April 27, 2020

Happy Monday, Everyone,

I’m delighted to start this week off on a note of gratitude: Thank you so much to our wonderful, dedicated Housing and Dining Staff for joining me and Vice President Blanche Hughes for a Zoom conversation last Thursday! It was a privilege to talk to you, to hear how committed you are to CSU, and to hopefully be able to address some of your concerns in real time.

As you know, the Governor’s Safer at Home Order is now in effect. CSU’s Pandemic Preparedness Team is working to understand how this order specifically impacts our university community and to develop and implement appropriate measures. We will continue to share what we learn and how we plan to respond.

Tonight, I want to share some of what we are doing to make things a little—or a lot—easier for members of our university community right now.

We know that many of you have developed incredible virtual events for a variety of audiences. The challenge is to let your audience know about these opportunities. Thanks to our CSU Engagement and Extension team, CSU Libraries, and our Web Services team, we recently launched CSU Virtual Events, which will ensure our students, Colorado residents and extended communities have one-stop access to all the great things our faculty, staff, and students are delivering online for the public. Visit the site to submit an event or to check out an event you want to join. I have my eye on Cheesemaking 101 tomorrow afternoon!

I don’t know if many of you know, but I’m actually sheltering-in-place at Magnolia by myself; Vince and Alexandra are back in West Virginia. So when I say that I know what some of you feel who are alone right now, I mean it—and yes, it’s normal to have started talking to yourself. Whatever your reasons for looking for more connections with others right now, we have developed a unique program that I urge you to join, called the You’re Not Home Alone Pen Pal program. This was the brainchild of the President’s Council on Culture, and our Commitment to Campus (C2C) team made it a reality—thanks to all of them! Simply sign in with your CSU id and answer a few questions here, submit your information, and we will connect you to a pen pal within the university. Remember—we are not home alone, and Rams take care of Rams.

And for our alumni—and even those about to graduate—who are experiencing professional challenges that no one could possibly have prepared you for, our terrific Alumni Association has put together a series of lunchtime conversations on such topics as job searching during COVID-19, finding remote work, and virtual networking and interviewing. Register for any one, or all, of these sessions.

Thank you all for everything you do to make us better every day.

Warmly,

Joyce