I am now recording so I will let Tori and Joanne take the lead. Yes. Okay,
so I'll be starting with the first question obviously there's been a lot of news involving the university lately but one of the bigger things going on is obviously the vaccine so the first question is what is the university is looking like. And when will all, when will the university begin administering the vaccine.
The first part he got hung up a little bit what is the say the first question again,
sorry, the first part was what is the university's vaccine supply currently looking like,
yes, yeah. So, the, I mean, it's so fluid, this entire situation I mean all year it's been just fluid right. So, the last I heard, which was this morning. Well we have no vaccine to distribute. We have the points of distribution points up this is called the D stands for dispensing dispensing Thank you. We have those approved, but nothing to dispense, and now there is excess vaccine in the state, this is what I heard this morning. And so, we should be getting vaccine to dispense imminently. Now I was also told that imminently like five days ago. So, you know, I don't know but I heard today that some of the mega centers, or around the state are beginning to scale back because of decreasing demand foot traffic, and which, and that's going to route vaccine towards places like rapids.
Okay and then going off of that, at our last meeting you mentioned for unnamed vaccination sites, But officials at the bi weekly COVID briefings said there will only be three. Can you confirm there are only three and I misspoke
as three.
Okay, and then, are you able to disclose where they will be on campus yet or is that still
why it's not a matter of disclosing not I don't, I literally don't know where they'll be distributed. I think I might have been told once that they're looking at this place that place in the other but, you know, I'm not trying to keep a state secret. I just don't, I just don't know.
Okay. And then students are required to submit proof of vaccination to attend in the fall is the university concerned about potential like forgeries that might occur.
Oh, well certainly, I mean there's, it's not a it's not the most. It's not the fanciest of documents in the world if you've been vaccinated, it's just it's a simple card. Look at some level we have to rely on the good place of good faith in our students who want to return to a safe and healthy campus. And so, I've certainly not heard any
body talking about
what I call what I ultimately call preventative measures to stop counterfeits from coming in. I just, I haven't heard anything like that but of course it's a concern. So I could you know that's a bunch more to say about that than that.
And then just one more follow up. What will this process look like going into the summer regarding vaccine distribution, getting students vaccinated and you know,
well, you know, frankly, it will have more, we'll have vaccine on records dispensing sites, soon, so that will help for those people who live nearby, but you know there's vaccine all over the state I'm thinking just New Jersey, there's vaccine all over the state, but you know around the country. It's getting easier with each week to get vaccine. It's getting to the point where you have to actively decide not to get it in order to avoid getting the vaccine, frankly. So one reason we went out early with this mandate is to give people plenty of time as vaccines were coming online and, you know, rolling out in terms of increasing the numbers scope and scale that there should be ample opportunity, I mean there is ample opportunity for people to get vaccinated, it's just not that hard anymore. I mean, just think of different things looked a month ago, as far as this I mean this was really quite remarkable progress in the course of one month, and that's just going to continue along these waves so I'm not concerned about people not having access to getting the vaccine. I think that's pretty easy I forgot I've lost track of the second part of your question, I think that was the second part.
I was just talking about the summer plans how things are gonna go in the summer, with vaccines.
Okay are you talking about plans for summer programming or just distribution of the vaccine,
just how the distribution. Yeah, basically just,
you know it's for records it's waiting to get the vaccine in our hands, I mean that's simple as that. I wish, I wish I could be more concrete with you I certainly would be if I could. Okay, thank you. Yep.
All right, so next question. So we heard that several student government councils are actually meeting with Rutgers officials this week regarding some student complaints about the bus system changes for the fall. So when will this meeting be taking place, if it hasn't already,
I literally don't know anything about it. So, I saw something play bass on the target was an editorial about my remembering correctly an editorial in the last few days about the bus schedule or something like that.
It was one of our colonists was too pleased with it.
And I was like, I don't know what that's about. So, I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you.
That's okay, I take it that you're not one of the records officials that they're meeting with them. Since you know,
the busing system does not come up to my attention,
and See, thank you.
All right, and then actually just have a follow up about that. So there was, there's a petition going around, and I think it has over, like 500 signatures now. Do you think this could potentially become an issue that would be ultimately brought up to your attention. Since you're not currently involved with this petition about
the bus schedules. Yes, correct. I mean look, anything's possible. I really don't know but the, you have to remember, I've never been here. When, when there's been more than two people riding a bus at any given moment, I mean, quite literally, so I don't know what, I don't know what it's about. I've heard of that it gets crowded. That's all I can tell you. The but transportation runs up to Tony cow Cato is my Executive Vice President Chief Operating Officer, and it's his job to manage that, you know, so, so, whether a petition will land on my desk, it's hard to say you know this Arab online petitions. I've received. Well, I've heard of. Over the last four years has they really caught on as a phenomenon. I don't know how many I've heard of that petitions being sent to me. I've literally never ever received one, because they just have this online existence and there's Is there a delivery point is there like, here's the person hands it, you know electronically hands it to you, so they don't get delivered like petitions used to get delivered. So, it's a little, I'm not being a vague I mean I'm always straight to guys I'm not being evasive. I just have no idea. So in theory, sure, but it really is someone else's job to manage, you know, to manage that.
