January 2021 Announcements

COVID-19 Updates:

• Following winter break NC State will require proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test for students, faculty and staff returning to live or work on campus, and for students living within a 1-mile radius of campus. Tests must be completed no more than five days before returning. 

No-cost COVID-19 testing will be available for students, faculty and staff at NC State in multiple locations across campus during the first three weeks in January. Students, faculty and staff can also get tested at community locations in Raleigh and across the state. 

Please review the Protect the Pack website for important specifics about who is required to get tested, where and when testing will be available on campus, how to locate off-campus testing locations, details about the testing process and other important information.

• Throughout the spring semester, NC State will require weekly surveillance testing for the following groups:
  • All students living in residence halls and in Greek Village.
  • All students enrolled in face-to-face classes.
  • Designated employees, including critical, essential and research employees, as well as faculty, teaching assistants and graduate assistants in face-to-face instruction roles.

If you fall into one of these categories, you will receive more information about surveillance testing from the university. Regular testing for other students, faculty and staff who come to campus is strongly encouraged. NC State will provide no-cost testing on campus throughout the semester. Additional information is forthcoming.

• To simplify regulations and best protect our Pack, face coverings are now required everywhere on campus, inside and outside, even when you are alone, unless:
  • You are alone in a private, enclosed residence room, apartment or office with the door closed.
  • You are actively eating or drinking while maintaining physical distancing.

We will continue to share reminders about our community standards throughout the semester. We expect all students, faculty and staff to follow these standards and all NC State policies.

• As previously communicated, we’ve expanded NC State’s isolation and quarantine processes to help prevent and control the potential transmission of the virus while ensuring students receive quality care. We have designated 285 isolation and quarantine rooms for students living in on-campus housing with single entry, private bathroom, separate HVAC and amenities for reheating or storing food. University staff work with students on individual plans for quarantine and isolation and provide regular check-ins throughout the process. Click here for more information.

Administrator Updates:

• Katharine Stewart has been named senior vice provost for faculty and academic affairs. In this role, Dr. Stewart has new additional responsibilities regarding the TH!NK program, NC State’s 2014 Quality Enhancement Project (QEP), and will lead the effort to plan and implement our next QEP for the 2024 SACSCOC reaffirmation of accreditation. She will also work more closely with Provost Arden’s leadership team on financial management and organizational planning, and take on some of the current chief of staff administrative approval duties.
• Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Search: A mid-search review meeting took place on Dec. 15. The nomination committee will meet next on Feb. 5 to identify candidates for first round interviews. Stay up to date on the search by visiting the search page on the Provost’s Office website or go.ncsu.edu/chass-search.
• Senior Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Services Search: The nomination committee held its first meeting on Dec. 9 and meets next on Jan. 22 for a mid-search review. Stay up to date on the search by visiting the search page on the Provost’s Office website or go.ncsu.edu/emas-search.

From DELTA:

• As the university continues to employ a mix of in-person, hybrid and online learning for the spring semester, DELTA is here to listen, to support and to help you create the best teaching and learning environment possible. Here are some helpful resources to make your spring the best it can be. 
• Get ready for the spring with the latest WolfWare News. Learn more about the recent updates to our learning technologies, explore on-demand resources and find support for start-of-semester tasks. 
• Panopto will replace Mediasite as NC State’s enterprise content capture tool in May 2021. The leading video platform for higher education, Panopto provides essential features such as two-way communication, recording integration, adaptive streaming and more. Browse these articles to learn more about Panopto and what you can look forward to.  
• DELTA is currently recruiting faculty members to be preliminary test users of Panopto and provide feedback on the tool. Complete this form to request early access. 
• DELTA Spring Workshops are here to help you keep climbing toward your goals! From learning to use Moodle and Zoom to applying best practices for facilitating engagement, we have a number of workshops lined up this semester to help you teach with technology and positively impact student success.  
• In a two-part workshop happening Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, DELTA will explore ways to increase student engagement in synchronous and asynchronous courses by discussing and sharing our best tips, tools and technology. Identify opportunities to boost student engagement in your courses and get feedback from your peers. 
• The Virtual Viewer is a free online virtual microscope available to students from their web browser. If you are interested in using the Virtual Viewer in your course, you can sign up for access with this form or contact Benjamin Huckaby for more information.

