Saint Mary's Newsroom / Campus Notes

Cardinals,

Tomorrow is National Voter Registration Day. Voting is a crucial part of our democracy and an opportunity to enact change on the local, state, and federal levels. The Saint Mary’s Student Senate, College Democrats, and College Republicans have partnered together to help you register to vote. It is everyone’s civic duty to partake in this process, and in order for that to occur, you need to be registered to vote.

If you visit this U.S. Election Assistance Commission webpage and select your desired state, it will provide you with links that allow you to register to vote and also request an absentee ballot for either Minnesota or your home state (if you live on campus, you can do either, but not both).

Each registration takes only a few minutes to complete. Be sure to do this relatively soon, as this will ensure you will receive your absentee ballot in a timely fashion. Please continue to watch your email in addition to the CommUNITY newsletter, as we will be contacting you again with more information on the upcoming election.

Cardinals,

A big thank you again for adhering to the COVID-19 guidelines. We are another week closer to our goal of being on campus through November. Please continue to assist the university and your peers with obtaining this goal.

If you are not feeling well, you are strongly encouraged to contact the Jay Johnson Wellness Center at 507-457-1492. You can talk to staff within the Wellness Center, and they can give you guidance on what to watch for as it relates to COVID-19 and take a COVID-19 test if needed. For those who may test positive for COVID-19 or need to quarantine because they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, we will do all we can to assist so you do not fall behind academically.

I know we are doing well as a community, and once again commend us for that, but it’s important we continue to look out for one another, adhere to the guidelines set forth, and be cautious when off campus.

Together, we are Saint Mary’s, and together, we will obtain our goal of being in Winona throughout the semester.

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

COVID-19 reminders:

• Contact the Wellness Center if you’ve been tested for COVID-19 off campus and are awaiting results or if you’ve tested positive. The Wellness Center will work with other campus departments to notify faculty of your absence and provide meal delivery to your room if you’re an on-campus student.
• Monitor yourself for symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, headache, muscle pain, sore throat, fatigue, congestion, or loss of taste or smell. This is to protect yourself, your friends, and our Saint Mary’s community.
• All external guests (family or off-campus friends) must adhere to all our COVID-19 guidelines and are not allowed in the residence halls. You are able to meet your guests in the parking lot and go off campus or walk around campus with a mask on.

Have a question or concern? Fill out the form and let us know.

Members of our Saint Mary’s community share a message of gratitude:

Virtual Fall Career and Internship Expo

Wednesday, Oct. 21
10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Handshake
Co-sponsored by Saint Mary’s University and Winona State University

This fair will include:

• A wider array of invited employers
• Opportunity to schedule and sign up for group sessions and one-on-one meetings with employers, graduate schools, and internship sites

Look for more details soon about:

• How to register
• How to sign-up for one-on-one appointments
• How to sign-up for group sessions
• How to make the most of the virtual fair experience

Questions? Contact Mike Hagarty, director of Career Services, at mhagarty@smumn.edu.

Saint Mary’s tutors and peer learning assistants are available on Knack. This tutoring is completely free, and sessions can take place in-person or online.

To learn more, visit smumn.joinknack.com and sign in with your Saint Mary’s student account.

If you have any questions about working with tutors, email Joe Dulak at jdulak@smumn.edu. If you experience any technical difficulties with Knack, email support@joinknack.com. If you need help writing papers, contact the Saint Mary’s Writing Center.

The Saint Mary’s Student Senate, College Democrats, and College Republicans are partnering together to hold a voter registration drive before the upcoming election. Voting is a crucial part of the American democratic system, and we invite you to participate in this important process.

Voting is a fundamental way for us to enact meaningful change in our communities. We encourage all of you to research the candidates and vote for those whom you feel will best represent your ideals. We intend to send out an email and distribute flyers on National Voter Registration Day Tuesday, Sept. 22, which will include a link, information on how to register to vote, and how to request an absentee ballot.

New this week

Thursday, Sept. 24
Day of Prayer and Fasting
All people of good will are invited to take part in a day of prayer and fasting for the intentions of God’s mercy on the country and the healing and conversion of our hearts, especially in light of the ongoing pandemic and civil unrest.

Friday, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m.
LIFENIGHT
Student testimony, praise and worship, adoration, and confession in the Saint Thomas More Chapel.

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. Option for virtual or in-person participation. 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. Option for virtual or in-person participation. Email campusministry@smumn.edu to sign up.

The Saint Mary’s Sports Information Department is looking for work-study students interested in being part of the Cardinal stats crew. Students must have work-study, be a freshman or sophomore, and be able to work nights and weekends.

Experience in doing statistics for soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, baseball, or softball is beneficial, but not required.

Interested? Contact Donny Nadeau, Sports Information director, at dnadeau@smumn.edu. Positions are limited.

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

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is expanding its career services support within the Saint Mary’s University community. In addition to providing best-in-class services and support to undergraduate students on the Winona Campus as it always has, beginning this fall semester, services and support will expand to include students in bachelor’s completion, graduate, and professional programs (on-ground and online), as well as all alumni.

The expansion of these services will be rolled out in several phases. Features now available to students in our Schools of Graduate and Professional Programs (SGPP) include:

• Access to Handshake to assist in finding and landing job opportunities. To access your account:
  • Visit smumn.joinhandshake.com.
  • Log in using your Saint Mary’s username and password (if you have trouble logging in, email mhagarty@smumn.edu for assistance).
• Student one-on-one career coaching, covering a variety of topics including major and career discernment, assessments, résumé review, interview prep, job search strategies, and more. To schedule an appointment, visit https://goo.gl/wg0vDe and look for an appointment that matches your schedule. If no appointments are available in the next 2-3 weeks, email mhagarty@smumn.edu to request an appointment — be sure to include dates and times you are available.
• Résumé review services. To have your résumé reviewed, email it to write@smumn.edu.
• Access to the Career Services website, a robust (and growing) hub of resources, information, job boards, and more.
• Periodic communications (via email, Marketing and Communications, and other media outlets) providing career resources, updates, and information.

As time, staffing, and resources allow, future phases will include services such as:

• Faculty support and resources to enhance the faculty’s confidence and effectiveness in their role as a primary point of contact for career services support for students. Such resources would include, but not be limited to:
  • Faculty tip sheets and resource pages.
  • Embeddable videos for use in classrooms or student resources pages.
  • Class visits to facilitate learning and discussion around career related topics.
  • Consultation with academic departments and individual faculty to discuss practical ways to infuse career readiness content and strategies into their curriculum.
• Employer relations staff and services for all campuses.
• Physical presence on Rochester and Twin Cities campuses, including resource room, office space, and a dedicated video interview room.
• Further promoting opportunities for students on all campuses to take advantage of career fairs and other programming.
• Fostering relationships between students, alumni, and employers through industry-specific networking opportunities.
• Facilitating the coordination of mentoring opportunities between students and alumni.
• Career counselors and other staff experienced in meeting the unique needs of our diverse, non-traditional students served by the SGPP in the Twin Cities, Rochester, and online.

Celebrate Constitution Day today, Sept. 17, by learning about our nation’s Constitution. Paul Kotz, Ph.D., core associate professor in Ed.D. in Leadership, will present “The Constitution in the Year 2020” via Zoom today from noon to 12:45 p.m. (CST). All are welcome to attend this free event.

Join the Zoom event

Whether training lab workers testing for COVID-19; directly working with patients sick with the virus; or supporting the mass production of masks in a third-world country, Saint Mary’s alumni were there and continue to be there during this pandemic — serving valuable roles and often putting their own safety at risk.

Colleen Joyce ’10 and Joe Haynes ’09, are battling COVID-19 in Chicago as a couple; she’s a nurse and he’s a firefighter. Read more.

In April, Army Reserve medic Sgt. Chuck Thibault ’21 was called to work at a convention center converted into a make-shift hospital at the epicenter of the pandemic. Read more.

Jeremy Zacher M’19 doesn’t ever see or interact with patients at Mayo Clinic, yet his work is vital to the frontline heroes testing and treating COVID-19 patients. Read more.

Ellen Schreder taught a group of Haitian friends to sew to help them earn a living and provide menstrual products to women. They switched to sewing masks during the pandemic, constructing up to 6,000 by April. Read more.