Saint Mary's Newsroom

New this week

Let’s go kayaking!
Saturday, Sept. 12, at 1 p.m.
Meet by Campus Safety to travel out to open water where we’ll spend the day floating past each other in canoes and kayaks. There is no cost to attend. Email campusministry@smumn.edu to sign up today.

Eucharistic procession
Sunday, Sept. 13, after 10:30 a.m. Mass
A Eucharistic procession is a public witness of veneration toward the most Holy Eucharist, conducted through public streets. Join us in processing through campus to pray for our campus.

Every week

Apologetics
Want to learn how to explain your faith? Join the conversation Wednesdays in St. Mary’s Hall.

Quo Vadis
Life’s big questions, Catholic answers. All faith traditions are welcome. Email campusministry@smumn.edu to sign up.

Bible study
FOCUS missionaries, peer ministers, staff, and seminarians all host Bible studies for different groups with varying interests. Email campusministry@smumn.edu to sign up.

The Minnesota Department of Health reminds university students to #MaskUpMN.

The university has suspended all spring semester 2021 study abroad programs at the undergraduate College due to continuing concern with COVID-19, travel restrictions, and the health and safety of our students and faculty. This suspension includes Saint Mary’s sponsored programs, affiliated programs, and short-term faculty-led programs that would have traveled abroad in May 2021. Questions can be directed to Tracy Lehnertz, associate dean of International Programs, at tlehnert@smumn.edu.

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota has partnered with the Fellowship of Catholic Universities (FOCUS) for the 2020-21 academic year. FOCUS is a Catholic collegiate outreach program we believe will build stronger relationships between Campus Ministry and our Winona undergraduate students by expanding the personal interactions we are able to offer.

Saint Mary’s will welcome two FOCUS missionaries, Emma Smith and Becca Kuehn, to campus this year. Their role is to build relationships with the students, organize and invite students to Bible studies, support Campus Ministry in planning and providing outreach events, arrange mission trips, and by their witness and instruction, promote the evangelization of our students, faculty, and staff.

The missionaries will live with the missionaries from Winona State University, which is hosting six FOCUS missionaries. In response to a generous offer from Winona State, Saint Mary’s will, at times, welcome two of these missionaries, Chris Tibbets and Sammy Pedersen, to our campus, as well.

This initiative is tied directly to the first goal of our strategic plan, Building a Future Full of Hope 2025: Live our Lasallian Catholic Heritage.

Dr. Michael Hahn

Michael Hahn, Ph.D., assistant professor and program director in the School of Education, recently published a chapter titled, “From the Sphere to the Polyhedron: Shaping Communion in a Synodal Church” in “All the Ends of the Earth” Challenge and Celebration of Global Catholicism by Orbis Books.

Cardinals,

Thank you for continuing to adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines. I continue to be impressed with this student body and hear from so many that you, along with the faculty and staff, want to remain on ground all semester. I know we can do it, with your help, as together, we are Saint Mary’s.

Tim Gossen, Ed.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs

COVID-19 updates:

• Continue to watch for updates on smumn.edu/covidplanning.
• As a reminder, COVID-19 guidelines should be adhered to while off campus as well. Be mindful when downtown and invited over to a home or apartment.
• The lights in the Saint Mary’s bluffs will now be turned on from 7:30 p.m. to midnight seven days a week. Feel free to experience the outdoors even during the evening hours.
• For those who are interested in using the fire pits in the Saint Mary’s bluffs, please adhere to the fire pit guidelines in the student handbook, which includes having fewer than 25 individuals.
• Additional information is available on:
  • Quarantine guidelines (protocols and procedures)
  • Contact tracing
• If you’re in quarantine and wish to receive holy communion, contact the Office of Campus Ministry at campusministry@smumn.edu. One of the campus ministers will assist you.
• Vending on campus will continue (i.e., soda and snacks), but it is highly recommended to wipe off the buttons before and after use.
• With the exception of emergencies, room switches within the residence halls will be limited.
• We ask that you refrain from moving the chairs around in the gameroom, gym lobby, plaza, and Toner Lounge, as they are arranged for social distancing.

Immune from COVID-19

Based on guidance from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), those who have previously tested positive for COVID-19 (within three months) are considered immune and do not need to quarantine even if they are around household members who’ve tested positive. They are not considered infectious. Students should not be retested (as it can result as positive despite their not actually having another infection) and are required to give documentation with the date of the positive COVID-19 test to the Jay Johnson Wellness Center. Students will be asked to quarantine until the documentation is received.

Force majeure clause

Many schools have included this clause in their student handbooks, due to the loss of income they faced last spring because of unforeseen circumstances. However, we do want to assure students that should Saint Mary’s need to send students home early for online learning, we would review the situation and make an appropriate determination about room and board reimbursement largely based on how much time is left in the semester. The clause would only come into play if students returned home very late in the semester and the university would have already incurred the expenses for the duration of the time (such as food service, which orders food two weeks in advance).

Saint Mary’s University will keep the transmission level on our COVID-19 tracking dashboard to green or low for the time being. Despite the rising numbers of positive cases in Winona County, the situation at Saint Mary’s continues to be manageable; our quarantine capacity remains strong; and contact tracing is working. We are pleased to report that no close contacts of students or staff who tested positive for COVID-19 were identified from classroom interactions.

However, we do want to let our community know that positive cases in Winona County have risen significantly since Aug. 27, primarily in the 18- to 24-year-old age group. Prior to the start of the school year, Winona County typically reported between five and seven positive cases a day.

These are last week’s Winona County totals:

• Aug. 27 — 38
• Aug. 28 — 12
• Aug. 29 — 25
• Aug. 30 — 37
• Aug. 31 — 19
• Sept. 1 — 35

We know this has been a stressful time for everyone, and anxiety levels continue to fluctuate with the lifecycle of this virus. We are grateful for your hard work and diligence. We want to congratulate students, faculty, and staff who are observing the many good policies and protocols we have in place. We remind everyone that the best way to keep levels low is to maintain social distance, adhere to the mask-wearing policy, and frequently wash hands and sanitize areas.

As a reminder, no external guests are allowed in buildings at Saint Mary’s; all major events have been canceled, rescheduled, or switched to virtual; and most travel is prohibited or discouraged. We ask our students to refrain from going to bars and house parties, where they are most susceptible to the virus, as safety protocols are most often not followed. We strongly encourage students to stay on campus so we can stay green.

We remind students to practice social distancing. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the most important way to prevent the spread COVID-19 is social distancing.

If the university is required to move its transmission level to yellow or moderate, additional mitigation efforts may be implemented including, but not limited to:

• A campus curfew
• Cancellation of athletic practices and scrimmages
• Modification of hours for the Cardinal Club
• Reduced entry to campus

We will continue to re-examine our policies and protocols and will alert our community of any resulting changes, including any additional mitigation measures.

We are monitoring the COVID-19 situation on a daily basis at the university. In fact, administrators are meeting twice a day to review the case of every student who needs to be placed in isolation/quarantine, is in isolation/quarantine, or is awaiting a test result. Appropriate action then flows from those meetings.

We are very proud of the large number of students, faculty, and staff, who are actively following our guidelines. Together, we can keep classes on ground and our students on campus. Together, we are Saint Mary’s.