My job, like so many others, has changed swiftly over the last month. Working from home is something I thought would happen in the future, especially in light of academic programs moving to an online delivery format. However, I didn’t think it would happen this quickly nor due to a pandemic.

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) began to develop, the campus communicated their plans for dealing with the situation. In early March, faculty were asked to convert their spring 2020 semester courses to online delivery. As the Higher Education Administration (HIED) program was already delivering courses 100% online, the conversion was minimal compared with the Educational Administration and Leadership (EDAD) doctoral program I support. While the EDAD doctoral program was moving towards a hybrid delivery format starting fall 2020, the expedited digital shift to student learning would pose some quick adjustments.

Campus Support

The campus had several resources to assist with the conversion including our information technology employees. While they could not handle this enormous influx of requests, triage support systems were put in place in each school so faculty could share their expertise to help others adapt to the new work arrangements. Courses were canceled for all students through March 29th to allow time to prepare for the change in delivery. During this time, the HIED faculty provided assistance to those needing help with moving courses to online delivery.

In the Center for Doctoral Studies office, a decision was made to have our graduate assistants work from home. Later, the campus would move to that format. Some of our students had already worked some hours from a distance which made this conversion easier. The office was definitely quiet without them. However, there was plenty of work in the office to ensure faculty, students, and graduate assistants had what they needed. While I was working in the office, the door was locked and there were directions for contacting us via email or phone. Faculty would stop by on occasion as they had a key to the office.

Change Acceptance

Everywhere I turned, events were being canceled. I had several suitcases packed prior to spring break for recruitment events coming up later that month. However, those were not needed due to cancellations. Every event provider was scrambling to make decisions on what to do for their event. Additional emails from those events provided regular updates about those decisions. As cancellations began, I waited for word if the event would get rescheduled or if we would receive a refund for our recruitment booth. Unfortunately, the HIED program would also cancel its Spring Leadership Institute, and St. Cloud State would postpone its commencement ceremonies.

On March 18th, the School of Education held a meeting with staff explaining that they wanted staff to begin working from home no later than March 23rd. Most staff were not equipped with a laptop to work at home and they needed to wait for a laptop or other equipment to be provided to do so. Fortunately, I already had a laptop and the equipment I needed to work from home. So my adventure working at home began on March 19th.

At home, I began to set up a workspace. This required me to clean and organize my sewing, crafting, and genealogy room. Thanks to Steven McCullar, last fall I had purchased a standing desk from Costco which I was using to cut quilt fabric. This desk was converted to my workspace allowing me to stand or sit throughout the workday. The first two weeks I waited for the campus to provide access to all programs I needed to operate. As a person who travels occasionally for professional development or to recruit students, I had been asking for these programs to be made available from a distance for quite some time. While the campus was working towards that, the pandemic expedited it.

Still, We Persist

This past month, I have been busy assisting HIED and EDAD with new student admission to the program. Interviews were set up with applicants and welcome letters were sent to newly admitted students. Thanks to our graduate assistants’ hard work, you are now seeing who our new students are in our blog and social media posts. We continue to admit students for fall 2020. In addition, our office has been working with hiring graduate assistants for FY21. For the first time, we will have 100% online doctoral graduate assistants in HIED who live out of state or outside the United States. HIED master’s graduate assistants will continue to work in the office as long as pandemic restrictions are lifted.

At home, my two Labrador retrievers adapted to me working from home. Gus stops by my new office regularly to beg for a treat, to ask to be pet, or to play with his ball.

He tries to get into many Zoom meetings. Toby typically goes about his normal routine, sleeping most of the day. Once in a while, he will make an appearance on Zoom. Both dogs enjoy lunchtime when I take them outside to play. It is nice to get outdoors and take them for a walk after work as well.

My husband continues to work outside the home as an essential employee. He is a building utilities mechanic at the Army Aviation Support Facility in St. Cloud. As you know, the military never shuts down. Flights continue to come in and go out every day from locations throughout the United States. Thus, his work area has stepped up cleaning efforts to prevent the spread of the virus. Plus, the building needs continual support for water, plumbing, and heating systems as well as mechanical and electrical equipment support that can’t be conducted at a distance.

