Dear Doane Community,
The health and wellness of our students and campus community is our highest priority. As Doane University continues to monitor and assess measures to mitigate, suppress, and delay the spread of COVID-19, let me share with you key actions steps we have made:
- I have established a Leadership Response Team that will meet every day for the foreseeable future. The goal of the daily meeting is to coordinate responses from different areas of our university, make decisions, plan communications, and respond to questions. The Assessment Team, which was formed on February 28 to handle the initial assessment of COVID-19 and its potential impact on Doane University, has for all intents and purposes, handed the baton off to the Leadership Response Team to now conduct the work in response to this pandemic. I thank the Assessment Team, which met daily for the last two weeks and consisted of Russ Hewitt, Kelly Jirovec, Ryan Mueksch, Brian Flesner, and Kelli Schweitzer, for their work.
- Key participants for the Leadership Response Team are: Paul Savory, Julie Schmidt, Jake Elswick, Tricia Mohr, Ryan Mueksch, Derek Bierman, Brian Flesner, Matt Franzen, and Dan Kohler. Other participants (to join if they are available): Russ Hewitt, Marty Fye, Luis Sotelo, Andrea Butler, and Laura Northup.
- Provost Savory is chairing the Leadership Response Team. His role is to manage events and ensure appropriate actions are carried out based on current impacts of the event, as well as potential risks and impacts. Paul reports directly to me and will keep me fully informed.
- I have also tasked VP Julie Schmidt, VP Jake Elswick, and Provost Paul Savory to meet daily and have empowered them to make university decisions as needed without delay. They will involve me in consultation when appropriate.
- In addition, key areas -- business, enrollment and student experience, academic leadership, and others have established regular (often daily) meetings to review issues and address questions. Please use your current reporting structure to elevate questions or issues through your department meetings and leadership.
We will continue to communicate updates through the appropriate departments as needed. I ask that you please continue to monitor the University's response, emails, and notifications regarding COVID-19 at: https://web.doane.edu/covid-19
Our goal will be to maintain this site so you can review all key messages to students, faculty, and staff. We are also developing an option for people to submit a question on this page and a FAQ section is also being developed.
We continue to work closely with local healthcare officials on how to safely continue providing academic experiences for our students while minimizing the impact this virus can have on our community. Please know that we are in uncharted territory and there are a lot of unknowns. Knowing this, I kindly ask for patience as we address issues.
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” -Marie Curie
Jacque