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COVID-19 Response NMSU Pandemic Adaptations led through Strategic Support Team

Table of Contents

  1. Goal
  2. Introduction
  3. Timeline of COVID-19 Impact
  4. Strategic implementation of systemwide crisis communication plan
  5. Internal Communication Strategy
  6. COVID-19 Content Strategy

Goal

Keep NMSU operations moving forward while adhering to the Public Health Orders, New Mexico Higher Education Department, and the CDC measures for reducing the transmission of the virus.

About NMSU

We are New Mexico’s land-grant institution and a comprehensive research university dedicated to teaching, research and service that sits on a 900-acre campus and enrolls more than 21,000 students systemwide from 49 states and 89 foreign countries.

Recognized as a top-tier university by U.S. News & World Report, NMSU is a welcoming community of talented faculty, staff and students who are working together to make a difference. As a NASA Space Grant College and home to the first Honors College in New Mexico, NMSU offers an accessible education with over 180 degree programs

As a Hispanic-Serving Institution, NMSU serves a multi-cultural population of students and community members across the state at five campuses, a satellite learning center in Albuquerque, cooperative extension offices located in each of New Mexico's 33 counties, and 12 agriculture research and science centers with roughly 4,500 employees.

About the Strategic Support Team

The COVID-19 Strategic Support team is made up of key personnel from our leadership, operations, safety and communications organizations. The seven-person core team seeks input from a large cross-disciplinary Pandemic Action Team (originally called the Rapid Response Team) and meets frequently to develop recommendations for executive leadership as they make policy decisions. The team has met more than 138 times and counting since March 2020 – multiple times per week, when necessary. The Pandemic Action Team comprises unit leaders and subject matter experts from across the system, brought together to plan the return of students, faculty, and staff to our campuses.

  • Developed solutions to challenges regarding teaching and learning, student services, residence life, and campus dining.
  • Addressed modifications needed for classrooms, research, human resource practices, safety protocols, and business operations.
  • Facilitated frequent communication with the NMSU community to ensure our internal and external stakeholders were kept up to date regarding our progress.
In the face of an ever-changing COVID-19 pandemic landscape, one principle guides our planning, and has from the start: Our highest priority is the health and safety of our students, our employees, our local communities, and our state as we serve our land-grant mission.

Timeline of COVID-19 on our Campus

  • Early 2020 – the United States begins to adapt to mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
  • March 2020 – Following the State of New Mexico COVID-19 response, all faculty, staff and students instructed to isolate at home and shelter in place. Instruction pivots to online delivery.
  • March 18, 2020 – NMSU holds the first of 31 virtual town halls to provide information to the community about the virus and how to keep campus community safer.
  • April 2020 – Vice Chancellor and Strategic Financial Officer Ruth Johnston is appointed Chief COVID-19 Officer. Rapid Response Team assembled to advise leaders on pandemic response.
  • June 2020 – NMSU rolls out its comprehensive “NMSU Ready” return-to-campus plan, developed by the Strategic Support Team.
  • August 2020 – Return to in-person instruction on campus.
  • December 2020 – NMSU Ready plan evolves into NMSU Now plan. Rapid Response Team becomes Pandemic Action Team.
  • January 2021 – Vaccines begin to be available to select groups in the U.S.
  • Summer 2021 – Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 surges in the U.S.
  • September 2021 - NMSU system implements vaccine and testing requirements for employees and students.

SST Team accomplishments for 2020/2021 timeframe

  1. Strategic implementation of systemwide crisis communication plan
  2. Internal Communication Strategy
  3. COVID-19 Content Strategy

Strategic implementation of systemwide crisis communication plan

We prioritize transparency and communication, and feedback from the campus community helps us identify gaps in the information we’re sharing as we respond to the pandemic.

To implement this strategic approach every area of campus operations, we assembled tiger teams – cross-functional teams of specialists and experts brought together to address a critical issue. Each of these teams was empowered to seek out expert input, develop actionable plans in key areas, and begin to set in motion the new processes needed to successfully resume face-to-face instruction and operations. Individual tiger teams reported back to the Rapid Response Team regularly, so the Strategic Support Team could stay informed, coordinate efforts, and collaborate on solutions that span multiple departments. These teams were key to our return to campus. We are also tracking our decisions and creating a timeline for deliverables and decisions.