Keeping Busy

Outside of work, I have been sewing face masks with ties. So far, I have made 100 handmade masks. With the shortage of elastic, I have made ties out of cotton fabric. While this design takes longer, I like it as it does not put pressure on your ears. My husband’s employer saw the masks I made for some of the guys and the military seamstress decided to make masks with that same design. Masks have been donated to CentraCare’s Gorecki Guest House and St. Cloud State. I have given them to faculty, students, family, and friends. In addition, I will be volunteering time to assist St. Cloud State with their efforts to make masks for students. I’ve also been busy sewing some quilts (Christmas gifts) that I typically work on during my annual March vacation in Wisconsin with my aunts. Unfortunately, that vacation got canceled due to the virus, but we were able to reschedule our retreat for September.

In addition, I have been working on my family history. I hope to reach 10,000 people in my tree soon. One side of my family tree goes back to the late 1600s in Germany. I haven’t had as much time to work on it as I would like. As the president of the St. Cloud Area Genealogists, I had to work with my board to convert our monthly membership meetings to an online format and reschedule our April Family History Conference to September. The online format has been a learning curve for my board and membership but has been great for our distant members and for connecting to members who go south for the winter. Our members are now requesting an online and in-person format in the future.

For Our Students

While neither our work nor our home lives may feel familiar or comfortable right now, please know that I am here to support and guide you during normal business hours. The best way to reach me is via email at mbraunheurung@stcloudstate.edu. If you need to meet remotely, we can set up a zoom meeting. Resources to assist you with the COVID-19 can be found at https://www.stcloudstate.edu/emergency/covid19/default.aspx Program resources can be found in D2L Brightspace in courses called “HIED Student Guide” and “HIED Dissertation”. Links to forms are available through these courses. Just email me your forms and I will gather signatures and submit electronically to offices being employees are currently working remotely.

It has been an interesting month full of learning new things and adapting to a new way of thinking and working. I look forward to the days when I will be able to be back in the office and see everyone. Until then, I’ll be home, working, and helping to keep myself and my fellow Minnesotans safe.

Michele Braun-Heurung is the Center for Doctoral Studies Facilitator.

37 thoughts on “Support Staff Corner: The Impact of Coronavirus on A Staff Member’s Work Life

  1. Thank you author for touching this hot topic for all entrepreneurs! My sales also fell after covid and it was very difficult for me to restore my enterprise, and I decided to shift customer service to an outsourcing company wow 24 7 and this was the right decision because I was able to restore and put all other work processes in order

  2. Situs resmi Kami Jaring88 yang berdiri sejak tahun 2015 banyak sekali permainan Online seperi slot, sabung ayam, Bola,tembak ikan dan t0gel online. Anda bisa langsung membuktikannya sendiri hanya menggunakan satu user ID saja Anda sudah bisa memainkan semua permainan online yang ada. Segera Kunjungi situs resmi Kami Disini Info Slot Gacor Terbaru

  3. Gabung sekarang juga di situs kami Bigo88, banyak bonus dan hadiah yang bisa kalian dapatkan. Agen Slot Online Merupakan situs judi online yang Aman dan Terpercaya di Indonesia, dengan adanya RTP yang akurat kalian pasti akan mudah cuan di situs kami.

  4. Sebagai salah satu website terbesar Diindonesia,Gaspoll88 Juga menyediakan segala permainan Game Slot Gacor terbaru di tahun ini 2023. Dimana setip pemainnya bisa mempunyai kesempatan bawa pulang uang tunai yang sangat banyak. Ayuk segera bergabung sekarang juga di Gaspoll88 Sekarang juga.

  5. Daftar Slot Terpercaya pada dasarnya sama dengan Slot Gacor online lainnya, hanya perlu mencari bagian pendaftaran di website tersebut. Bambu99 Adalah Tempat Yang Tepat Anda Kunjungi Karna Situs Web Kami Menjanjikan Kemenangan Untuk Setiap Member nya.

  6. Daftarkan Sekarang User ID Anda Di situs Dan Mainkan Game Slot Online provider Yang Terpercaya dan terbaik di kelas nya asia Dengan judi uang asli secara online.
    Situs Kami Merupakan salah satu Agen situs Game Slot Terpercaya Diindonesia. Daftar Sekarang juga Di Agen slot Online Madu88 Kami memberikan dukungan RTP slot pragmatic dan pola slot maxwin yang sangat terpercayaSetiap Hari Nya.

  7. Agen Slot TerGacor Di Indonesia merupakan agen situs Kudabet sebagai web penyedia permainan online seperti live c4sino, slot, dan juga permainan ikan dari joker123 yang sangat seru dan seru untuk dimainkan oleh siapa saja yang menyukai permainan Agen Joker Slot Gaming ini.