Right, and I should, title of the petition is actually bring the LX bus back so, but it does have to do with all things bus is going
on right now. Just wanted to clarify that. I don't even know what that means.
All right, and then so do you have any response to students who are dissatisfied with the bus system changes.
Oh, they should let their opinions be known and communicated through whether their first panel might be student affairs but eventually, if it's serious enough it's going to go to the head of transportation services which rolls up the tenant cow kiddo. I think I have that correct. That's the, that's the best I can offer to be honest.
Well, maybe, maybe you have more to say about, like, online courses than like the modes of instruction for a course registration in the fall. So your next question is about that.
Oh, go ahead.
Yeah. So we were informed that fewer classes are being offered across departments due to professors not wanting to teach online, can you confirm whether this is the case. The press was not wanting to teach in person to me or not wanting not wanting to teach online. That's what we heard.
So, basically, because there's going to be a mix of in person and online, apparently. So we've heard is that some professors want to be in person and are against teaching an online course.
Oh I see what you're saying, I'm sorry I misunderstood where the question was, was coming from. Well, that the person to ask about that if you're thinking just New Brunswick, his friend Conway's office. What has that there's been, look this is tricky. All of this is tricky because we're trying to come back in a way that, you know, with a very slippery foundation as as our base so it's a bit hard to navigate. Um, the mandate is there, the vaccine mandate is there so we can come back and read, you know, get close to our old socialite Well, not that I know what it is but you know the Ruckers normal social life. Curriculum life co curricular life etc. When it comes to classes, we still are navigating through
who can
declare everything is this way or that way. And now, the way I just learned today the way Ruckers registration or computing system is structured and it's an old system needs to be updated. And that's I think a work in progress and maybe two years away from being completed. Is it was easy enough to go from all live to all remote, as happened last spring. I mean, not easy but system allowed it. The system does not allow for a lot of boutique engineering of say we come back all live on September 1. But then two months later, it's clear we need to we need to reduce our capacity by 50%, we actually can't do that, we can either do all live for home remote, and I don't. It's something about the codes, I don't understand it but that's what I just learned that today because of that kind of uncertainty. It was kept at the Dean's level, local level, just get as close to the issues as possible for faculty to declare whether they're teaching. Live or sing live I mean in person, or if they're teaching in a different in a different mean a different means. So I can't give you a more sophisticated answer than that. To be honest, just because I don't have that content knowledge, and it really is managed by the Provost it's all in Rutgers in New Brunswick case and friend Conway's office, and then through the, you know, the Deans up through her. I mean that's that's the job. That's that area of responsibility.
I just wanted to clarify something so you said, you're still navigating through who can declare that things are this way or that way it does that mean that you know there's not really any sort of, like, does that mean there's, like, discrepancies between departments or between faculty and they're like you know Dean's or advisors like what exactly do you mean by that.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify, um, you know, ultimately like anything including the busters I'm seeing it all, you know, the decision will the responsibility rests with me, right, whether I know enough about something or not is a different issue. When talking about the fall semester specifically because things are still so slippery, as far as what can our registration computing system manage, which I thought was more robust than it actually is, what can we do, it became difficult to say from like the president. We are all 100% period, because it just that that sense of certainty, simply doesn't exist at the local level. Because of local conditions in terms of the room allocations class sizes, and lots of other issues. As we move into this academic year thinking about spring semester will know a heck of a lot more for the, you know, as we go into the fall, that is much easier to be definitive. In terms of time to come back full time everybody. But right now, the fluidity is such that makes it very difficult to be definitive. Does that help.
I feel like, not so much. I'm just I'm just trying to make sense of it so you're saying because web read web read or whatever it is, like, is sort of outdated. It is hard to specify like which classes are going to be partially what in person or online, or
you can specify with changing it.
Okay, so if, if you needed to update it let's say middle semester. Oh no COVID outbreak, we need to go online like is that what you're talking about.
That's what I'm talking about, okay, but it's but it's different because last spring like everything went online, but in this fall if we're thinking about, and I'm being purely hypothetical, right, if something happens where it's like, you know, we can still meet in person but we have to reduce that headcount by 50%. That's a problem.
Okay,
um,
now we can increase things I was told, I don't know why it's easier to increase rather than decrease that's where you really have to talk to Frank Conway. But, you know, they are trying to get to a point where this is not tremendous flexibility in one direction.
