Tackling distance learning: How CC’s Emergency Response Fund, ITS are trying to bridge a technology gap
Plus, how CC staff modified ventilation systems to meet new recommendations
Good morning, and happy Wednesday. On this pre-pandemic date in 2016, the first day of the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival was underway at Colorado College. (This year’s event is virtual.)
Today, we explain how Colorado College is trying to bridge a technology gap after the switch to distance-learning. We also report on how a CC Facilities team has been changing ventilation in campus buildings to decrease risk of COVID-19 transmission.
➡️ICYMI: On Monday, our resident microbiologist Phoebe Lostroh gave her weekly forecast for El Paso County. She also explained her thoughts on recent state COVID-19 guidance.
💻UCCS GOES REMOTE: After Thanksgiving, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs will offer classes remotely, with “very few exceptions” for some courses.
📰LOOK MA, WE MADE IT: The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project was featured in The New York Times last week.
✉️In Your Inbox: Here’s what you need to know.
Last Wednesday, a Colorado College staff member tested positive for COVID-19. They were in the Outdoor Education building last week, and are now in isolation.
On Friday, two Colorado College students living off-campus tested positive for COVID-19, and they are now in isolation. One student was in the Outdoor Education building last week, but the college says their case is not related to the staff member. The other student was in El Pomar Sports Center last week.
Over the weekend, another Colorado College staff member tested positive for COVID-19. The person was at work last week and is now in isolation. All employees they were in contact with are in quarantine.
Yesterday, two Colorado College student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19. “Out of caution we are pausing practice and team-related activities for all varsity teams except the ice hockey team, which is in preparation for upcoming competition,” CC COVID-19 Emergency Manager Maggie Santos wrote.
Colorado College is asking students not to travel during Fall Break. Students who leave Colorado will not be allowed to return to campus and will have to finish Block 4 remotely.
Colorado College has released virtual information sessions on Financial Aid and Student Accounts, Academic Advising and Support for Spring 2021, Housing and Move-In Procedures for Spring 2021, and Health, Safety, and Well-being. All information sessions are available here.
Colorado College announced updates to the virtual information session on Financial Aid and Student Accounts. All student housing assignments will be available in Banner by Dec. 17, and all January bills for returning students will be adjusted to reflect their spring semester plans by Jan. 15.
Faculty and staff are now included in Colorado College’s random testing protocols.
Colorado College will hold a series of focus groups about “pod-living.” A session for students is scheduled for today at 3 p.m. MT.
La’au’s Taco Shop is closed for the winter and will reopen in the spring.
Photo courtesy of ITS Operations and Safety Support Specialist Angie Bardsley.
Mailing laptops and mobile hotspots: Leveling the playing field during the pandemic
In March 2020, ITS Assistant Director Chad Schonewill faced a daunting task: preparing for a college-wide switch to online learning, in response to surging local case rates of COVID-19.
“I think that was the busiest time I can remember in my life,” Schonewill told The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project.
But as the Office of Information Technology and professors scrambled to convert courses to online formats, it was students that faced the largest transition. As Schonewill explained, Colorado College’s abrupt switch to online learning in March revealed the full extent of the technology gap among CC students, with not all having the necessary resources to attend online classes from home.
“I think the number one IT issue by far is that people don’t have equal access to the internet,” Schonewill said. “Depending on where they live, what they can afford, and what their home situation is, that can be vastly different.”
At the end of August, Schonewill estimated that around 93% of classes had an online component. Schonewill said that percentage has only gone up in recent months.
For Lee Rivers ’21, dubious internet connectivity at home loomed large in his plans for the future.
“My biggest concern [when CC announced virtual courses last March] was first of all, how would I get my belongings home, and secondly, how would I do online classes since I didn’t have internet at home,” Rivers told The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project.
Despite some students with concerns over internet access being able to remain on campus, not all who needed it were granted that opportunity.
“I was going to be able to stay on campus because I didn’t have internet at home, but it didn’t seem that was in itself a sufficient reason to stay at CC,” Rivers said. “But they were willing to help work that out.”
Rivers was able to make do with some assistance from Colorado College’s ITS department as well as from his girlfriend.
“For Blocks 7 and 8, ITS was actually able to give me a hotspot, and they let me use that, but I eventually just moved in with my girlfriend and used her internet,” Rivers said.
Some in need have also taken advantage of CC’s Emergency Response Fund, which was made available this past spring in order to aid with “unanticipated expenses students are facing as a direct result of the cancellation of on-campus courses and the reduction of services.”
According to the webpage, the fund is made up of “gift funds, global education funds, and (when legally available) CARES Act funds.”
Shannon Amundson, Colorado College’s Director of Financial Aid who is also a member of the response fund committee, says the fund provides aid on a range of issues, including technological problems that preclude students from participating in online classes.
“We have fixed computers, we have worked with ITS to send loaners, we have worked to send a satellite router because somebody couldn’t get decent internet access at their home,” Amundson told The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project. “It really depends on what the student needs, … and I don’t want to limit it. I wouldn’t want a student to say, ‘Well, I don’t fit in those categories.’”
