The Current | Vol. 31 Issue 19

January 26, 2021 | nsucurrent.nova.edu 3 News News Briefs Get the scoop on events happening on campus and around campus Inter-Organizational Council to hold winter involvement fair On Jan. 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Shark Fountain, Flight Deck Backyard and the library quad, the Inter- Organizational Council will host the annual winter involvement fair. Students will have the opportunity to meet and talk with the wide variety of NSU’s clubs and organizations. The event will also feature food, music and giveaways. For more information, contact ioc@nova.edu. Feedback for NSU Spaces App The NSU Spaces team is asking for students to provide feedback by Jan. 29 on the new NSU Spaces app that gives students the ability to find bookable and walk-in spaces on campus to meet, study and collaborate. This will allow them to make system updates to better serve the NSU student body. The survey can be found on NSU’s website and will only take two minutes. For more information about the NSU Spaces app, visit www. nova.edu/nsu-spaces. eSharks In place of Sharks on the Scene, which has been suspended this semester due to COVID-19, the Office of Campus Life and Student Engagement will host eSharks, free virtual events open to all NSU students. Students can find the full schedule for January events on their website. Upcoming events include a virtual sushi-making workshop, which will be held on Jan. 30 at 12 p.m. and a virtual terrarium workshop, which will be held on Jan. 31 at 1 p.m. Due to limited space, students are required to RSVP by contacting specialprojects@nova.edu. Peer Leader Program application open until Mar. 5 The Office of Experiential Education is accepting applications for students to serve as Fall 2021 UNIV 1000 peer leaders. Peer leaders provide incoming freshmen at NSU with a unique and enhanced classroom experience, ensuring the students are prepared for success from their first semester through graduation. Students who are interested can apply on JobX under the title Fall 2021 FYE Peer Leader with the job ID 7001. Applications close on March 5. For more information visit: https:// tinyurl.com/NSUPeerLeaderProgram. Senior Showcase Art Exhibition opening reception On Feb. 17, the department of communication, media and the arts will host an opening reception for the Senior Showcase Art Exhibition at 5 p.m. The exhibit will continue through April 16. For more information, call (954) 262-7620 or contact gelbmann@ nova.edu. COVID-19 Update: News for 2021 VRC hosts speaker series geared towards student needs Between the Zoom calls, classroom capacities, limited gathering sizes and masks covering the faces of every Shark, it’s hard to miss the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on NSU. As of Jan. 18, there were two active cases of COVID-19 among undergraduate residential students and five cases for undergraduate, off-campus students. Four undergraduate students were in quarantine, three of which were residents and the other is off-campus. Additionally, in an email sent to NSU students, faculty and staff on Jan. 18, the university has implemented a new dashboard feature on the dedicated COVID-19 website. This dashboard gives users information regarding weekly reported cases by populations, such as undergraduate students, graduate & professional students, University School students and faculty & staff. For the week ending on Jan. 17, there were 32 reported cases among all populations, out of a total NSU population of 26,395 individuals. Continuing with last year’s speaker series, NSU’s Military Affairs and the Veterans Resource Center (VRC) will host a virtual speaker series on Thursdays at 12:30 p.m. over Zoom. In collaboration with a variety of NSU affiliated departments, such as the Center for Academic and Professional Success (CAPS) and NSU’s Health Professions Division (HPD), this speaker series hopes to guide all NSU students, with a focus on military-affiliated students, with information and resources on a variety of professional, academic and personal goals. There are roughly 700 students on NSU’s campus that are considered military- affiliated, meaning they are active-duty or currently serving, they are a veteran who served or they are a dependent of someone who has served or is currently serving. “The thinking behind this speaker series is to educate and inform our military- affiliated and veteran students on what Before the semester began, NSU implemented a policy wherein it was recommended that residential students get tested for free on campus. This was meant to provide a “‘snapshot in time’ for current, new and returning residential students as they move back into the NSU residential community,” according to a memo sent on behalf of Dr. Brad Williams, vice president for student affairs, last year. Of the 1,250 residential students that were tested, 22 reported positive COVID-19 results. Beth Welmaker, the executive director of environmental health and safety for NSU, noted the successes NSU had last semester in regard to limiting the