MSU and what do you like about working here?

Dr. Wendy Schuh: [00:00:52] Yeah, thanks for having me. Gosh, I have been here since 2001, so I am coming up on 20 years in August that I've been here. My role has changed a little bit from a Health Educator to Associate Director to the Director. Now, for the past 10 years, I've been in this role working here and, you know, really with those transitions in the positions to.

I have changed my role a little bit as far as some of that direct student interaction. To working a little bit more at an administrative level. But so those, that balance, those two opportunities have really been fun to see both sides of it. And I would probably say that's something I've enjoyed.

I would imagine. , so student health services, obviously you're full service student health center. You want to share, is this a little bit? What's it? What's that include? Yeah. So student health services is comprised of a medical clinic, a pharmacy. a laboratory and health education services. And so for people to know that all of these are available within our medical clinic.

A lot of times I'll just say, you know, stop in you know, stop by and poke your head in. And they'll say, Oh my gosh this looks like a real doctor's office. And that can be a surprise to people because you know what a student health services means can vary. According to where you're looking. And as you said, we're a full service facility within our medical clinic, we have three physicians and three nurse practitioners that are on staff.

We're open every day that classes are in session. We have a nurse line that students or parents can call if they have questions about whether this warrants a visit, whether you know, this is a visit that can be seen at health services, as well as the pharmacy that you know, students can use whether or not they use our healthcare providers, they can use the pharmacy just like they would a, a corner pharmacy.

So stop in and get some. Tylenol cold tablets toothbrush things that they may need replaced things that they weren't planning on needing. We talk about prepping, preparing for students to come to college and getting those supplies. Well, Hey, if you forget something, if you need a thermometer, if you need some , fever, reducing medication, you can stop down to that pharmacy and get some of those supplies as well.

And then with the laboratory you know, if they have. Visits through our health service, or even if they need regular lab work that their home doctor is requesting. They get, we can work with them on that also. So really a variety of ways. A lot of people will say, Oh, I just assumed I would use the health service when I couldn't get home to my provider.

Completely appropriate. But what we find is about 75% of the students who use us, consider us their primary care, like yep. I see Toya when I go to college because that's my doctor, that's my healthcare provider while I'm. I'm at MSU and then the last thing is the health education services.

So we have a lot of prevention, education including substance abuse and healthy sexuality and stress and sleep and nutrition. That do programming around campus. And so that's great to get into the classrooms to get onto residence hall floors, but it's also a volunteer opportunity for students that may have been involved in something like this in high school that may be looking at going into a healthcare career that want to get that experience.

So that's kind of a cool thing for students to know about also that they can get involved in the health pros. Wow. That's a lot going on. At least that's impressive. Well then I think it's one of the great strengths of our size university that we have that kind of resource, you know, for over 14,000 students, if they can lean heavily upon it.

So with all those resources and such. And from looking back from last March, you know, clearly the pandemic started changing the work we did at the university. And how did it impact student health and how did you respond during the pandemic? Yes, it's certainly affected our work as well. We had to make some difficult decisions and more staff meetings than probably most people cared to attend, but we really got into the.

To the heart of, okay, what do we need to do? You know, what student health services needs to provide care to our students? So we stayed open last spring and continue to be onsite providing healthcare as well as made some changes. Like you said, because of COVID. Some of those changes included serving our students when they couldn't physically get into health services.

So telehealth visits were incorporated. We did have the benefit of having already had some tele-health visits. That we offered mostly for, for mental health. And so to have those policies and procedures in place allowed us to pretty seamlessly expand those appointment reasons. I know a lot of places sort of had to make that plunge and we were fortunate to be able to do that pretty seamlessly.

So all of our providers offer telehealth visits if students had either moved away from campus, if they were ill and were under quarantine or isolation, And so a lot of those appointments for that continuity of care, like you need to continue to get you know, birth control filled and you need to continue to get, you know, ongoing prescriptions figured out.

And so we were able to do that. We also made some changes with our pharmacy. So they began offering mail order options for people who were already regular customers that were getting their prescriptions filled that then needed to get that sent home. So we offered some some mail order options with the pharmacy.

We, uh, Implemented sort of a separate physical space. So we were still all student health services, but we opened a separate upper clinic is what we call that. That was really serving students who may have had. Any sort of COVID symptoms, which as we experienced, they were adding new COVID symptoms weekly for a while there.

And it went from respiratory to you know, eyes to GI issues. There were all sorts of things that we were trying to keep up on. So we could continue to see people who had symptoms that were related to COVID in this separate physical space. And so that was something that we worked with our environmental health and safety with residential life.

So we could continue to work out of the same building yet keep our well students well and see our sick students.

That's a lot again it can't imagine having to stand up a whole new facility doing this and everything, but you made the reference to telehealth and tele-mental health and you are quite the leader within the state. Can you describe a little bit of what you provide support for a lot of colleges, universities beyond just Minnesota state Mankato?

What's that look like? We have been fortunate to have a psychiatric nurse practitioner, Dodie Eggland as our medical director. And really with that model within college health is highly unusual. And I think we always knew that that was a benefit to our students. But to be able to talk with some of the other schools within the Minnesota state system, that we're looking at two to three to four month wait lists to see that psychiatric provider in their community.

Or who have lost sort of that contracted relationship that they had with a psychiatric provider. We started exploring, looking at the services. Our students were already offering offered and expanding that to some of these other schools. So we started with a pilot and looked at some of our partners and were able to get some funding through Minnesota state to offer that to four.

Institutions of higher ed within that Minnesota state system this past year, we actually offered it to eight different institutions and 10 campuses. And then Jody was able to work with those schools to, to block her schedule and provide that medication management while using the student resource services that they had on campus.

Whether that's. A counselor, a case manager you know, a social worker, you have those location specific services while seeing someone with that specialty. So yeah, we've found there's a demand and there's a need, of course we all know there's a need for mental health services in general, but looking at data specific to college students, and then.