NMSU, in collaboration with the teams referenced above, accomplished the following:

  • Created/enhanced/procured robust information and communication technologies to support the mission while working and delivering instruction remotely. Examples include, but are not limited to, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Jabber and upgrades to touchless digital signatures.
  • Created and publicized a new email account, covid19@nmsu.edu, to triage and respond to all COVID-19-related questions. To date, we have responded to a little over 900 emails - 89% were answered within 24 hours and 11% within 48 hours, when additional research was needed.
  • Created a contact-tracing application that also serves as the reporting portal for positive case reports to Aggie Health and Wellness (our campus health center) to support our robust contact-tracing efforts.
  • Created a publicly accessible dashboard to show current case counts and trends to inform the NMSU system.
  • Created a VaxTrax portal to submit and review all required vaccination and testing documents systemwide.
  • Launched Kiwibot contactless robotic food delivery service
The Kiwibot food delivery robot.
Email Response Time for covid19@nmsu.edu listserv
Spring 2021 Semester Dashboard

Internal Communication Strategy

We established a strategic and comprehensive internal communications program that included a weekly e-newsletter and a website, as well as a promotional landing page to drive engagement and subscriptions.

Left: NMSU Now Website, Middle: NMSU NOW Newsletter, Right: Now Subscription Campaign

The communication strategy included the following elements:

1. NMSU NOW website (formerly known as NMSU Ready) to document and provide a strategic plan addressing the needs and questions surrounding the pandemic.

2. We sent over 61 NMSU NOW email newsletters to 8,000 subscribers to update and guide actions of the pandemic response with an average open rate of 35%.

3. Developed the "NMSU Now Subscription Campaign" to engage students, parents, and the community. When the campaign was launched, we received an additional 305 subscribers within the first week.

4. Developed a comprehensive archive of all messages to campus for easy access and to document change and action throughout the pandemic.

5. Created an employee recognition program called, NMSU System Shoutouts as a place to say thanks to an NMSU employee or share creative ways to handle pandemic stress. These highlights and recognitions were featured in our daily institutional newsletter, Hotline, every week.

System Shout-out solicitation

6. To encourage more New Mexico State University system students and employees to become vaccinated against COVID-19, we announced Pete's Vax Sweepstakes open to all students, faculty and staff who have received at least one dose of the vaccine. We received over 600 entries in three weeks.

Sweepstakes ad placed in social media, digital signage around campus and in news media coverage.

COVID-19 Content Strategy

We developed informational landing pages tailored to specific audiences to distribute information resources and support the community during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. In addition to providing a comprehensive web portal that directed members of our NMSU community to links and information, we also developed unique resources to communicate our story and impact during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Content Elements

A robust collection of signage tool kits and flyers

Protecting the health and wellness of the Aggie community was our top priority. As we were all adapting to a new environment, and we facilitated the employee transition back to campus, we wanted to provide some guidance to ease that transition.

When offices and academic departments returned to their buildings, we asked them to post informational posters to help protect the health and wellness of the Aggie community.

A #NMSUReady Video Archive

We collected videos produced by departments and organizations across campus that provided additional information about expectations, accountability and additional steps being taken by the university to reduce the spread of the virus. We encouraged departments to use any of the videos in their classes or share across social media. We also included a COVID-19 Response Video Playlist from our NMSU News Center that shared impact and stories from the Aggie community.

Interactive COVID-19 Map

We worked to highlight an extension of our campus map to include locations for academic tents, COVID-19 supply vending machines, and testing and vaccination locations across campus.

Media Mentions

A collection of media stories that highlight how our students and alumni stepped up to fight COVID 19 at the beginning of the pandemic.

Landing page with media mentions

In addition to media mentions, we catalogued our COVID-19 response chronology on a monthly basis since March 2020. Over 78 news articles were produced by our News and Media Relations office on COVID-19 related research and outreach.

Statistical data supporting NMSU commitment to reducing the transmission of the virus:

  • NMSU has reported 760 cases to date since the beginning of the pandemic.
  • A positivity rate of ~2.62% of our system population since the beginning of the pandemic.
  • Our total cases made up only 0.3% of the total numbers reported for the state of New Mexico.
  • Aligned with the New Mexico Department of Health and the Dona Ana County Office of Emergency Management to successfully administer 11,620 vaccine doses at the NMSU hosted and staffed Point of Distribution (POD) from January 2020 through May 2020.