Happy New Year; you made it through the first week back, Jimmies! On behalf of the Office of Student Affairs and the University, it is my pleasure to welcome you back to campus for the start of the 2021 Spring Semester.
On a personal level, I know the faculty, the staff, and our returning students join me in extending an enthusiastic welcome to the freshman and transfer students who have enrolled at UJ for the first time. We are excited to have you here, and we look forward to the contributions you will make to our campus community! To all students, please stop by the Office of Student Affairs in the Lyngstad Center for any questions or concerns; we will be happy to assist!
Transitioning into this semester, we continue to navigate the COVID pandemic. Below are four important steps that will keep us safe and keep you here on campus versus in a distance learning environment.
Please be advised that the mask mandate that the University of Jamestown has had in place since August 1, 2020, has not changed. Masks are still required to be worn based on the following original guidelines:
If you are feeling potential COVID symptoms it is imperative that you immediately self-isolate and inform us. Email COVID@uj.edu and share what you are feeling; we will assist you in your next steps.
In-person classes are not optional at UJ; if you are not an active positive, active close contact, or on the COVID Coordination Team’s symptomatic list (see above) you cannot skip in-person classes. Your professors are informed of who is actively in the protocols. Missing class in-person can have an impact on your grades.
Weekly COVID testing opportunities will be offered both on campus and in the Jamestown community. See “What’s Happening” emails from Erin Klein twice weekly; dates/times will always be included.
Student Handbook: You may review the 2020-2021 Student Handbook to familiarize yourself with policies and procedures that will guide you through your time on campus.
Residence Hall Windows: Please keep your windows closed throughout the entire winter; cold weather will cause pipes to break and can cause significant damage.
Meal Plan Changes: The last day to adjust your meal plan is Friday, January 22, through the Residence Life department.
Important Contact Information:
As the semester gets going, I have a simple challenge for you, engage. Become involved across camps by taking part in activities in the residence halls, join a student organization, gather with friends and compete in intramural activities and take part in the great slate of events that will be put on by Student Activities and the Jamestown Activities Board (JAB). We want to see you out and enjoying all that UJ has to offer!
Dustin Jensen
Dean of Students/Vice President for Student Affairs
Dear Students,
Welcome back! We hope you had a restful and rejuvenating Winter break. We are writing to share the next steps being implemented to help facilitate a safe return to campus for the spring semester.
To ensure smooth traffic flow and minimal lines, the majority of our students will be assigned a specific testing time period between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm.
All individuals must be pre-registered at https://testreg.nd.gov/. Test registration only needs to be done ONCE per person, so if you have registered previously, you should not complete this step again.
The results of the rapid test will be processed approximately 15 minutes after testing. These tests are self-administered through the nose; all tests will be conducted with proctors assisting/explaining the process.
Below you will find a list of assigned time slots for students to get tested.
*If you are scheduled to be in class during your assigned time slot, you are expected to communicate with your coach or program director to identify a different time slot on January 11th for you to complete your testing.
*If you are a student that is not involved in any of the identified sports or programs, you may get tested at 4:00 pm or whenever time fits best with your schedule.
WHAT: Campus Wide COVID-19 Testing
WHO: All Students, Faculty, and Staff
WHEN: Monday, January 11th from 9:00 am – 4:30 pm
WHERE: Harold Newman Arena (Enter through Foss Wellness Center, pass the weight room, and follow signage)
Details on additional weekly testing opportunities will be shared in a future email.
9:00: Softball
9:15: M/W Golf
9:30: M Basketball
9:45: W Basketball
10:00: M Volleyball
10:15: W Volleyball
10:30: M Track/XC
10:45: W Track/XC
11:00: M Soccer
11:15: W Soccer
11:30: Football (Last Names A-F)
11:45: Football (Last Names G-M)
12:00: Football (Last Names N-Z)
12:15: Jazz Band, Theatre
12:30: Choir: (Last name A-J)
12:45 Choir: (Last name K-Z)
1:00: Band
1:15: Ministry
1:30: Hockey (Last name A-H)
1:45: Hockey (Last name J-Z)
2:00: Esports, Shooting Sports
2:15: Baseball (Last Names A-L)
2:30: Baseball (Last Names M-Z)
2:45: M Wrestling
3:00: W Wrestling
3:15: Nursing (Last Names A-M)
3:30: Nursing (Last Names N-Z)
3:45: Engineering
4:00 Anyone else/reschedules
As a University, we remain committed to ensuring the safety of our students, faculty, and staff amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. With emergency approval of vaccines to help eliminate the virus, we are looking forward to a future without COVID restrictions. While we await vaccine distribution however, the University is grateful for our partnership with the state of North Dakota who is supplying us with an unlimited supply of the BINAXNOW rapid COVID-19 test. Access to the BINAXNOW rapid test will allow us to identify and isolate individual cases of the Coronavirus much more efficiently, and thus should significantly reduce the spread of the virus on campus.
