4 20 186 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Hyperlink A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet. URL <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/79veVDwGx5k" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Episode 5: ROCK TALK, AN SRU MEDIA PODCAST Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Description An account of the resource Join Samantha Amato and Joshua Peters of WSRU-TV News as they discuss how you can be a part of history, Student Government elections, and availability for new President's Commission members in this fifth episode of Rock Talk, a collaboration between the Rocket and WSRU-TV members. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-24 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Relation A related resource SRU Student Audio Podcast SRU Student The Rocket WSRU-TV YouTube Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Hyperlink A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet. URL <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NxfsAPiF5Fw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Episode 4: ROCK TALK, AN SRU MEDIA PODCAST Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Description An account of the resource Join Samantha Amato and Joshua Peters of WSRU-TV News as they discuss students challenges with paying their rent in full, a victory for Coach Papa, and the many Zoom meetings being held through Slippery Rock in this fourth episode of Rock Talk, a collaboration between the Rocket and WSRU-TV members. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Relation A related resource SRU Student Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-17 Audio Podcast SRU Student The Rocket WSRU-TV YouTube Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Hyperlink A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet. URL <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z9N3457rAS8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Episode 3: ROCK TALK, AN SRU MEDIA PODCAST Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Description An account of the resource Join Samantha Amato and Joshua Peters of WSRU-TV News as they discuss student teachers adjusting to online teaching, the halt of the US economy, and the appearance of bears all around the world in this third episode of Rock Talk, a collaboration between the Rocket and WSRU-TV members. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Relation A related resource SRU Student Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-10 Audio Podcast SRU Student The Rocket WSRU-TV YouTube Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Hyperlink A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet. URL <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zBZq19TqeHY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Episode 2: ROCK TALK, AN SRU MEDIA PODCAST Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Description An account of the resource Join Samantha Amato and Joshua Peters of WSRU-TV News as they discuss financial aid, climate change, and how senior athletes are dealing with ending their Rock careers during the Coronavirus pandemic in this second episode of Rock Talk, a collaboration between the Rocket and WSRU-TV members. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Relation A related resource SRU Student Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-03 Audio Podcast SRU Student The Rocket WSRU-TV YouTube Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Hyperlink A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet. URL <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/68mBQwipizI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Episode 1: ROCK TALK, AN SRU MEDIA PODCAST Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Description An account of the resource Join Samantha Amato and Joshua Peters of WSRU-TV News as they discuss small business, international student living and athletic eligibility during the Coronavirus pandemic in this first episode of Rock Talk, a collaboration between The Rocket and WSRU-TV members. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource WSRU-TV and The Rocket Relation A related resource SRU Student Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-27 Audio Podcast SRU Student The Rocket WSRU-TV YouTube Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Hyperlink A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet. URL <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7i8Z3xBwihE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SRU Communication Faculty Members Share Messages for Students Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hannah Shumsky (The Rocket) Description An account of the resource This video is a compilation of SRU communication faculty members sharing messages for students. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hannah Shumsky (The Rocket) Relation A related resource SRU Student Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-24 SRU Faculty SRU Student The Rocket Video YouTube https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/d5f6e252191c9af0acb6d02bc6284ba4.pdf 3ff4103d18b3f98d73684455fbce329d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SRU President William Behre announced that spring commencement ceremonies are postponed in an email to SRU stakeholders Monday afternoon. Commencement ceremonies were scheduled for May 8-9. This announcement comes after the Centers for Disease Control released guidance on cancelling and postponing events, including gatherings of 50 or more people. “The move is part of SRU’s ongoing effort to stem the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” Behre said in his email. “Everyone at SRU understands what commencement means to our graduating students as well as their proud families and friends. But many health experts are predicting that we could be in for an extended period of disruption, and, as disappointing as it is to tell our students that celebrating their accomplishments has been put on hold, it is in the interest of everyone’s health and safety that we have made this decision. Behre added that despite the postponement, all eligible undergraduate and graduate students will receive their diplomas in the mail. “When the national health situation allows it, we will recognize our spring 2020 graduates, in person, at a time when it is again safe to bring large groups of people together,” Behre said. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource BREAKING: Spring 2020 commencement ceremonies postponed Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the news section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-23 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hannah Shumsky Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/df7fe73a017297f54ed60a57de174ff9.pdf 8d28d96bd29b8bd8bd1ee072a53a5f60 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document For most seniors at a Division II state school, Senior Day is typically the end of the road. While most of their peers spend their mornings asleep in their dorms and their weekends doing whatever they so choose — drinking a lot of the times — those Division II athletes aren’t so lucky. Unlike their counterparts at Division I schools who have millions spent on their every whim, it’s not a glamorous life for a Division II athlete. The rides are long, the courts are right next to the road and the fans are exclusively parents more often than not. But it’s all worth it for one more chance at continuing the sport near and dear to their hearts: tennis. Lacey Cohen has spent three years and some change at Slippery Rock, Viola Lugmayr just behind her after transferring into the program as a sophomore, steadily rising up career leaderboards under the tutelage of long-time SRU head coach Matt Meredith. Soaring highs, serving as the pinnacle of Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference student-athlete success and again, and crushing lows, on the heels of first-round exits in the NCAA tournament in back to back seasons, led to one final go-round for Cohen and Lugmayr. That one final chance at glory, at competing in the sport they loved, came crashing to a halt in wake of the spread of COVID-19. “I was devastated, and I know all my teammates were as well,” Cohen said. “We were really looking forward to the season; we were training super hard and were ready to go.” The duo will not get a chance to finish their senior seasons and push for the elusive PSAC title and subsequent NCAA title, but at least they got to experience a Senior Day. After the NCAA canceled all remaining winter and spring sport championships on Thursday, March 12, Meredith said he saw the writing on the wall. So, against Salem University while competing in a spring break series of matches in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Meredith organized a makeshift Senior Day for Cohen and Lugmayr, equipped with balloons and flowers, the whole nine yards. “It was definitely unconventional, but it was still really nice to get flowers and balloons,” Cohen said. “It was amazing getting all the support from all the teammates and coaches.” Holding big bouquets of flowers, surrounded by green and white balloons, the duo smiled along with teammates for what could be the last time for a very long time. Lugmayr and freshman Lois Page picked up a victory in the first flight doubles match while Cohen and junior Olivia Warner clinched the second flight. The PSAC suspended all athletic competition for the remainder of the spring semester Friday, March 13, but since Rock tennis had already traveled to South Carolina, they were allowed to finish the final event of the trip — which would end up being the last of the season. However, with the NCAA Division II Administrative Committee approving an extra season of eligibility for spring sport athletes, Cohen and Lugmayr aren’t necessarily done yet. “I’m definitely considering coming back as I’m going to grad school for occupational therapy at SRU,” Cohen said. “I’ll be around, but the course work will be much harder, so I’ll have to make it work. But if I can, I’d love to play.” Having already spoken with Meredith about returning to Slippery Rock as an assistant during her time at Slippery Rock as a graduate student, Cohen now faces the decision of returning to compete for another season. Whether it’s as an athlete looking for more glory or a coach giving back to those she spent seasons competing with, Cohen wants to be around the team in any way. “I love the team so much, so I’m looking forward to being apart of Rock tennis for as long as possible,” Cohen said. While the potential for a comeback is stronger for Cohen, as her life after Slippery Rock actually continues through SRU, Lugmayr’s isn’t so clear cut. “It might be different with Viola,” Meredith said. “She has some options. She will go to Arizona to work with Adapted PE to work with wheelchair tennis.” Lugmayr, who left Slippery Rock to return to Austria once classes were officially moved online, will continue to pursue her passion. Meredith said if Lugmayr wants to come back, he’d love to have her back. If this is the end for Cohen or Lugmayr, what a career it has been. Cohen, who has played from the first flight in singles competition nearly her entire career, will go down as one of the most accomplished tennis players in Slippery Rock history. As one of just 11 members of the 100-win club, Cohen’s 123 career victories rank sixth in school history. Her 60 singles wins rank seventh all-time while her 63 doubles wins are tied for eighth. “It was really successful,” Cohen said of her career. “I’ve had great teammates and coaching along the way, making it an amazing experience.” A long career of winning has garnered a PSAC-West Freshman of the Year and a PSAC-West Athlete of the Year award along with being named a five-time All-PSAC West honoree and a three-time PSAC-West Athlete of the Week. Cohen also was the 2018 PSAC singles champion. Lugmayr would have been the 12th member to reach the centennial win mark during senior year as she sits at 96 wins. Her 42 singles wins are tied for 20th in Slippery Rock history while her 54 doubles wins are tied for 11th. Like Cohen, Lugmayr is a PSAC champion, winning the 2019 PSAC doubles championship and the 2019 ITA Atlantic Region doubles championship. Both titles came with sophomore Lois Page. Lugmayr is also a two-time All-PSAC West honoree, a PSAC Champion Scholar and the recipient of the 2018-19 Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsman Award. Lugmayr and Page teamed up to be the 15th ranked doubles team nationally as ranked by the ITA. Despite the end of the season, which Cohen said has led to a lot of disappointment, the team has continued to support each other. Regardless of Cohen or Lugmayr’s decisions on continuing their athletic careers, Cohen feels as though her time with Rock tennis will carry over throughout the rest of her life. “It’s hard to say, tennis is an individual sport, but when you’re playing as a team, everything counts together,” Cohen said. “I really value how important and awesome being on a team is; it’s something special.