Recent Program Features

To Our Student Community:

Although summer is still in full swing, we are already thinking about fall on campus and how we can be prepared to both welcome you back and protect you and our faculty and staff from the transmission of COVID-19.

Last week, we finalized our official procedures for notification when a student, employee or visitor to campus tests positive for the virus. The process for students can be found at the Return to Learn website here. I encourage you to read through that information and be familiar with it before you come to campus.

The main thing I want to point out is that individual privacy is a priority; no one is required or compelled to notify the University about a positive test. However, we hope that individuals will choose to notify us so that we can take the appropriate steps. Because COVID-19 is a public health issue, information is shared on a need-to-know basis. We will follow guidance from the Minnesota Department of Health in the event others need to be notified of a suspected or positive COVID-19 test result.

I also want to remind everyone that each individual’s health status is a private matter, and no one should publicly declare someone else as sick. This includes NOT notifying classes, office colleagues, student clubs, teams, etc. unless there is specific guidance to do so. Supervisors and instructors do have the right to ask an employee or student to go home if COVID symptoms are present.

As we continue to prepare for fall 2020 classes, we know that many of you may have already or may soon receive email notifications of changes to your scheduled courses from noreply@mnsu.edu with “Registration Change Notification” as the subject line. These notifications are sent automatically by our Minnesota State system after any change is made to a course to encourage you to review your class schedule. We recognize that these emails have caused some confusion, so we want to be clear about why you may have received such a notification:

• Your class time may have changed
• Your classroom location may have changed
• A change may have been made to the instructor of the course
• The course delivery method may have changed. This happened when the system adopted the code of “HyFlex” as its generic term for what we are calling FlexSync classes. We will provide additional information about what your FlexSync classes will look like in the coming weeks.

There are other reasons changes to classes happen prior to the start of a semester. If you have questions on your class schedule and want us to assist, please email provost@mnsu.edu.

We always appreciate hearing from you with questions. Please keep submitting your questions here. We will get back to you with answers as soon as possible. In the meantime, I will continue to send you email updates every week. You can also find more information by visiting www.mnsu.edu/returntolearn.

I look forward to seeing you again in August!

Sincerely,

Richard Davenport,
President

This drawing is a representation of the world during COVID-19 pandemic. 

On one hand, this drawing shows that the world is in a deep depression due to COVID-19.  The dark color is the symbol of the depression. The white mask and the red viruses characterize COVID-19. The world is crying and saying “Help!” because COVID-19 has killed a lot of people. Moreover, the world is going through economic and political crises due to this pandemic.  

On the other hand, this drawing shows that there is hope. The sun is a sign that there is hope. If people follow the recommended guidelines, we will be able to reduce considerably the spread of this virus. There is also hope because they are recoveries. Moreover, scientists and front-line workers are working hard to save the world.  

Poem by an anonymous international student worker on prevention and the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Prevention 

I met death today 

It smiled at me 

And called out for me 

It breathes in my way 

But I had a mask 

It approached me from afar 

It touched a lot of people on its way to me 

It stretched out its hand for me  

But we were six feet apart 

It managed to touch my hands  

But I washed, o I washed 

For how long I do not know. 

Till it washed off 

I finally learnt a way to defeat it 

Follow the rules and leave 

Or disobey the rules and die. 

In the mid afternoon of yesterday, I was at the balcony of my apartment sipping my drink and having a feel of the sun. The atmosphere was conducive and relaxing. while I was living in the moment and minding my business, all of a sudden the weather changed, the clouds became dark and it started raining. It rained not for long, then a rainbow appeared in the sky. I quickly took pictures of how beautiful the sky looks with the rainbow.
In my home country Ghana, a rainbow signifies hope. so when I saw it in the sky, it demonstrated that there is hope during this difficult time. I smiled believing that whatever we are going through in this tough time including COVID-19 pandemic will end soon. All we have now is hope. No matter how big COVID-19 has affected or is affecting us, we should not give up, we should keep holding on to hope, that things will get better soon.
I will encourage everyone to be strong during this hard time. Remember, no condition is permanent...... We will get through this.