June 22, 2020

Before Michigan Tech moved to Step Two of our Return to Campus Plan, the University assigned “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Prevention in the Workplace” training to all employees on payroll who did not complete it during Step One. This training is one of three requirements you must complete in order to start working on campus again during Step Two—the other two are obtaining your supervisor’s approval and submitting the COVID-19 Daily Symptom Monitoring Form.

How to Find the Training:
If you are on the University payroll, a link to the training was emailed to you on June 11. It was sent from system@safetyskills.com with the subject line, “You have been assigned a training topic in the SafetySkills LMS!” Check your inbox and your junk folder. If you did not receive an email like this, or if you are not on University payroll and need campus access, contact mtuflex@mtu.edu. 

When is the Training Due?
It depends on the date you returned to campus, or plan to return. Info on training deadlines is available on the MTU Flex Portal under Employee Training.

COVID-19 training takes about 20 minutes and can be completed anytime before your deadline. If you miss your deadline, when your HuskyCard tap access expires at midnight, you won't be able to reactivate it until you complete the training.

MTU Flex is a resource for all of us, so students, employees, and families can get the latest details on academic experiences, campus experiences, and campus operations. Check back often, as new info is still being added. And, if you have questions, email them to mtuflex@mtu.edu.

The next meeting of the University Senate (Meeting #643) will take place at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday (June 24) via Zoom.

Senators are responsible for making their constituents aware of the agenda for this meeting.

Senators who are unable to attend should arrange for their alternates to attend in their place.

See the agenda for Meeting #643 and the minutes of Meeting #642.

Beginning at 10 p.m. tonight (June 22), Michigan Tech IT will be upgrading software on the network switches across campus. This work should be completed by 6 a.m. tomorrow (June 23).

As the upgrade moves from building to building, there will be downtime to phones, computers, WiFi and building controls.

Each switch will only be impacted once for approximately 20 minutes. If you have any questions or concerns, we can help. Contact us at it-help@mtu.edu or call 7-1111.

The Graduate School announces the nomination of two theses to the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools 2020 Distinguished Master’s Thesis Competition. These theses represent the best in their discipline at Michigan Tech, and represented Michigan Tech in the regional competition.

Emily Simmons represents the field of Humanities. She earned a Master of Science degree in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture in 2018. Her thesis was entitled, “Accessing Library Space: Spatial Rhetorics from the U.S. to France and Back Again.” She was nominated by her advisor, Andrew Fiss (HU). In his nomination, Fiss said Simmons' work “...provided a framework for the development and implementation of a new evaluation tool that linked urban public libraries in Toulouse, France with those in the small, rural communities local to Michigan Tech.”

Her work “strengthened both our opportunities for international, inter-university exchange and also the research profile of the Humanities department as a whole.” Her work can be accessed on Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech.

Erin Eberhard represents the field of Biological/Life Sciences. She earned a Master of Science degree in 2017 in Biological Sciences and is continuing her work at Michigan Tech as a Ph.D. candidate.

Her thesis was entitled, “Co-Occurrence of Nitrogen Fixation and Denitrification Across a Stream Nitrogen Gradient in a Western Watershed.” She was nominated by her advisor, Amy Marcarelli (BioSci). Eberhard’s work sought to address several long-standing assumptions about nitrogen (N) cycling in stream ecosystems. According to her advisor, her research “has transformed research in our lab and broadened our ecological understanding of N cycling processes in stream ecosystems.” Her work can be accessed on Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech.

In the fall of 2020, we will be able to nominate outstanding MS theses in the broad categories of Social Sciences or Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering.

In our past IDEA Hub/CTL online sessions, a number of challenges have been discussed in regard to MTU Flex:

• How to teach face-to-face safely and while maintaining social distance
• How to teach students face-to-face and remotely simultaneously
• How to facilitate student engagement and assess learning in remote environments
• How to offer hands-on, project-based and lab-based learning experiences remotely or with social distancing

These next two Teaching Q&A sessions and workshops will support you in developing and prototyping innovative solutions to address these teaching challenges. You’ll learn how to apply the toolsets and mindsets of Design Thinking to innovate your MTU Flex courses.

As these two workshops build on one another, we recommend that you attend both if possible. We plan to repeat the workshop series in August. Both of these workshops will begin with Q&A about teaching in the fall.

Registration is not required for the Teaching Q&A portion of the sessions; we will share a calendar invite to all faculty and staff with the Zoom link.

Registration is required for the workshops. To register, click the below links to be added to the calendar invites for these events, which will include the Zoom link.

If you have questions or do not get the calendar invite, but would like to attend the Teaching Q&A or workshop sessions, please email margaret@mtu.edu.

• Session #3 — Develop Innovative Solutions, 3-5 p.m. Wednesday (June 24). Teaching Q&A: 3-3:45 p.m. Design Thinking Workshop - Develop Innovative Solutions: 3:45-5 p.m.
• Session #4 — Prototype Your Innovative Solutions, 3-5 p.m. Wednesday, July 1. Teaching Q&A: 3-3:45 p.m. Design Thinking Workshop - Prototype Your Innovative Solutions, 3:45-5 p.m.

Video recordings, transcripts, and other materials from the past two Teaching Q&A sessions are available in this Google Drive folder.

We will post recordings of these two sessions as well, but we hope you’ll join us in person.

For the fall semester, accommodations will be provided for employees who are identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as being at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and those who are caring for someone at risk in their immediate household, if requested.

Employees can make this request, or an accommodation request for other medical reasons specifically related to COVID-19—for example, being medically unable to wear a face covering—by contacting Michigan Tech ADA Coordinator Susan Sullivan. It is important to note that applying for a COVID-19 High Risk Accommodation uses a different process from ADA Accommodations for a disability.

Once an employee sends an email to adacoordinator@mtu.edu, the ADA Coordinator will reply with a confirmation email that will include an Application Form to complete. This Application Form is specifically designed for COVID-19 requests.

Once the application is completed, the accommodation will be determined on an individualized case-by-case basis by the ADA Coordinator and the employee’s supervisor to determine if the request is reasonable. Please be aware that a requested accommodation could possibly not be granted if it would be an undue hardship. This means it would cause significant difficulty or expense, or if the accommodation would fundamentally alter the nature of a position or of a course.

Accommodations for COVID-19 concerns are temporary and are being considered for the fall semester only at this time. Student employees will use this process for their work-related issues only. Students requesting academic-related accommodations for COVID-19 issues should contact the Coordinator of Student Disability Services at sds@mtu.edu.

If you have any questions or would like further clarification, please email adacoordinator@mtu.edu or call 906- 487-3310.

Parking Restrictions in Place

Aleksey Smirnov (GMES) was named one of the “American Geophysical Union’s Outstanding Reviewers of 2019”. Smirnov was cited for his service to Geophysical Research Letters.

Postdoctoral scholar Henrike Fleischhack, professor Petra Huentemeyer, and Ph.D. candidate Dezhi Huang from the department of physics, along with their collaborators from the HAWC gamma-ray observatory, have published the letter "HAWC J2227+610 and Its Association with G106.3+2.7, a New Potential Galactic PeVatron" (ApJL 896 L29 (2020).

 AAS Nova has featured the result as well. This research was funded by the NSF.

Michigan Tech was listed in the story "Reducing and Eliminating E-Waste," in Communications of the ACM.

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The Michigan Tech Outdoor Adventure Program resumed equipment rentals Friday. The story was featured on WLUC TV6.

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Jay Meldrum (KRC) was mentioned in the story "EGLE receives national award for solar energy program in L’Anse & Traverse City," on UP Matters, (WJMN TV).

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