By Dr. Leonard Brown and Dr. Justin Moses,
With a pandemic that has directly or indirectly impacted us all, multiple acts of violence projected on communities of color, and political unrest, we have all felt an overwhelming burden. Countless lives around us have been lost including some of those in our NSU community. Despite these losses, we have supported and uplifted one another by sacrificing what was normal to us. We’ve taught, we’ve learned, we’ve worked remotely, and many of us worked on campus to support the operations and provide support for students that remained on campus. We shied, adjusted, and leveraged our resources to maintain a standard of excellence by being innovative in our provision of academic instruction and support to our student population. We demonstrated a culture of care by taking the steps required of us to remain safe and we went above those requirements to ensure that our campus was able to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 that spread around us. Just this semester, nearly 10,000 COVID-19 tests were performed for students, faculty and staff, an Open Vaccination Clinic was held on campus, and personal protective equipment was distributed multiple times.
Due to mitigation efforts such as these and our collective commitment to safety, we have maintained a low COVID-19 positivity rate while also maintaining an engaged university community, none of which would have been possible without a resilient, caring, and purpose-driven campus community.
It is important to recognize the many individuals that have devoted their service, their time, their expertise, and their care to the care of others on a daily basis. e Covid-19 Task Force, representing all aspects of our community, worked diligently to plan for and execute our community response to COVID-19. Dr. Vanessa Blowe and her staff in the Spartan Health Center have advised the entire University community and have been highly involved in the planning and implementation of health and safety protocols at NSU since the Coronavirus was identified in 2019. Our Facilities staff who have worked non-stop to ensure the campus was equipped with PPE, was sanitized on a consistent basis and so much more.
Our faculty, in conjunction with numerous administrators and staff led the charge to create safe and virtual learning spaces and environments to ensure the continuity of the University’s academic enterprise and operations. Our Office of Information Technology ensured that students had access to technological assets through the distribution of laptops and wireless routers and that our faculty had the appropriate devices in and outside of the classroom to provide the highest level of academic instruction. Our Housing and Residential Life staff supported students living on campus since the pandemic began and worked around the clock supporting students in quarantine. In addition to the people previously mentioned there is a long list of faculty, staff and students who joined together to get us through this year.
The NSU community has been resilient and has responded proactively and innovatively to the challenges that the pandemic presented. Despite these challenges, we have sustained many successes. Our students have performed exceptionally in the classroom, in athletic events, in professional endeavors, and in the community.
As we look forward to the future, NSU will continue to excel and as we prepare and posture ourselves for a post COVID-19 environment, the support of our alumni, partners, and community at large will be critical to our success. We look forward to the time where we can safely congregate on campus as a family. Behold!
