Saint Mary's Newsroom / Campus Notes
Winona Campus NewsletterPsychology of Success food drive extended
Amber Miller, Jordan Keeley, and Ivan Alatorre, students in the Psychology of Success course, are looking for your help. COVID-19 has had a massive impact on the Saint Mary’s community and the Winona community. Building a community is essential for developing long-term relationships. Their goal is to strengthen the community by working together to help those in need.
To help the Saint Mary’s and Winona community, they are hosting a friendly food drive within the residence halls. Originally from Nov. 7-15, the food drive will now be extended until Monday, Nov. 23. Collection boxes will be located within each residence hall. Please contribute non-perishable items to donate to an organization or food pantry in Winona. As you begin to head out for the break, if there is any food that you wish to donate, please feel free to drop it off in one of the collection boxes.
Due to issues with the dates and the collection boxes, the group has decided to not host a competition within the food drive. However, the group would still appreciate your contributions, as it will help out the Winona Warming Center.
If you have any questions, contact Amber Miller, acmill18@smumn.edu; Jordyn Keeley, jhkeel17@smumn.edu; Ivan Alatorre, ixalat17@smumn.edu; or Dr. Dan Bucknam, dbucknam@smumn.edu
Reminder of free COVID-19 testing Sunday
The Minnesota Department of Health is urging all Winona students to get a COVID-19 test before Thanksgiving. Due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in the State of Minnesota and the County of Winona, it is likely that most students have been exposed to COVID-19 at some point in the past month. Thus, it is critical that students are tested to learn if they are asymptomatic carriers before returning home to their families to avoid transmitting the virus.
Students can easily get a COVID-19 test.
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is hosting a mass COVID-19 testing for students in the gymnasium Sunday, Nov. 22, from 9 a.m. to noon. Students will perform the saliva-based test on site and leave the sample with the university, which will ship the test to the lab in Minnesota. We will employ significant COVID-19 protocols to ensure social distancing is observed throughout the testing process. Participants should:
- NOT Eat or drink 30 minutes before the test.
- NOT Smoke or vape 30 minutes before the test.
- NOT Chew gum 30 minutes before the test.
- Bring a smartphone with them, if at all possible.
Additionally, the City of Winona is host to a no barrier, free regional testing site at the Winona Mall, 1213 Gilmore Ave. Testing is located in the back of the Winona Mall near the DMV (southwest corner), facing Highway 61. The entrance is on the outside of the mall. Hours are Wednesday – Friday, noon to 7 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Schedule an appointment with Vault Health. At this site, you won’t need to show identification; tests are free; and insurance is not required.
While awaiting test results, you do not have to quarantine if you do not have symptoms or have not been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. If you do have symptoms or a known exposure to COVID-19, you should quarantine.
If your test result is positive, this means you currently have COVID-19 and should isolate from others. You must contact the Jay Johnson Wellness Center, 507-457-1492, and they will provide you with important health information about how to keep you, your family, and the community safe.
Last CommUNITY until Dec. 3
As our campuses will be closed Nov. 25-27 for the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be no CommUNITY newsletter on Nov. 26. The next edition will be Thursday, Dec. 3. We wish you and your families a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.
Psychology of Success virtual mental health support group
We are excited to announce our Psychology of Success group is creating a mental health support group via Zoom. This will be a safe space for students to talk to one another about their stressors. Please consider joining this support group to talk about struggles and relate to other students and their struggles in this student-led peer environment. Although this is student led, our counselor on campus, Kat Freihammer, will be assisting the group to offer ideas and ensure this stays a safe and supportive environment. We hope to see you all there!
When: Sunday, Nov. 22, at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Click on this Zoom link
This event is sponsored by the Psychology Department; Psychology of Success class taught by Dr. Dan Bucknam; student led by Madeline Dosser, Kailee Johnson, Mayme Stanton, and Rebecca Turner
Campus Ministry events to end the semester!
Confessions available Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m.
While we will not be offering our usual penance service for the semester, priests will be available to offer the sacrament of reconciliation starting at 7 p.m. this Thursday. Come experience the sacrament of mercy in the Thomas More Chapel.
Scripture Kahoot! Friday on Zoom at 7 p.m.
Test your knowledge of scripture against other students! The winner will receive a $50 gift card to the book store. RSVP to campusministry@smumn.edu.
Stories of Kindness
How have you experienced the goodness of others in such a dark year? Share your story with Campus Ministry and enter a drawing for a $20 gift card to the book store. Email campusministry@smumn.edu.