spread on campus and encouraged the continuation of safe practices into the new year. “We did a really phenomenal job last semester. I think our students took it seriously and it’s easy to grow tired and weary of… wearing the face covering and maintaining the physical separation — it’s hard. We know it’s working and we can see the hope that the resources are available to them at NSU and throughout the local community. When you are in the military or a dependent of the military, you have a hub of resources available to you, but once you are out of the military, it’s hard to find a centralized location for information. That is why we are bringing it to them via our speaker series,” said Kelly Callahan, VRC coordinator. According to Callahan, the VRC tries to gauge the students’ wants and needs, basing the speaker series around those topics. As Callahan explained, a population of military- affiliated students are majoring or looking towards pursuing higher education in the health professions, which is why the VRC focused on an HPD collaboration to help students through that process. Some highlights of this series include a campus-wide department networking workshop on Jan. 28, a resume writing presentation hosted by NSU CAPS on Feb. vaccine is bringing that we’re going to tackle and hopefully terminate this virus, but the need to remain vigilant has never been greater than now,” said Welmaker. As far as offering vaccinations for the NSU community, there is currently not a definitive timeline. However, the university has been working on plans should the vaccines become available. “There has been an exceptional, high- level focus on making vaccines accessible to faculty, students and staff at NSU. It’s been something that we’ve been working on even before the winter break, and Dr. Hanbury has been putting a lot of time and effort into those conversations with various partners and the governor’s office,” said Welmaker. While Welmaker explained that NSU would like to be “part of the solution” in regards to fighting COVID-19 with vaccinations, it’s crucial to follow the health and safety procedures in place even after receiving a vaccine. “There’s still a lot we need to better understand about how the vaccine will work 11 and a VA education benefits presentation by Maribeth Munroe, assistant director of NSU’s financial aid shared services and the Veterans Benefits Program, on March 11. As Munroe explained, this series provides an opportunity for students who use their veteran education benefits to meet NSU’s School Certifying Officials (SCO) and gain an understanding of the process for reporting enrollment to the department of veteran affairs. The series also provides students the ability to ask questions about the different types of educational benefits that are available to them and learn how to communicate with these employees in the future. Continuing a staple from last year’s speaker series, Albert Williams, chair and associate professor in the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, will host a Personal Finance 101 presentation focused on meeting the needs of military- and what it means to daily life after you’ve been vaccinated,” said Welmaker. If a student is having any symptoms, they are advised to reach out to NSU’s Telehealth line at (954) 262-4100, where they will be connected to a physician who will review their symptoms and, if needed, schedule a COVID-19 test on campus. Additionally, students can email COVIDcase@nova.edu to provide updates on their symptoms and test results, even if the results are still pending, and to get assigned a COVID-19 case manager to oversee the situation and offer assistance, if necessary. Emailing COVIDcase will also immediately provide students with the Telehealth number, as well as links to employee and graduate/professional student report forms, the undergraduate student form and the form to report exposures. Students, staff and faculty can visit NSU’s dedicated website, www.nova. edu/coronavirus, for up to date information regarding COVID-19 at the university. By: Madelyn Rinka Co-Editor-in-Chief By: Christina McLaughlin Co-Editor-in-Chief affiliated students in terms of financial understanding. “We thought the best thing we could do for the veterans on campus was to give them some financial literacy. Based on the financial literacy course FIN 2000, we are giving them a one to two-hour presentation where we go through different topics that they would like more information on or knowledge about in terms of their financial decisions. It’s a blend of both teaching them how to manage [their] money now, save for retirement and how to set realistic and specific goals like buying a house within a budget and time frame. These are people who have had jobs and careers in the military and by sharing their life experiences, challenges and successes, we can learn from each other. It’s a very key component that makes this series so unique,” said Williams. Students interested in any of these lectures featured in this speaker series are encouraged to visit this Zoom link t o attend.