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A finish unfit for two of the greats Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the sports section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-23 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Karl Ludwig Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/b98739c76e4870f0b5cde677d256af27.pdf 4234c6ed0a8f4ec613063babba5c3949 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document “Don’t spend more time reflecting on the negative aspect, but look at all the things you got to accomplish,” Celine Halt said. Halt is a senior resort recreation and hospitality management major and leadership minor. President of the University Program Board (UPB), Halt said that she felt some of her time at Slippery Rock University was taken for granted. “As much as I count the days till graduation, it was unexpectedly cut too short,” Halt said. “I didn’t get to experience those last few things where I figured I have so much time left.” Although Halt has taken most of her minor classes online, she said that she still has questions about her major classes and the group work usually required within them. Sharing some concerns about the start of online classes is Nicholas Condon, a junior political science major. Condon said that he is nervous for the switch because some professors may not be technologically abled. “I’m concerned that classes will turn into pushovers and I won’t learn anything, or they will be very heavy busy work because the professors don’t really know what to do with it,” Condon said. However, Condon said that the difference between online and in person classes is that with online classes, the student is the one with the motivation to do it, where in person classes the student almost just has to show up. “Treat it like it’s an in person class,” Condon said. “Set aside time of your day. You have a schedule from earlier in the semester, put aside those time slots and try to use those similarly.” Although Condon offered advice about routine and a schedule, that may prove more difficult for other students, such as student teacher Kylee Osselborn. Osselborn, a senior early childhood and special education major, said that this semester was her semester of being in the field with students. “I’ve been looking forward to this for the past four years and it’s hard that it’s being taken away,” Osselborn said. As a student teacher, students must have 12 weeks in the classroom with four observations from their supervisors to get certified. At the moment where SRU suspended all face-to-face classes, Osselborn said student teachers had just finished their first eight weeks and most only had three observations. Currently, the assistant dean of the college of education said that student teachers can now do 20 hours a week of instructional time, however, Osselborn is placed at a school in Grove City that is currently not having their kids complete online instruction. “My supervisor had the great idea of trying to set us up with families using ZOOM or creating lesson plans for an individual student and working with them 12 hours a week,” Osselborn said. “The student will still get educational time and we could still utilize our skills to help them.” Although Osselborn’s supervisor is helping her with the next step in student teaching, Osselborn said that it’s hard not saying goodbye to her students or getting to meet her next group of students. Similarly to Osselborn’s supervisor helping her, Dallas Kline, a first year graduate student in the student affairs and higher education program, said that multiple of her professors have been in contact, easing her anxiety. Kline said that one professor sent out a survey asking what resources students have and what tools they were comfortable using while another personally called each student to ask if they were doing okay. “It is going to be kind of hard,” Kline said. “Everyone is dealing with their own issues being by themselves that it is kind of hard to create a schedule and stay to it. it’s really relying on my classmates.” The sense of the campus community is something that many students will miss, including Condon. As a part of Student Government Association (SGA), Condon said that he misses it alot, but also misses the community end of things. “Being around other people is definitely what I’m going to miss the most,” Condon said. Other students agree that they will miss the campus community. Halt said that she found her home with UPB and Alpha Xi Delta. “For seniors, it’s not looking at all the things we lost, but all the cool things we got to do along the way,” Halt said. Along with all activities and accomplishments that students got to encounter, Osselborn said that her favorite memories were some of her classes. “I met some of my favorite people in my classes,” Osselborn said. “I have professors that we can text and go to them for anything outside of school.” All students agreed that although saddening, SRU made the right decision. Condon said that cases of COVID-19 hit close to home, one five minutes away from his house. “I think it’s good we’re doing things, even if they aren’t convenient for any of us,” Condon said. Students agree that SRU is doing a great job at keeping the campus community updated. “We need to take the time to see and respect that Slippery Rock has been doing so, so much for all of us compared to other schools,” Halt said. “They have been here every step of the way so far and I want to thank for for everything that they have done.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Students are in this together Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the news section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-23 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hope Hoehler Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/3201b350d1ec774cb7c66c0efeba711d.pdf 6aa171b9d54fd233c1fe2b1a58fad0eb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Slippery Rock Student Government Association’s (SGA) are holding the executive board elections during the spring 2020 semester, and the senate elections will be postponed until the beginning of the fall 2020 semester due to students moving to online classes. Junior and SGA President Nicole Dunlop said she and the rest of the executive board thought this option was the best for the student body. “By having it in the fall, we believe that we can have record participation and fill all seats on senate in a fair and equal manner,” Dunlop said. Dunlop said they are currently working on a timeline for the upcoming election process and should have it decided as soon as possible. “This may cause some other issues, but I have faith in this plan and have strong support from the election commission as well as members of our current E-board,” Dunlop said. SGA is still planning on using election packets and signature forms, but they are cutting the number of signatures required in half for all vice president and president packets. The amount of signatures required for senator positions will remain the same. “We realize that this may be inconvenient for some students,” Dunlop said. “But at the end of the day the benefits of all students was considered. This is an unparalleled decision in a stressful and hectic time.” The CORE package for E-board elections is now available on the SRSGA CORE page. “We hope that all SRU students have an interest in these E-Board elections,” Senator Pat Noonan said. “We understand that these are unprecedented times, but we are still one SRU community and these elections are important in deciding the future of the SRSGA. If you are a student who is interested in running, all the documents regarding the election process are located on core.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SGA postpones senate elections to fall semester Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the news section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-22 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nina Cipriani Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/b36675ac5393c9a9c5b27c0d7a02f592.pdf 6b508fc9305e948de109b91b22f31b0c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document International Students at SRU are being given the choice to stay on campus or return to their home countries because of concerns about COVID-19. Most international students had to make their decisions whether to stay in the U.S. or return home before President Behre announced that all classes would move online for the remainder of the semester, in order to arrange flights and to account for border closures and limited availability in flights. Noora Alie, assistant director for International Student Services, sent an email to all international students outlining their options. “[The Student and Exchange Visitor Program] has issued a statement informing university officials that international students can return home and still maintain their active immigration status should classes be in an online format,” Alie said in an email to all international students. “For those of you looking to return home, I hope this brings you a bit of relief knowing that you can continue to maintain your immigration status while taking classes in your home country.” Alexandre Okuma, a junior international student from Brazil, said his plan is to go home and finish the rest of the semester online from his home country and return to SRU in the fall. “As much as I want to return home, many airline companies are not operating flights to Brazil, so I am unsure as of right now,” Okuma said. “If for some reason I stay at SRU, the Global Engagement Office has figured out the international students’ housing, so we will all be able to stay on campus. I just hope we can all get through this with the least amount of damage as possible.” The Office for Global Engagement understands that it is not an option for every international student staying in Slippery Rock to return home in order to stay healthy. For international students who live on campus, they can continue to do so until the end of the semester, and boxed meals will be provided to them. International students deciding to return home must inform Alie or another designated school official in the Office for Global Engagement. “International students must have a valid travel signature on their I-20 before exiting the country,” Alie said. International students who are currently traveling and want to return to SRU will be allowed