Throwing COVID into the mix and seeing some of the concerning statistics that are out there as far as, you know, it may be six months before we, see some of these effects that COVID has had on mental health with our young people. Yeah, I think this whole pandemic was going to be a huge target for a lot of research and studies.

That's for sure. To kind of see both short and longterm impact. You're right about that. One of the things I think that, that you probably don't get enough credit for within our own work environment, is that is the pandemic started. It was your suggestion that we add in additional staff members to kind of help at an individual level, navigate our leadership.

Not only with. The County health leaders, the state health leaders of which you really developed in, in some ways we were a Guinea pig, I think for, for the state , Minnesota department of health is they tried to figure out how to respond to the needs of higher education, universities, and colleges.

But you had us hire somebody who then could also work individually with students, quarantine issues. You know, isolation issues and I know that's planning to be continued into next year as well. Cause obviously we're, we're not through this yet, but I don't know if there's a comment there from you, but I think it's one of those smart investments that you suggested we did make.

Definitely. It has been, I think, a benefit to everyone. I mean, even employees that are going to this case manager position and asking questions and the focus of the position has evolved. Uh, looking at, you mentioned kind of, uh, isolation and quarantine guidelines that communication with the Minnesota department of health.

MDH literally has a whole team dedicated to higher ed within the state of Minnesota. And yet they were sort of learning as, as they went and we were able to provide some of those on the ground experiences. That here's what we're seeing locally on our campus. And then they could, they could take some of that information.

And so to have that position. Has been really important. And now to start looking at, you know, the spring, then we started offering vaccine on campus and now we're looking at mitigation efforts, according to vaccine rates on campus. And so you're right, just because we're opening up again, doesn't really mean that, that we're done planning and responding to the pandemic.

So to that end. I know Wendy on Friday, the CDC released some more guidelines for institutions of higher education. A couple days before that, or I guess the week prior Minnesota department of health released some as well. And if we just start with MDH, we know that The percentage of vaccine distribution within a population is really what's driving behavioral opportunities, whether it's really repopulating classrooms, having concerts, what are all those things again?

So, , that will be a big focus of where we are moving now. I shared in a previous podcast, but we have shifted from return to learning on our campus to return to campus. And you will find on our main website, a link to those plans and the way things are changing. And so we know we need to track.

Hopefully the percent of people that get the vaccine, as well as to your point, if we start to see any flare ups, probably stand up testing group testing, individual testing as needed as well. Are there other things you're starting to put in place or thinking ahead to the fall? Yeah, I think just to reiterate the more people we can have vaccinated, the more we can go back to normal, ultimately, and really there isn't as of today, there isn't really a threshold that they have given us.

Just continuing to look at things you know, larger scale events, like the concerts like the graduation ceremonies, things like that, that we can host. Should we be able to continue to get our students and our employees vaccinated. , I think some of that is education. You know, there are specific myths and rumors that kind of fly around a little bit with the vaccine and getting some of that accurate information out there, looking at within the state system.

You know, some data, if we can access that of, Hey, where are we at with our vaccination rates? Yeah, no, it totally. By nature. A lot of the work we do at the universities is dependent upon data, but I feel like we've got a whole new data set that we just were focused on all the time. Now, what is, what more, where are we at?

What percent? Both for our campus, as well as our County part of the state, we're always kind of watching that stuff. It's good that way. So if we're to boil it down, you know, I think we'd be repeating the same message that governor Walz has put out there. Is the experience you're having on campus right now.

If you're fully vaccinated, a masks are optional. If you're not, we're asking you to wear a mask. And, and that, that is as near as we can tell the experience we're seeing across the campus. We as a university building upon that have identified that we anticipate having all of our staff back, we're going to start bringing them back July 6th through August 2nd.

Expect to have our campus populated again, to have all services in person and available this part of that increasing vaccination distribution. So we hope that that continues as well. So as you look ahead to our incoming students and families and, and preparing for the fall, are there in addition to the pandemic, is there other advice you might give them?

I think we, you know, looking from a, a family parent perspective, I think we know so much more than we did last fall. And I think, , sending a kid to school and having tools in your toolbox, basically like having those, having those conversations with your student prior to them leaving, whether that's about.

Any, any health topic, you know? Right. Like, Hey, did you know, there's a pharmacy on campus where you can go get this where you can go get some Tylenol, things like that. But also just to have that conversation with your students you know, have. The information that they need in order to stay well and to stay healthy.

I guess it's kind of repeating what I previously said, but I'm expanding it past COVID a little bit, like, just have those conversations. What are their expectations regarding alcohol use? How are they going to manage stress? So are they overloading classes? You know, things like that. So Wendy I and you you're aware I've got a high school.

Senior who just graduated this past weekend and we are starting to build putting a pile of his stuff together that he'll be taking. So for graduation, he got bedsheets and towels and you know, some of the stuff you need, but as we're thinking through that, and I was looking at the institutional , guidance on, on, or suggestions for what to bring, you know, we've bought, he seems like he never has enough band-aids around our house.

So we're buying him a first aid kit with extra band-aids and a thermometer. So when he calls up and says, he's not feeling well, we can say, well, check your, check, your temperature. Are there other basic things that pre pandemic or definitely during the pandemic that encourage people to go shopping for?

So they have on hand. Just to kind of follow up a couple on a couple of examples, we he's ahead of everybody or a lot of people, because we literally will have people and you know, to the front does like, do you have a band-aid that they don't have any of those so way to go. You've gotten that taken care of.

And that's one of the reasons if you look at some of the symptoms of COVID that they added chills and you know, things like that, because I don't know if I have a fever, I don't have a thermometer with me. So there's lists all over the place about. What to include in your college students, first aid kit.

And again, if you, if you don't have that packed nicely for them, they can stop into the pharmacy. The thing to mention with health services. You don't have to have a cash you know, a credit card, things like that to pay for it. Anything that they stop or need with our services can be placed on their student account.

