June 8, 2020 Special Edition

Mercy College Virtual Commencement

Live! Mercy College Virtual Commencement

Thank you to all the faculty and staff who encouraged students to particpate.

Students Affairs Update

Submitted by Marc Adkins

Announcements:

To address the recent social and racial injustices that have occurred, please understand this is a difficult time for many. We long for healing for all those who are struggling right now. For students, faculty, and staff who are in need of support, resources are available to the campus community. Please see below.

Counseling and Wellness: contact Suzanne Hall. In Youngstown, contact Ann Bair. Also, please access the Counseling & Wellness webpage or the Student Success folder on Canvas.

Campus Ministry and Pastoral Care: contact Annie Devine or the Campus Ministry webpage.

Life Matters – (Faculty & Staff): Employees can call 877-692-7780 or text “Hello” to 61295. Additional information for Life Matters can be found on the Mercy Health Hub.

Safety & Security
This summer there are various populations of students that are on the Toledo campus performing coursework. Dr. Wajert and Marc Adkins have collaborated with Jamie Babcock (Maintenance), Sada Tadesse (Housekeeping), Austin Zoeller (Supply Chain), Jeff Metzger (IT), Leslie Erwin (Risk Management) and the appropriate program chairs, to communicate and implement appropriate safety measures. This is also the case in Youngstown, where Dr. McAllen, Kim Pavel, Laurie Minich, Betsy Cardwell, and Tina Fowler have collaborated with Housekeeping and Safety & Security to implement measures for their students.

Student Life
Due to the COVID-19 situation, applications for the 2020-2021 Hoffman Ambassadors and Leader Scholars programs were few. With this, not all available spots will be filled for the coming academic year. Interviews for these respective programs will be concluding soon!

There was a similar situation with the SOAR Leaders program, therefore, the Student Government Association (SGA) membership will serve in this capacity for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Planning for the Student Leader Retreat and Week of Welcome are in full swing, with this year’s versions being delivered in a virtual format.

If you, or students you are aware, have food insecurity issues, please contact Annie Devine at foodpantry@mercycollege.edu or Mercy College Food Pantry. Food pantry inquires can also be found in the Campus Life folder on Canvas.

Testing Center
The Testing Center has completed the application for certification by the National College Testing Association (NCTA). The next step in this process will be a site visit, which has yet to be determined due to the COVID-19 period.

Diversity & Inclusion
The search process for a candidate continues, as the two candidates have completed Skype and phone interviews with various Mercy College administration & staff, as well as Mercy Health administration. Due to the hiring freeze, an offer will not be made until the freeze is lifted (anticipated July 1^st).

Student Success Center
A reminder that with summer classwork please do not hesitate to direct your students to available resources. Academic support resources, such as tutoring in Nursing or other related disciplines (Sciences, Math & Writing) are available by contacting the Student Success Center or accessing the webpage. In Youngstown, you can contact Somia Abou-Osman. Students have access to Smarthinking, the FREE, 24/7 online tutoring software that is available through Canvas. Also, on Canvas you will find the Student Success folder that houses resources as well as other helpful materials.

June is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month. PTSD affects approximately 7.8 million American adults in a given year. Severe, prolonged symptoms may include panic attacks, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. For more information about PTSD and to locate resources, please access the Student Success Center, Counseling, and Wellness link on CANVAS. Youngstown Campus - ann.bair@mercycollege.edu or 330-480-2874 OR Toledo Campus - suzanne.hall1@mercycollege.edu or 419-251-1454.

Information Technology News

Submitted by Jeff Metzger

Windows 10 Upgrade
Many computers at Mercy College are due for an upgrade to a newer version of Windows 10. This upgrade is scheduled to occur June 22 – 25 and will ensure that we continue to run on a supported version of the operating system. Your applications, favorites, and documents will not be affected. Please plan to leave your computer on and connected to the Internet between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. on those dates. (A VPN connection is not needed.) This will allow your computer to update overnight rather than interrupting your work during business hours. More detailed information will be coming soon.