to do so. International students who want to continue their travels are also permitted to do so, but they must contact the Office for Global Engagement to confirm that they will continue traveling and report their current location, according to an email from Alie sent to all international students. Students living off campus are also required to report their current location. Alie said this information is also required for any international student who has traveled outside of the U.S. or Pennsylvania. Rina Saito, a senior international student from Japan, said she is staying at SRU until she knows for sure if there will be a spring commencement ceremony. “It’s so sad that we will have no face-to-face lectures in the future,” Saito said. “I already miss everyone, and staying on campus makes me feel lonely. I couldn’t even say goodbye to most international students because they left before I returned from my spring break travels.” Saito said that most ceremonies and concerts are canceled in Japan as well. Keonhui Kim, an international student from South Korea, is returning home next week and said she is proud of her country because the government has been checking all people for the virus and have been wearing masks. “I feel really bad because this is my last semester and I didn’t expect the virus to make me return back home earlier,” Kim said. “I am very disappointed because I cannot see my friends, and I will miss SRU.” Andres Ortiz, a freshman international student from Bolivia, said he will be returning home as soon as possible. He said the cases in Bolivia are spreading quickly as well. “I didn’t think the whole world would just stop working in less than a week,” Ortiz said. “I don’t feel I am in a safe place, and of course I am very homesick. I wanted to go back home this week but couldn’t find any flights, and I was not able to leave the country because I would have immigration problems with my visa.” Mohsen Kanani, a sophomore international student, left SRU to return home to Israel on Wednesday and will be in a 14-day quarantine once he gets there. He said going home was best for him even though his country is also experiencing a widespread of the virus. “I encourage everyone to take it seriously and take care of themselves and their loved ones,” Kanani said. “Hopefully we can all get through this very soon if we stay at home to stay safe and healthy.” Alie said that the Global Engagement Office would strongly recommend exchange students to consider returning home but would not be mandating that students return home. “We acknowledge that every case is unique and that having students return home may cause some difficulty,” Alie said in an email to all international students. The Global Engagement Office has hired outside transportation for those who need a ride to Pittsburgh International Airport. A maximum of 6 students are allowed per trip on each shuttle run to the airport. These shuttles run from March 17-21 for those international students in need of transportation to the airport. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource International students still have a home at SRU Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the news section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-20 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Haley Potter Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/add5ee41e931eec771cf21d3c33893f1.pdf 834994f1571a192c298c2943195a7a09 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document All on-campus events have been cancelled in response to SRU moving all classes to online instruction. In an email with a document of FAQ’s about Student Engagement and Leadership, campus events include but are not limited to on and off campus meetings, performances, carnivals, celebrations, rallies, demonstrations, lectures, social gatherings, speaker presentations and conferences. All student organizations must cancel their events. In the email addressed to Student Organization Presidents and Advisors, social distancing, as outlined by the CDC can be an effective way to control the spread of COVID-19. Student organizations that wish to move meeting related activities to online can do so, but there should be no face-to-face meetings or activities. Rock the Weekend Events, Relay for Life, Burlesque Bash, Esports Tournament, Travel Trip: Urban Air and the Community Cookout have all been cancelled. Lauren Moran, the director of Student Engagement and Leadership, said that she knew the office needed to do more communication with student organizations and found it important that Student Engagement and Leadership Office provided more specific details. “We wanted to make sure that people knew what was going on with events that we knew were going to be big,” Moran said. “Particularly with the Roddy Ricch concert, that was going to be a hot topic for students, and we wanted to get ahead of that as opposed to fielding questions as they come.” Moran said that students chose to come to Slippery Rock because they wanted that on campus experience, and not being around their peers is going to impact people in many ways. “Cancelling events and loosing that feel of community, being on campus is a big [impact],” Moran said. One of the major events cancelled was Relay for Life. Alexis Adams, a senior exercise science major, leadership minor and president of Colleges Against Cancer, said that although Slippery Rock cancelled all campus events, the American Cancer Society (ACS) cancelled all nation-wide events until March 31. Adams said that most of the fundraising is online, where those interested to donate as an individual or a team can put money into an account that goes towards the big donation. All money raised goes toward ACS. “Colleges Against Cancer means the world to me,” Adams said. “When I joined, I didn’t know anyone directly that had cancer, but my grandma died from stage 4 lung cancer and at that point it became personal.” Adams said she has grown a love for Relay for Life and what it does for people. Alongside the community aspect, Moran said that student organizations are also impacted financially, particularly those funded through SGA, which is funded by the student activity fee. “Any sort of financial loss is really a hit to the students because that’s a fee you all pay,” Moran said. Moran said that one of the reasons she is in her current job is to work with students and be around them. “For me personally, it’s going to impact me, because the students are where I get my energy to do the work I do,” Moran said. Moran said that the Student Engagement and Leadership Office is trying to find a way to rethink how they work with students and recently had a meeting to discuss ways to virtually engage students. “I think it’s going to impact the way that we work daily,” Moran said. “Not just online but the way we have to think about what student involvement means, what student engagement is; we have to rethink that.” Moran is the type of person who thrives on creativity and said that the new challenge will be exciting for the office to get out of the normal routine. Moran stressed the importance of student organizations to continue working with each other and trying to meet and engage virtually. “For so many students, their student organization or whatever they’re involved in on campus is really what connects them to the Slippery Rock community,” Moran said. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource All campus events cancelled following university guidelines Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the campus life section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-20 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hope Hoehler Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/a5d0af7c3b6d18a7311d8e9908f55bb9.pdf d26816f3c185eeafee9a5b587972014f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The grading system for the spring 2020 semester has been altered so that students have two options as to what grade they receive, according to an email sent to students by SRU President William Behre. Option 1 is graduate and undergraduate students will receive a grade of A, B, C or NC, according to an email sent to students by SRU President William Behre. A grade of NC provides no credit and will not impact students’ GPA. Students who are enrolled in courses with P/NC and P/F will continue to be graded accordingly. Basic Competency/The Rock courses will continue to be graded A, B, C or NC. Option 2 is undergraduate students will also have the option on a course by course basis to select a P/NC option. Behre said students should use the P/NC option sparingly and only in consultation with their advisers. Behre said choosing a P/NC could have an adverse effect on future plans. “For example, students applying to graduate school, seeking a professional credential, or hoping to maintain an external scholarship may need to have letter grades posted in order to achieve their goals,” Behre said. “There may be other instances not specifically listed [in the email] in which a letter grade is needed or desirable.” Behre said students will receive an e-communication two weeks before the course withdrawal deadline to select option 2. If the form is not returned, option 1 will be applied. Students will return the option 2 grade form through email to academic.records@sru.edu if they chose option 2. Students who receive a P will receive credit with no impact to their GPAs. Students who receive NC will receive no credit with no impact on their GPAs. The deadline to select P/NC is April 27. This choice is irrevocable after April 27. All courses that began the semester in a distance format keep their original withdrawal deadline. For all courses that began as face-to-face and were converted to distance modalities, the deadline for withdrawals is April 27. Behre said if a student becomes ill or is caring for someone who is ill, he encourages students to discuss with their professors the possibility of obtaining grades of incomplete this semester. He said the work can be made up once the student’s health or care giving concerns subside. Behre encourages students to reach out to their professors and advisers with the challenges they may face through the disruption that COVID-19 brings. “We are here to help,” Behre said, “Please take care of yourselves and continue to practice social distancing. Together we will get through this.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource BREAKING: Grading system changes for spring semester Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the news section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-20 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nina Cipriani Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/6064b5d64f40574cf2270a7175190676.pdf 2d4c3681f77552dab6b16825d4c708f0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The history department created a new course, “Spotlight on the Past: Pandemics,” for the new humanities inquiry block in rock studies. Professor Lia Paradis said she designed the course to cover three case studies: the Black Death of 1347-1350, where about 50-60% of the world population died; the Flu pandemic of 1918-1919, where 50-100 million people died worldwide; and the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has killed about 32 million people and infected 75 million people. “I created a course on pandemics because moments of real crisis, like a pandemic, are the moments when we can see human behavior very clearly,” Paradis said, “Humans ask the big questions during crises like ‘what do we owe each other?’ ‘What does community, family, faith and love mean?’ ‘What happens when we die?'” She said before spring break, the class was discussing the Flu pandemic, and when classes resume remotely, she will alter the course to incorporate aspects of the current pandemic for comparison and insight. She plans on creating non-mandatory Zoom sessions each week during what was the class time. She said this is an important component because one thing that a pandemic threatens is sense of community. “Our students are spread out across the state and even the country,” Paradis said. “They feel isolated and scared. Being able to come together once a week and actually discuss their experiences within the framework of a course about their experience will be helpful.” Paradis said there are many things students should take away from this course. One takeaway is that people hate to feel like they aren’t in control and will do almost anything to regain a sense of control. “Some [people] will engage in magical thinking like ‘it isn’t going to be bad,'” Paradis said, “And some will fixate on irrational things like ‘if I buy lots of toilet paper, I’m back in control again.'” Paradis said another thing students take away from the course is how people feel better if they can blame someone. Paradis also said it is always worthwhile to ask the big questions, so that one can be prepared to analyze their own behaviors in moments of stress. “Rational, reasonable responses guided by expertise and science will always produce better results than emotional, panicky responses,” Paradis said. “I’ve had students email me to say how glad they are that they took my course this semester because it’s given them some perspective,” Paradis said. Paradis said this circumstance is what makes humanities and history classes so important. “[Humanities classes] help us to see how universal and timeless so many of our experiences are,” Paradis said, “The past helps us to make sense of our present.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource History department introduces new pandemics course Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the news section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-19 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nina Cipriani Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/915ed4514ab4046730e13fa350ac21b7.pdf 22a297a61e9f987adaca05180daf83c9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SRU’s annual Giving Day has been postponed out of precaution for SRU students and their safety. Giving Day, originally planned for March 26, has been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 virus. In a tweet sent out by SRU Foundation Inc., those who wish to help SRU students can visit givingday.sru.edu which will stay active until Giving Day can be rescheduled. Marissa Cozza, senior coordinator of Annual Giving & Communications, said that although it was difficult to postpone the annual Giving Day, students remain SRU Foundation Inc.’s top priority. “Right now we need to be focusing on student safety and success,” Cozza said. “We want to make sure that students feel supported and this unfortunately isn’t the time to be actively marketing Giving Day. We hope that those who are able to support [the students] will.” Originally, the fundraising goal was $200,000, and $10,115 has been raised so far. Cozza said that SRU Foundation Inc. doesn’t know what to expect fundraising wise. People have reached out to offer assistance for students, and Cozza said that SRU Foundation Inc. is marketing two funds specifically: the Student Support Fund and the Continued Success Scholarship fund. Slippery Rock utilizes both these funds to help students experiencing health-related or financial hardships. “Those are the two areas that we are directing [those who want to help] to, so that they can help students directly, and it’s the students that need help more right now” Cozza said. “It’s a really uncertain time, and those that want to help can, we are keeping the site open.” Cozza said that the foundation still has a lot to work through, but Giving Day will look different without students, faculty and staff on campus. SRU Foundation Inc. hopes to reschedule Giving Day 2020 before the end of the fiscal school year, June 30. “Our top priority is continued student safety and student success,” Cozza said. “The date needs to reflect and has to be appropriate for everyone involved, and that’s really difficult to address right now.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SRU Giving Day 2020 postponed Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the campus life section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-18 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hope Hoehler Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/49d0443db136448188d586c430b8af68.pdf b533790a2f1b4b8274be1ead7b7e3873 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Slippery Rock Student Government Association (SGA) operations will transition to remote methods by using CORE to vote on motions, and formal meetings will be postponed until after the extended spring break. As of now, all meetings are canceled until March 30, and SGA is preparing to continue doing business virtually. The times and dates for formal meetings are yet to be determined. “Just as professors are preparing to continue online, the E-board will prepare over the extended break to change how committee business is done,” President Nicole Dunlop said. Committees will also be meeting virtually after the extended spring break is over. Dunlop said this extended break will give the chairs of the committee time to prepare to move online. Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Maggie Calvert said she does not have any concrete plans yet for her social justice committee. She said after the extended spring break, her committee will hold weekly meetings over Zoom and Google Docs. The social justice committee will continue to look at policies regarding discrimination. Calvert said they will focus mainly on retention of students of color, issues with the chosen name policy and banner regarding transgender and non-binary students. “Although the situation is unfortunate,” Calvert said, “I do think this will be a good opportunity for us to get some very important groundwork laid and work done on big issues that we haven’t always had the chance to focus on.” Calvert said she is aware of the concerns regarding coronavirus precautions. “The committee will work to address these concerns and ensure students have all of the resources they need to be successful throughout these difficult times,” Calvert said. Elections for SGA are also coming up. Dunlop said she is waiting to hear from the election commission with what they have decided to do. She said currently the executive board and the election commission are discussing several options and will have a decision made as soon as possible. The food pantry is closed, but SGA will continue to discuss how they can still provide these services for students. The town halls are canceled, but SGA will continue to discuss the possibility of having virtual town halls for students. As for the clubs and organizations on campus, Dunlop believes this transition will be a challenge for most. “I think this is a time for everyone to learn to be adaptable and to further their leadership in a way we normally wouldn’t be able to,” Dunlop said. Calvert said one of the things she will start to plan is the transition from her to the next vice president of diversity and inclusion. “I have loved being in this position, but there have been many challenges,” Calvert said. “Some to the point that I considered walking away.” Calvert said she wants to make sure the next person in her position feels empowered with as much information and advice that she and her committee can offer. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SGA transitions to online Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the news section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-17 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nina Cipriani Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/0adbc8bcd164a418eaf2392ea61f6ea8.pdf 8f6f821b6fa2f7447ce853d4ff158195 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SRU community, Now 10 days ago, SRU students went from leaving our university for an anticipated week-long break to preparing for a two-week break extension that will be followed by online instruction. Today, 10 days after originally leaving for spring break, I’m now part of a student newspaper staff covering an unprecedented crisis that not just affects our university, but our entire globe. There are moments when this entire situation still doesn’t feel real, a feeling I’m sure many of you also feel as our everyday lives continue to be altered daily in response to the coronavirus. In response to SRU’s extended break and the move to online classes starting March 30, I wanted to take the time to let you all know that The Rocket will continue to operate as a digital-first organization. Throughout the past week, The Rocket staff has been working diligently throughout the sudden news that our production must switch to remote methods. Here are some of our major operating points for the remainder of this semester: We are digital first. The remaining three print editions for the rest of this semester originally scheduled for March 20, April 10, and May 1 are canceled. The Rocket has operated on a digital-first model for the past few years, and this will especially hold true in a time when our office is not accessible. Our staff of 14 (alongside volunteers from WSRU-TV) will continue to work remotely to report the news of SRU and PASSHE. For many of us (myself included), this will mean that our work will continue from our permanent address. However, our work as independent student journalists is extremely important, regardless of our location and especially in an unprecedented circumstance like the coronavirus. The best way to stay up to date with us is to follow our social media (@SRURocket on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram). Make sure to also check back to theonlinerocket.com regularly for updated content. While we will continue to cover news, sports, and campus life happenings, the coronavirus will be at the forefront of many of our upcoming articles. To date, we have covered the operating schedule changes for all PASSHE universities, state of athletics for the rest of the semester and roles of APSCUF and the Center for Teaching Learning in this process. There is much more coverage to come, so follow @SRURocket on social media for the latest information. We also have a page where we will post all content related to the coronavirus. To read the pieces we have published so far, click here. If you have a tip for us, the best way to notify The Rocket is to email me directly at hms1015@sru.edu. We will continue to be a forum for students, faculty, administration and community. We are and always will be a forum for the SRU student body, regardless if where we are located. This being said, our opinion section is open to all concerned SRU community members. Email hms1015@sru.edu for more information. We need to hear all possible perspectives more than ever, and reaching out to me directly is the best way to keep this conversation rolling. Stay safe, and stay tuned, Hannah Shumsky, editor-in-chief Twitter: @hshumsky_ed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from the editor: The Rocket continues to operate as digital first Description An account of the resource This story was published as a "letter from the editor" in the opinion section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-14 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hannah Shumsky Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/88c8dbddea47805deec0966d7926ba21.pdf 256d96bc027280005614eb9be710f8a6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document For a moment there, it appeared that sports would weather the