Welcome back from Dean Meinert & COB
I hope this blog finds you doing well as you prepare for fall 2020 classes. I know that the fall semester will not be “business as usual’ and I appreciate your patience and flexibility as the University and COB navigate through this ever-changing landscape. Below are some hopefully timely updates to ensure your fall semester gets off to a good start.
Review your Fall 2020 schedule for room or modality changes
As you prepare for the Fall Semester, I want to assure you the College of Business is doing everything we can to ensure we provide a “near normal” student experience during the coming academic year. To address health and safety concerns, some modifications in class scheduling, sizes, and modalities were made to increase social distancing, reduce building occupancy during peak periods, and allow for MSU’s Custodial Services to clean classroom desktops following every third class. If one or more of your classes was impacted by these changes, you should have received an email. However, I encourage you to review your course schedule for any room or modality changes again before Monday (8/17).
Plan to MaskUp
As you may already know, the University has adopted a COVID-19 Masking Policy for campus. COB faculty and staff fully support these initiatives as we believe they are key to not only keeping our students and employees safe but keeping the campus open and holding seated classes and labs. Please review the COVID-19 Masking Policy in its entirety, and be prepared to MaskUp when you are in campus buildings, including classrooms.
Food and Drink Limited To Designated Food Courts
To ensure compliance with the mask policy, no consumption of food or drink will be allowed in campus buildings outside of designated food courts. In Glass Hall, consumption of food and drink should be limited to the food court/seating areas adjacent to Einstein Bros. Bagels.
Care for Your Fellow Biz Bears
In the interest of everyone’s safety it is critical that all of our students, faculty, and staff take preventative measures to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19. This includes monitoring for unexplained COVID-19 related symptoms and staying home and/or seeking medical attention if you experience them. If you are unable to attend class due to symptoms, a positive test resulting in isolation, or being asked to quarantine due to close contact with an infected individual, please communicate this information to your instructor.
COB Career Fairs
For those of you planning to seek internships or full-time positions during the coming year, please know that COB is working closely with employers. Information on the upcoming COB Career Fairs is available now and you will receive a detailed email next week.
Faculty Office Hours
Traditional office hours, especially in smaller faculty offices, create social distancing challenges; therefore, COB faculty have been encouraged to provide virtual rather than in-office support. Virtual support may be delivered by faculty synchronously, asynchronously, or via a combination of synchronous/asynchronous. At the start of the semester, faculty will outline their respective plan for providing student support.
Academic Advisement
Recognizing that social distancing is challenging during 1:1 advising sessions, the Business Advisement Center and Graduate Programs staff will continue to provide academic advisement via Zoom through at least December 31, 2020.
We know there will be some unique challenges as the school year gets underway, but we sincerely hope that by working together our students, faculty, and staff can have a safe and successful fall semester. If you have questions or concerns, please let us know via COB@MissouriState.edu.