And so, if parents choose to pay for any of their students, healthcare needs. That is located at the same place, like their tuition and their fees show up. It just shows up as a generic health services charge. So that can be good for people to know. Like sometimes they'll try to figure out, Oh, how do I, how do I get this healthcare savings card with my student, things like that.

And that can all be done sort of on the backend so that, that can be good for parents to know as well. Have a copy of that insurance card in your student's wallet or a picture of it. That's just fine. Also a picture of the front and the back of a health insurance card. If they're covered under a parent's plan, whether or not they use health services, that's good for people to have in their, in their pocket.

Totally makes sense. You know, one of, one of the strengths we have as a community is beyond just your services. And I know you partner, we do have a local hospital, and we had this conversation, the trauma three, I think you remember, we talked about that. I just don't remember the number. Yeah, it's a pretty high level.

It's associate with the Mayo clinic health system. As well as we've got a large local provider and several local, large local providers and kato clinic, and we've had a , orthopedic practice in town that provides services. And we have connections to all of these through referral agents and such like that.

So I think that's one of our strengths. When you come here as a student it's, you've got the advantages as student health services, but also know that. They've got the connection to the, so the experts are the specialists in the United, but that's needed. And because on occasion, it is and having those professional relationships between your physicians in there is super helpful.

Yes, we do have relationships with many of our area partners, whether that's like, if someone does need to take an ambulance ride, we've got a transfer agreement. If someone thinks they broken a bone, you know, an agreement in a relationship for x-rays things like that. So. Definitely it's and the bus system is free for students to ride if they need to get places like that and don't have a vehicle.

Yeah. It's definitely just a honestly, well, I'm biased, but another huge strength for us as a university and as a community to, to have that. Well, Wendy, this has been a huge help and a good update. I think for all of our families and students that are listening in and, and making their plans for the fall.

Any other final thoughts or wisdoms you want to impart on them? I think it can be helpful for parents to know. Now we mentioned the relationship with the department of health, but just to know that there are services available for their student. And, you know, I use the term, we are at the table. Although we're a health clinic, pharmacy lab, health ed plopped in the middle of a college campus.

That way we have these relationships within the community, within our County health, within our state. To continue to have that up-to-date information and have services for our students. Wonderful. Wonderful as always Dr. Schuh. Thank you for spending a little time with us today and listeners. Thanks for spending a little time with us.

Stay tuned for future episodes. And if you have any questions by all means about student health services, please reach out to Dr. Schuh or anyone via their website, and we'll make sure we get answers for you. And I know that comes up because there are students who are coming with some preexisting.

Conditions, I'm introducing a new topic as we're officially. Sorry about that. But that is true much. Like we will talk about diet in an upcoming one as well, but we know that there are some special needs that students have. And so the ability that you have to serve students with those special fiscal needs and health needs is pretty special.

So whether it's insulin or other needs, I know some people forget that that's the kind of thing you can do. Yes. It's always hard when I hear somebody say like, you know, I'm in my third year here, I had no idea I could have been getting that care at health services. So definitely. Excellent. Again.

Thank you. Thank you everybody again for listening and we'll be in touch soon. Thanks everybody. Thanks for having me.

View Details

David Jones: [00:00:00] Hello, thanks for joining us for another Minnesota State University, family orientation podcast! I appreciate you listening for us a little bit more today; as a reminder I'm David Jones, I'm the Vice President for student affairs and enrollment management here at Minnesota State. Again, thrilled to be giving you updates and introducing you to some of the most interesting people here at the University, and the many things that they do to make us a cool special place.

So, I'm particularly excited about today's episode because we have our newest leader here at the University , we're joined by our new student government president. I'm going to let Rihanna do a full introduction of who she is here in a moment, but just to give everybody context, because I know we'll be talking about some COVID stuff.

Today is June 7th as we're recording this, every time we record one of these, we'll talk about what we know based on what the Governor and Minnesota Department of Health has released. So, it's all in context of today's date at this point. Enough about that, we'll talk more about that I'm sure, in due time as part of our conversation.

So Rihanna, thank you for joining us! Why don't you with our listeners here, share a little bit about who you are, your title, and what you're studying.

Rihanna: [00:01:13] Yeah! Well, thank you for having me, Dr. Jones, as you alluded to, my name is Rihanna Steph and I am the newly elected Student Body President.

So, I am actually a junior, but I'm entering my senior year, this fall, and I'm double majoring in Mass Media and Political Science. I have been involved with student government over the past two years, and then the opportunity came up this year, of course, to run for president and implement some of the things that are important to me and my Vice President Kara's pearson.

So I think it started excited to kind of see some of those plans come to fruition and hopefully help out a lot of students in the process.

David Jones: [00:01:51] Excellent, excellent! Now what'd you share folks, where are you from, where's home?

Rihanna: [00:01:56] I am from Illinois, actually in a very small town in Illinois called Mulberry Grove.

I think when people hear Illinois, they associate that with Chicago and Walmart. I do have a lot of family there and I was born there. I moved to the Southern portion of the state, I'm in the town of about 700 people so that's where I grew up.

David Jones: [00:02:16] Mankato itself , the niversity is bigger than your hometown.

Rihanna: [00:02:21] Yeah! I said in my my inauguration speech that I will be serving 14,000 students, and that my constituency is now of course, bigger than my entire town's population and the towns next to us combined. So, Mankato is definitely a jump in size from what I'm used to.

David Jones: [00:02:38] Right! So, the natural question is going to be how did you find us and why did you come here?

Rihanna: [00:02:44] Yeah! So, I have a sister who lives in the Twin Cities and she had been trying to get me to come to Minnesota for years, and I was like, well that sounds good, but I need to explore my options. I knew I did not want to stay in Illinois, I did want to see somewhere new, I want to try a different state.