Computer Backups
The IT team is in the process of deploying a backup script to faculty and staff computers so that your favorites, Outlook signature, and desktop files will be preserved in the event of a power outage or computer failure. The deployment will happen in the background and will not interrupt your work. You will notice a new folder in your H: drive called “<your username>_backup_DO_NOT_DELETE”. Every day, your desktop items will be copied to that folder so that they can be recovered if necessary. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Academic Affairs Updates – June 2020

Submitted by Dr. Trevor M. Bates, DHSc, AT, ATC

Faculty Facts - Did you Know?

Mercy College Faculty have given over a dozen (12+) scholarly presentations within and outside of the College since January 2020!

Three (3) different Mercy College Faculty members are completing scholarly projects supported by the Faculty Scholarship Grant Program and each will present their findings in the Spring 2021!

Academic Search Committees

Ongoing searches in Academic Administration, Nursing, English, Mathematics, and Physician Assistant Studies.
- Please participate as requested in virtual search processes.

Process / Document / Contract Review

We have acquired a new Catalog software called Watermark® that will be used to digitize reviewing and updating of the undergraduate and graduate catalogs.
We are monitoring progress on adding a proctoring service, ProctorU®, that will allow faculty a secure method to assign/complete remote testing in their courses. The goal is to have this in place for Fall 2020.
Program Handbooks and Faculty and Staff Handbook will undergo an administrative review only for 2019-2020.

Assessment & Accreditation

A virtual site visit for the developing Master of Physician Studies Program with ARC-PA on June 8-9, 2020
The Emergency Medical Technician-Basic (EMT-B) Program will have a virtual site visit in 2020
Proposals have been sent to the Higher Learning Commission and Ohio Department of Higher Education for the College to transition from a 16-week academic calendar to a 15-week academic calendar beginning in 2021-2022.
We are awaiting final approval from the Higher Learning Commission to approve our RN to MSN program.
A proposal was sent in May to the Higher Learning Commission and Ohio Department of Higher Education for the College to transition from a 16-week to a 15-week academic calendar in 2021-2022.

Faculty Assembly

The Graduate Studies Committee approved
- a procedure for undergraduate student to take graduate courses called the MHA Fast Track. A similar procedure is being investigated for the MSN.
- a procedure to allow prospective graduate students who do not meet GPA requirements to obtain provisional acceptance in the graduate MSN and MHA programs.
The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee approved a procedure to allow prospective students a “Fresh Start” who have a historic GPA that prevent them from meeting current GPA requirements for undergraduate admission standards at the College.

Academic Administration

Deans and Directors successfully organized summer activities to support graduating student progress on meeting requirements of Incompletes (I) grades, preparation for Summer Clinicals, and Fall coursework due to set backs in spring associated with COVID-19.
Library Services has enhanced their website and services for faculty, staff, and student use, take a look - https://mercycollege.libguides.com/home
Distance Education is completing a template for Fall to improve organization in course shells for faculty use.
Is working with Enrollment Management to enhance strategic opportunities to collaborate on recruitment efforts including independent efforts by Faculty to expand prospective student enrollment.
Is developing a New Program Proposal Process that will be reviewed an put into place in a future term in 2020-2021.
Is engaging in discussion regarding enhancing our General Education Philosophy through future curricular changes for all future students.
Is contributing to the development a Strategic Enrollment Plan for the College as co-chair (VPAA) and member (HCA Program Director) of the Strategic Enrollment Committee
Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation – is a collaborative effort with Faculty Development, Distance Education, and Library Services within academic affairs.
- A Needs Assessment will be developed over the summer months and will be distributed to faculty in the Fall.

Please direct any questions or comments about this sampling of Academic Affairs updates to Dr. Bates at trevor.bates@mercycollege.edu.

Finally, please pray for peace and understanding in these troubling times in our country. I hope we can all seek ways to express our values in support of equality for all people.

Blessings,

Dr. Trevor M. Bates, DHSc, AT, ATC
Vice President of Academic Affairs/Dean of Faculty

Enrollment Update

The Mercy College sign is being installed on the Jefferson side of the building this week. This is very exciting news! The sign will be located on the top of the building and lighted, prominently identifying Mercy College within our community! The installation will block the main Jefferson Avenue entrance so if you are coming to campus you will need to use the west entrance under the blue awning.

