COVID Conversation Series Extended Cut – State of Missouri

COVID Conversation Series Extended Cut – State of Missouri

In this extended cut edition of the Region IV COVID Conversation Series, we chat with Ashleigh Lewellen and Lauren Easter from Missouri State, and Eric “Red” Redinger and Hannah Weathers from Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) on their reopening plans. Throughout this conversation, our Missouri colleagues discuss their reopen plans, the changes and challenges, and provide some advice for our region.

Due to the length of this conversation, here are the specific topics and corresponding time codes:

• 1:45 – Larger and/or significant changes
  • 2:00 – Missouri State changes (facility access, accountability for sanitation)
  • 3:30 – Missouri State student staffing challenges
  • 4:25 – SEMO recommendation for student staff challenges
  • 5:35 – SEMO changes (facility access, activities allowed, planning, transitioning through phases and reverting back)
  • 7:25 – SEMO addresses the impact of county COVID cases increasing
• 9:45 – Unforeseen/unexpected challenges
  • 10:15 – Missouri State discusses professional staff furlough challenges
  • 12:45 – Missouri State discusses pace of decision making in relation to the rest of the university
  • 14:40 – SEMO Rec Services as “guinea pigs” and making “our own rules”
  • 16:18 – SEMO discusses county and university mask order
• 19:15 – Challenges for programming
  • 19:40 – Lauren speaks as state leader of Missouri to their need to “reinvent the wheel” and the delay in having the programming conversation across the state.
• 22:19 – Nuggets of advice
  • 22:30 – Ashleigh stresses the importance of being a team player and relying on your team members.
  • 23:45 – Lauren encourages to reach out to colleagues to try and not reinvent the wheel; “a lot of us are in the same boat, on different boats, but boats are boats in the end.”
  • 24:59 – Red discusses assigning risk levels to programming in an effort to allow programming, and emphasizes to learn as you go.
  • 27:13 – Hannah highlights the importance of flexibility on this “roller coaster.”

Southeast Missouri State

SEMO reopened their facility on May 18. For more details regarding their reopening, check out these resources:

• Recommended Phased Reopening of Student Recreation Center
• Facility Guidelines
• Photos of directional changes and social distancing
  • Please note, Red and Hannah address during our conversations the changes/reverting back from one set of guidelines to the next, specifically in regards to competitive play.
• Recreation Services website

Here is the contact information for our Southeast Missouri State colleagues:

• Eric “Red” Redinger, Associate Director – eredinger@semo.edu
• Hannah Weathers, Assistant Director, Facilities – hweathers@semo.edu

Missouri State

Missouri State reopened their facility on July 6th. For more details regarding their reopening, check out the Campus Recreation website. The details of Phase 2 of the reopening plan can be found on their website’s home page.

Here is the contact information for our Missouri State colleagues:

• Ashleigh Lewellen, Director – alewellen@missouristate.edu
• Lauren Easter, Associate Director and Missouri Member Representative – leaster@missouristate.edu

Don’t forget you can check out NIRSA’s Reopening Considerations: A Framework for Campus Rec as an invaluable resource to guide conversations with your team!

Click here to view all of the Region IV COVID Conversation Series.

Stay healthy, safe and well, Region IV!