Sept. 17 Safe Return update

Dear Colleagues,

Happy Saints Spirit Day and welcome to fall! We are in for a lovely weekend in Minnesota so for those of you in our great state, I hope you have some good plans to enjoy the outdoors. We appreciate the blessings of nature and the restorative care it provides us! Here’s some news to share with you:

COVID 19 update

• The College’s student proof of vaccination and exemption process is well underway. I want to thank those involved in the process as we work with our students, particularly SHS staff and those on our review committee. We have had questions about whether the College will be requiring proof of vaccination and testing protocols for employees while we are in pandemic conditions. The feedback from both faculty and staff indicates that approximately 80% of our employees believe we should have proof of vaccination/exemption/testing protocols in place that mirror our student policy. We will continue to share our progress on putting such a process in place, as it will require new protocols to be developed to accomplish this work.
• We continue to tap into the MIIC data weekly, and see our vaccination rates increase. We are very fortunate to have our employee vaccination rates pushing upwards of 90% collectively.
• We are in the process of modifying our Alert Matrix in light of the Delta variant as well as our COVID cases reporting system. Again, we will be rolling that out once the SRU Team has updated the models.
• Please continue to access our SaintsRiseUp Safe Return site for the most recent updates and information.

Fall Commencement 2021

The College has decided to celebrate our graduating students with a non-traditional, non-seated ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 18 at the Duluth Campus. Each graduating student will be given a time slot to check-in for their Graduation Procession. The schedule of events will include: Brunch, Mass, Graduation Procession and a virtual commencement ceremony. Graduating students will check in for the Graduation Procession per degree. More details to come.

Muslim Prayer Room Dedication

T1603, Friday, Sept. 24

The St. Scholastica Community is invited to join Campus Ministry on Sept. 24 as we dedicate the College’s new Musala (Muslim Prayer Room). We will begin at 12:30 p.m. with a brief introduction to the space by Sabah Alwan who will explain the different aspects of the prayer room. A light reception will follow in T1115 and the Musala will be available for those who would like to join in Friday prayers. All are welcome!

Welcome Weekend shout-out

A huge shout out of appreciation to the following folks for their bold and Benedictine hard work, love, exuberance and care as they served in Welcome Weekend: Kaitie Selleck, Program Director, Abbie Hatlestad, Super Coordinating Intern and Gloria Baxter and Deltas: Elena Bissonette, Marissa Bober, Samuel Bondhus, Nicole Campbell, Grace Carlson, Heather Couture, Madison Crawford, Hailey Durand-Christianson, Alyssa Eichten, Jackson Faris, Anna Featherston, Tandrell Foster, Abigail Fuchs, Yohanes Gebeyehu, Mattea Gheorghe, Corissa Hedrick, Aidan Heidecker, Rena Hilleshiem, Elise Hintzman, Alayna Hoehn, Apolonia Homer, Hailey Hurley, Megan Hurley, Sophia Kelly, Jenny Kemnitz-Meyerson, Kayla Krause, Abigail LaLonde, Lisa LaRoche, Grace Larson, Morgan Lengsfeld, Emily Liebl, Kelli Loscheider, Kendall Markovic, Ava Mergen, Sarah Miller, Michael Nguyen, Maya Nibbe, Olivia Niska, Megan Novachek, Zachary Olson, Ben Plzak, Emily Primus, Makenzie Reiter, Nicole Sagstetter, Heidi Schaaf, Dylan Schafer, Jessica Schatz, Sarah Schwartz, Kassidy Sisk, Heather Springer, Emma St. Andrew, Matthew Stuber, Navah Swoverland, Madison Tadych, Kevin Thomas, Logan Thoreson, Kalley Tietje, Jaci Tourtellott, Margaret Walls, Madeline Warner, Ava Warren, McKenzie Williams, Abbygail Wohl-Kovatovich, Erin Wuestneck and Cheryl Zimmerman!

St. Cloud ribbon-cutting ceremony

On Wednesday, Sept. 15, we officially celebrated the expansion of our St. Cloud Campus with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. This expansion was completed last summer and doubled the campus’ existing learning spaces for new students. Thanks to Rick Revoir, Katie Wayne, Sheryl Sandahl and Lisa Roseth for all of their planning efforts to make this event a success!

#DoublePell — there is still time!

Thank you to everyone in our community who has contacted Congress and advocated on behalf of the #DoublePell initiative. We recently learned that the Senate is expected to mark up their version of the Reconciliation Bill’s education provisions during the first week of October. This means there is still time to contact our senators and representatives! The following site has a pre-built letter you can send as is; all you need to do is enter your contact information: https://doublepell.org/take-action/.

Thanks for advocating on behalf of the College’s low-income and first-generation students!

U.S. News and World Report 2022 rankings

And in related news, St. Scholastica has been honored as a Top Performer on Social Mobility by US News and World Report for the second year in a row. The College improved its rankings and climbed to no. 100 out of 391 schools in the National Universities category. This ranking recognizes the College’s success in enrolling and graduating students who receive Pell Grants. We have much to be proud of!

OT Students in the Community

On Saturday, Sept. 11, our OT students participated in Duluth’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s, the world’s largest fundraiser for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Thanks to Dr. Michele Johnson for serving as faculty advisor for the event!

Thank you for a great start to the semester! Vivat St. Scholastica!

Stay well, stay safe!

Barbara