I feel like in Illinois, your options are very rural where I'm from or Chicago, and I didn't necessarily want to be in either. Then my sister actually had my niece and that kind of sealed the deal for me, so I started touring schools in Minnesota. I went to a couple places St. Cloud. I went to the U and then I toured Minnesota State, which it felt like an actual college campus to me, that's kind of what separated it from the other schools. I didn't want to feel like I was just like roaming through the inner city; I wanted to feel connected. Like I can have a campus and I can have a campus community. I also didn't want something super small that reminded me too much of home.

So, coming here, the campus was beautiful. They had the program I wanted, which is political science originally, before I added on my second major. Then I saw the arena and I saw just the opportunity to get involved with different organizations, and I was like, okay, I can definitely see myself being here!

Luckily it ended up great as you guys can see!

David Jones: [00:03:58] Yeah, absolutely buddy! President, that's not too shabby to say the least, just awesome! So this past year with the pandemic has been different right? In so many different ways. So, how did you navigate this past year?

Rihanna: [00:04:12] So this past year, well I do like, I guess my own company, it has been very difficult getting used to your own company when you don't have a choice.

At the beginning of the pandemic, when all the departments of the school closed, you know, student workers are sent home. Students were sent home from their dorms, and so I actually lost my job on campus because I couldn't be inside the department. Luckily, an opportunity arose for me to become a tutor, doing zoom tutoring.

So I got to combine 10 of my passions for, reading and writing and do that in a format that was safe for everyone. Over the summer, you know, adults still have to go to work. They still have to pay bills, and so my sister and her husband still had to do what they had to do to support their family.

So I ended up actually leaving my apartment in Mankato and staying in Minneapolis all summer 2020 to kind of help them with my niece, basically.

Then of course we had social justice movements, we had the death of George Floyd, and so all of this combined was kind of very taxing on myself and a lot of other students, but it was nice having the support of the University, having the University give us constant updates on what the plans were moving forward.

Then really just having University that took the pandemic and COVID seriously it implemented safety measures that could help students get back to normal life as we are about.

David Jones: [00:05:30] Yeah! Yeah, I would imagine. So, obviously when you're a college student, the key thing is taking classes. How did your classes switch and how were you able to manage that?

Rihanna: [00:05:42] Yeah. So, of course all of my classes went completely online. And because a lot of my classes are reading and writing focused , whereas we would do some of that work in class. Usually now you have to do all of it at home , you have to still give reports, you still have to write papers.

And, you know, instead of having the two days of the weekend, it kind of felt like an endless stream of school basically. So with that I really had to start making the schedule to really start planning things out when I'm going to incorporate time to focus on school, because whenever you're at home, It feels like school2.

So, luckily I had some really great professors who understood this and who are switching completely online themselves, but it was definitely a big transition going from being inside a classroom, at least probably eight hours a week to being at home 24/7 and having to make that schedule for yourself and stay on are disciplined in routine.

David Jones: [00:06:35] Yeah, I would think so. I've talked to a lot of students, clearly people learn content for a class, but that ability to learn how to manage, you know, during this time will probably pay off for years and years and years for you to stay, whatever organizational structure you used to stay on top of stuff will be there, whether it's lists or whatever it might be.

Did you discover any new approaches yourself?

Rihanna: [00:06:59] Yes! So for one, I think I really discovered like the possibilities we have. I don't think anyone ever imagined having meetings virtually or class meeting virtually, unless you have signed up for online classes. So this whole format itself was I guess, kind of very educational on what possibilities we do have and how to extend access to all different types of students.

Because I know there's some traditional and non-traditional students who probably prefer this format. But as far as other techniques I've learned, really just trying to focus on what needs to be prioritized , when it needs to be prioritized and how often, and to what extent I need to do my work. So, it was just a transition and, you know, something new I learned , the structure that going in class provides; I guess you don't think about that in the moment, but once you don't have the option, it was kind of different being like, okay, well now I have to structure everything myself and I have to figure out what works.

So, I think during the process, I became like a different type of learner and now I have options. I don't hopefully see any more pandemics in the foreseeable future, but at least we now know that we have options going forward.

David Jones: [00:08:10] Yeah, I think you're right. And, you know, I was super impressed with all of you in student government and the way that you both maximize the use of technology to help you stay connected.

And at various times you try to do some in-person , with social distancing within our physical distancing, within a room, as well as doing the zoom stuff and it's not smooth. It's not a 100% smooth by any means trying to navigate that. But the one thing there was no quit!

You kept trying to, oh, we'll try it like this. We'll try it like that. So, as you view this coming year; it is your year to be the student body president. What are your thoughts and feelings about what you think next year will be like?

Rihanna: [00:08:53] Oh, my gosh, I have so many plans. I'm so excited!

I think something Kara and myself are really focusing on is just being different, that doesn't mean necessarily breaking precedent in every term. But we really want to make sure that we're doing things in a graceful way. We're doing things in a way that gives students and gives ourselves grace.

We're also really basic needs focused, so we have the basic needs hub and making sure students have access to housing and things that really underline their success as students. Moving forward in this next year, the plans I have will really focus on making sure students are supported at the most basic level, because I feel like once students are supported that way, then they can succeed in other areas.

You know, if a student doesn't have secure access to housing or food. They're not going to be worried about joining the mini RSOs we have on campus or attending a football game, or really just getting any type of experience that normal college students would. So moving forward, I'm excited to get back in person.

I've made a commitment to have most of my meetings in person now; guaranteed that everyone feels safe enough to do so. And I think Kara really has awesome plans herself and some projects she's going to be working on as well. So we're really excited to get started.

David Jones: [00:10:06] Excellent! For our listeners, you just introduced Kara, who is Kara?

