Early Bird

Highlights from the Fall 2021 Safe Return Employee Town Hall

Watch the recording for details on vaccine safety and efficacy, air-quality improvements, University policies, RTD passes and more.

By Lindsey Coulter

May 18, 2021

On Monday, President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., and several University leaders answered employee questions related to the fall return to campus and the evolving Covid-19 response at the Fall 2021 Safe Return Employee Town Hall. The virtual event addressed a number of health, safety and operations topics.  

Davidson began the conversation by encouraging members of faculty and staff and students to get vaccinated as soon as possible and thanked all Roadrunners for their efforts to keep themselves and others safe. Based on state-provided data, 60% of Metropolitan State University of Denver students have been vaccinated, meaning the University is approaching herd immunity. Additionally, out of a 50% overall response rate, 92% of faculty and staff members reported that they have been vaccinated.

“I want to start by saying how excited I am that we could potentially be putting this pandemic behind us,” Davidson said. “It’s not over yet, but it seems like every week we get closer to normal.”

Davidson noted that MSU Denver is working hard to keep up with changing health and safety guidance and protocols, and she thanked members of the Roadrunners Safe Return committee and other campus leaders for their efforts to return MSU Denver to full on-campus operations for the fall semester. She added that the University will continue to collaborate and coordinate with health and safety guidelines from federal, state and local health officials.

“The one thing from an operations perspective that everybody can do to make not just our University but the city and state safer is get their shot,” added Larry Sampler, COO and vice president of Administration. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Sampler added that the University has received city and state guidance that social distancing will not be required in classrooms and that the Facilities Planning team is working to reverse accommodations made when social distancing was in effect to restore full classroom capacity.

“We’re not giving up the online or hybrid models, but our focus right now is on making this a vibrant campus experience starting with the fall semester,” Sampler said.

Speaking to the faculty experience, Provost Alfred Tatum, Ph.D., promised flexibility and a balance between in-person and online course offerings and encouraged faculty members with additional questions to work with their deans and chairs.

Steve Monaco, executive director of the Health Center at Auraria, explained how the University is working with the Colorado Immunization Information System to compare aggregate vaccination rates with state data to measure how many MSU Denver students have received their vaccinations. To measure faculty and staff vaccination rates, Monaco said, the University may ask employees to upload copies of their vaccination cards. MSU Denver and the University of Colorado Denver are collaborating to develop an information-technology program that would make it easy and efficient to upload this information.

Watch the recording for additional details on vaccine safety and efficacy, air-quality improvements, Covid-19-related Human Resources policies, Regional Transportation District passes for the fall semester, employee compensation, funding, the Teaching Assistant Program, the reinstitution of faculty sabbaticals, vaccine exemptions and more.

Questions that were not addressed during the Town Hall will be added to the Roadrunners Safe Return website FAQ section this week.