According to Amundson, requests for technology or funds to bolster internet packages typically come through the committee’s emergency request address, and the ITS department then collaborates to fill those requests.
“I am no IT expert, believe me,” Amundson said. “So [we] connect with ITS to say: ‘we’re willing to do this, but we don’t know what this is, so you need to help.’”
Although a specific number of students who have received assistance with technology as a result of requests made to the emergency fund was unavailable, Schonewill estimated ITS and the fund have distributed around 150 loaner laptops to students.
Amundson estimated that overall, the emergency fund has directly assisted about 500 students (domestic and international), adding that the only two criteria the committee looks for are that requests are both emergencies and as specific as possible.
“Make sure that you are very specific in your emergency requests,” Amundson said. “We need a breakdown — ‘here is my repair estimate,’ or whatever the [request] is — because that speeds up the process of getting funds to students.”
From the perspective of ITS, Schonewill recommended students visit both speedtest.net and the ITS webpage for distance learning in order to “marshall some evidence” in the favor of student requests.
“What we usually say is you need about five megabytes/second in download speed and two in upload speed,” Schonewill said. “But it’s not like internet service providers monitor that for you.”
Ultimately, Amundson has maintained that students should reach out to get the help they need.
“I think that this is huge for students who want to stay enrolled,” Amundson said. “I think this is a way to help those students who don’t have the resources to get the opportunity to stay enrolled in what is the craziest time of my life.”
COVID-19 spreads through aerosols, so CC’s ventilation systems needed some modifications. Here’s what some of CC’s facilities workers have up to since July
If you’re an old-timer who has followed this newsletter since the beginning, you’ve probably heard us talk a lot about ventilation.
And for good reason. In addition to spreading through droplets, COVID-19 spreads through aerosols, which are tiny respiratory particles that can remain suspended in the air. That’s why improving the air exchange rate in indoor ventilation systems can reduce the likelihood of coronavirus transmission.
Michael Brubaker, Colorado College’s mechanical services engineer, told The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project that the college has around 150 different buildings with a wide range of systems. In July, Brubaker, a team of engineering consultants, and a contractor started working through the buildings one-by-one to modify the systems to increase ventilation.
“You want to increase ... your air changes per hour, as high as you can,” Brubaker said. “That has a lot of variables to it: what you can actually do depending on the type of system you have, and what type of weather you’re experiencing.”
What the CC team decided on was a goal of three air changes per hour in all the occupied buildings. Those three air changes should remove around 95% of contaminants from the air, Brubaker said. In terms of order, they prioritized classroom buildings and the buildings they knew were going to present more challenges.
The most difficult building? Armstrong Hall, Brubaker said, with Olin Hall and El Pomar Sports Center as distant seconds.
Armstrong Hall was built in 1966 and is home to classrooms, a handful of academic departments, the Registrar’s Office, and some student services including Accessibility Resources and Summer Session. Some classrooms and offices have small windows that may or may not open, and others don’t have windows to the outside at all. Brubaker said they might have spent three weeks in Armstrong alone trying to make the proper changes.
“It was by far the most time-consuming building,” Brubaker said. “Part of this is as you go through and start testing everything, you find more problems.”
On a daily basis, Brubaker said there were nine people working almost full-time on ventilation changes. He’s not sure what the exact cost ended up being, but said it was “significant,” in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In some of the residence halls that don’t have air ducts that go into each room, the team focused on improving airflow in the hallways and bathrooms. They’re trying to keep those systems running all the time to ensure adequate airflow.
Running some systems constantly, and also just having each system working harder, will inevitably require increased energy use. Brubaker said it’s still too early to tell what the full impact is, but he estimated energy usage could increase by as much as 25-30%. As outdoor temperatures decrease, it will take more energy to heat the air the system is bringing in, and then they will be able to gauge how much of an impact the systems have in overall energy use.
The team is looking into strategies to offset some of the increased energy needs, Brubaker said. They will compile those suggestions, along with information about additional improvements and other findings from their work, into a report the college can use to make decisions about the next steps in what will likely be an ongoing project. Brubaker said they should complete the report sometime this month.
About the CC COVID-19 Reporting Project
The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project is created by Colorado College student journalists Miriam Brown, Arielle Gordon, Isabel Hicks, and Esteban Candelaria in partnership with The Catalyst, Colorado College’s student newspaper. Work by Phoebe Lostroh, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at CC and National Science Foundation Program Director in Genetic Mechanisms, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, will appear from time to time, as will infographics by Colorado College students Rana Abdu, Aleesa Chua, Sara Dixon, Jia Mei, and Lindsey Smith.
The project seeks to provide frequent updates about CC and other higher education institutions during the pandemic by providing original reporting, analysis, interviews with campus leaders, and context about what state and national headlines mean for the CC community.
📬 Enter your email address to subscribe and get the newsletter in your inbox each time it comes out. You can reach us with questions, feedback, or news tips by emailing ccreportingproject@gmail.com.