Rihanna: [00:10:11] So Kara is my Vice President and she will be in her junior year, a social work major, and she is also really basic needs focused. She actually implemented and had the idea for swipe out hunger, which is a program that donates meals students who might be facing food insecurity on campus, which a huge success that she got done in under a year, which was also really impressive.

And hopefully be a program that stays in Mankato for years to come. So, yeah, she is my Vice President and I'm very lucky to have her on my team.

David Jones: [00:10:43] Excellent. Yeah, it's been fun to watch both of you grow throughout the Student Government experience and it's going to be an awesome year to watch both of you fully spread your wings and provide the leadership to all the students.

Rihanna: [00:10:55] Yeah, I guess in the same breath, I haven't introduced Minot Hill, who is our speaker now. So, this year is also pretty exciting because to my knowledge, it's the first time in student government history that there's an all female executive team, so this year it's going to be really exciting working with Minot hill, who is also an international student.

She brings a different type of perspective that me and Kara will not have. We have a really strong team and I'm excited to work with both of them and hear their ideas as well.

David Jones: [00:11:23] I totally doubled down on the strength of your team. I think it's going to be an awesome year because of that.

So the folks listening are family members, you know, students who are coming this fall. Based on your experience so far, what kind of advice would you give for incoming student heading to Mankato this fall?

Rihanna: [00:11:44] Yeah, so I would definitely encourage any student coming to Mankato. Well, first you made an awesome choice choosing this institution.

Then second don't limit yourself on what you can do. So freshman year, you know, it was kind of a rough year for me, to be honest, I was going through a lot as far as like family-wise. So I flash forward to my senior year. I would have never imagined that I would be student body president. And then of course, like I said, I'm now serving a constituency that's larger than the town that I'm from.

So don't limit yourself based off where you come from, obstacles, you might've faced, your demographics and really just be open to new experiences. I would also say as opportunities present themselves, don't be afraid to take them. Don't let imposter syndrome or anything else get in the way of you really experiencing the full college experience.

Again, I would have never imagined myself being here. So if I had said no to certain opportunities, if I had shied away, then I probably wouldn't be here. So really reach out to people, be social, join learning communities, which is something I also did in. Join RSOs and different groups.

Because even if you don't stick with them, you learn something in the process. You've met people, you make connections and you possibly set yourself up for future opportunities. So definitely don't limit yourself and be open to new experiences.

David Jones: [00:13:04] Yeah. That's great advice! Any advice you'd give to their families or parents?

Rihanna: [00:13:10] Okay. Again, I'm going to start off. You guys also made a good choice. But as far as parents, you know, I know it can be hard to kind of separate from my family. I went from seeing them every day to now I need to call them every day while I'm at school, but as far as parents, I would say follow our social media websites.

So you can also stay updated on what's going with the University. We are a pretty transparent institution, also come in on family days, things like that. So you can kind of see what this campus is about and see what the people here are really representing. When you have the opportunity to visit campus, please do, but also follow our social medias.

And if you have any questions, of course, I'm willing to answer them as well. And you can email me and all that good stuff.

David Jones: [00:13:51] Absolutely! Those are great pieces of advice. So you and I were talking right before we started recording today, a little bit of what, you know, how your weekend was and you shared that you're, you're working here locally.

Rihanna: [00:14:05] So I think one of the things that's great about the city of Mankato, and we've been talking about the University, is that there are plenty of local jobs, especially right now, but it's been that case even before the pandemic, it seemed like there was always part-time opportunities for folks to have that.

When you look at cross cutting your friend group and such, is that pretty consistent? Does everybody have some kind of part-time job at this point?

Yes. Now that I think about it, most of my friends do. So, ranging from Walmart to Target and Menards. I have, all of my friends do have jobs, whether they work part-time or full-time.

And so it also seemed like they didn't have that much difficulty finding these jobs. They found something they thought they would like to do. They applied and got an interview within a couple of weeks. Anyone who is looking or considering a part-time job in Mankato, we have plenty of options ranging from like retail stores, gas stations, grocery stores, things like that.

And so I would say, definitely explore your options here. We have plenty. And then a lot of these places also come with internships if that is something you're also interested in.

David Jones: [00:15:06] Yeah, that's definitely true. And it's hard to go into someplace now without seeing a help wanted sign. They're everywhere!

Rihanna: [00:15:14] Yeah. And some places have even raised their wages I think. McDonald's starting wage is like $15 now. So if any of that interests you, you definitely have options and good paying options too.

David Jones: [00:15:24] Yeah, that's true. My son's in high school. Well, he's not a senior anymore. He graduated Friday , but he just got a raise this past weekend. He had not even asked for it, but yeah, his part-time job. Here's another dollar an hour. He's like, awesome! So yeah, the economy's humming in Southern Minnesota.

Rihanna: [00:15:42] Yep. I think they're really trying to keep their employees, so that's awesome!

David Jones: [00:15:46] It is ! Well, our time's evaporating here. I really appreciate you carving out and sharing a little bit about yourself and your goals for this year and everything and providing advice. You have anything else you'd want to share with our audience?

Rihanna: [00:16:00] Yeah! So if you're interested in joining Student Government, we are basically just like the representative body of students on campus.

We have quite a few senatorial positions that are still open ranging depending on what college you're in. So, we are actually having a special election during I think the first or second week in September. If you're interested in advocacy, if you're interested in representing your other students, giving your ideas to the University and then working of course, with faculty and staff and administration, to see some of your ideas through, you can email me or you can email Kara, but you can also join the special election and run to become a Senator, which is also a pretty special and awesome position as far as being a student and how you get to influence other students. So again, contact us, follow student government on Instagram and Facebook, and you can find some more information there in the coming weeks.

David Jones: [00:16:51] Wow. That sounds awesome. Plenty of opportunities, that's for certain. With that I want to thank you President Stiff for spending a little time with us here today!

For our listeners, let me share with you a little bit of a COVID update and we'll wrap up there. We did receive a higher education guidance from the Minnesota Department of Health last week, continuing to reinforce a more normal fall.