Okay and so does that mean that because it is hard to decrease it currently does that mean that in response to that you're currently planning at the sort of the lower level just to be safe in the event that it would be decreased or is it. Yes, okay. Yes.
So I mean, our back and forth, illustrates what a mess this is, frankly, last night at the tuition and fees, open hearing. A couple of people, they were off topic but I get it, you know, we're, we were saying that you know all his both his parents. One person said, All of her daughter's courses were online in the fall, we're going to be online and another one said, more broadly speaking, you know most of breakfast courses gonna be online, that's actually not true. Now, in terms of her daughter I don't I don't know that specific case. It's certainly a possibility. But as far as most of the classes, most are going to be in person. So there is this, this weird. I don't know what's happened but the information is not filtered does not come out into the system the way it should. And that's something that we were talking with Provost Conway about today like you need a message and re message and re message again, so people understand what the percentage of classes are that'll be live.
Okay, I know we got a little bit, you know off track trying to sort that out but I'll let news continue with their questions. No, it's okay, I, I understand it's sort of hard to explain, we just want to make sure we're understanding properly.
Okay, so we're gonna move on to different questions now. So the next question we have is, What are your thoughts on reaching an agreement with Rutgers unions, after the year long negotiations that occurred
much on your mind, I'm thrilled that we reached agreement I don't have much in the way of thoughts about it, I mean I do think, since and this is again a difficult thing so wasn't here. In the past, what I'm told. While certainly far from perfect in terms of the process is that there are a number of people recognize that there's a different spirit within the administration at trying to work towards resolution and trying to work collaboratively. Now, there will be people who disagree with that statement but I've heard more of the positive than the negative as far as how we're how we're proceeding. So I'm pleased to be able to reach, you know agreement, not easy, but, but that's okay, I mean we all share the same interest in trying to, you know shore up our faculty and staff, to the best that we can and in light of the current financial situation, or financial relief packages coming down from the federal government, and that really, that really complicated. Our ability to reach resolution because things were so uncertain for, you know, several months, frankly, but much clearer now we able to get to the right place.
So then kind of building off that although like you said, part of the concerns regarding labor relations began before your presidency, what's changed in recent months that allowed you to come to this agreement. Do you think
I'm.
I'm. I don't know, I mean I, you know, one thing I told my senior team is that to the extent that there was an attitude in the past, that this is about winning like negotiations is about winning. We need to not have that be part of our attitude. And I'm not saying it was I'm just I was being like, I don't know but it's not that this was about winning in the past, no like we're all on the same team. We're just in a disagreement right now, whether that had any role in this. I have absolutely no idea. So I feel very speculative. When I say that, you know I've been, I was clear with union leadership when I started that I was interested in conversation. It's been harder than I thought it would be, but I also think, but I know my senior team knows that I have that attitude like, you know, again, we're on the same team. So maybe that made some difference I honestly don't know.
Thank you. I think Tory had a follow up question, but I'll ask it. How will the university work to continue collaboration with unions.
How will we work
or work to continue, collaboration,
well I'm just, I'm we're just, I mean management is committed to continue to work with the flavor I don't really, you know, there's not much more. Not much more for me to say on that except for if to the extent that we've done anything right in the last six months, we want to keep doing that. And if you've done it wrong, humans are pretty good at telling us. So, you know, we will learn from those experience and try to get better.
I see. Then, about a specific part of the agreement that workers agree to the unions, how many of the PTS who were previously dismissed this university expect to be higher. This semester
I honestly don't know the answer to that question.
You know, we can ask them,
you know PTL employment is really done at the look at department
levels.
So I don't think you have to. I mean you could get could ask, EPA, Modi, about this but he may not have the numbers because they really are done at the local level, you know, whether it's the creative writing program or political science or this or that, and it depends on the campus too. So we're talking just New Brunswick that to make it a little easier to manage that that information, but I think you don't be surprised at how much is done at the local level, versus in the central administration in terms of just the date the daily running of the university.
And just as a clarifying question I know that the original issue was that there was a cap on like PGL rehiring, so is this capital, like now completely lifted so that rehiring like if the department's choose to they can rehire the same number as pre pandemic levels.
I don't want to miss state any aspects of the agreements, you'd have to ask for boss McGee about that but, but through the song we've tried to. We have to preserve local control over hiring levels for departments. What we really tried to make clear to departments that they need to have clear communication with their PTS, about what happened you know what to expect. You know PTL hiring is dependent upon one of the factors is dependent upon his enrollment and that is something that you can't guarantee in advance that you're going to have X number of slots or this X number of headcount for demand X number PTL so it gets pretty complicated pretty quickly. And very much down in the in the weeds, I mean, it'd be inappropriate for the president's office to tell, creative writing, just to pick one space, you know you need to do this right now, because it's not, it's really not my job to manage their curriculum for them, that would be inappropriate. I just got to have but I will say, I will say that for, you know, larger questions dealing with PTS, I've, I've, gave that packet of responsibility, made it clear that really belongs to the proboscis monkey so he's been taking the lead on PTL issues since he started,
I just have a small follow up on that, do you think the amount of courses and seats available also like modes of instruction, do you think that will have an impact on the number of PTS who could potentially become rehired.