storm. With everything else being suspended or shut down, sports appeared to serve as the lone pillar of normalcy. Wednesday rolled around and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference commissioner Steve Murray offered up encouraging news: all 18 PSAC schools planned to continue with athletics, the caveat being a reduced number of fans. And then Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. Which might just have saved the United States. The NBA suspended its season as Jazz teammate Donovan Mitchell subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. The NHL followed suit, suspending its season, and the flood gates were opened. The ATP Tour, the English Premier League and the MLS suspended its seasons, the PGA Tour cancelled a few of its tournaments and suspended the Masters and the XFL cancelled its season all together. The NCAA cancelled all remaining winter and spring championships, effectively ending March Madness and all spring sports across all levels of NCAA competition. March Sadness officially sets in at Slippery Rock. For good measure, the PSAC, after a conference call with the Board of Governors Friday, March 13, decided to suspend all athletic activity indefinitely. Thusly, many PSAC schools followed with announcements of the cancellation of athletic events for the remainder of the semester. Slippery Rock included. “We support the PSAC Board of Directors’ decision as we understand it was made to protect the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and campus communities,” SRU Director of Athletics Paul Lueken said to Rock Athletics. “We are heartbroken for our spring student-athletes, especially the seniors, that saw their seasons and, in some cases, careers end very abruptly and completely out of their control. We will do everything we can to provide support for our student-athletes during this difficult time.” Life must go on, but sports, in this case, do not. Tennis The Slippery Rock tennis team was finishing its spring break trip in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, but SRU tennis coach Matt Meredith knew something was wrong. “I knew the writing on the wall with the NCAA cancelling spring championships,” Meredith said. So, with what would be the final contest of the season, Meredith decided to turn a contest against Salem University into Senior Day for seniors Lacey Cohen and Viola Lugmayr. “It was definitely unconventional, but it was still really nice to get flowers and balloons,” Cohen said. “It was amazing getting all the support from all the teammates and coaches.” Lugmayr, with partner Lois Page, picked up a win in the first flight doubles match against Salem, and Cohen, with partner Olivia Warner, picked a win in the second flight. While both Cohen and Lugmayr dropped their singles matches, it doesn’t diminish their impressive individual careers. Cohen, working from the vaunted first flight of singles action, went 13-7 over her shortened senior season and 9-7 in singles competition. Lugmayr, playing from the second flight, went 10-8 and 19-6, in addition to winning the doubles title at the PSAC championship with freshman Lois Page. However, with the NCAA Administrative Committee approving actions to allow spring sport seniors an extra year of eligibility, Meredith was hopeful in Cohen and Lugmayr returning for a fifth season of eligibility. “The seniors will have the opportunity to continue, and we will find out soon,” Meredith said. “Lacey is starting occupational therapy school, so she’ll be here. She was planning to help with the team anyway, so she gets another year. There’s a chance to see Lacey back on the court. It might be different with Viola. She has some options. She will go to Arizona to work with Adapted PE to work with wheelchair tennis. If she’s able to come back and wants to, we’ll have her back.” As Cohen will return to Slippery Rock for graduate school, with the plan to return as an assistant under Meredith, she has a strong chance to return to the team in some capacity — whether it’s as an athlete or a coach. Lugmayr is another story. With a less guaranteed path back to Slippery Rock, however, Lugmayr, who is already planning on going out to Arizona to continue her educational opportunities, would be welcomed back with open arms should she choose to return. Regardless of whether Cohen and Lugmayr choose to exercise the NCAA’s new policy, Meredith felt this season’s cancellation particularly hard. “This is a year that I felt I had one of the best teams I’ve ever had, but I say that every year, of course,” Meredith laughed. “But this is the team that I’ve built the last couple of years and had them come together and what an amazing team they are.” Along with Cohen and Lugmayr, a couple of newcomers were creating waves in the PSAC. Page was 13-7 while working out of the third seed for Slippery Rock and, teamed with Lugmayr mainly, had gone 18-6 in doubles play. Freshman Pia Bruckmayer, someone who Meredith was particularly excited to watch blossom in conference play, jumped out to an 18-3 record in singles play from the fourth seed. She was 7-2 in doubles play, one of the best overall freshman performances in Slippery Rock history. Despite the loss of such a promising season, 6-4 through the early spring portion of the season, Meredith understood the precaution. “It’s heartbreaking, but under the circumstances, I understand the caution to ensure safety,” Meredith said. “It’s just heartbreaking for the seniors.” With a large portion of the roster calling areas outside of the United States home, Meredith said most of them were in the process of returning home. “Viola traveled home [Tuesday],” Meredith said. “Pia goes home Wednesday, flight at 2 p.m. Lois is staying for now. The rest are going home to be safe and healthy, a good stance that way.” Meredith continued a trend of heartbreak and shock, pointing out that, like many young Americans, the feeling of invulnerability can sometimes mask the need for the greater good. “It’s kind of an overwhelming shock,” Meredith said. “It’s hard for myself, but with the athletes, you think you’re invulnerable. This is a way to be safe. Definitely in shock, but this is the right decision in the long run.” Softball For Slippery Rock softball coach Stacey Rice, it’s the lack of closure that upsets her the most. “We got off the plane on Saturday from Florida, and everyone left campus on Sunday,” Rice said. “There were no goodbyes or closure.” When the NCAA shut down spring sports, Rock softball was in Winter Haven, Florida, finishing the back-end of their The Spring Games series. An 8-1 loss to Bridgeport College in the final game of the tournament ended up being the last game of the season for Slippery Rock — and possibly the final game ever for lone senior Alexa Guglielmino. “I’m very impressed with how they all handled the situation: maturely and with grace,” Rice said. “They’ve all been granted another year of eligibility, so we are looking at how to make that happen for everyone, including Alexa.” In the case of Guglielmino, who has been seen on Late Night with Scott Van Pelt on ESPN, Rice said she’s hopeful that Guglielmino will be able to come back for a fifth season, but it ultimately falls to Guglielmino and her family to make that decision. Aside from missing games, Rice said not being able to honor Guglielmino’s impact on the team, who played in 135 games over the past four seasons, was one of the saddest ramifications from the cancelled season. While Guglielmino loses her senior, the rest of Rock softball is in the same boat albeit to a lesser magnitude. “It’s disappointing,” Rice said. “The girls put a lot of hard work in the off-season, and it’s unfortunate that they didn’t get to see that play out on the field.” However, Rice knows the impact of the spread of COVID-19 is bigger than sports. “I understand the decision, the safety of others is way more important than any softball season,” Rice said. In the wake of Slippery Rock moving classes online, Rice said each member of the team has been able to safely make it back to their homes, and Slippery Rock athletics has really banded together in the face of unprecedented adversity. “The Athletics department has been very supportive during the difficult time, not just with softball, but with all sports teams,” Rice said. Lacrosse Unlike a majority of the spring sports at Slippery Rock, the women’s lacrosse team did not travel over spring break. Technically, the team traveled to New York for a game the Saturday after break began, but it wasn’t a “spring break” trip. So, Rock lacrosse was back in Pennsylvania and competing in the PSAC during the week of spring break. News from the NCAA and PSAC broke signaling the end of the season, and unlike their peers, they didn’t have a few out of state games to finish their season. It was just over. Well, not quite over. Slippery Rock lacrosse coach Kelsey Van Alstyne said her players couldn’t just go out without saying goodbye. “I am very proud of how my team handled the news,” Van Alstyne said. “They chose to go outside and have one more fun practice together as a group. My underclassman then asked to give our seniors the Senior Day they would have gotten for our last home game. It was a short but great event honoring the girls, and being together one last time this semester.” However, an improvised Senior Day, no matter how well done and impactful, does not give the seniors a chance to finish their last go-round in college athletics. For someone like senior Olivia Beach, who walked on and battled through injuries to finally start as a senior, her career is over. “I know the part that everyone felt the worst about was the ending of our seniors’ careers,” Van Alstyne said. “They were such a big part of our program both on and off the field, and the work they had put in over the last four years has made a tremendous impact on our program.” The trio of ShyAnne Toomer, Sami Gentzler and Tori Penders combined for 43% of all goals, 56% of all assists and 46% of all points this season while Beach started every game on defense. “I cannot express my gratitude enough towards this group of seniors; their work ethic, commitment, leadership and passion for the game and our program has left a legacy within this program,” Van Alstyne said. “I am incredibly proud of the growth they have shown as young women and look forward to seeing what the future holds for all of them.” While the NCAA Division II Administrative Committee approved an extension to the eligibility of spring sport seniors, Van Alstyne said she doesn’t expect any of them back as they all have made plans for life after graduating from Slippery Rock. Van Alstyne had originally hoped for a postponement with an eventual re-evaluation, but she acknowledged the decision was made to keep all involved in Division II athletics safe. Hoping to grow in the face of adversity, Van Alstyne hopes the nearly season-long absence will work as a motivator for all the returning players and coaches. “My hope is that for all of us, coaches included, that it helps us appreciate every single game, practice, lifting session, film session, etc. so much more because we now know what it feels like to have it suddenly taken away,” Van Alstyne said. As the spread of COVID-19 progresses, Van Alstyne said rolling with the situation and making the best of it will be a key to progressing. Already, she feels as though Slippery Rock athletics is doing a good job of moving forward. “The athletic department has been in constant contact, and we have made goals and a plan for how we will accomplish things this semester with these changes,” Van Alstyne said. “I feel like everyone is handling it the best they possibly can.” Track & Field As the Coastal Carolina Invite rolled around for the Slippery Rock men’s and women’s outdoor track teams, SRU track & field coach