Well hello.
I'm back for my weekly video.
Let's start off with some information about
what's going on in Michigan related to the
COVID-19.
Yesterday the daily count for new cases on
a rolling seven day average hit a little over
800 which is not good.
In fact it's probably the highest since mid-May
or somewhere around that time frame.
So that's really pretty disappointing.
Disappointing also because just a couple of
weeks ago the daily number of new cases on
a seven-day rolling average at one point it
went down to 500.
But was generally in the 500 to 600 new cases
per day range.
So it was looking like things were gonna get
better in Michigan and then it started to
go back up again.
So, you just never know with this pandemic.
You just have to continue to be vigilant and
continue to wear masks.
And continue to social distance.
Please, let's everybody do our part.
This past week, on Thursday, we did have another
town hall.
It was well attended - over 700 people.
We had various members of the restart committee
to talk about aspects of restarting our campus.
I think the session was very informative.
There's just three things I want to mention
from that meeting.
One, is that I did make a change from a previous
communication in terms of the numbers of people
that will be allowed to congregate outdoors.
The governors directive says that no more
than 10 people can be indoors socially.
And outdoors, no more than 100, outdoors,
socially.
The previous communication I had mentioned
that we will follow the governors orders indoors
and no more than 10 people can congregate
socially.
But that outdoors we'll decrease it to 50.
After further reflection and seeing what's
going on at other universities, we decided
that 50 was a little too high.
And we announced that we were going to cap
the numbers at 20 outdoors.
That was new.
The other two things that I mentioned is that,
one, we are gonna have a dashboard that will
be on our website.
I think on the health center website, actually.
That is going to track the numbers of infections
that we have on campus, percent positivity,
other relative data that doesn't compromise
privacy rules.
But trying to be as transparent as possible,
with relation to COVID-19 related information
on campus.
Accompanying that, we're also going to be
publishing metrics in terms of what we're
going to be looking at.
And what is going to trigger a response from
the university.
Whether it's a target response toward a particular
building or department or a more generalized
one.
And more severe one of depopulating the campus.
These are going to be things like what is
the percent positivity that we'll tolerate
until we'll actually do something different
from a university stand point.
Or a number of new cases.
A number of things - there are seven or eight
metrics that we'll be following.
But the good thing is that you'll be able
to know, everyone will be able to know what
those metrics are.
And combined with the dashboard that shows
where we stand at any one time, you'll be
able to determine for yourself how close we
are to having to make a change of some sort,
if it gets to that point.
And then when we do have to make a change,
you'll know the basis of why we made the decisions
that we made.
It'll very transparent.
So, it could be finished Monday, that's tomorrow.
So, look for that.
This past week was move-in time.
It was a little different than in the past
when we crested it over a couple of days.
This was over the entire week.
Actually, it turned out a really better experience,
I think, for the students and the parents.
And we got a lot of good feedback from it.
We did test everyone who moved in.
And the good news is that the percent positivity
is very low.
I don't have the latest numbers yet because
I don't have Saturday numbers.
But what we do have is well below 1% positivity.
So, that's great.
That's actually really good.
And when you think about some other universities,
for example one in the south that had 481
new cases over a three day period.
And well over 1,200 new cases since classes
have started less than two weeks ago, we're
actually doing very well.
But, having said that, it's a real reminder
that things can get bad.
And we have to continue to be vigilant.
And I'm sure that if we do everything that
we're supposed to do that we'll be fine.
Jacqueline and I do take our walks around
the campus every day.
Walking our dog.
And we pass a lot of people.
And for the most part, I think that people
are wearing their masks and they're social
distancing.
But not everyone.
And so, I do want to remind everyone again
that we've all got to do our part.
And make sure this doesn't get ahead of us.
And then, one final piece of news that the
state democratic convention was yesterday
and they selected their nominees for the ballot
for the November elections.
And one of the areas for the ballot was the
board of governors for Wayne State.
And I'm so very pleased tell you that Shirley
Stancato and Eva Garza Dewaelsche were nominated
by the party to represent the Democratic party
in the November elections.
On the Republican side, Diane Dunaskiss was
nominated.
Diane is someone well-known to us.
She was on the board of governors for many
years, before she was turned out in 2018.
And was not re-elected when she ran.
So she's back on the ballot for this election.
As well as someone who I actually don't know.
His name is Don Gates.
The only thing I do know about him is he's
a retired colonel.
And he's also the other nominee besides Diane
Dunaskiss for the Republican slate.
So, we'll see what happens in November.
But until next week, stay Warrior safe.
I don't have any news in terms of a new book.
I'm still reading the book about leadership.
I'll be done with that by next week.
And I can tell you more about it.
Stay Warrior safe.
Thank you.