Yes.
Okay, and then. Okay, next question we kind of discussed the whole issue with courses and web reg. But Rutgers Business School recently stated their goal frozen. Oh,
can you see us now. It looks like he's frozen.
Are you back. Okay.
Okay, there we go. So we're all back so Tori, please continue. Okay,
so we kind of talked about the whole courses situation. No.
Dragon pack. I'm here
am I.
Yes. Okay.
Um,
so we talked about the whole course situation and how it's complicated, but I just kind of wanted to circle back really quickly. So Rutgers Business School recently stated that they're working to gain an understanding of true demand for seats as courses were closing very quickly during the scheduling process. So, I'm just kind of how does RBS and the university as a whole kind of plan on increasing seatbelt availability, I know we kind of address that it's a complicated issue, but do you think increasing seat availability and ensuring that students will be able to get into the classes they
need or
are looking for. How's the university kind of feeling.
That is, feel like You keep asking questions to which I don't know the answer, nor what I'm in the normal course of business ever know the answer to, but in general the philosophical standpoint, I would love to make sure that we can offer space for students in classes they want to take a need to take in order to get the diploma, that's just an operating philosophy, how that is made real is always managed at the Dean's level in the chairs levels. And that's not unique to records that's just, that's higher ed, especially at a place as large as represented. So, you know the, what I would hope is that that university administration's at the lower levels are committed to being sensitive to demand for courses, and find ways to be creative, while protecting the integrity of their curriculum to make sure people have the opportunity to move forward in a timely manner. But how they literally do it is really up is that that resides in the school itself.
Okay and then I think, since you can't talk, more than that we'll, we'll speak with the deans and stuff without that kind of the molecular details, but how about, um,
how,
what would your response be to students who maybe got an impression that there would be more in person class opportunities for the fall than what is currently actually being offered.
Well, I'm, I'm curious as to what their impression was in terms of the percentages. And that probably varies by student. The I do know that, that we, we rock New Brunswick didn't do a sufficiently clear job of explaining which courses would be live which courses would be online, are our absolute aspirations that everybody would have a live in class experience, And I certainly would hope that most of the classes each individual would take would be in person. There are some things that are beyond our control at this time though, that has room capacity for example, we don't, we don't control that the government controls that in terms of how many people can sit into a large lecture into a room. And right now our hands are really tied and what's frustrating for me is that we won't probably want to have clarity until just a few for the semester, which is far too late for us. When it comes to cooking or writing the code for which classes, no one places that information we need now, frankly, and we're at the mercy of New Jersey government to give direction in that regard. I do know that across the country, even at a place where there's mandatory vaccination. People should not be expecting large lecture classes to be held in person. I mean anywhere in the country, at least not not for the fall semester, because we all need to just see, especially even place where this man had mandatory vaccination, we need to see how things work, and that's really for the safety of everybody. So, I mean these are the factors that are in play, and, and, as I mentioned earlier, we talked to the provost Conway earlier today about messaging and re messaging and re messaging about on this issue so there's greater clarity and and awareness of exactly how many courses are going to be taught live and what that will look like.
Okay, thank you. I
think that's all news had for right now. So,
let the others go now,
we'll have Dylan. Dylan you good right now.
I'm holding in there,
Dylan and I both had our second shots today so
Oh, yesterday.
Oh you had, oh you had yesterday,
today is the day for you.
Yeah,
I got a gator in the water this morning,
garbage, when I'm sorry to interrupt but like I had the virus, I know what it feels like. And then I had the j&j, the day before it got paused. Within. Find the day of the shot, told my family, the family techs, feeling good, you know, going to bed I'm thinking this is easy woke up, I'm like, I'm not feeling so good hopped in the shower, you know when you hop walk in the shower and the water hurts you. That's what it felt like like this is not a good song. I felt like garbage for a day but then the next day completely gone so you'll be fine tomorrow. All right, we're how fast it works, anyway go ahead. Sorry,
I just had one question for you. So recently, the spring football game was announced to have a capacity of 5000 people at Shea Stadium, one of the biggest events, you know. Since COVID started on campus, but at the same time, graduations are remaining virtual, what would you say to, you know, seniors who feel that it's a little bit unfair that a game that is important, but ultimately, you know doesn't change the season, on how to, how do you think, or, sorry, how would you respond to seniors who feel that it's a little bit unfair that it seems like this in their, in their terms to precipice.