The first Healthcare Worker Wednesday Virtual visit will be held Wednesday, June 10. We are excited to launch this new program and to work with the Program Directors on this initiative to educate prospective students on Mercy College and maximize enrollment.

We have an updated commercial that is now airing. (I have seen it several times on the evening news programs) Mercy College of Ohio is a sponsor of the news broadcasts on WTVG Channel 13 – ABC in Toledo. Local news ratings are extremely high during this unprecedented time. Shorter video segments of this commercial are being used to promote healthcare worker Wednesday through social media.

The College is in the process of creating a Virtual Tour that includes video segments for the website. Filming took place last week at the College and will conclude after the Jefferson Avenue sigh is installed. We are working with Madhouse, a Toledo marketing firm that we worked with on several projects. We will notify you once it is up on the website.

Funds continue to be awarded to students from the CARES Act dollars that the College received to support our students amid the Coronavirus. The Task Force has awarded $551,000 to student so far.

Enrollment numbers:

Summer numbers: As of Tuesday, June 2, 681 students were enrolled for summer for a total of 4183.5 credit hours. This number is down from last year by 35 students and we are down 361.5 credit hours from our summer goal of 4545 credit hours. (The decrease can largely be attributed to a change in the Rad Tech curriculum) The total student number includes 59 new students on a goal of 60 new students for the summer.

Fall numbers: at this time we have 826 continuing students enrolled for Fall 2020 compared to 864 at this same time last year.

The number of new students enrolled at this time is 44 for fall 2020 compared to 44 at this same time last year.

Currently total number of credit hours is 7431. The fall credit hour goal is 12,811.

We have 214 students deposited for fall compared to 181 at this time last year so we are up in deposits by 33.

Registrations for SOAR are at 131 compared to 136 at this time last year so we are down by 5.

The enrollment team continues to reach out to all students and is diligently working the incomplete applicants to move them to completed.

It is also important to note that at this time we have filled the following seats in Nursing:

Toledo day program 96 of 96 seats

Toledo evening weekend program 54 of 56 seats

Youngstown day program 67 of 96 seats

Youngstown evening weekend program 15 of 24 seats

BSN program 86 of 96 seats

If you have questions on any of the above information, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or any of the Enrollment Directors. We are happy to provide more detail.

Have a great week!

Lori Z. Edgeworth, MEd.
Vice President of Strategic Planning, Institutional Effectiveness and Enrollment
Lori.edgeworth@mercycollege.edu

Suspending incentives and continuing retirement contributions for 2020

Submitted by Angela Nowak

As John Starcher shared in May, Bon Secours Mercy Health is suspending the annual Incentive Shared Success (ISS) and Retirement Shared Success (RSS) incentive bonuses for 2020. BSMH will continue to make other retirement contributions, including the CORE (an annual contribution provided to associates even if they do not contribute to the Savings Plan) and matching contributions.

We designed our ISS and RSS programs to share success with associates (which we have done in past years, including earlier this year).
In 2020, our ISS and RSS incentive programs will serve their other purpose: to flex our costs down in a crisis, in this case, COVID-19.
This suspension affects associates at all levels of the ministry.
Suspending ISS and RSS in 2020 will avoid taking $90M in more drastic reductions.
BSMH will continue the retirement CORE (in most cases $1,500) and matching contributions (for example, 50% on the first 4%).
Despite the suspension of the 2020 RSS broadly, BSMH remains committed to providing the RSS guaranteed to those associates whose pensions froze as of Dec. 31, 2019. In late 2019, we notified associates entitled to a guaranteed RSS for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

By maintaining a strong ministry and investing in retirement, we will thrive as a place where associates want to work. Thank you for the ongoing commitment you are demonstrating to the ministry.

Angela M. Nowak
Director Human Resources
Anowak1@mercy.com

CEO-Gram

Send a message to the Mercy College President using this link.

FormFaculty/Staff Weekly Email Article Submission Form

Fill out the form to submit an article for the following week's Faculty/Staff Newsletter.
View Form