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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.

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

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