Yeah, I get it. I'm totally sympathetic to it, I mean, I will say a couple different things. One, we actually find again New Jersey ganas collagen could have considerably more people at the stadium. And I said absolutely not. There's no way. In fact, getting me to the point of even saying yes to 5000, took that was several meetings to get to that place. The issue that a lot of people don't understand and I get it, I do get it, I mean, the, the opposite of the sort of horrible I hate it. Is that graduation that what makes this game possible is that it's one event in one place. And therefore, and it's highly manageable from an entrance and egress. The thing about commencement is that there are so many different events happening within the same very small window, that, that is the, is the, the logistics problem of it, more than the headcount per se, that is what that stops us in our tracks, especially, especially when you know we were on the verge. We were epidemiologists were saying you're on the verge of another search because of variance, and none of us knew what that would look like now we've seen in just the last week, things are plummeting, which is great. I wish I had a crystal ball, like two months ago where I would have, you know, done this otherwise but I'm still, I'm still deeply uncertain about the idea, even if, even if we could start it up like the planning for it right now, which is impossible. On the. I still have a lot of reservations about because of the density and things happening on top of each other, as the as waves explained to me with commencement, that makes it really much more difficult, it's not just about 5000 people coming in and out, it's many more than that, overlapping each other. That's, that's the issue.
And just a quick follow up on we've seen with professional sports or they've had fans come back, they require either a negative COVID test within 72 hours, or proof of your vaccination card, is this something that Rutgers intends to do when it comes back in the fall, more specifically for football just because they don't probably have the most fanfare on
it, we aren't certain yet, but we've, I know that athletics has been looking at in operations and looking at all of those things. I mean, what professional football did I thought was deeply irresponsible, being with all their safeguards, I wouldn't have done it but, you know, so I don't necessarily see that as like the way forward. But, but, you know the students, we will have herd immunity for the students. I'm confident about that, and I'm actually cautiously confident we'll have it in the largest societies that makes things much easier in the fall, but it's too early right now to say yes this or guess or to say with any commitment that this is how we're going to be doing it, but we are looking at that we they are looking at all the different permutations. I can imagine, and this has been, this has been truly speculative, you know, a reduced capacity at the beginning of the season leading towards full capacity, towards the end of the season, I mean that seems like a reasonable expectation, but that's not that that's not a that don't use that as an indication of a plan, I'm not just me talking as a lay person out as the President.
Thank you Mr President, I hope you can enjoy the, the NFL draft and I,
I just want it to be over so I can like have other information coming into my newsfeeds.
Okay, we'll pass it over to his the keel,
all the way so I was just curious about how on campus living and life will be specifically how on campus businesses like Starbucks or Panera will look like, and have to adhere to when it comes to the fall in the fall at Rutgers.
As far as the business's goodness I, I honestly don't know I mean this is again when I look I, you know, the students will have herd immunity. But I know more than just students go into any of these businesses right. So, it seems to me that what people should probably expect at least for the first month is a lot of the same right now in terms of in terms of having navigate space with, you know face masks and if we're indoors, being socially distant, I think that's just going to be prudent for at least the first month of the school year, as, as we settle into new routines and also for the psychology of it all I mean imagine is not to your, well, I guess if you're, think of your if you're in a Starbucks with whatever crowded the Starbucks let's say 20 people I don't know if let's say it's 20 people. If someone starts coughing and Starbucks. I didn't use the 19 people are going to feel, even if they'd like, had some coffee go down the wrong tube and are just coughing up net, you know, that's part of the psychological element, that, that none of us really know how we're going to act. So it's gonna take some acclamation. But as far as just coming back, moving away from businesses which are not under my control anyway. When it comes to housing, you know, if this way if we didn't have mandatory vaccinations. I have no idea what we do with housing, I mean that would be. I see no solution to housing, it without mandatory vaccinations, frankly, because what we learned is you know we had a very low census on campus in the spring semester. And we had all these rules and practices. But when people came back, first year students who weren't here in the fall, and they had all the unbridled enthusiasm that first year students have, and that's not a critique that's just life on campus. We had a fight back, the virus in the, in the early, early winter, spring semester. And we know that the undergraduate population because economy living even densified radically like it was, was 760 to 70% more likely to care, to, to test positive for the virus and our staff and faculty. So, again, another reason we went to mandatory vaccination. There's no other way to control it, because you all are very social people and like to hang out with one another as you should. And, anyway, that's all I have to say on that,
I think. Thank you. And another question regarding commuter students, are there any conditions or restrictions for commuter students rubbers. For the fall since committed students are likely to enter Rutgers where we're mandated to have the vaccine and exit the campus where it could be exposed again. Yeah. The.