We're in the process right now of returning furniture back to our classrooms across the campus that we took out as we headed into the pandemic to allow us to use those classroom spaces . MDH in short has said that we can start to move back to full occupancy in our spaces.

Of course, all of this seems to be contingent upon the vaccination rate within our community, and within our campus. If you're listening, we are encouraging everybody to get the vaccine. Cause that's just going to provide more openings and opportunities, and specifically it's because the governor has indicated that if you're vaccinated, you don't need to wear a mask.

If you're not vaccinated yet, please wear a mask. And our campus size reflects that as well. So, get the vaccine and there's no shortage of opportunities. We also provide it here in our Student Health Center, but I know it's available through the state and local medical providers across the country at this point.

With that you can go to our our campus website. We now have a brand new one; it's no longer called return to learn it's called return to campus. You will find it right off our University homepage and with all the latest updates on that point. So, I'm pretty excited! I think as everybody is to have a little more normality, let's hope it continues that way.

Thank you for spending time with us and listeners stay tuned! We've got some more recordings coming out soon. Thanks and have a good day ! Rianna. You too.

View Details

David Jones: Hello and welcome to our next episode of our family podcast from Minnesota state university Mankato. I'm excited to be joined today by one of our, long-term leaders here within our division of student affairs, enrollment management. It is Nikki stock director of student engagement initiatives, and pardon me, director of student engagement.

Initiatives and assessment. It's a relatively new title here from the work that she's been doing. And I'm excited to have her spend some time with us here today and share us a little bit more about to , well, mostly about orientation, things that are going on and students and families are preparing to learn more about the university have to start in the fall.

So with that, Nikki welcome. Thanks for carving out some time to meet.

Nikki Stock: Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

David Jones: So to give folks some background, how long have you been at MSU?

Nikki Stock: I, it will be 17 years in July.

David Jones: Whoa, Whoa. And where have you worked in that time?

Nikki Stock: All in the new student and family programs office, which used to be called the first-year experience office, but yeah, always here.

And then actually his fun fact is I was a graduate student here also a couple of years prior to that. And I also worked in the new student family programs office at that time as well.

David Jones: Oh, perfect. So there's no doubt. You share all that cause you're quite the expert when it comes to what, what new students and families are preparing, asking questions and such like that.

I always love referring to. This office is kind of the one that, that parents and families at any point, if they have a question and they're not sure where to start, start with this office. Cause if you guys don't know the answer, you'll likely know where to find it. And that continues to ring true year over year.

So it is the incredible resource. So again, thanks for carving out some time to meet with us here today. So what's, what's all included within your office. What are all the responsibilities right now?

Nikki Stock: Yep. So well within the new student family programs office the biggest program probably is that orientation and included with that as family orientation.

And so, um, orientation , we, we coordinate the programs for all of our new entering first year students, as well as our transfer students. And then I'm also online learners and Excel. Than it, ed. So we've got just different student populations that we coordinate those programs for. And then, like I said family orientation too.

We, we, you know, recognize that it's a transition for our family members as well of our incoming students. And um, we want to give them the resources that they need also to help their students be successful. And as they work through the transition. Another piece of our office. We do family communications and right now we have our e-newsletters going out every two weeks, so twice a month.

And we'll have you sign up for those actually you'll automatically get signed up for them. Um, Uh, if you are signed up with admissions we just kinda take your email address and add you to our newsletter. You can opt out if you choose. But yeah, that, and then we also do, we have our testing centers part of our office.

And and so the testing center is for math and English placement testing. And, and that's very new. That's just over a year. That we started the testing center. And so we're trying to build that a little bit. We have done some act testing and so we hope to expand different areas of testing as well.

So those are kind of the big pieces of the new student and family programs office. We also coordinate family weekend stuff like that. And then we help with our welcome week planning also. So just kind of, again, those things to connect our students to the campus and then connect parents as well.

David Jones: Excellent. That is a lot of stuff and a lot of important things that really make a difference for, especially the way our students start, whether it's from the testing center to the orientation. And of course, just any general questions you may have. So that's great. Great. So let's start, you mentioned orientation, it's kind of being, that's probably top of mind for our listeners today, as they're getting ready for this summer's orientation and what it looks like in the midst of a, of a pandemic.

And I always during these podcasts, I'm trying to reference today is April 15th. So any COVID information we share today is what we know as of today. So when you listen to it, It may change because it continues to change all the time, but Nikki, can you give us a high level overview of what orientation will look like for our new students and their families?

Nikki Stock: Right. Well, um, due to the planning that goes into orientation, cause it is a large scale program. We had to make the decision a while back already to have a virtual, primarily virtual orientation program. Again, this year. And um, we invite our students. There's kind of several pieces to that for our students.

And so they're invited to sign up for an orientation session and that session, if there is a session date that they will zoom into and get some just basic information from our assistant director for orientation. And then also I'm the director of academic advising. And that will be kind of the.

Start of their advising and registration process then and then we do have our orientation, the kind of the content or the stuff we need our students to know to be successful here in the fall. We've got that set up in D2L Brightspace, which is our learning platform here at the university. And so students sign in with their, their star ID and.

Kind of, it's a great way to students can start learning how to navigate because they will be using it for classes also in the fall. So it's kinda nice. And that is part of the orientation. We also kind of teach them how to navigate to do well before they get into it. So, um, we are, so again, primarily virtual, we are in the planning stages.

We hope to offer a handful of on campus visit experiences yet for our students. Again, we're really in the early planning stages of that, we haven't set dates yet. We're looking probably at July for those. And you know, we're really still working around the physical, distinct guidelines that we have in place for that.

And so trying to figure out what makes the most sense and getting students the experience You know, a great experience on campus. But we also want that. I want them to have that opportunity of actually coming to see the campus and meeting other new first year students. And, you know, that's all part of the typical orientation experience.

We do do some of that virtual as well. We will offer up connection labs. They were the highest rated part of the program last year. Last year is obviously the first year that we did the connection labs. But that truly is an experience where we have our orientation staff, our orientation leaders facilitating about a one hour session with new first year students or transfer students as well.

We've got separate ones for transfer students and yeah, they just kinda get to know each other over zoom. You know, as best as best you can, but , um, they engage the students and get them talking and connecting. So, that's the first step. And so that's kind of what it looks like this year. Yeah.

And we'll get more information out to you when we know the dates and more information about them, the on-campus expenses.

David Jones: Perfect. Perfect. So to, to learn more about your orientation, the best resource, probably the website right now. Right.

Nikki Stock: Yep. Yep. And and email, Oh my gosh. You have to be checking your email.

Because yeah, our admissions office is sending out the information that we need that way. But yes, our website is up to date and say, you can check that out. But yeah , that's, that's probably the best at this point.

David Jones: Perfect. Thanks. So one of the things you were sharing with me before we started the recording was that that you have a, a pretty unique experience for families and parents that you started last year for the first time.

And that's a book club to help families understand the transition their students might be going through. Can you share a little bit more about, you know, how that went last year and what, what the plan is for this year?

Nikki Stock: Sure. Yep. Yeah we have chosen a book it's called out to see a parent's survival guide.

I think that's what the subtitle is, but it is written by actually an author who is from Minnesota and she had her, her daughters went to college. So she's she's met with the different administrators to write the book and then she's got some parent input and that kind of thing, but it's just a real easy read.

And so, um, Yeah. So we invite our parents and family members to join us for the book club. We do have limited copies that we've been sending out for people that sign up for the book club. And um, yeah, but to promote you to get that book as soon as possible, but yeah, we'll meet three times.

You don't have to be at every meeting because actually our first meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 19th. And then we'll meet again in may and one more time in June. And so, yeah, all new parents are, are welcome. Um, it's a great opportunity, especially if this is your first student going away to college.

Cause we really talk about those transition issues. That students, and like I said, in parents face them as well. And so, uh, yeah, like I said, it's an easy read and parents last year found it to be, yeah, spot on, right? Like that, those are the things that they were experiencing. And and so the book club then gave us an opportunity.

It's actually led by our counseling center director Carrie much. And so she did a great job facilitating. She's facilitating again this year, too. But yeah, parents could talk about. Yeah, what's going on and how their student is reacting and is it similar to others and what's different. And Carrie just does a great job with that, with facilitating that.

So we're excited to offer that again this year as an opportunity.

David Jones: Yeah. Sounds like an amazing one. And listeners may recall I have a high school senior who's college bound in the fall. So I, there is a copy of that book, my house.

Nikki Stock: Are you going to be joining us on Monday?

David Jones: Probably not. That is something we've been talking about, taking a look at, and there are days where you can't.

Imagine him leaving and then there's days where you're like we can pack you tonight. Let's go.

Nikki Stock: That's very typical. Yes. I've been quite honestly working with the parents at orientation has, that's always been my favorite thing. And so for all the years that I've been doing it. Yeah.

Hear all this stories and you'd be surprised at how similar. It is across the board. But yeah it's.

David Jones: I'm assuming it's because , well, and my depth of knowledge might be a little greater cause I, I taught college. I taught human growth and development in graduate school when I lived in North Carolina.

And so I know the stages from Erickson and all these things that they're going through. And so, but I have to remind myself, I mean, what. What appears to be a jerk is a kid. Who's trying to figure out some more autonomy and control at times. Right. And you're just, ah, no any assistance in helping remind me is always helpful as well.

I really appreciate you providing that opportunity for our parents and those that want to take it and they can get it through bookstore, Amazon, the books all over. So it shouldn't be too hard to find and they get, is there more information on your website on that?

Nikki Stock: Yeah. Yep. You can go to the website. And then, so if you actually go to 'em real quick, it's mnsu.edu/orientation.

And then under the orientation page, you'll find a link to family resources. And then that's where you'd find the family orientation information that includes the book club and then also your podcast information.

David Jones: Excellent. Excellent. It is the top rated make keto based family oriented. They tell everybody So Nikki with, with , uh, 17 years of experience and having done this for awhile, let's wrap it up with, what advice would you give to parents?

Is there a preparing for this transition?

Nikki Stock: Sure. I asked David if I can joke about teaching them to do laundry. Um, yes. You know, it, it kind of is it's those things not necessarily the laundry, but. You know, w we want to partner with our parents and family members of our incoming students and you know, our goal really I think of the university is really to launch our students so that they are, adults, you know, that they are contributing members to society and they, you know, um, know how to, I guess, be successful at life.

And so, you know, we, we all need to work together on that because that's been our parent's job is to do that as well. Right. Yeah. I have them start seriously making their own doctor's appointments and their own dentist appointment, you know, it's kind of those kinds of things, but also talk to them , um, about finances and , um, you know, kind of all the other important things , um, about.

Becoming an adult, a responsible adult. Yeah. You know, I also said to students, if I can give advice to students, I, you know, just check your email. There's a lot of stuff that we send out over email. And our students may feel like that's an antiquated way to communicate. But it is how we still communicate at the university.

So just. Do that , but, but yeah, no parents enjoy it. You know, take those, those pictures of, you know, this is your last, you know, I don't know, 4th of July together. This is, you know, all those kinds of things. And , um, as you know, um, time passes quickly when you have children. So. Enjoy it it's fun and scary.

And their students are probably a little bit scared too, even though they don't want to admit it. But yeah,

David Jones: I think that's about right from what I see the nerves already are starting to like, Oh, the reality of my son recently My son's going to play college soccer. And he received recently received the message from the coach about when he needs to report.

And that suddenly became very real, right. There is a hard date of which I need to be at college. And yeah. And I'm just another step in the transition process, I guess. Yeah.

