Archives for July 2022

This passage from Ecclesiastes may seem dark, but it also reflects the writer’s wise realization that “what he has accomplished is a gift from God meant to be given back to the world.” Read today’s God Pause.

We’ve launched our IT feedback survey this year with some additions. The seminary is interested in also hearing how staff find the other shared services beyond IT. Those additional shared areas are the Controller and Marketing. So if you’re a staff member you’ll see a few additional questions in the survey. The survey is open to all and we welcome all of your perspectives.

We’ll keep the survey open through the start of fall courses.

Reported employee cases: 1
Reported student cases: –
Students in quarantine or isolation: –

Reported cases only include students and employees who have been on campus within a period of time during which they may have been contagious. According to the CDC this includes two days prior to the onset of symptoms or a positive test.

If you have recently tested positive for COVID-19, or if you are an unvaccinated individual who has been in close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 (close contact is defined as being within 6 feet of that person for 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period), please report that to the appropriate person. For employees, that person is Michael Morrow (mmorrow001@luthersem.edu). Students should contact Leon Rodrigues (deanofstudents@luthersem.edu).

Contact Tracing Protocol

When an on-campus case of COVID-19 is reported, that person is first asked to stay off-campus and quarantine in accordance with CDC guidelines. In addition, the seminary takes two steps for contact tracing:

1. The Minnesota Department of Health is notified, per guidelines for institutions of higher education

2. The person reporting the case is asked to identify “close contacts”; the close contacts identified are notified of the exposure and asked to follow CDC guidelines for testing and quarantining (quarantine applies only to close contacts who are unvaccinated).

Bockman Hall has four newly-upgraded meeting rooms ready for use! Each room is equipped with a large wall-mounted display and a Logitech MeetUp for all your videoconferencing needs! Using the room’s hardware is as simple as plugging in the provided HDMI and USB cables into your laptop, and more detailed instructions are hung in each room (and accessible here: https://bit.ly/LSMtgRooms). Reserve them for your next meeting, and feel free to reach out to helpdesk@luthersem.edu with any questions or for additional support!

Please join us in welcoming Colleen Clish to the Office of Technology as a Data Reporting Analyst. Colleen will be supporting the Jenzabar application and working closely with departments to meet their data and reporting needs.

Colleen comes to us from the Minnesota State Bar Association and has higher education experience at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Hamline University School of Law, and the University of St. Thomas.

Her deep knowledge of student information systems will be a great asset to our team and we are very excited to have her on board. Colleen’s office is located in Bockman Hall 7.

Susan Brooks begins as associate director of Faith+Lead Academy on July 25, where she will be working on curriculum development, digital pedagogy, instructor onboarding, and assessment. She comes to Faith+Lead with years of experience teaching, designing courses, and doing faculty development at Bethel University. She also has provided leadership on several grants. Susan holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree from Minnesota State, Mankato. Please join us in warmly welcoming Susan to Luther. Questions? Contact Terri Elton, dean of academic affairs and director of Faith+Lead Academy, telton@luthersem.edu.