When I was asked here when I was presented with scenarios for mandatory vaccination. It's like well how do you feel about on campus housing, like that's a no brainer has to be, you know, what do you feel those who live off campus like well that's more complicated but they're coming onto campus, and same thing with commuters right. And as you all know, Ruckers like any university were porous, like coming in and out is an easy thing to do. And so that's why the the mandatory vaccination is blanket, it does matter if you are living on campus and coming onto campus. You have to be vaccinated. Now, can we approve it at every single second. We're not gonna be doing like vaccine door checks, that's one what's ridiculous and two it's impossible. But there are other ways to manage that that's like registration for this part of why we need to make it, we're trying to make it clear as like, this is part of the condition of being allowed to be at Rutgers at Rutgers meaning living at living off campus commuting to
going away a little bit from the campus and off campus housing and commuter and etc. Rutgers began distributing the second round of stimulus funding, and received additional funding designated for student aid from the American rescue plan will Rutgers continues to offer COVID-19 Emergency assisting funding for the fall.
For the fall, gosh, I don't know the answer to that question, um, I was told I was going to get a question on this topic and I was waiting for some sort of document prep for this phone call didn't come. At least not that I've seen it but for the call I honestly don't know the answer to your question, we'll certainly do, we'll always do everything we can to help out our students certainly, and I mean that's, you know, our first operating principle, you know, I invite you to ask me to get or talk to Mike Gower, who's the one who manages the directions of these resources.
And also define that, how will tradition look like defaults within that we are able
to be continued we had the hearing yesterday, and then the conversation with the Board of Governors. That's like a June meeting I believe this will be my first time through it so I don't, I don't know, I'm a rookie to here. So,
Can you comment on the idea is brokers will be implementing the standard increase or maintain a frozen level for tuition,
couldn't comment one way or another. Thank you.
Okay, We're gonna pass it to Maddie, she's asking questions for our inside beat editor Rania who cannot make it but we're supposed to be here. So Maddie, take the, you take the lead, and I will ask them on my questions.
Okay. Hello. Um, so recently President Joe Biden and CDC said that people who are fully vaccinated, don't need to wear masks when they're outdoors. Is this something that Rutgers is going to allow whether there's like outdoor events or stuff going on and kind of what can you what's going to be done to like ensure that the people at these events are vaccinated,
I guess.
That's an easy question. We, the last I heard, which was yesterday. The, we will be opening up to events starting in one say it's June 1 I'm pretty sure it's June 1 Not July 1. And then those, whatever those events might be, are going to be, they have to go through a vetting process in terms of what they're going to be allowable or not. I can't give you the specifics of that just because again this is gather asking very specific questions to them, let's say that you know this this policy is being worked on by my
team. The.
But no matter what we're going to be doing, it's going to be small scale events, and I think, I think we anticipate unless New Jersey tells us differently. You know, we'll, we need to fall in New Jersey guidelines and that's the fact of it. And so follow what New Jersey says more than anything else because then we can start accommodating to that, I mean what New Jersey has to be the maximum that we can do we can always scale back a little bit like attendance at the football game in a month's time. But I expect we'll all still be, especially the fans that might be considered crowded in some way. I mean, I'd still be wearing a mask, frankly, I think that's proven, but you know we're, we've got a by by New Jersey's guidelines and they've liberated them a little bit, effective, the next week I think or something like that. But I would still urge caution all the way through the end of the summer, to be honest.
Okay, thank you. And then my second question is there's been a lot of research done lately about whether like the COVID vaccine is going to require booster shots down the road. If this does end up being a requirement. Um, do you think workers would provide this shot as like the vaccine points of distribution, or whatever it was called. And then what students also need to provide proof of vaccination for those booster shots.
I would absolutely hope that records would be a source of dispense of just dispersal, I guess it will be for the call. But, you know it, for me, I'm being purely speculative because it depends on what the booster looks like how you know how much can be produced, how what access looks like. I do think we'll have plenty of time as a nation to ramp up to booster shots which I think are probably inevitable. When you guys are just reporting on this today for goodness sakes about, you know, this sort of thing. Don't act innocent. But the No, I mean I would believe what's your thoughts are, what's coming. And I think the country working overtime to make sure that there's enough supply available, but a lot of this goodness your guest is good at this is as good as mine. If we have access to it. We will use it and we'll dispense it, but the if is the most important word in that sentence. We've been ready to dispense vaccine for for six weeks, but have none to dispense I mean that's just some things are out of our control. You had to see in a second part of that question, I think.
Yeah, it was just if it were to come down to it when students need to provide proof of those booster jobs.
Um, I'd assume so. But I mean, that's part of being vaccinated. If a booster means that you have. If a booster is an indication of being successfully vaccinated, then that would make sense to me. But you know this is all sort of, we'll learn as we go, I mean I really wish I could give you more precise answers but all of us are making this up as we go along.