Don’t bring COVID-19 home for break!
Have to travel?
Traveling home for the holidays means you might bring COVID-19 home with you. You can bring COVID-19 home from an exposure you had before you left or while traveling. So it is important to remember the following tips from the Minnesota Department of Health:
- Lay low before you go! Minimize your contact with others for 14 days before you travel, avoid large crowds, gatherings, bars, etc… Stay away from others as much as possible. Wear a face mask whenever you are outside of your room and distance as much as you can.
- Get tested before you go! If you are negative, continue to lay low until you go. If you are positive, you will need to isolate.
- During travel, wear a face mask, distance as much as possible and wash hands frequently (or use hand sanitizer).
- Lay low once you arrive, because you may have been exposed during travel.
- Mask and socially distance as much as possible while you are home and/or for the first two weeks you are home. You want to be extra careful for your family. Wash your hands frequently!
- Consider testing 5-7 days after arrival, especially if your travel included being around many people (airports, bus rides, larger car pools).
- If you develop symptoms of COVID-19, get tested right away and isolate while the test is pending. If you have a close exposure to a known case of COVID-19, you should get tested 5-7 days after exposure and quarantine for 14 days after the last exposure.
- In general, avoid visiting people who are elderly or have health conditions. If you do visit, you should wear a mask, stay 6 or more feet away as much as possible and wash your hands. It is really important if you are visiting people at increased risk for severe disease to take extra precautions during the 14 days prior to the visit, and consider getting tested a few days prior to the visit
Other Tidbits and Resources:
- Don’t ignore symptoms! Symptoms can be subtle. For a list of symptoms associated with COVID-19
- CDC Resources on Celebrating Thanksgiving during COVID-19
- CDC Resources on what to do if you are sick or caring for someone that is sick
*INFORMATION TAKEN FROM THE MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Rental book return reminder and instructions
All rentals are due back by Dec 4. If you have gone home and have not returned your rentals, below are the instructions on how you can print a shipping label via the bookstore website. If you choose NOT to use our shipping label, PLEASE make sure your rental information is enclosed in the box.
1. Go to www.st-marys.bncollege.com and rest your cursor on “Textbooks.” Select the “Textbook Rentals” option from the drop down menu.
2. Next, scroll down and click on the link labeled “Rental Return.”
3. Lastly, enter your Order ID and the email address you used when you placed your order. If possible, you can combine multiple orders together and ship in one box with one shipping label. Please make sure to use packing material to keep the books in good condition. Also, include your name, email, and phone number inside the box. Contact the bookstore by phone (507-457-1569) or email (w-bookstore@smumn.edu) if you have any questions or you are not able to create the label.
SAC: Farewell BINGO Thursday, Nov. 19
Thursday, Nov. 19, at 6 p.m.
Farewell BINGO
Join the Student Activities Committee for our LAST Bingo of the semester! Bingo prizes will be Cardinal gear from the bookstore, so it is a great opportunity to stock up for the long break!
All are welcome; please sign up here.
You can participate from anywhere, and if you win, your prize will be shipped directly to you.
Student Senate meeting minutes, Nov. 17
Student Senate – Nov. 17
Meeting called to order by President Kendall Archer at 7:01 p.m.
Prayer by Collin van Waardenburg
Members present: Kendall Archer, Samantha Carlson, Larkin Clem, Jake Emeott, Sarah Fowler, Mary Furlong, Gabriel Graves, Noah Kimel, Lillian Klein, Megan Kowalis, Jonathon Krull, Abigail Lang, Thomas Magnavite, Allison Moysis, Nicole Noreen, Lyann Novak, Enitan Onayiga, Marcos Pedroza, Angel Sacta Espinoza, Joseph Schauf, Ryan Stoynich, Collin van Waardenburg, Destiny Walker, Elijah Williams
Members absent: Cece Abel, Tara, Nikolich, Sophia O’Neil
Members excused
Discussion items
- Executive Board Updates
- Kendall Archer, President
- Tonight is the final meeting of the year
- Watch your emails for next semester’s first meeting
- Our social media will be posting our agenda and minutes as well
- Marcos Pedroza, VP of Media and Communications
- Follow SMUMNSENATE on Instagram!