John Papa said he didn’t even see some of his athletes before embarking on the spring break trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. With the cancellation of the outdoor season, it’s possible he won’t see some of them ever again. “When we went on spring break, all [the student-athletes] didn’t come, so I didn’t see a lot of kids,” Papa said. “We told them ‘if your day is over, it’s over. Hopefully, you took advantage of the time you did have, put it to good use. The lessons learned as an athlete: leadership, teamwork and commitment will follow you.'” The decision to cancel all athletic activity is something that is completely foreign to Papa in his 35 years of coaching. “It’s unprecedented,” Papa said. “I’ve never had anything close to this before. Luckily, we had an indoor track season. A very high percentage of athletes had the chance to compete.” While the men’s and women’s indoor seasons went off without a hitch, with the women’s team clinching the PSAC title, some track & field athletes only compete once the season moves outdoors. “Javelin doesn’t do indoor track though, so some worked out all year and didn’t get a chance to compete,” Papa said. To a multitude of seniors on the men’s and women’s side, the season comes to an unceremonious halt — despite successful finishes during the indoor season. The responses, according to Papa, have been mixed so far. “Some kids took it hard and others are putting it behind them,” Papa said. In regard to seniors exercising the right to return for another season, Papa said it’s still too early to tell. “Some seniors are doing grad work, here and in other places, so it might be a bit too early to tell [whether they’ll return],” Papa said. “I hope some will, regardless of whether it’s here or there.” For those returning to the team, be it underclassmen or seniors for one last go-round, Papa said he hopes the experience can be one to learn from. “We’re gonna get through it,” Papa said. “Hopefully those returning will come back with a renewed commitment level to what they’re doing. I hope they take advantage of extra time to get their bodies ready, improved levels of competition.” While sports like men’s basketball and tennis have student-athletes traveling across the world to return home, Papa said the track & field student-athletes have no such issues. “No one is in a tough position [having to travel],” Papa said. “Everyone who wants to be home is home. Some are hanging around in apartments at SRU still.” Life goes on, and Papa said it’s no different for his team. “I’ve been talking to athletes and talking to recruits,” Papa said. “Some kids are just moving on. A lot of kids are working. Everybody is getting ready. I talked to one of our athletes a week ago, who was in tears, now she’s at home, working and she’s done and going to grad school. She turned the page.” Regardless of whether the total cancellation of the season is an overreaction or underreaction, Papa agreed that it was the correct call in the long run. “I think so,” Papa said. “Maybe nothing would have happened, but had we had a widespread of the virus, we all would have had ourselves to blame. It’s what we’ve got to do.” Football Sitting back in the conference room of the Slippery Rock football offices, SRU head coach Shawn Lutz, offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator Chris Conrad and linebackers/special teams coach Marc Hull are surrounded with a maze of papers and laptops. Fresh off a trip to the NCAA Division II semifinals, the recruiting season peaked in the middle of February. However, with a roster to fill out by spring workouts — which are officially out the window — the recruiting trail is still fresh. Rather, was still fresh. While coaches can still interact with recruits virtually, any face-to-face interaction has been suspended until at least April 15. All spring workouts and team activity have been cancelled, and in an off-season in which Rock football expected to take another step toward the national championship, everything has been thrown off course. While caught in a tough spot, Lutz acknowledged that the decision comes to protect everyone involved in Rock athletics. “I don’t have much more to add than what athletics already put out,” SRU football coach Shawn Lutz said.” We understand the situation and that this is necessary to ensure the safety of our players, staff and everyone’s families, so we support the decision.” With the spring game, scheduled for April 24, cancelled, Rock football will not have its annual game to gauge returning and incoming players for the season ahead. “Hopefully things change and there may be a chance for us to at least get some practices in before the end of the spring period, but we will just wait and see how this all plays out,” Lutz said. “Our main focus is the safety of everyone involved.” Fresh off a season of almost unparalleled success, Rock football will have to weather an off-season of unprecedented adversity. However, like Lutz says: relentless or forgotten. Men’s Basketball When schools like Indiana University (Pa.), Gannon University, Mercyhurst University and California University (Pa.) were planning for the NCAA Division II national basketball tournament, Slippery Rock was focused on the recruiting and off-season preparation to get back to that level. Now, they’re all in the same boat. The season is over for everyone, and the off-season is heavily restricted. “It’s been a big impact on recruiting and the general off-season,” SRU basketball coach Ian Grady said. “Normally, we’re gearing up for team workouts and stuff for returning players right now. Which we won’t be able to do. We don’t have any instruction [with players] right now, and recruiting is also a big challenge. In addition to the crisis, The NCAA banned on and off-campus recruiting to April 15, and this is the prime recruiting season in basketball.” While the NCAA garnered attention for the cancellations of all remaining winter and spring sport championships, a dead period was instituted for all sports, which has leveled travel and interaction drawbacks like never seen before. “No face-to-face interaction [with recruits],” Grady said. “We’ve been using technology with virtual campus tours and stuff like that rather than in-person [visits with recruits].” Even though Slippery Rock was eliminated before the national tournament this season, bowing out during the PSAC tournament, Grady felt for the individual student-athletes who had their seasons ended prior to the tournament and the work they put in over the course of the year. “I feel for the student-athletes,” Grady said. “Basketball is such a long season starting when the young kids get to school in October through to March and into April. It’s a lot of work and time and commitment for [the tournaments] to not happen; I really feel for individual athletes. There’s no easy way to handle it.” However, despite the harshness of the reality for men’s and women’s seniors in Division II basketball, he acknowledged that their seasons — in a lot of cases — were concluded. “[Basketball student-athletes] played the whole season, so I don’t know if an additional season is right,” Grady said. “I was hoping for some type of resolution to play at a later date in the summer. Obviously, the element of the unknown, not knowing how bad it could get or when it’s done, they couldn’t come to an agreement.” Like most of the international student-athletes at Slippery Rock, Grady said that freshman Revelinio Tholel and Nik Cazacu both decided to head back to the Netherlands and Greece, respectively. “[Revelinio and Nik] have handled it very well with the uncertainty, taking it as more information came,” Grady said. “When they were notified about classes moving online, they both decided to go. They leave Tuesday, but with a lot of borders closing, we’re keeping our fingers crossed.” Grady said he’s been in contact with Revelinio and Nik, primarily due to helping facilitate the pair moving out of Slippery Rock, but he hasn’t had much interaction with the rest of the team. After the season ended, spring break quickly followed, so Grady said while he hasn’t been around the team, morale has remained high. That high morale has extended to the entire Slippery Rock athletic department, Grady said. “[We’re] disappointed in the circumstance, but I don’t believe morale is down,” Grady said. “Everyone knows it’s a difficult circumstance. We plan to rise to the challenge and find creative ways to handle it.” While the true scope of the situation, the severity and timeline of events, is not known — and likely will not truly be known — Grady said he expects the season to start on time in the fall. “As of now, I’m operating with going on as normal,” Grady said. “Working with recruiting and scheduling and camps. We’re going to operate as this thing will clear up and be ready for fall. If it gets worse, we’ll handle it as we get there.” Women’s soccer Rostering a team full of talented underclassmen, with freshmen and sophomores fueling a PSAC title run last season, the Slippery Rock women’s soccer team was excited to take another step toward national success this off-season. There’s going to be some big changes now, and no one knows how long it’ll last. “The biggest impact will be helping our growth and focus during this period, two qualities that we were hoping to make an impact on after our success last season,” SRU women’s soccer coach Jessica Griggs said. “We will certainly overcome this, but it will be done differently than expected.” Despite being a fall sport, with very, very little inter lapping among winter and spring sports, as the women’s season ended in November, the off-season is completely disjointed now. Griggs said interaction with her players — and likely recruits — will now be limited as student-athletes return to their homes for an extended period of time. “We have a great team culture and a family-oriented style, and we are adapting our interactions over the course of the next couple of months to try and keep that integrity from afar,” Griggs said. Despite the hardship her team faces and will continue to face for an unknown amount of time, Griggs cited the national and global impact the spread of COVID-19 has had in making a tough but correct decision. “I just hope that the SRU students, faculty and staff are making the correct decisions regarding the recovery of this pandemic,” Griggs said. “I know it can be difficult to lose focus or try to make the ‘popular’ decisions but I hope that our community showcases a leadership role to help our nation get back to normality quickly.” All training is off, gyms have been closed and the team bond which had been cultivated over a long, successful season has come to a halt. For Rock women’s soccer, it’s likely going to be a long time until they are back on the field. And it likely won’t just be women’s soccer that won’t see the field for a long time. Slippery Rock athletics will return, but it clearly won’t be any time soon. Sports might take a backseat for right now, but they’ll be back. And it will be a sight to see once the first Slippery Rock team takes the field, the court or whatever after this nightmare is over. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rock athletics: Gone but not forgotten Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the sports section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-13 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Karl Ludwig Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/6d7d2dd62a4c2c9e6048d48a1d1ee969.pdf 79153443a1fd82235aef4e484d7f80fd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document UPDATE (MARCH 20, 11:50 a.m.) The Student Counseling Center will no longer be operating out of the office, according to clinical director Dr. Kenneth Messina. “We are working on making sure we are providing support and access to students in a variety of ways while most of our students are away from campus,” Messina said. He added that he is unsure of specifics because the center is still in the process of finalizing plans to be able to meet students’ needs in the best way possible, but that students who are currently utilizing the counseling center’s services will be contacted as soon as plans are finalized. “Our counselors are working hard to make sure we have a plan that ensures the best access for students and remains consistent with the best practices of our profession,” Messina said. He said students can email the Student Counseling Center at scc@sru.edu or call the office at (724) 738-2034 with questions as he and counselors are checking the voicemail remotely. Karla Fonner, director of Student Support, said the office will be making minimal changes in order to continue to connect students to resources that best fit their needs at this time. “Our Student Support office helps students find ways to navigate stressful life events making it difficult for them to complete coursework,” Fonner said via email. She added that though the Boost peer team will not report to campus, and all Boost events have been canceled, they will provide helpful resources and wellness reminders through their Twitter account. Fonner said the best way to reach Student Support is to send an email to her, or to enter the information into the Care network. The Care network, she said, will continue to be monitored regularly, and all students referred will still receive outreach. Dr. John Rindy, director of the Office for Career Education and Development, provided further details about how appointments with career coaches will be conducted. He said they cannot answer their phones due to the physical office being closed, so all appointments should be scheduled online through Handshake’s Career Center tab. Once a student schedules an appointment, he continued, they will receive an email either directly from the Handshake system or from their career coach with the Zoom video URL they can use at the time of their meeting. He added that if students don’t have a laptop or computer with video and audio capabilites at home, they can use their smartphones for their appointments by downloading the Zoom app. He added that students should reach out directly to their career coach, who can arrange a phone appointment. “Students can opt out of using video during their appointments unless the appointment is for a mock interview or for interview advice, since those appointment types require that the career coach can view the student and make observations and provide advice on things like nonverbal communication,” Rindy said. He also said juniors and seniors looking for internships should utilize Handshake as there are hundreds of jobs and internships posted. “Companies who post on Handshake have specifically chosen to send their jobs to SRU, so it is a search tool that is far superior to Indeed or Simply Hired because 100% of the employers in our system deliberately chose to seek SRU graduates or interns,” Rindy said. He added that the Uncommon Hour programs will continue virtually, and several other topics have been added to the series. Students will be able to register for any of these on Handshake’s Events tab. Upcoming events include: March 24: Designing Your Life (Life Design Workshop) March 26: Developing Strong Professional Writing Samples for Applications March 30: Increasing Your Chances for Grad School Acceptance April 6: Developing Cover Letters — When? Why? How? April 7: Careers in Commercial Real Estate April 16: Managing Money and Debt Uncommon Hour programs to be added include topics such as LinkedIn; education, business, science and technology resumes; and searching for jobs and interviews. ORIGINAL POST (MARCH 13) In response to the coronavirus outbreak, SRU President William Behre announced Wednesday, March 11 in an email sent to university stakeholders that SRU will extend its spring break by two weeks; he announced Monday in another email that instruction will resume through distance learning modalities starting March 30. A revised FAQ document attached to the March 11 email stated that campus is open only for basic business operations and that ancillary facilities — Aebersold Recreation Center, Bailey Library, the Macoskey Center and Storm Harbor Equestrian Center — will all be closed. Though auxiliary facilities will be closed, campus offices such as Student Health Services will remain open to students. Dr. Natalie Burick, director of the Office of Disability Services (ODS), said she and the rest of the office staff will be working remotely. “We have been working diligently to ensure our services are streamlined for an online process,” Dr. Natalie Burick, director of the Office of Disability Services (ODS), said. “We can Zoom, Skype, or call students from our cell phones using Google Voice.” One particular service the ODS provides is note-taking. Burick said note-takers have already been directed to continue taking notes for their classes as per usual and have been given instructions for submitting notes electronically. “If the class format changes and notes aren’t needed, note-takers should contact us immediately so we can communicate with students,” she said. “We also reached out to students who receive notes and told them to communicate with us if there are issues regarding notes.” She added that communications have already been sent to students informing them about what they should do if they need certain accommodations; students should check their email and respond if they have questions. Director of Student Health Services Kristina Benkeser said the health center will maintain its 24/7 hours, but she encourages all students to call the health center before visiting. “If we can handle it over the phone, we will,” she said. “A nurse will be available at all times to answer students’ calls and help them. We want to limit exposure as much as possible at this time.” Benkeser said nurses at the Student Health Center can schedule appointments, help students with transferring their prescriptions and talk with students about any health concerns or problems they may be experiencing over the phone. She added that, during this time, it’s absolutely important to practice social distancing, to wash your hands and to be prepared for anything. “This situation is constantly evolving and changing,” she said. “Every day is a new adventure.” Dr. Kenneth Messina, clinical director of the Student Counseling Center, said the center will remain open during the extended break and will continue to reassess based on student need. He added that all in-office services will still be available to students, but all planned outreach events on campus have been canceled. “We still have groups and individual sessions,” Messina said. “Our walk-in services are still available as well. We are encouraging students to try to call and schedule appointments as we want to reduce the number of people in our waiting area, but still want students to utilize walk-in time if they need those services.” He said counselors are also prepared to assist students in finding services in their home areas. Students who need assistance finding a mental health provider in their area can call the counseling center’s front desk to schedule a phone call with one of the counselors to begin the referral process. Messina encouraged students to watch for updates in emails, on SRU’s website and on the counseling center’s Twitter page. Student Support will also remain open and active, according to director Karla Fonner, but there will be no face-to-face meetings. All meetings will be conducted via the Internet or phone call. She added that the best way to contact Student Support is to email her (karla.fonner@sru.edu) or to submit a Care Report. “All students referred will still receive outreach from our office or the necessary campus partner,” Fonner said. In addition to in-person meetings being suspended, Boost student staff will not report to campus, and all Boost events have been canceled. Dr. Lyosha Gorshkov, assistant director of the Women’s and Pride Centers, said the Women’s and Pride Centers will not be operating as they normally would, but he encourages students, staff and faculty to reach out with any questions or concerns they may have via email. “We are hoping that after March 30, we will be able to get back to our regular schedule,” Gorshkov said. “We have to wait until the president and his cabinet make the announcement regarding campus operations.” All dining services will remain closed through the extended break until March 30, according to Christopher Cole, director of Auxiliary Operations and Student Services. Cole said students who are registered to stay in the residence during the extended break will have access to boxed meals from Boozel Express beginning with dinner on Sunday, March 15. Breakfast will be available from 7-9 a.m., lunch will be available from noon to 1 p.m. and dinner will be available from 5-6 p.m. The Office for Career Education and Development, according to director Dr. John Rindy, will be open and keeping all previously scheduled appointments, but they won’t be face-to-face. “Anyone who has already scheduled will receive an email from their career coach that will include a Zoom URL to click on at their appointment time,” Rindy said. “Zoom works from PCs, Macs and newer iPhones. I recommend being at a laptop or desktop, especially if you are having a document reviewed. That can get pretty tiny on a smartphone.” Students who need to complete a career assignment can still do that by scheduling on Handshake — on the Handshake app, choose “School” to find the appointment function. All appointments that can be done face-to-face can also be done via Zoom, Rindy said. He added that his staff may be reduced dramatically, depending on whether his contingency plan for the office is approved by university administration. “Many coaches on our team are graduated assistants and undergrad peer educators — that’s 3/4 of my staff,” Rindy said. “As long as administration approves my grad assistants and students having appointments from their laptops at home, we should be good. If we have to default to my full-time staff, then we will only be able to accommodate a fraction of the hundreds of appointments that would still have sought services from our office. For now, though, we hope to be full steam ahead!” He said all Uncommon Hour programs will also be hosted virtually. Everyone who registered will receive a URL for viewing the programs live, and the office will tweet the links to the virtual Uncommon Hour programs for other students who want to attend. Lisa Ringer, director of the SGA preschool and childcare center, said the center closed Monday at 6 p.m., but they plan to reopen Monday, March 30. For more SRU-related COVID-19 information, visit www.sru.edu/covid19. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 doesn’t stop faculty from supporting students Description An account of the resource This story was originally published in the news section on The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-13 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allison Downs Relation A related resource SRU Student Article SRU Student Story The Rocket https://slipperyrockcovid19.org/files/original/d5b03e551dab83a5feeca1fa6dada437.pdf f91e21a71d973df2656da9daf1836661 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rocket Description An account of the resource Items from Slippery Rock University's official student newspaper, The Rocket. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document This is a breaking news story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available. UPDATE (MARCH 28, 1:00 p.m.) – All countable related athletic activities (CARA) have been cancelled for the remainder of the semester The PSAC announced Friday that all countable related athletic activities have been suspended for the remainder of the academic year, after originally setting March 30 as a date for a potential reevaluation. For the remainder of the semester, all sports will be allowed to participate in eight hours of virtual CARA. There will be no mandatory physical activities, and only athletic-related meetings may occur, with no more than two hours of film review. Voluntary physical activities are permitted, and student-athletes are not required to report back to their coaches on such activities. UPDATE (MARCH 13, 6:50 p.m.) – NCAA announces an additional season of eligibility to Division II spring sport student athletes The NCAA approved actions in recruiting, reinstatement, legislation/interpretation, progress-toward-degree, playing and practice season and membership issues during its Friday, March 12 NCAA Division II Administrative Committee teleconference. In the wake of the rapid spread of COVID-19, the NCAA was forced to hold a teleconference related to the regulations and policies impacted by the coronavirus. Notably, the NCAA approved an extension request that will allow institutions to self-apply extension of eligibility and season of competition waivers for student-athletes whose 2019-20 spring seasons were cancelled, if the following criteria are met: The student-athlete used a season of competition in a spring sport during the 2019-20 academic year. The student-athlete was eligible for competition when he or she competed during the 2019-20 academic year. The student-athlete’s season was ultimately cancelled for reasons related to the COVID-19 outbreak. So, if a student-athlete competed during the spring semester, was eligible to compete while competing and had their season cancelled by COVID-19, they will be eligible to compete next season. The logistics behind the situation will become clearer as time unfolds. As of now, the process sounds simple but working unexpectedly returning scholarships into incoming rosters with new scholarships could raise additional questions. Murray, in a post on his Twitter account, also raised the issue of the financial ability of student-athletes being able to return for another season. The NCAA also approved a financial aid equivalency limit which will issue a blanket waiver to allow student-athletes who qualify for a self-applied season of competition waiver and/or extension of eligibility waiver to receive athletic aid for the 2020-21 academic year without counting toward the team’s equivalency limits. A full-time enrollment action was approved, which will issue a blanket waiver for the spring 2020 term to permit student-athletes to participate in countable athletically related activities while enrolled less than full-time, provided the student-athletes were enrolled full-time in the for the spring 2020 term. With financial and requirement actions approved by the NCAA, it paved the way for student-athletes to return for an extra season of eligibility, provided it makes sense for the individual athlete. The NCAA also approved a recruiting dead period affecting all sports until April 15. Institutional staff members will be permitted to write or telephone a prospective student-athlete but cannot engage in in-person recruiting on- or off-campus. The NCAA approved actions related to the reimbursement of costs associated with previously planned official and unofficial visits, extra benefits (i.e. meals, lodging and travel), progress toward degree requirements (e.g. term-by-term, academic year and annual academic credit hour requirements and GPA requirements), CARA restrictions for student-athletes who remain on campus, sports sponsorship, three-season requirements and items related to the NCAA Division II membership process. UPDATED (MARCH 13, 10:15 a.m.) – PSAC announces athletic competition suspended through spring semester The PSAC announced Friday morning that all athletic competition for the remainder of the spring semester has been suspended, effective immediately. Murray tweeted Thursday night that the PSAC Board of Directors would be meeting via a conference call to discuss the future of athletic competition moving forward. The decision to suspend comes “in light of the latest news regarding COVID-19.” Any non-conference competition in which travel has already taken place is left to institutional discretion through March 15, at which time all athletic competition must stop. All countable related athletic activities are suspended until March 30 at which time the Board of Directors will review a proposal from Athletic Administrators to permit or suspend CARA for the remainder of the semester. The decision to suspend all athletic events comes in the wake of athletic competition across the United States shutting down in the past couple of days. UPDATED (MARCH 12, 2:35 p.m.) – THE NCAA has cancelled all winter and spring championships NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors have canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring championships. While the cancelation of March Madness will draw headlines, the Division II men’s and women’s basketball championships and all other Division II championships, including track & field and swimming, have also been cancelled, effective Thursday afternoon. In the released statement, the NCAA cited the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, the ability to ensure events do not contribute to the spread of the pandemic and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions made by other entities in making the decision. — In the wake of all 14 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education institutions altering instructional plans for the remainder of the 2020 spring semester, all 18 member schools of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference have elected to continue competing, according to PSAC commissioner Steve Murray. Murray said that during a conference call with each school’s athletic director and vice president Wednesday morning, every PSAC school confirmed the desire to continue with planned athletic competition—but that is subject to change with the release of more information. During the conference call, Murray said he asked each school four questions in regard to the continuation of athletic competition: one about continuing to play, one about allowing athletes to compete in NCAA competition, one about fan attendance policies and one about whether non-championship teams were practicing. Ultimately, Murray said the decision to continue competing falls to each individual school in the PSAC. If a school chooses to no longer compete in athletics, it has the ability to choose to withdraw from all athletic competition. However, the decision to withdraw from competition would have to come directly from either the president of the university or its athletic director, according to Murray. But as of 12 p.m. Wednesday, Murray said every school planned to continue competing in athletic competition. With most members of the PSAC currently on spring break, Murray said teams would have through the weekend to gather more information as it becomes available. Murray said that while the PSAC could realistically lose a week of competition and still catch up; anything beyond that would be tough to recover from. In the case of individual athletes wishing to step away from the team, Murray said all 18 schools unanimously agreed to respect individual players’ wishes. Each school agreed to honor all scholarships and eligibility in the event a player would step away from the team, Murray said. While the NCAA isn’t regulating much in regard to Division II athletics so far, it is limiting the attendance of Division II national tournaments. Murray said the NCAA announced Wednesday at 4 p.m. that all Division II national tournament events would be run with very low spectator attendance, similar to the regulations set by the NCAA for the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Notably, in Division II men’s and women’s basketball, teams will be limited to a travel party of 20 people. Each of those 20 people will be allowed six passes to offer to friends and family for a grand total of 120 total people. This, when compiled between both teams for a total of 240 people, still sits below the Center for Disease Control’s magic number of 250 people. With both the men’s and women’s Division II basketball tournaments slated to begin Thursday afternoon, the men’s side will feature Indiana University (Pa.), Shippensburg University and Mercyhurst University while the women’s side will feature Indiana, Gannon University and California University (Pa.). Like in major college and professional sports around the world, the issue of the attendance of fans at athletic events has arisen in the PSAC—a trend which had been continued by the Golden State Warriors in the NBA before the league was suspended in a groundbreaking decision following Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19 Wednesday night. Murray said the decision to limit spectator attendance does not fall on either the NCAA or the PSAC—that decision falls to the individual schools in the PSAC. “Every PSAC school will have the choice of whether to limit fan attendance,” Murray said. While the threat of banning fans lingers around almost all athletic events, not just PSAC sports, Murray said the CDC has established a magic number of 250 people. Murray acknowledged that is hard to even get 250 people to PSAC athletic event as it is. Of course, based on new government and NCAA rules and regulations in the days and weeks to come, fan attendance policies are subject to change. In the case of Slippery Rock, SRU Director of Athletics Paul Lueken made it clear that the policy would be enacted in full. ”Spring sport athletic contests played at SRU will be played without spectators, fans or parents, until future notice,” Lueken said. Slippery Rock athletic teams will continue to practice and compete as scheduled on the Rock Athletics website, Lueken said. Non-PSAC games will be played if the opposing university is allowed to travel to the Slippery Rock campus, or if said university is able to host SRU. Non-conference games, however, are subject to change if further travel bans are enacted by Pennsylvania or neighboring states, Lueken said. Non-championship season SRU athletic teams, which are out of season sports like football and men’s and women’s basketball, are not allowed to practice or compete during the extended spring break period since students will not be allowed back into the dorms until March 29. Any changes regarding those regulations will be determined closer to March 29. Rock Athletics, the Slippery Rock Athletic Communication website, said that coverage of baseball and lacrosse events may be changed due to the lack of undergraduate students required to run live streams. Murray said that handshakes, fist bumps and physical displays of sportsmanship will be suspended, and an announcement will be made to the PSAC athletes about maintaining general hygiene. With those in Division II athletics in constant communication, Murray said that such contact will continue. He said as of Wednesday night, all Division II schools expected to continue as planned. But he acknowledged the uniqueness and uncertainty of the situation. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource PSAC sports suspended, effective immediately Description An account of the resource This story was published in the sports section of The Rocket's website, theonlinerocket.com. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Karl Ludwig Relation A related resource SRU Student Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-11 Article SRU Student Story The Rocket