Okay. So you notice that we have a lot of very specific questions. Um. Part of the reason why we have specific questions is because, well for one thing, I students we're not really sure what exactly is going on and a lot of other students are in the same boat as us. And to be quite honest, I feel like a lot of times from my experiences. It is a little bit difficult to get answers from university officials on things if you ask a highly specific question you get a vague answer and while I understand there are you know certain things that can't be revealed are under discussion. I think as the editor in chief and the target, I would, I'm sort of working towards establishing a little bit more transparency between us and the university, you know, you mentioned interviewing officials, And sometimes you might we might try to and I'll be able to reach those officials. So how are you going to work, especially with all the changes going on work to keep the target more informed and up to date with what the university is doing so that you know we can provide answers for the students who are coming to us looking for them.
Oh, that's very fair, I operate under the presumption and you may have just told me that presumption is incorrect, that if I'm suggesting go talk to Tony cow Kato, that Tony cow Kate is giving you an answer. And maybe that's an incorrect presumption, but I operate from that presumption because, I mean, I've always been straightforward to you guys when I don't know, like half of this, this zoom call like, I don't know. So that may be, you know, you can just tell me. Haley if like, yeah, that doesn't happen to every important piece of information for me to have that I could share with my team. We have a retreat coming up in a week or so and that actually quite interesting, top point of conversation. What I will say in defense of administrators who have a different level of comfort, talking to the press, just in general, is you did point to something that that is very important is that a lot of things that we deal with, if they were, if there were easy answers they would have been, like, out there in the population, and they be worked on. And often they're really messy answers because there are sometimes legal issues. Sometimes ethical issues sometimes. I mean Title Nine sometimes it's like a mix of these things, or, or sometimes we simply just don't know because you know you might be asking a pinpoint kind of question, where the question is going to the wrong person where the answer is like three levels down. And it just depends right it's highly contingent. And then there are, there are officials who are very concerned about being misquoted by reporters in, in general, whether it's the New York Times or the daily Targum or the whatever other source. I've chosen a different I've always had. I mean, don't get me wrong but I've always had a really great success rate that I'm quoted accurately and my intention. If it's a paraphrasing they've been pretty close to accurate not accurate, but others have had very different experiences so people get gun shy too. And so part of that responsibility falls on the reporter to make sure they're doing everything, I'm not accusing you guys I'm saying in general, they're doing everything they can to be as accurate as possible in their reporting. So it's a mixed bag. And, but I do hear you now, this moment, specifically, I think after just beg a grace of everybody in that none of us have ever done this before any aspect of the last 15 months, we've never done it before, and we're all trying to figure it out, and there are certain facts on the ground, I didn't know this, but in coming I've learned, like it was known by the administration that we've been that we have an aging computing infrastructure when it comes to things like course registration. Well, the plan is like okay but we can fix it over the course of two to three years. But you throw a global pandemic in the middle of it. It's not built to manage that sort of thing. So, there's a lot of that that's happening within the university, broadly speaking, so I'm speak not from the standpoint of defensiveness, just trying to help you understand why it's difficult at times for people, either out of reluctance, or fear, or not knowing or Mike my God we're still trying to figure all this out and we don't want to be premature in our statements,
and I completely understand that, um, like you mentioned, you know, we don't really have a lot of interviews with higher up officials such as you you mentioned, interviewing. I think Mogi or whatever I'm sorry if I pronounced his name wrong, that would be a great opportunity for our news editors to find out more about the fall semester, I specifically had an issue last semester where you know, a lot of students were concerned about the iPad purchase. And I reached out asking to interview somebody, and was stalled for a month and then was refused an interview so it is very difficult for us to talk to leaders, if that is the sort of response that we're getting. But I digress. I just I think that, you know, this is a time where a lot of students are really looking for answers and things like that, but again I know that you
very quickly. Yes. I'm sorry you had that experience, especially with the iPads, but it's good for me to know that because I this is, I don't like. I've not known about those kinds of challenges, frankly,
yeah. Just a little stressful, but, um, anyways, that. Okay, go moving on, about the Cares Act funding and student relief and things like that. I know that the initial round of, you know care Zack money the 27 million for student aid was distributed. I know that recently an application came out for additional funding and I know that you know with the American rescue plan there is a designated portion that is supposed to go directly to rubber students with the initial round of funding, there was a brief questionnaire about like you know do you need this for food for housing, etc. With the second application they didn't really ask the questions they just sort of went based on the original answers and I think with the first round, a lot of students were very confused as to, you know why they got X amount instead of whatever they requested or why they didn't get anything, or what the criteria was so obviously I know you don't dole out the money personally but as the president, what would your response be to students who feel that this process, like lack transparency and how do you think that you know you can sort of push the people in your administration to be a little bit more transparent when distributing this federal funding.