- Angel Sacta Espinosa, VP for Campus Affairs
- No updates
- Nicole Noreen, VP for Financial Affairs
- No updates
- Destiny Walker, VP for Multicultural Affairs
- No updates
- Mary Furlong, VP for Academic Affairs
- Good luck with finals!
- Elijah Williams, VP for Student Life
- Fill out your break form before you leave. It is found in your email from ResLife or at this URL: https://smumn.erezlife.com/login/
- Had a conversation with Chartwells, the club menu will be changing for next semester
- Salads and wraps will be added
- Chicken nacho bowl
- Open to more ideas, if you have any bring them to Elijah
- Working on bringing back the omelet bar when things change with COVID
- Will there be more drinks next semester at Cardinal Club?
- Will look into it
- Salads will be offered as a side next semester in the Cardinal Club
- Megan Kowalis, VP for Public Affairs
- No updates
- Jonathon Krull, Executive Assistant
- Ethics Committee met with two Senators this past week in regards to attendance, warnings were issued
- Watch your emails, communication will be coming soon outlining the attendance policy and expectations for next semester
- Please read over the Senate Constitution and bylaws and familiarize yourself with them
- Sarah Fowler, SAC President
- SAC events
- Wednesday at 5 p.m. they will be handing out painting kits
- 7 p.m. zoom with Bob Ross to paint along
- Friday they have stress kits available, handed out at dinner
- Wednesday at 5 p.m. they will be handing out painting kits
- SAC events
- Marisa Quinn, Adviser
- No updates
- Kendall Archer, President
- Class Officer Reports
- Freshman: No updates
- Sophomore: No updates
- Junior: No updates
- Senior: No updates
- Motion to Adjourn
- Motioned by Joseph Schauf
- Seconded by Collin van Waardenburg
- Time 7:15 p.m.
Reminder: 2021 Benefits Open Enrollment is Nov. 9-24
Because of ongoing COVID restrictions on large gatherings, our annual live benefit open enrollment meetings on the Twin Cities and Winona campuses will be replaced this year with a recorded PowerPoint presentation you can watch at your convenience. That presentation, together with the 2021 Employee Benefit Guide, instructions for submitting your benefit elections, and other helpful information, was posted to the HR page of Blackboard on Nov. 9.
The 2021 plan year is a passive enrollment. You are not required to re-enroll in your current benefits if you do not want to make any changes. However, you must re-enroll in all Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) if you wish to use them for 2021. These benefits — Health FSA, Dependent FSA, and Limited FSA — are “use it or lose it” each plan year, so a new annual salary deferral election is required each year. If you do not re-enroll in your FSA benefits, they will be cancelled effective Jan. 1, 2021.
Please view the recorded open enrollment presentation for more details. If you still have questions or need assistance afterwards, you can email hr@smumn.edu or visit the human resources office on your campus. If you prefer to call, dial Ext. 8706 from any campus.
Character and Virtue website launches
A new microsite for Character and Virtue Education at Saint Mary’s has just launched as part of the larger university website. Saint Mary’s current strategic plan, “Building a Future Full of Hope 2025,” introduced a universitywide initiative on character education and virtue formation. The need to share the progress of this initiative, formally approved by the Board of Trustees in February 2020, within Saint Mary’s as well as the broader community became increasingly clear.
“A website is often the most sought-after source of information about an organization and its work,” said Kelly Shannon, vice president for Marketing and Communication. “We hope visitors find the Character and Virtue Education website easy to navigate with robust and compelling content. The goal after a visit is a good understanding of the work and a hunger to engage and learn more.”
The site includes an explanation of how the initiative on character and virtue education came to Saint Mary’s as well as the Position Statement, a foundational document composed by the Character Education Advisory Council. Future content will provide resources to support teachers and educational leaders as they implement character initiatives in their schools.
“There is so much energy around this new initiative at Saint Mary’s that in a very short amount of time we already have a lot of news to share and events to promote,” said Michael Hahn, Ph.D., program director of Character and Virtue Education. “And as this initiative continues to expand and evolve, the resources offered on the website will also continue to grow.”
The website includes event information for a forthcoming speaker series beginning in spring 2021. Saint Mary’s will host three nationally-prominent speakers who will present on topics related to character and virtue.
Hahn noted that the progress on the new website would not have been possible without the continued collaboration between Saint Mary’s and the Kern Family Foundation. Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota received a $1.7 million grant from the Kern Family Foundation in November 2019 to support its work in the area of character and virtue education.