Thank you for your support in completing a successful Fall semester; with your commitment and diligence we will have a great 2021!
See you all next week!
Dustin Jensen
Dean of Students/Vice President for Student Affairs
UJ Students,
Are you considering traveling for Thanksgiving and/or Winter breaks or will you be staying in Jamestown? We are excited for you to have the opportunity to travel but also realize the current concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the pandemic, we are adding additional services over both breaks; please take time to review below (ACTION REQUIRED for some offerings).
Please also know that we fully intend to return to in person classes following both breaks!
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– UJ residence halls will remain open during the break.
UJ will cover the cost of one lunch per day, per student. Other meals will be available for purchase using cash, credit, or Jimmie Bucks, to take back to your room and reheat at your own convenience. Please note, regular meal swipes will not be allowed as Knight Hall is normally closed during this break.
Students planning to stay on campus and take advantage of the free meals must CLICK HERE to let us know you plan to use some/all meals.
– Saturday, November 21st – Wednesday, November 25th – 12:00 – 1:30pm
– Thursday, November 26th (Thanksgiving Day) – CLOSED
– Friday, November 27th & Saturday, November 28th – 12:00 – 1:30 pm
– Sunday, November 29th – Regular Hours Resume (10:00 am – 1:15 pm & 4:30 – 6:30 pm)
– Monday – Thursday: 6:30 am – 10:00 pm
– Friday: 6:30 am – 8:00 pm
– Saturday – Sunday: 7:00 am – 7:00 pm
– Jimmie Bucks accepted!
– Closed on Thanksgiving (Thursday)
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*Please note that Knight & Day will be closed on holidays. Additional details will be shared over the break.
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If you plan to travel this year during the COVID-19 Pandemic, UJ strongly encourages you to do so with caution. If at any time during your trip you become symptomatic, are identified as a close contact, or are diagnosed as COVID-19 positive, please immediately contact our COVID Coordination Team via email at covid@uj.edu or by calling (701) 320-9122.
Consider the following tips to reduce risks of COVID-19 spread when traveling by air, bus, train or car:
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by From Mayo Clinic News Network, Mayo Clinic News Network
Thanksgiving is traditionally an intimate gathering of family and friends. And, for college students, the fall break in semester is an opportunity to travel home to see the family for a few days. With COVID-19 cases increasing at a high rate in some parts of the U.S., that trek home might need to be reconsidered.
“If you’re only going to be coming home for Thanksgiving holiday and then going straight back to school, this may not be a year to make that trip,” says Dr. John O’Horo, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist. “If your school is in the middle of an outbreak, it becomes all the more important to really weigh what you can do.”
When weighing options for the holidays, Dr. O’Horo says you should start by thinking of the people you plan to visit.
“The first thing to consider is who are you going to be traveling to and is it really going to be safe for you or for them,” says Dr. O’Horo. “If you have any kind of chronic health conditions or they have any chronic health conditions, this is a year to really weigh whether or not it’s worth it to travel because the risk is higher than it is in previous years.”
There are ways to reduce risk if you choose to travel. Consider isolating yourself for the two weeks in advance of your trip to minimize the chance of bringing the virus with you, wear a mask and practice good hand hygiene.
“If you do have to travel and you cannot self-isolate effectively for those 14 days, make sure you’re taking all these measures very seriously. Once you come home—even inside your family’s house—it may be awkward to mask, but wearing a face mask for those first few days could prevent you from getting everyone else sick,” says Dr. O’Horo.