Um, well, one is to be brought to my attention, so I didn't know. I mean, you're the one doing that.
And,
you know, for me,
my experience within higher ed administration in general. And this is a you're raising what I think is a very fair critique is that people. And this is from three different university experiences, you get down to the people writing out the policy or writing or creating the form or whatever you're talking about, and they are usually quite specialized in their talent, which means that they do not, they lack the perspective of someone who doesn't have specialized knowledge. Like, it's not like it's like having engineers write the directions on how to assemble something, it's indecipherable to most people except for other engineers. And so I, that may be part of what's happening here, I mean I don't know what the logic is of having a form that isn't as clear as possible, unless it was done in a rush fashion. So I don't have the answer to the question, but it's a good issue to raise for me to, to sort of implore. People who are developing these forms develop these processes to remember the user when they're actually developing these things, and sometimes I'm not saying this is one of those occasions, sometimes there's a really mundane reason that you know they have to do a form in a certain way, not at all saying this is the case here, but there's sometimes just really uninteresting reasons why I came to develop the video.
My question wasn't necessarily about the form specifically but just more of like the process as a whole. Again, like, like I mentioned the form because it did have a couple of checkboxes, but students didn't really receive any sort of explanation as to, you know, why they received like X amount of money or why they were denied money and I think a lot of students who felt like they deserved more help or were in a really difficult situation felt that the process did not adequately serve their needs. And again, you know, the first round of funding, there was only X amount of dollars but, considering there is a considerable larger amount that has been allocated or to Rutgers since then like regards to being a little bit more clear with students as to how the money is being spent.
That's more of a statement than a question, isn't it. Yeah, well,
yeah,
but I was just I wanted to ask.
I'm actually taking literally I'm taking notes right now. So,
my question was more of just like, you know, like do you see that this is an issue and do you think that this is something that you're going to work to be a little bit more clear considering there is so much more funding that has come in.
I was on hearing about it from you. First time. Yeah, it's an issue because I trust you daily, and yes I'm taking notes to follow up with my chief of staff to like, let's find out more about what's going on.
That's got him right here.
I know I know these are tough, tough questions and there's a lot of specific things, like I said it's kind of been difficult to get information about a lot of things but I know we don't have much time and Maddie I believe if you had any questions you wanted to ask because you were asking Ronnie as before, I'll let you go ahead.
No, it's okay, I had one but then it was answered.
Okay. Did anybody have any pressing like last minute questions that they wanted to get in I know that we skipped a couple, for the sake of time.
I have another one I
can ask, okay, go
ahead.
So, I think, I think it's safe to say you've been, you know more conservative with the amount of fans that you're posing to let in, you know, I asked you before and you said 5000 is not the max that you could have, but it's the max that you feel comfortable with. What do you think is going to make you comfortable with full stadium again you think it's when we hit a certain number
when
we have herd immunity on campus and in New Jersey as a whole, you know, do you have. Do you have a certain point where you think you know it'll be pretty, it'll be the move to have a full stadium again.
I have no specific. This is what it's going to take, but it's a combination of CDC guidelines, New Jersey state guidelines and looking at the numbers, state in the state numbers. When we were back in, in, in, in session, so it's it's really that I don't I don't have the answer for you right now but I'll have you know, in time, we'll have to get there but not, not from today.
Um, and just a quick one. Sorry, do you, um, do you see yourself being, you know on the more conservative side with fans, you know, even as the CDC numbers go up because you know with the spring game you can you use that you. I believe that you said this You felt confident you, you felt comfortable at 5000 at the max, and I think I don't know what the capacity you can have. But do you see yourself kind of you know, erring on the side of caution and, you know, allowing less fans in the news, like the state Max
was
health and safety. Actually got I've been pinged twice by my assistant I'm late to my for a donor event so I've got a dash to that,
No worries,
thank you guys as always, the saying that these are specific questions and not a critique it just I feel bad that I can't answer them in the detail that you guys deserve. Haley I do appreciate the always you know, the integrity, with which you brought the questions and also the critique of administration and stop being as transparent as also, as can be. I hope you don't feel that way with
me.
No, I understand I know it's it's just I there's a lot of hoops to jump through. It's not your fault. But I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, we always really do appreciate you sitting down with us even if you know we ask difficult questions, we appreciate you taking the time to answer
the questions and I learned from them as well. So anyway, I do have to run though. Thank you all so much.
All right. Thank you. Have a good day,
bye. Bye bye.
All right, thank you.
Really good.
Yeah,
I've been in this role for pandemic President I'm a pandemic communicator, and I'm still learning how huge and massive so many schools and so yeah, my daughter's a freshman. So, yeah, the follow ups, I'll help you what however I can. And thanks guys I appreciate it.