“It is my hope that the Character and Virtue Education website will be a place of learning, encouragement, and inspiration for all those who care deeply about their own goodness as well as about building a society dedicated to the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty,” said Father Burns, IVD, Ph.D., president of Saint Mary’s.
Bachelor’s completion student jump starts career while finishing degree
Caption: Quentin Hietpas ’21 currently works as an accountant and IT manager for Enova Illumination while he finishes his B.S. in Accounting online. The program moved online entirely at the start of the Fall 2020 semester.
Their dress attire was different, but the realization was the same between R. Don Keysser and Quentin Hietpas ’21 in a Zoom interview in April: They had found a good fit.
Hietpas — a student in the bachelor’s completion program who was pursuing his B.S. in Accounting at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota — was undergoing an initial job screening remotely for a position as an accountant at Enova Illumination, a medical technology company based out of Northeast Minneapolis. Keysser serves as a member of the Enova Illumination board of directors, as well as its chief investment officer.
“I was kind of cracking up laughing because here I am in my T-shirt calling from my study at home, but he had a shirt and tie on,” recalled Keysser, who also serves as an associate professor in the MBA Program at Saint Mary’s. “It’s a little thing like that, but it’s impressive.”
After talking with Keysser, Hietpas was invited to speak with the company’s president and others on the leadership team. Within two months of applying, he began work at the end of May as both an accountant and IT manager.
‘The strongest candidate’
When the position opened, Keysser reached out to Melanie Torborg, director of the B.S. and M.S. in Accounting programs at Saint Mary’s, to see if she could recommend applicants from her program, either current students or graduates. Some of the other finalists had more work experience than Hietpas, but Keysser and the rest of his Enova colleagues walked away impressed.
“He was the youngest by far, but he just came across as the strongest candidate,” Keysser said. “He was very enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and well-prepared.”
Hietpas said the remote job interview setup worked in his favor, as the comfort and familiarity of his home kept any anxiety at bay.
“Being at home helped me temper those nerves and present who I was, and give the best possible case for what I would bring in without the distraction of being somewhere new,” Hietpas said.
Enova Illumination specializes in manufacturing cordless LED surgical headlights, magnification loupes, digital microscopes, ‘smartglasses,’ and other related equipment geared toward doctors, dentists, and surgeons. As part of a team of approximately 25 people, Hietpas spends his time helping to balance the company’s books, as well as assisting colleagues with onboarding and making sure his team members are always up and running on Enova’s remote servers.
“I wear a lot of hats. It’s been a challenge, but it’s also very rewarding, too,” said Hietpas, who splits his time working from home and the company’s offices. “We’re expanding, and that expansion comes with some growing pains, but it’s also leading to some really great opportunities.”
A fresh start
In 2019, Hietpas, a native of St. Paul, had been looking to finish his bachelor’s degree, after earning an associate’s degree in computer science from Saint Paul College, following a year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He saw an advertisement promoting an open house event on the Twin Cities Campus, which encouraged him to reach out to his cousin Kevin Endres ’15. Endres told him about his overall positive experience on the Winona Campus while earning his marketing degree.
After looking at other options in the metro area, Hietpas decided to enroll at Saint Mary’s based on how easy it was to pinpoint when he would be able to finish his degree. When he accepted the job at Enova Solutions, he decided to split his coursework into two courses each in the fall and spring semesters.
He is giving strong thought to pursuing his M.S. in Accounting at Saint Mary’s. He already plans to do a master’s level elective for nonprofit accounting later this year, allowing him to finish in as little as one year by taking 24 credits.
Since the Bachelor’s Completion program naturally segues to the master’s program, close to 20 percent of the program’s accounting students go on to the M.S. program, noted Torborg.
“I’ve had some of the best professors I’ve ever had who really love to teach,” Hietpas said of his time at Saint Mary’s. “I’ll be pretty excited to have my degree and see where that takes me. When I’m ready to take the next plunge, I think the master’s program in accounting is definitely a contender for where I’ll go next.”
Cardinal Update Live scheduled for Nov. 19
In an effort to provide additional opportunity to share important Saint Mary’s updates, additional meetings for all faculty and staff on our three campuses are invited to the newly named “Cardinal Update Live” meetings with the first one scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 19, at noon. This is a reminder for you from earlier Cardinal Update briefs, and we hope you join us on Zoom for the meeting.
The next two Cardinal Update Live meetings are scheduled for 2021:
Thursday, Feb. 11
Thursday, April 15
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