  8. Dewataspin akan memberikan anda infomasi terupdate dan terbaru seputar permainan judi slot online dengan Rtp Slot Gacor tertinggi hari ini yang ada di Dewataspin.
    Untuk anda para pecinta game slot online yang mencari kemenanggan dari permainan slot pasti sudah tau dengan bocoran slot gacor yang di berikan setiap hari. Karena bisa dibilang saat ini sangat banyak pemain slot yang belum tau rumus slot atau pola slot gacor dari situs kami.

  9. ऑनलाइन सट्टेबाजी एक लोकप्रिय मनोरंजन और मनोरंजन का स्रोत है। यह एक बड़ा क्षेत्र है और लोगों को विभिन्न प्रकार की बाजी लगाने का अवसर प्रदान करता है। भारत में बेटिंग साइट्स पर साइन अप बोनस इसमें स्पोर्ट्स, कैसीनो खेल, और अन्य ऑनलाइन गेम्स शामिल हो सकते हैं। यह लोगों के लिए आने वाले समय को मनोरंजनपूर्ण बनाता है ऑनलाइन सट्टेबाजी , लेकिन सट्टेबाजी करते समय संज्ञानीय सावधानी बरतना महत्वपूर्ण होता है।

  10. College Brawl MOD APK offers an intense fighting arcade experience set in a college-themed environment. It’s available for free download, allowing players to enjoy action-packed gameplay without any cost.

  11. 탐험의 여정에 떠나기 준비가 되셨나요? (토토사이트.com)로 출항하여 끝없는 가능성의 세계를 탐험하세요. 다양한 게임과 흥미진진한 놀라움으로, 여러분은 항상 흥미진진함을 경험할 것입니다. 지금 가입하고 여러분의 모험을 시작하세요! GG2

  12. Across asset classes, the perceived opportunity for value creation correlates to an extent with the speed of execution, liquidity and time horizon of investments. Equities and hedge funds are at the forefront of the perceived opportunity for value creation, with infrastructure and real estate at the other end of the spectrum. At sector level, managers’ views on the opportunity set differ widely, demonstrating both the structural nature of AI’s impact and the broad dispersion of opportunity for AI-driven alpha generation across asset classes, according to Artificial Intelligence Integration in Investment report.
    Challenges in agreeing to a definition of AI reinforce the complexity of determining exactly how managers are using and integrating capabilities. According to survey, there is clear consensus among managers about what constitutes AI, with what might be termed the “core capabilities” being generative AI (gen AI), large language models (LLS), natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) models.

  13. These early games were created by engineers and computer scientists, laying the groundwork for the future of the industry. 사설토토

  14. As the development of the science and technologies, there are a lot of changes coming up with the design of our NCS-Core exam questions. We are applying new technology to perfect the NCS-Core study materials. Through our test, the performance of our NCS-Core learning quide becomes better than before. In a word, our NCS-Core training braindumps will move with the times. Please pay great attention to our NCS-Core actual exam.

  15. 我們的SAP C-ARSCC-2404 認證考試的最新培訓資料是VCESoft的專業團隊不斷地研究出來的,可以幫很多人成就夢想。在現在的競爭激烈的IT行業中,想要穩固自己的地位,就得向專業人士證明自己的知識和技術水準。SAP C-ARSCC-2404 認證考試是一個很好的證明自己能力的考試。有了SAP C-ARSCC-2404認證證書,你工作會有很大的變化,工資和工作職位都會有所提升。

  16. 국제공인자격증을 취득하여 IT업계에서 자신만의 자리를 잡고 싶으신가요? 자격증이 수없이 많은데Oracle 1z0-808-KR 시험패스부터 시작해보실가요? 100%합격가능한 Oracle 1z0-808-KR덤프는Oracle 1z0-808-KR시험문제의 기출문제와 예상문제로 되어있는 퍼펙트한 모음문제집으로서 시험패스율이 100%에 가깝습니다.

  17. The article is truly inspiring, thank you for posting it! The Test C-SAC-2415 tutorial helped me secure my promotion and raise. It’s free now for everyone. Best of luck with your career!

  18. JPNTestは客様の要求を満たせていい評判をうけいたします。たくさんのひとは弊社の商品を使って、PEGACPLSA88V1試験に順調に合格しました。

  19. It opened my mind in ways I didn’t expect. The C1000-132 reliable real exam questions helped me secure a promotion and raise. It’s now free to all. Wishing you success in your promotion journey!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *