Planning During COVID-19

TJ McDowell Author

02/11/2021 Added

13 Plays

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For departments and organizations thinking about hosting in-person events this semester, it’s important that you keep up with Directed Health Measures to help promote a safe environment and keep within university compliance. Join Assistant Vice Chancellor TJ McDowell each Wednesday at 3 p.m. for a quick update on the latest policies and to get answers to your event planning questions in the age of COVID-19. (Zoom: go.unl.edu/eventplanning)

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[00:00:00.000]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): health measures, UNL's event expectations and guidance, and other information to help you plan and host successful and safe events.
[00:00:08.700]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Our agenda for today, as always, we review the directed health measures, expectations and guidance, and then have plenty of time for questions and answers. So, I'll start by sharing my screen.
[00:00:24.420]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): And going into.
[00:00:31.950]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Some some quick updates. Some some community -- I want to start with campus and community updates. So, some good news. I think we're headed in the right direction.
[00:00:42.000]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): The risk of dial for Lincoln-Lancaster County moved from orange to yellow yesterday on February 9. So, that's an indication that things are going in the right direction.
[00:00:52.170]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Also, the positivity rate for UNL as we've expanded testing for the week ended February 6 was 0.42%, so less than 1% was our positivity rate.
[00:01:04.650]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Again, it's really good news about what's happening on campus. I want to be sure, and give the entire campus community kudos for making this happen.
[00:01:13.290]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): And to remind us that we must continue to follow protocols and guidance; and let's continue to wear a mask must continue to socially distance and to follow the other protocols and guidance. So but thank you and kudos to the entire community for that.
[00:01:27.450]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): There has been, with the change in the risk dial from orange to yellow, there are also some new directed health measures that go into effect on February 12.
[00:01:38.340]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): There's still, uh, anytime we have an event where we're planning on more than 500 participants, we must get the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department approval.
[00:01:47.250]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): The one change here, there's no max on size going forward they changed that. The gathering event occupancy for both indoors and outdoors is now 75% of rated occupancy.
[00:02:01.560]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Indoors was 50% and outdoors and 75%. Those are both now 75%. The max group a table still remains eight.
[00:02:11.460]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): And if you are planning an event with more than 50 participants, so if you're anticipating more than 50 participants for an event you're planning, you still must go though the university approval process. And at this time, travel is not permitted outside the city of Lincoln.
[00:02:29.520]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Okay, that's the directed health measures. University guidelines -- we're still expecting face coverings are required for all events, indoors and outdoors.
[00:02:38.340]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So, regardless of the size of that event, you should just be wearing masks anytime you're on the university property, except in your room.
[00:02:47.280]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Anytime you have an event with 50 or more participants an advisor or university employee is required to attend to help with enforcing the social distancing and the mask wearing protocols and the face covering wearing protocols.
[00:02:59.790]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): And then we're asking that if you're planning an event with more than 50 participants that it gets approved seven days prior to the event.
[00:03:06.840]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): And we realized that can be tricky sometimes, but that's still what we want to shoot for so please be sure to start planning early to make sure you can get that event approved seven days prior.
[00:03:18.210]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): There's a group, a committee of folks, that are representative of fraternity sorority life, Campus Recreation, Student Involvement and other
[00:03:25.200]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): key offices on campus that are continuing to review event guidance as it relates to the risk dial and local directed health measures,
[00:03:35.250]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): campus positivity rates, and UNL testing infrastructure capacity. So we're continuing to look to see can we open up more activities as the data allows.
[00:03:45.150]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So, two things that we've done is we've identified what students consider to be priority activities, including things like intramural sports scrimmages.
[00:03:54.060]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): and vocal performances and practices as a couple of examples of those priorities.
[00:03:58.890]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): We are investigating instances where UNL event guidance might be more restrictive than the current the DHMs.
[00:04:05.940]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): For example, UNL prohibits indoor intramural team sports like basketball or soccer,
[00:04:11.940]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): but current DHMs allow for high school basketball games. So, we have a committee that's looking at that -- very preliminary stages of looking at that --
[00:04:19.440]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): to see if there are some ways in which we're more restrictive and we can make some recommendations about adjusting those. That's a lengthy process, a lot of people have to go through and review that, but we're looking at it and going through that process now.
[00:04:34.620]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Let's see... and then again the resources that are available online to you if you have additional questions. So, I'm going to stop the screenshare now and
[00:04:45.390]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): open it up and see if anyone has questions or comments or thoughts that we can try to answer. And if we can't answer them now, we'll get them answered for you at a later time.
[00:05:04.080]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): The question from Zach is how low does the positivity rate have to go to adjust these guidelines. 0.42% seems extremely low.
[00:05:12.120]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Zach, you're right. 0.42% does seem really low. Uh, I'm not sure. We're continuing to consult with the Lancaster County Health Department about what that looks like, what threshold is.
[00:05:22.650]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): But I can tell you we're working to see what what additional activities we might be able to open up because of our low positivity rate.
[00:05:32.010]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Good question, Zach.
[00:05:40.050]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Other questions?
[00:05:42.060]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Also, a reminder that the webinar, the most recent webinar, is always uploaded to the website so you can come back to it or share it with others if you have questions.
[00:05:56.760]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): If you're working on an event, I also again want to remind you to take advantage of staff.
[00:06:02.880]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Debbie, who does the approval, she's available to help you if you have questions. Melissa and Veronica, Leigh from Fraternity and Sorority Life, are available to help you if you have questions.
[00:06:15.360]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Another question... Is there a timeline on when campus gyms will be open for five on fall basketball.
[00:06:21.600]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): John, I can't tell you the exact timeline. I know that that is one of the things that's been looked at.
[00:06:27.120]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): We're working with several committees and the health department to see about when that might open, but we've heard that's something that the campus would like to see opened up.
[00:06:39.060]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So, we're working on that.
[00:06:41.340]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Hannah has a question about... for events that are above 50 people, but the event occurs in shifts. no more than 28 people at a time, do we still need the university approval?
[00:06:52.110]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): That's a good question, Hannah. I'll defer to Debbie on that. Debbie when the event is no more than 50 at a time, do we still need to go to the event approval process.
[00:07:03.990]Debbie Hendricks: Yes, we do.
[00:07:05.070]Okay.
[00:07:06.930]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So that's answer to that question. For a possible 50 person event, Daniel has a question about for a possible 50 person event at a venue downtown or in the Haymarket, will the university
[00:07:18.870]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Daniel, an answer to that question is yes. Anytime you're going to have an event with more than 50 individuals you still need a staff or advisor on campus or off campus. Good question.
[00:07:31.620]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Nick Anderson is asking where can I access this PowerPoint and information. It'll be on the COVID-19 website.
[00:07:39.180]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Following the webinar, they post it sometime this afternoon.
[00:07:47.220]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Phoenix, so are all intramurals prohibited it at this time? Or is it just indoor basketball and soccer? There's some pretty.
[00:07:55.920]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): prohibitive restrictions in terms of what we've been allowing in terms of team sports right now. But we're looking at how to open up all team sports if we can do it safely, to Phoenix's question.
[00:08:09.660]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Sam, your other question, what's the difference between the university staff and advisor? Oftentimes they're one in the same. If you have an RSO advisor, they are often university staff.
[00:08:18.510]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): But maybe a great chapter has an advisor who's not a university staff member. That would count if that you know that chapter was doing an event.
[00:08:27.630]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): But usually it's a staff person.
[00:08:31.260]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Most the time it's going to be university staff person, but there might be that time where it's a Greek chapter's not employed. Good questions.
[00:08:44.250]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Any other questions?
[00:09:08.580]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Well, if there are no other questions, we will end today's update and see you back here next Wednesday at three o'clock.
[00:09:17.250]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): But, again, I want to say with so many students on, how grateful we are to you all for following protocols, for continuing to wear your masks, for continuing to go through this process.
[00:09:27.030]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Our positivity rate wouldn't be so low without y'all doing that, so thank you for doing that. Thank you for following that, helping keep yourself and your peers safe.
[00:09:37.350]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So we'll end this for today. Thank you for tuning in this again. This will be posted online shortly. And if you have questions don't hesitate to reach out to us.
[00:09:46.650]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Thank you.

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Planning During COVID-19

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