From the Office of Faculty Development:

• OFD is offering some simple introductory offerings to get faculty on track with their teaching. In this three-part workshop series held via Zoom during the Spring semester,  faculty will have the opportunity to listen to the workshop presenters and other participants, share their experiences, receive insights and feedback from peers, engage in important, timely, and relevant conversations with other faculty who are interested in these topics. Faculty will build professional and social connections with other faculty.
• The Office of Faculty Development will continue Mindful Mondays during the spring 2021 semester. Join a community of NC State faculty and staff who are learning and practicing mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques together, in Zoom, every Monday at 9 a.m. This program is suitable for all levels and open to NC State faculty and staff. No special equipment or training is needed. You must be an authenticated user to join the Zoom session link. Sessions are led by OFD Program Evaluation Specialist and NC State Employee Wellness Champion, Dr. Jennifer Stanigar. Dr. Stanigar is a certified yoga teacher who has led yoga and meditation classes for over 20 years. Register Here.
• Appalachian State University is hosting a virtual workshop on Fulbright Scholar Opportunities as part of their Fulbright Week, and are inviting NC State faculty to join this informational session. The session will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 16 from 2-3 p.m. and will be facilitated by Kimberly Williams, Outreach & Recruitment Officer, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Institute of International Education. A flyer for the event can be found here. Registration for this Zoom session can be accessed here (through the IIE registration).

From the Office of Information Technology:

• NC State has established a Captioning Grant to assist faculty in creating captions for videos. The grant provides funding for captioning video when: a student with a disability requiring this accommodation registers in a course using video; or an instructor wants to proactively create captions for a video. To apply for the grant, faculty should complete the Captioning Grant Application Form. Please contact accessibility@ncsu.edu if you have any questions.
• From 6 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7, the Office of Information Technology will perform quarterly extended maintenance that will require the shutdown and movement of equipment, hardware replacement and infrastructure configuration. If you have any questions regarding these maintenance windows, contact the NC State Help Desk via the NC State IT Service Portal or call 919.515.4357 (HELP). For IT maintenance updates, view Service Status on the NC State IT Service Portal.
• The NC State IT Accessibility Office is honored to announce the recipients of the fall 2020 Accessibility Champion Award, which recognizes individuals who are committed to making the NC State digital environment a more inclusive and accessible place. Award recipients include:
  • Rachel Cox, communications manager, Park Scholarships
  • Carlos Goller, associate teaching professor, Biological Sciences
  • Claire Gordy, assistant teaching professor, Biological Sciences
  • Rhea Herbert, instructional designer, Prestage Department of Poultry Science
  • Mark Samberg, director of technology programs, Friday Institute

To nominate someone or yourself, complete the Accessibility Champion Award Nomination Form. For more information, contact the IT Accessibility Office at accessibility@ncsu.edu or 919. 513.4087.

• In celebration of Data Privacy Month, Jan. 28 to Feb. 28, OIT, along with the NC State Department of Computer Science, ePartners Program, LabCorp, and MetLife, will co-sponsor “Your Privacy Matters” to empower you with tools and the knowledge necessary to protect your privacy, control your digital footprint, and determine who is tracking you. Thomas Ristenpart, an associate professor at Cornell Tech and in the Computer Science Department at Cornell University, will present the keynote address, “Mitigating Technology Abuse in Intimate Partner Violence,” on Thursday, Feb. 4, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. online. To register for this event, visit REPORTER. For additional data privacy events, visit NC State’s Data Privacy Month website.

Other Announcements:

• Looking for a place to connect with colleagues, ask questions and share ideas about teaching in these challenging, uncertain times? Join DELTA, NC State University Libraries, and OFD virtually for the Faculty Chat Café in the spring. The Chat Café will be open via Zoom on Fridays, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m., beginning Jan. 15. Additionally, the Café will be open on our spring Wellness Days (Tuesday, Feb. 9; Wednesday, March 24; and Thursday, April 15). Save the dates on your calendar with this recurring Zoom link.
• Nominations will close for the 2021 Equity for Women Awards on Jan. 25 at 5 p.m.  Please consider nominating a faculty, staff or student who has been committed to the advocacy of gender equity in everyday life at NC State. Please nominate worthy candidates by completing the 2021 Equity for Women Award Nomination Form. You can learn more about the award and criteria at go.ncsu.edu/sisterhood.
• This year’s Sisterhood Celebration — “Normal Never Was” — will be taking place FREE via YouTube Premier on Feb. 22 from 4-5 p.m. Participants will be able to engage real time with our speakers and other participants via the chat function.  We hope that you will join us to celebrate, congratulate the Equity for Women Award winners, and hear stories shared by members of our community. Registration is required.  Please register individually at go.ncsu.edu/sisterhood. As always, if you have any questions please email sisterhooddinner@ncsu.edu.
• The College of Sciences invites you to its 2021 Celebrating Diversity in STEM Event on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 5 p.m. This very special event, to be held virtually via Zoom, is sponsored by BASF in partnership with the college. This event is free and open to the public, but online registration is required. The keynote speaker is Andrea Duhon, an NC State mathematics alumna who is currently an assistant professor of mathematics at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and the financial controller for solar energy company Enlight.Energy. While at NC State, Duhon co-founded the university’s first organizations for Latinx students. Since graduating, she has stayed involved with her alma mater, co-founding the Latinx Alumni Network and serving as communications chair for the Alumni Association Board of Directors. Her talk is entitled, “Decoding Failure: Math, Love and Overcoming Fear.”