Recap: Planning + Process: ISSUE 09

Welcome

Welcome to issue 09 of Recap, MICA’s regular communication on the College’s progress and planning around the return to campus for Spring 2021 and beyond.

Recap is also a place for dialogue, so we encourage you to use the Comment on This Topic button at the end of each story. We use your feedback to help build our shared understanding as One Team MICA.

And as always, some information may not apply to all programs and constituents, such as Open Studies. For specific information, please use the departmental directory at the end of this issue.

Now that the Spring Semester is upon us, with some students and employees physically back on campus and our surveillance testing program underway, we’ve begun tracking key COVID metrics on campus.

This information is available on our website in the now up-and-running Campus Metrics Dashboard. This dashboard provides transparency around the number of tests administered each week in our testing program, the number of positive and negative cases reported each week, and the COVID positivity rate each week.

As we approach Friday, our Student Health Center is wrapping up its second full week of the testing program, with great success so far.

According to Dr. Judith Kinney, associate vice president of Student Health and Wellness:

“Testing is going quite well with increased volume each week. And despite the increased volume, we've managed to only have one positive case so far. Thanks to all community members for their continued adherence to public health measures in keeping everyone safe.”

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: THERE IS A TESTING SCHEDULE CHANGE FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 8 ONLY.
Due to MICA's testing support staff attendance at a required training next week, the schedule for COVID-19 surveillance testing will be altered. For the week of February 8, hours of operation will be Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 9 a.m. - 4:45 pm. For those individuals originally scheduled for testing on Wednesday, you may come to the testing site any other day this week. There is no need to reschedule your appointment.

As the pandemic has unfolded, we’ve worked to share information in a timely and easily understandable way. This includes not only Recap, but the MICA’s website as well. If you haven’t done so recently, we encourage you to visit MICA official reopening website, mica.edu/reopen.

The site houses houses the above mentioned dashboard (as well as a dashboard for city and state data), and soon will be home to FAQs, town hall recordings, and official campus memos pertaining to COVID that were once held on previous iterations of the MICA COVID site.

But, the site also contains much more. You can find our Campus Quick Guides, which we shared last week, as well as How To videos around navigating MICA’s campus (like our testing video in last week’s issue), building hours, key semester dates, all of the Recap issues, and more.

This week, we’re bringing you another How To video, which walks you through getting your temperature scanned when arriving on campus. We will continue to create and push out these short videos to help you as you go through your day-to-day life at MICA this semester.

In issue 08 of Recap, we provided an update around COVID-19 vaccination stages and eligibility, as well as our hope to identify a clinical provider to administer the vaccine to MICA personnel.

MICA has reached out to multiple potential partners to see if they would be a clinical provider for MICA’s community and while we have had discussions with several such providers, none to date has responded that they have the ability or supply to take on that role. We are continuing to pursue different options and will keep the campus community updated if the situation changes.

In the meantime, we strongly encourage faculty and staff members who are eligible to register for COVID-19 vaccinations to do so through your local health departments and medical providers. While vaccine supply continues to be an issue, there are many resources available to help you locate providers in your area, such as:

Search for vaccination providers based on your address
Register to receive the vaccine in Baltimore County
Learn more about Baltimore City’s vaccine plans
(Due to the unavailability of appointments to receive a vaccine, Baltimore City has temporarily removed registration links from its website.)

Please note that while we do expect the situation to improve, the current allocation of vaccines to the state of Maryland has not been sufficient to meet the demand so the process is taking longer than expected. The state is expanding the number of sites that will be administering vaccines to accommodate demand when the supply increases. As a reminder, to minimize the risk of contracting the virus, continue to follow all public health protocols, which include masking, physical distancing, and hand hygiene.

In order to access MICA’s campus this spring, all members of the campus community have agreed to follow protocols and rules laid out in the Social Agreement. These items—from wearing masks to physical distancing and more—are in place to help keep each other safe. But, while we know most recognize the importance of following these rules, we also understand there may be situations where individuals are not following the rules laid out for this semester.

Don’t forget, we’ve put together a Campus Quick Guide outlining your options for reporting someone for noncompliance in regard to COVID protocols. As a reminder, you can submit a formal anonymous complaint using this form. Additionally, MICA Campus Safety can be reached at their 24-Hour Dispatch Line at (410) 225-2245, and at their non emergency line at (410) 225-2355.

As a reminder, What if? Is an ongoing feature of Recap intended to help create a shared understanding of what the 2020 - 2021 academic year will look and feel like by posing real-world “what if” scenarios submitted by the community.

What if I want to use one of MICA’s fabrication shops this spring? How do I schedule time in a shop? And can I have something fabricated remotely?

To begin, on-campus use of any fabrication studio this Spring Semester is by appointment only and restricted to undergraduate seniors and graduate students with limited access due to physical distancing. Campus-wide fabrication studios include dFab, Dolphin Fabrication Studio, Fox Wood Shop, and Lazarus Wood Shop (also known as FLIV). If you are a senior or graduate student, you can schedule time in a campus-wide shop through their individual pages on mica.edu, which can be accessed here.

Staff in these spaces always strive to maintain the highest level of safety, which is especially important this year, and they’ve established COVID-19 protocols that students using a shop must follow. To learn more about instructions regarding the use of personal protection equipment, cleaning requirements, social distancing, awareness and work pace in the fabrication studios, you can watch this video.

In addition, all MICA students with prerequisite instruction, no matter their location, can take advantage of the College's new Remote Production Services (RPS) for laser cutting, 3D printing, and RISOgraph printing. Launched this spring to support remote and online models of instruction, students can submit projects online to be produced, and then either choose contactless pick-up on campus or to have their project shipped to their address. Detailed answers to questions you might have about this service can be found in this FAQ.

It is strongly advised that students work ahead and plan to use RPS early in the semester, as precise turnaround times are not guaranteed.

The Fitness Center will be reopening on Monday, February 8! Here’s what you need to know:
The hours are as follows:
Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Every second and fourth Sunday, beginning February 14, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
To ensure the safety of our MICA community, we will be adhering to new public health guidelines
Masks must be worn at all times
Masks should be changed once saturated (extra masks can are provided at front desk)
Every third cardio machine will be in use
Only use resistance (lifting) machines when adjacent machine is vacant
Capacity of 15 patrons
You will need to provide your own lock for lockers

As mentioned previously, we’ve included the ability for you to submit comments on individual topics for each issue of Recap in order to help provide an open dialogue around the complex and evolving issues of mounting the 2021 semester.

We thank all of you who have submitted thoughtful comments from past issues. Those comments are used to inform future issues, raise awareness on topics, and ultimately help build shared understanding as one team MICA. And while we cannot provide individual recognition for each comment, we are providing a summary snapshot of those comments to promote transparency.

Graduate Studies: graduatestudies@mica.edu

Undergraduate Studies: ugstudies@mica.edu

Student Affairs: studentaffairs@mica.edu

Open Studies: openstudies@mica.edu

Finance and Operations: vpoperationsandfinance@mica.edu

Technology: helpdesk@mica.edu

Strategic Communications: communications@mica.edu

Human Resources: humanresources@mica.edu

Strategic Initiatives: strategicinitiatives@mica.edu

Advancement: advancement@mica.edu

Admission: admissions@mica.edu

Parent Relations: parentrelations@mica.edu