Michael Bender
27 September 2020
There was a chancellor chat the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater held via WebEx on September 24, 2020, open to students and staff to address their concerns and ask any questions they had regarding the Fall semester and beyond.
Panelists included Interim Chancellor Greg Cook, Interim Provost John Chenoworth, Interim Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs Taryn Carothers and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Artanya Wesley, just to name a few.
Among the topics that was addressed was the steps to keeping the students safe.
Chancellor Greg Cook talked about the types of tests that the university has been administrating in order to keep students safe.
“The antigen test is the test we have been using primarily using in the resident halls, although now though we are looking at the potential to expand it out to all students.”
Students are randomly selected through an invitation in their email. If the student accepts the invitation, they go to the health center on campus.
The other type of test is the PCR test. That test is targeted for students that are more symptomatic and they indicate that they have symptoms such as a fever and a sore throat.
Cook however says that people should not be surprised at the positivity rate.
“We shouldn’t be surprised that the positivity rate there is higher. We’re also using PCR tests to follow up on positive antigen tests.”
Another topic that was addressed during the chat was the December graduation ceremony.
“We’re looking into that right now”, Cook said “in fact yesterday I received a message where the commencement committee was presenting me with an outline of how a December commencement might look.”
Cook said that it is important to honor these students who have earned their degrees and that it is important to celebrate the achievements. He also said that it is a celebration for faculty and staff as well because they helped the students on their way to earning that degree.
Unfortunately, this year’s event will be virtual because the university does not want to run the risk of packing 5,000-7,00 students inside the Williams Center.
One of the last topics that was addressed was the state of winter sports. Interim Athletic Director Ryan Callahan gave an update on the state of winter sports.
“Right now, we postponed all the competition to January 1. We just had a call with some athletic directors and we’re looking at what the schedule would look like for the respective sports.”
As far as campus goes, UWW is on track to make the November 20 date in which classes will fully go remote.