“Meticulous attention to hand hygiene will be very important. And trying to keep socially distance, even inside the house, even though it’s going to feel awkward could be keeping somebody safe if you’re carrying a virus you don’t know about yet.”
Tips to reduce risks of COVID-19 spread when traveling by air, bus, train or car:
Balzer, D. (2020, Nov 9). Should college students go home for the holidays? Mayo Clinic News Network. Retrieved from https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/should-college-students-go-home-for-the-holidays/
Dustin Jensen
Dean of Students/Vice President for Student Affairs
Dear Jimmies,
As the second week of classes draws to a close, we thank you for showing care for your fellow students, faculty, and staff through your use of masks and your practice of social distancing. As we prepared for the return to campus throughout the summer, we anticipated, and are aware of, the spread of COVID-19 on our campus, as well as in the community of Jamestown. We are working through our protocols to manage our positive cases and close contacts.
For transparency purposes, the University has established a COVID-19 dashboard indicating positive cases and close contacts. This information will be updated daily with the previous day’s results. Find this by logging on to MyUJ and clicking the tab in the header menu named “CoVID-19.”
With Labor Day weekend coming up, we urge students living on campus to stay here, and we urge all to minimize travel outside of the community. It’s also important to avoid large gatherings which have been shown to increase transmission of the virus. We encourage you to take advantage of the weekly testing offered by Central Valley Health District on Fridays at the Jamestown Civic Center and to download the Care19 Alert app.
Apple App Store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/care19-alert/id1513945072
Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.proudcrowd.exposure
Our goal is to hold in-person classes all semester until Christmas break and to maintain a robust schedule of co-curricular activities. Remember my words from the beginning of this semester:
We can. We will. We must!
Dr. Polly Peterson
President
You do not have to wear a face covering if:
During the upcoming year we will undoubtably experience COVID related situations across our campuses. Below you will find four core areas that individuals may experience and a protocol for each that we ask that you review.
Thank you all for your diligence, care, and compassion as we navigate these issues that arise.
I am experiencing some/all of the symptoms of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
My friend/teammate/roommate/classmate/etc. have been deemed a “Close Contact”. Do I now have to self-isolate?
I’ve been named a Close Contact by the Department of Health.
I’ve tested and been informed that I am “Positive” for COVID by the Department of Health
QUESTIONS? Contact the UJ COVID Coordinator
Email: COVID@uj.edu
Call/Text: 701-320-9122
GET TESTED. MAKE SMART CHOICES. WEAR MASKS.
PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING. MAKE 2020-21 A GREAT YEAR AT UJ!
Dustin Jensen
Dean of Students/Vice President for Student Affairs
Hello Jimmies,
I am excited to have you back on campus after over five months of having online courses. It is pretty boring around here without you around! Our goal, of course, is to keep our face-to-face classes and labs here on campus for the entire semester. I know you have heard a lot about this already, but I wanted to give you one last reminder of what we expect in our classrooms and labs:
I look forward to this semester, to talking with you on campus, and to watching you sing, act, play your instruments, and compete athletically. You are why we are here; help us do everything we can to keep you here all semester. Be smart both inside and outside of the classroom.
Go Jimmies!
Dr. Olson
Welcome back returning students and Welcome all NEW students as well, be it transfer or incoming freshman! I wanted to take a moment to make a quick summary of changes in Knight Hall this Fall semester. All changes made have been made for the safety and well being of every person involved with Dining Services and our guests.
We are aware that many of you do not have a car or extra $ to go out to eat and you might be in this dining room 19 times a week… keep in touch. Sodexo’s most important goal is to offer a safe environment and to offer an exceptional university dining experience. As partners of UJ, we want to ask you to help us fulfill this goal. Thank you in advance and please remember, “embrace the unconventional”, this too shall pass!
Have a fantastic Fall semester and be safe for yourself and all others on campus.
Sincerely,
Daniel Kucera
catering@uj.edu
(701)320-1535
Dear Jimmies,
Although we are still more than a month away from the start of the fall semester, move-in day will be here quickly and classes will be starting before we know it on August 24. With that understanding, I want to give you a bit of a preview about what you can expect from your classes this fall. This is a long email, but I want to be thorough. Also, this email only deals with the academic side of life at UJ and not residence life, athletics, or student life and only applies to students taking courses in Jamestown.