Nikki Stock: Yeah, it is. So, yeah. I mean, if we, yeah, normally we'd have an orientation program on campus for our family members and yeah.

I talk about all those different emotions and then and yeah, fear is one of them and, but fear shows up in many different ways, you know, anxiety worry. Yeah, we have a lot of words for it but it is, that's real, very much, so.

David Jones: Nikki, thank you so much for spending some time with us today and sharing your wisdom and.

And , um, I know that you stand ready as is any of our staff and employees and faculty here do at answering any questions folks may have. So, um, I know that I can reach out to you through the new student family program website and orientation information and everything, but really appreciate you carving out some time here.

And for our listeners stay tuned for another episode. We'll, uh, have one out soon. Thanks everybody.

View Details

View Details

In this podcast, our host Dr. David Jones, has a chat with the director of university admissions, Dr. Brian Jones. In this episode they discus how to keep parents and students connected with campus and planning for the upcoming fall semester.

View Details

[School theme softly plays]

Hello and welcome to the 2021 Minnesota state university family orientation podcast. I'm your host this season, Dr. David Jones, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, here at Minnesota state university Mankato. We're excited, we did this podcast last summer and got great reviews on it. Clearly, we're continuing to be in the midst of a pandemic so feel like it makes a lot of sense to continue this effort and share with you important resources information introduce you to some of the important people here at the university that will be very influential in the success of your student as they attend our university and answer just a lot of questions you might have so this is our welcoming podcast I want to share with you a couple of different messages first as I mentioned I'm the vice president for student affairs I'm in my 10th year here at the university and couldn't be more thrilled to be sharing all the various resources and the people here and the offices at our university and the dedicated efforts that they've put forward, in all that they've done to help students be successful during their time here. So the purpose of this podcast really is to provide a lot of that information but more importantly provide accurate information based on what we know related to the pandemic our academic planning our student support and service plans for you, as you get ready for the fall of 2021 and we welcome our new class of students.

So let me start with what we know right now today I'm recording this on the 26th of February 2021 and we continue to meet weekly one of the things we're super proud of is our weekly meetings with the Minnesota department of health right from the beginning of the pandemic we've struck a great relationship with the Minnesota department of health and their higher education experts in helping us adjust to the needs of our students our faculty and staff here to make sure that we're following the most recent guidance as well as we've placed people on statewide committees and task forces to help influence and write those guidance's that have been used across all of higher education in the state of Minnesota. It's that expertise that we take a lot of pride in knowing that they're available and right here on our own campus to help our students be successful so what do we know as of right now we stand just about at midterm period here in our spring semester students we find ourselves in what we call our flex sync mode. If you look at the color on our website we are in yellow, which is right above the green. Green is back to fully normal it goes yellow and then orange and then red being the most serious green being open we are at yellow we started this semester at orange as requested by the governor of the state of Minnesota and transition recently to yellow which allows us to begin to do more in-person activities here and provide more in-person services for our students that includes the opportunity for faculty to engage with their students in our classroom settings so I mentioned the term flex sync one of the things we're super proud of and we'll explore in a future episode as well but our students right now have the opportunity if they're not feeling well or they're not feeling safe with their own health to go and attend an in-person class they have the opportunity to go log in and attend that class from afar right on their laptop from their apartment or their home or the residence hall room wherever they may be. As well as flexing then allows some of the students to attend class in person. We have the entire classroom set up across the campus with the current six-foot distancing as well as requiring masks at all locations here on campus and that provides a great opportunity for students to interact with their faculty and their professors and instructors as well as maintain a safe distance from everybody in a way that allows them to maximize their learning. This approach has really allowed us to be super successful this year we poured in a lot of resources last summer to make sure we had the success that we're having right now, and we're super proud of that.
As we look at our cases here at our university and where we stand on the number of cases and everything let me share with you an update on that. 
I shared earlier that as of February 24th two days ago we are still at the yellow.

We have a total number of students with active cases of COVID right now in our campuses is 7. 
Just one of those students has had an active case with a self-reported campus contact, meaning they've (one person) been on campus at some point when they were positive.  We have 0 of our 97 available quarantine beds being used right now. We house about 3 000 students in a normal year. 

Right now we've put aside 97 rooms to address those who need to isolate or quarantine, and we have zero of those 97 spaces being used right now.  We may have students who are living in our residence halls that may quarantine or isolate in their own space. right now we have zero students who are doing that as well. So, we're super proud you can look at our website underneath our covid campus data and you can see since we began tracking this information in early August all the way through today of how we've stayed on top of covid and been super transparent about the resources that we have and where our caseload is at this particular time. In addition to that, we're super proud of our student health team that is put in place and we'll explore more about their services in a future podcast.

But really we have full medical physicians nurse practitioners nurses we have built and put in place a respiration clinic so we can do testing right here on campus as well.

And of course, our students in the city of Mankato have the opportunity to take advantage

of some of the state testing sites, we have set up as well. So that's where we stand, lastly, I want to introduce you to a couple of resources, and we'll talk more about these again in future episodes

But that's where we stand right now, we have an
an incredible resource called the office of

New Student and Family Programs, and that's an
office that's available for our new students before you get here as well. As a new student all throughout your first year, and then family it is the best place to start with any question you may have because if you're uncertain where to start it is truly the best place. I promise you if that office doesn't have the answer right away they'll likely know where to find the answer or who to speak to for answers.

So, it's an incredible resource, you can go to our office in new student family programs you'll find versions of this podcast, where you can link to Spotify, iTunes, youtube to find that posting of this resource and we want to welcome you excited you're considering to be a maverick or that you've made the commitment to be a maverick for this coming fall. We'll be sharing with you more details as we record these I expect to be doing these probably minimally monthly, but likely two times a month as we introduce you to a lot more topics and know that you have questions.

With that thank you look forward to speaking with you more and visiting you in a future episode! 

thanks!