Bert's Alerts—Feb. 28, 2020
Spotlight
A packed house of students, faculty, and community members greeted Dr. Greg Hampikian to the Nampa Campus Academic Building on Wednesday, March 26, for his presentation on forensic DNA. Hampikian, a professor at Boise State University in the Biology and Criminal Justice programs, is a nationally recognized scientist who has been featured in Science, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Fox News, and CNN.
President's Message
I'm excited to share with you news from our most recent employee engagement survey! Please take the time to review the story, below, and watch my new vlog to learn more about the results and plans to initiate an action plan to address the opportunities presented in the survey.
Thank you, as always, for your time and support.
News Highlights
2019 Employee Survey Results
Bert's Vlog: Engagement Survey
Results from College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) 2019 Employee Engagement Survey are in! Some of the highlights included a three-point increase in the employee engagement index, over the 2017 results, a nine-point increase in CWI’s commitment to providing a high-quality experience for students, and a seven-point increase in maintaining a healthy work-life balance for employees. Thank you to all who took the time to provide valuable feedback on ways we can improve the culture of engagement at the College. Review the survey results in the attached PDF.
After analyzing these results, the President’s Cabinet (PC) has developed an action plan for employees. Please review the High Performance Culture action plan attached to this story. In addition, each EOT member will address areas of opportunity and create action plans among employees within their departments.
Implementation of the action plans will then begin with the goal to improve areas identified on the most recent employee survey. The College will take another survey in October to track the progress of these action plans.
Thank you again for your participation! Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
Information Regarding the Coronavirus
IDAHO MONITORING AND TRACKING OF CORONAVIRUS - Information provided by Central District Health, updated 2/27/2020.
Idaho remains at zero confirmed cases of novel coronavirus. Public health officials and community partners are monitoring this outbreak closely and are coordinating and communicating accordingly.
Though COVID-19 is a new (novel) coronavirus, disease outbreaks are not new territory in public health, and Central District Health has response plans, relationships and agreements in place within our jurisdiction to respond accordingly. A big part of that is working with community partners – from county emergency managers, to area hospitals, law enforcement, first responders, local and state public health, our year-round relationships and planning for potential outbreaks are critical in times like this, where an outbreak can rapidly change direction.
Public health officials want people to be aware so they can take appropriate precautions. We’re asking people to follow steps they may already be taking for flu – stay home if you’re sick, avoid sick people, and cover your coughs and sneezes with your elbow or a tissue (not your hands). Wash your hands frequently, especially after you have been in the public and touched door handles, stair railings, money, grocery carts, elevator buttons, and other items that people may also have touched.
Idaho Southwest District Health Department will communicate directly with CWI regarding implementing additional preventive measures, if needed. CWI would then share the necessary communication with our community as appropriate.
To reiterate, at this time, there are no reported cases of COVID-19 in Idaho. College of Western Idaho is actively consulting and following these resources:
Additional Resources in Idaho
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare COVID-19 webpage
Guidance for Idaho Schools
National
Center For Disease Control (CDC) - for up-to-date information on the 2019 coronavirus.
Johns Hopkins University has set up a disease spread mapping application tracking the Wuhan coronavirus in real-time.
Final Step in .edu Transition
College of Western Idaho (CWI) will be completing the final step in transitioning to .edu during spring break, beginning Saturday, March 21 through Sunday, March 29.
During this time, you could see intermittent access to email and Office 365 products for students, faculty, and staff, so please plan accordingly. Here are the impacted interfaces:
- Outlook (email, calendar, Skype)
- OneDrive
- Office 365 ProPlus desktop apps such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.
- Office online apps such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.
- Other Office 365 apps such as Forms, Flow, PowerBI, Teams, etc.
This work should not affect general use of Colleague, the myCWI Toolkit (Self Service and WebAdvisor), or Blackboard, but could affect the ability to email or access Office 365 from these applications.
The transition process was established by CWI’s governance body, and spring break was chosen to complete this project in an effort to reduce potential issues surrounding the transition.
Please visit the .edu transition webpage for more information. If you still encounter issues after March 29, please submit a Help Desk ticket or call 208.562.3444.
Spring 2020 Transfer Fair
Join us for College of Western Idaho’s Spring 2020 Transfer Fair! College and university representatives will be on campus to discuss programs, majors, and transfer requirements. This is a one-day event will be held at two campus locations at the times listed below.
Tuesday, March 3
Ada County Campus Pintail Center
Student Commons
9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Nampa Campus Academic Building
Lobby, First Floor
12:30 – 2:30 p.m.
For questions, please contact Brittney Hernandez in Student Advising and Success at brittneyhernandez@cwi.edu.
2020 President’s Writing Awards Submissions
College of Western Idaho's (CWI) President's Writing Awards is now open for submissions. This annual writing contest recognizes and honors excellence in student writing at the College. Writing is a foundational, academic skill, and celebrating writing across disciplines underscores its importance and encourages students to approach it from a variety of perspectives.
