Description of the video:
Chancellor Susan Sciame-Giesecke
Well hello students my name is Dr. Susan Sciame-Giesecke and I’m the Chancellor at Indiana University Kokomo.
Wow, the past two or three weeks have really changed everything that we do doesn’t it?
Today I’m here just to chat with you a little bit and ask you for a couple of favors.
I hope that you and your family are staying home and being healthy because that’s what’s most important at this time.
I can’t reiterate enough how important it is for you to stay home as much as possible and I know that we’re getting ready on Monday to start out classes online.
So, here’s my first favor.
I need you to help us understand what you need to be successful. You’re jumping into a new way of learning online for many of you and you may have some anxiety or you may be unsure of some things.
Maybe you’re a little worried whether you have the right internet connection or maybe you don’t have internet connection at all.
Please reach out to your faculty. They’re wanting to talk to you on canvas in your course sites.
Please make sure that you let them know what your concerns are and what your needs are.
I know sometimes we get embarrassed to ask for help but this is an unprecedented situation.
We need you to ask for help.
We need to learn what you need to be successful.
I know that in the next eight weeks of classes you can be very successful if we just get you the right resources to do that.
Now, the campus is pretty quiet. Everybody is pretty much gone. I’m standing here pretty much by myself but we do have the library open for those students who need internet service.
Now the library hours have been posted on the website so you can check those hours out.
We’re asking you to come through just one door and that door is the door that’s closest to the fitness center door. Off of the parking lot.
When you walk in there will be a police office there and they’ll ask to see your student ID because we need to be sure that it’s just faculty staff and students that are coming in the building to make sure that everybody is protected.
We’re going to ask you to do the right things. We’re going to ask you to have social distance from other students. We’re going to ask you to make sure that you continually wash your hands.
Come in, do the work that you need to do and then you can go right back out.
There will be a couple of people, a couple of staff members in the library in case you need some help.
We also have set up an outdoor Wi-Fi station and it is right behind the main building. That’s right! You can just drive up, you’ll see it right there, the door that kind of goes into the math commons and you can do your work in your car.
We’re going to ask that you stay in your car to do that work.
This is open to the public in addition to our students so please stay safe in your car.
Now, the other part of that favor is not only to ask for help with what you need in your classroom but also do you need help with food or any other kind of resources?
The food pantry is open and you will see on this video there will be numbers that you can call our police department (IUPD: 765-455-9363), you can call our Dean of Students (Audra Dowling, Dean of Students: 765-455-9204), and they will help you get the food or the toothpaste, or whatever it is you need.
We know that these are hard times and we have a lot of resources for you.
We also have access to resources both internally and through the community if you need help with rent or with utilities or things like that so again, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
The numbers are on this video and you’ll be able to access those numbers and get the help that you need.
Finally, there is a third kind of help, maybe you’re anxious, maybe you just need to talk someone, our mental health counseling services are also still available. CAPS: 765-455-9553
They’re talking to people on the phone and through Zoom and through lots of other ways.
So again, if you need help don’t be afraid to ask. There are lots of students who are asking for help already and we’re trying to provide that for them.
So, again you’ll see the number for mental health counseling.
Now, the last favor that I have to ask for you really is a favor about showing your spirit at Indiana University Kokomo.
So the first week of classes are going to start on Monday, we’re going to get back to work, they’re all remote, they’re all online, and so we thought it might be fun if everybody while they’re taking their classes would dress in their IU Kokomo gear.
That’s right! Put that IU spirit gear on. And we want you to take a selfie, a selfie of you at class on your computer with your IU gear on, and a chance to win some fabulous prizes.
Post your picture on Instagram, tag us @IUKOKOMO, be sure to use the hashtag #myiuk, the contest begins Monday and it’ll end 5:00 PM on Thursday.
And there’ll be wonderful prizes and you’ll find out if you’ve won.
So lets put a little fun in all of this! A little bit of IUK spirit as we try to move forward.
Now, I know that there are a couple of issues that you still want to know more about and I can fill you in on summer school.
We’ve made the decision to move summer school totally online.
We know that or we don’t know whether we’ll be back here by summertime and so we’ve made the decision already.
So, when you go to register for your summer classes, be sure to note that all of them will be online.
And I also need to remind you to enroll for fall semester.
We’ve got lots of students who are already enrolled so if you haven’t talked to your advisor do that soon.
Again, they’re having advising appointments remote through Zoom, so you’ll be able to do everything you need to do with the same advisor that you always had.
But we need to get you enrolled for fall and I know you want to get going and looking towards the future too.
And then finally for those students who were supposed to graduate in May.
I’m so sorry that the commencement is not going to happen in May but we have postponed it and I can guarantee you you will get to walk across the stage, and we will call out your name.
Just give us a little while to work out all those details and I know you’re disappointed but we’re going to make sure that we make it up to you.
I know that you’re looking forward Monday just as much as our faculty are.
They are here and ready to help you.
You know that’s why we extended Spring Break one week.
We wanted to give them that extra week to make sure that they were ready for all the classes that are going to be online.
We’ve got a lot of resources for you and we also feel like we just need to jump in and have a little bit of fun next week as we all take on this unusual event that’s happening in our country.
So, stay safe, stay home, stay connected, and don’t forget to ask for help, that’s most important.
I’ve heard from a lot of students that the daily messages that I’ve been sending to students have been very helpful and I intend to continue to send you those messages as long as they are necessary.
So, keep looking at your email, you’ll see messages from me and hopefully I might be able to connect with you with another video soon.