Bulletin No. 71
Date/Time sent: 11/08/2021 9:00 amE ala! E alu! E kuilima!
Awaken! Come together! Join hands!
Statement of Gratitude
““Appreciation can make a day — even change a life.
Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.”
~ Margaret Cousins
Aloha mai kākou!
Mahalo nūnui to our faculty/instructors and staff who are working hard to move their courses (or sections of their courses) to on-campus/in-person instruction. Providing our students who value the learning power of pilina (relationships) with peers and teachers is key to their career success.
As the holidays and the end of the semester quickly approach, we know that travel may be high on your to-do list. To mitigate the risk of introducing post-travel infections onto our campus, University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu leadership strongly recommends that all students and employees, vaccinated and unvaccinated, who return from out-of-state travel, business or personal, upload to LumiSight UH proof of a negative COVID-19 test before returning to campus. For your safety, health, and well-being, please follow all State of Hawaiʻi Safe Travel guidelines and UH COVID-19 Guidelines, including being cleared by the LumiSight UH daily health check app to be on campus and wearing face masks indoors when on campus.
For employees and students who are reporting to work/to classes immediately after returning from out-of-state travel, it is strongly recommended that you obtain two negative COVID-19 test results: the first should be obtained within 24 hours of your return and before returning to campus, and the second should be obtained within three-to-five days of returning from travel. Let’s be mindful, respectful, and responsible of and to our campus community as we celebrate family, holidays, commencement, and continued good news in the upcoming months. If you have any questions, please email covid19@hawaii.edu.
Several have inquired about the telework policy (ends December 2021). Currently the policy is in consultation with our unions. We hope to have a policy in place soon.
Please take the time to scroll through this weekly bulletin. The first message provides a perspective of RETURNING AND REVITALIZING THE LIFE OF OUR CAMPUS from MNHS Professor, Dr. Ricardo Custodio (w/permission). This message is followed by several important ANNOUNCEMENTS/REMINDERS for both students and employees.
Mahalo nūnui for taking the time to review this week’s bulletin.
E mālama pono!
Maenette Benham, Chancellor
Returning and Revitalizing the life of our campus!
Letter from Dr. Ric Custodio.
BCC = BASIC CORONAVIRUS CARE UPDATE 11-5-21
“ON RE-ENTRY ANXIETY”
I saw and cleared my first patient from Wuhan, China almost 2 years ago on January 20, 2020. A new and unknown atypical pneumonia was rapidly spreading through that city. Fortunately, my patient and his family were neither exposed nor infected.
However, by February 11, 2020; the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses announced “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2)” as the name of the new virus. One month later, March 11, 2020; the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic with a sustained risk of further global spread.
We all know and have lived through what happened next. We survived multiple post-holiday and variant surges. We isolated. We masked. We distanced. Most importantly, we survived. Living through a pandemic that has killed 750,000 Americans and 900 of our Hawaii residents has not been easy. It affected our work, our schooling, our past-times and our celebrations. It laid bare the underbelly of health and social disparities that impact many in our community. It exposed, in real time, the fragility of life and the importance of mental health.
With daily case counts decreasing, the number of fully vaccinated increasing, and the partial lifting of restrictions, we need to begin transitioning to a post-pandemic life. Many of us are hesitant and worry about this new world. How it will look, how we will act, and what new problems we will encounter.
This “Re-entry Anxiety” is normal and should be embraced, because together we have pulled through a world-wide pandemic that claimed over 5 million of us. Like many, I have lost friends and co-workers. Unlike many, my whole family survived. My sincere condolences and aloha to those who lost loved ones.
After seeing that little boy from Wuhan, and as the cases in the United States jumped, I pivoted to teaching fully on-line March 6, 2020. I have been teaching my classes and meeting via Zoom ever since. Unfortunately, the best training, especially clinical training, is hands-on and in-person. With vaccines, PPE, and science, we can transition.
This is a long way of saying that earlier this week, I made the decision to switch all my Spring 2022 courses to in-person. This took a lot of thought, and the weighing of risks and benefits. In the end, I realized that the students were my true priority. Prolonged isolation, uncertainty and grief has led to anxiety, depression and despair. I have seen this in my pediatric practice where we have had more mental illness, suicidal idea, and suicide attempts among my adolescent patients. Five of those attempts were successful, the youngest was twelve.
Hopefully, this will be the last BCC-Basic Coronavirus Update. And hopefully, I will be able to see you face-to-face (masked of course) on campus, in January.
Announcements and Reminders
Download and Use LumiSight. Must show verification.
Students, employees, and visitors it is essential that you download LumiSight UH to your smartphone. Register and upload all relevant COVID-19 information. Prior to coming to campus please check-in using your LumiSight APP remembering to respond to all health questions. BE PREPARED TO SHOW YOUR “GO GREEN” SCREEN at our campus verification stations. If for some reason you forgot to sign-in, please do so before entering campus or see our friendly student assistants at any of the verification sites. They will assist you with signing in or getting a day pass. NOTE: you must have proof of COVID vaccination or negative COVID test to retrieve a day pass. Welina mai – Welcome to campus!
Build Back Better Act
Many are asking about Federal Funding, in particular, how the Build Back Better Act might affect education. Here’s what we know now (note that this is changing daily):
This is from the American Council of Education, President to President Newsletter. I share it with you for your information.
Free Community College, Other Higher Ed Provisions on the Chopping Block in Reconciliation Bill
Early last month, the House education committee unveiled its portion of the budget reconciliation bill—now known as the Build Back Better Act—which included $111 billion to provide two free years of community college; a large influx of funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and other minority serving institutions (MSIs); and other higher education priorities.
President Biden met with a range of lawmakers Tuesday to hash out what will realistically end up in the final bill, which reportedly will be in the range of $1.75 to $1.9 trillion in total spending and will largely focus on six items—none of them for our students or institutions. The final framework for the social-spending bill had yet to be released as of this writing, but it is clear progressives are having to cut many elements of their initial $3.5 trillion proposal to appeal to moderate lawmakers, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), who have pushed for a lower price tag on the bill.
We’re still trying to work out exactly what this means for the higher education provisions in the final package. It has been reported that it will include “scholarships for community college students,” but Hill staff on key committees don’t know any specifics of what that means precisely. Presumably, it could be either a) a new program just for community college students, b) an increase in the maximum Pell Grants that will be described as a “community college initiative,” or c) something completely different. Politico reported Wednesday that there was a discussion about doubling Pell Grants and boosting funding for workforce development and apprenticeships, but no concrete plans.
The significantly scaled-back package also drastically cuts funding for HBCUS, HSIs, and other MSIs, providing $2 billion out of the original $20 billion that President Biden requested. I know many HBCU presidents are working to get some of this money restored, and that some House members are listening. However, the outcome right now is unclear. And while we have no specific information about research funding, we believe that money is likely gone completely. Finally, on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Democrats have been denied twice by the Senate parliamentarian to include immigration reform provisions in the bill, and it’s not known if they will propose a third plan.
We are continuing to make the case to lawmakers of the importance of supporting our students and institutions in the final bill. While higher education stakeholders may have different views and priorities regarding the array of programs included in the legislation, all strongly believe retaining robust overall higher education funding is critical to accomplish our shared priorities. We should all have a firmer grasp of what to expect in the final bill next week.