Enrolled students at CWI are invited to submit their writing. Contest categories are open to manuscripts produced for coursework at CWI. Previously published writing is not eligible for submission. Students may submit to multiple categories, but are limited to one submission per category. Submissions may not be submitted to multiple categories.
Submission categories include:
- Creative Nonfiction
- Poetry
- Fiction
- Critical Analysis
- Original Research
- Literature Based Research
- First-Year Writing
- Technical Writing
The submission deadline is 11:59 p.m., March 6, 2020. The top three submissions in each category will be awarded prizes and recognized at the 2020 Connections Project awards ceremony April 23.
Visit the President’s Writing Awards webpage for submission link and guidelines.
A Novel Life (POSTPONED)
UPDATE: A Novel Life has been postponed until September. Please visit the Treefort Music Fest website to learn more.
Are any of the romantic notions about novel-writing true? What does it take to successfully write long-form fiction? Storyfort and College of Western Idaho (CWI) are proud to present A Novel Life – an intimate conversation, reading, and novel-writing discussion with novelists, Mary Lowry, Lydia Fitzpatrick, and Julia Claiborne Johnson. Join us as we discuss the novel-writing life and their novels, The Roxy Letters, Lights All Night Long, and Be Frank With Me.
Friday, March 27, 2020 (postponed until September)
Guru Donuts in downtown Boise
4:30 – 6:00 p.m.
A Novel Life free and open to all. The author’s novels are available for purchase at the CWI Bookstore located at the Nampa Campus Micron Education Center.
CWI Nurses Attend Nurses Day at the Capitol
Idaho nurses gathered at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise Feb. 19 for Nurses Day at the Capitol. During the event, Gov. Brad Little spoke briefly about various health initiatives after which the nurses were invited to attend and were recognized at the legislative session. In attendance, representing College of Western Idaho (CWI), were Allison Baker, Department Chair for Nursing; Kay Gregorio, Nursing faculty; Sarah Bingham, a Nursing student; and School of Health Dean, Cathleen Currie.
Sarah had the following to say about the event:
“My name is Sarah Bingham, and I am a first-year Professional Nursing student at CWI. Amidst the chaos and uncertainty of being a first-year nursing student, one of the first things I did was sign up to be a member of the Student Nurses Association (SNA). By doing so, I was hoping to gain some guidance and a chance to experience real-life issues nurses face in our community. Most recently, the SNA brought to my attention the opportunity to be able to attend Nurses Day at the Capitol along with this year’s Nursing Legislative Conference. This consisted of a morning spent at the Idaho Statehouse learning about the legislative process, followed by an afternoon spent at the Red Lion Downtowner listening to panel discussions regarding the current issues impacting nurses in the 2020 Idaho Legislative session. Topics impacting nurses include the opioid crisis, marijuana, mental health, Medicaid Expansion, and the overall shortage of nurses.
At the Statehouse, I was allowed to listen-in on a committee hearing regarding legislation to form a healthcare directive registry in Idaho (House Bill 436). With this proposal, Idaho healthcare workers would be able to access an advance care directives database at critical times in order to be able to carry out and honor the wishes of patients during times of a health crisis or end-of-life situations. As a student, watching and listening to this process put into motion by nurses and doctors of Idaho was very exciting to witness!
I want to thank the CWI Nursing faculty for allowing me to spend the day with them and other nurses in Idaho continuing to show their passion for nursing and what positive impacts, as patient advocates, we all can have on our healthcare system and the communities we live in. After all, being able to make a positive difference in the health and wellbeing of others is why I chose to pursue the honorable profession of nursing.”
Learn more about the College’s Practical and Professional Nursing programs and the Student Nurses Association by visiting CWI online.
Honor Society Named a Reach Rewards Chapter
Beta Sigma Pi, College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) honor society, was recently named a Reach Reward chapter. This was achieved by exceeding a 15% membership acceptance rate of eligible CWI Students.
The growing membership of Beta Sigma Pi allows more CWI students to receive scholarships, learn leadership skills, and helps the institution improve its graduation rates. Students interested in becoming a member of PTK need to have earned at least 12 college credits, have a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher, and adhere to the school conduct code. We invite all eligible students to join at the beginning of each semester. If you have met these qualifications and did not receive an invitation to join PTK, please email us at ptk@cwi.edu.
Learn more by visiting the Beta Sigma Pi page on the CWI website.
2020-2021 Scholarship Reviewers
College of Western Idaho’s Financial Aid department is currently seeking individuals to review 2020-2021 student scholarship applications. Playing a major role in the scholarship awarding process, scholarship reviewers are provided with a great opportunity to learn about the students we serve.
Scholarship reviews will take place April 1-15. Each essay will take 3-5 minutes to review and can be reviewed from the comfort of your desk. A rubric will be provided to reviewers to score each essay. Reviewers can choose between 25 and 150 scholarships to review based on their availability.
Contact the Financial Aid Scholarship Coordinator, Alice Baldazo, at 208.562.2306 or alicebaldazo@cwi.edu to volunteer your time or with questions.