Our feedback from the spring tells us that the vast majority of you want to be on campus and have face-to-face classes this fall. We also know that the musicians among you want to have concerts and other performances. The actors want to act. The student chaplains want to have chapel. The athletes want to play their sports. We want all of these things to happen, too, and you play an important role in this. Our mission statement ends with the sentence:
Having a successful fall will require you to have self-discipline, act responsibly, and have concern for the continued growth of your fellow Jimmies. We know you can do it, and we expect you to do it.
We have completed an audit of all of our classrooms, and I’m happy to report that we will be able to have almost all of our courses face-to-face at the times you registered for this coming semester. The rooms, however, will look different when you get back. We will practice social distancing in the classrooms, and that means that our classrooms will have far fewer tables, chairs, and desks than you are used to seeing. Most of our classrooms will operate at about 25%-40% capacity. We will also be using the DeNault Auditorium more than we typically do. In classrooms with two doors, one will be designated the entrance and one the exit to help with social distancing. We expect you to stay six feet apart from each other in the classrooms and as you enter and exit the classrooms.
Even with social distancing in place, we will expect you to follow some other guidelines:
Because labs often require that students and faculty work in close proximity to each other, we will require the use of masks, plastic facial shields, and gloves in all of our labs this fall. The university will supply you with a facial shield and gloves for your labs. The same protocols for entering and exiting the classrooms mentioned above will apply to our labs.
Our computer labs will function at about 50% capacity this fall. IT is removing the keyboard and mouse from alternate stations over the summer so users will not be able to sit within six feet of each other. The same protocols that apply to our classrooms also apply to our computer labs.
A small number of courses, particularly those that meet in computer labs, will operate in either a hybrid or HyFlex model this fall with some of the course content delivered online and some being delivered in a face-to-face format. Some of these courses will have half of the students attend on one day and the other half attend on the next. In those courses, the students not physically in attendance will participate virtually. You will be notified by the Registrar’s Office prior to the start of the fall semester if one of your courses will be offered in this format.
Similarly, a few courses will be offered exclusively online as a result of COVID-19. We have done our best to minimize the number of courses offered this way, but some courses will only be available online. You will be notified by the Registrar’s Office prior to the start of the fall semester if one of your courses will be offered online.
If you have a medical condition that puts you at-risk, are an international student who is unable to return to campus, or are concerned about your ability to be on-campus for the fall semester, please contact Mike Woodley (registrar@uj.edu) or John Lynch (JoLynch@uj.edu) to discuss your situation. Part of what makes UJ who we are is our willingness to work with students to keep you on track for graduation, so if you have specific concerns, please let us work with you to find solutions.
Paul J. Olson, Ph.D.
Provost
Since 1883, the University of Jamestown has been a student-oriented institution of higher education with a faculty and staff committed to providing the highest quality of education to our students.
As our mission states, the University of Jamestown is a community dedicated to the development of wholeness in our students. We adhere to a curriculum of academic excellence which blends the liberal arts with sound professional preparation. Our commitment to the Christian faith encourages an atmosphere of self-discipline, responsibility, and concern for the growth of the individual.
With our mission at the center of all University activity, we prepare to resume in-person instruction and activity in both our Jamestown and Fargo locations guided by the following principles:
The President’s Cabinet members devised fall 2020 plans for their respective areas that address safe practices related to COVID-19 including hygiene, social distancing, screening/testing, identification, and isolation. The plans consider the uniqueness of our campus and Fargo location, including available residence halls, dining services, student activities, the Student Success Center, auxiliary student services, enrollment management (recruitment and retention), and technology needs. Specific attention was paid to classroom and labs and the characteristics of operations and student movement related to fine arts participation, athletic events, and course enrollment. Plans for staff safety in marketing and development include plans for large events and travel.
To ensure the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and visitors, the University is committed to the following general practices guided by the five basic principles of overall wellness: Hygiene, Social Distancing, Screening/Testing, Identification, and Isolation as outlined below. Due to evolving recommendation at the local, state and federal level, this list is not exhaustive and will continue to be monitored throughout the summer and updated as necessary.
With a commitment to the health and well-being of all members of our community, this plan was created to allow us to continue to care for each other, grow together, and experience the fullness of collegiate life in the fall of 2020.