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Pandemic Pivot
Pandemic Pivot Coronavirus disrupts normal campus operations
BY PHILLIP BROWN
At press time, UNC Charlotte continued operations under North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home orders and guidance from the UNC System.
UNC Charlotte leaders were among those who started monitoring the situation in China as news of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) began to break in late 2019. As the virus began its global spread, planning was underway, beginning in January, on how the University would respond should the virus begin to overwhelm health care systems.
Unknowns about the virus were many at the outset, but what was clear—COVID-19 was highly contagious and was transmitted easily among humans who had no immunity. Public health officials at state and federal levels advised implementing social distancing practices to slow the spread of the contagion, for which there is no vaccine.
Beginning in mid-March, the University moved to online instruction for students and faculty, and teleworking options for nonessential personnel, prior to Mecklenburg County’s or the governor’s shelter-inplace orders on March 24 and March 27, respectively.
Patience, Flexibility, Social Distancing
“We know this extraordinary situation will result in very real challenges for our community,” wrote Chancellor Philip L. Dubois in a message to students, faculty and staff on March 12. “I ask for your patience in the days ahead as we all adapt to this new reality and work through these challenges together. We will not have answers to all the questions that will immediately arise. This is a rapidly evolving situation not only for us, but for our state, our country and across the globe. What I can tell you is there is a dedicated UNC Charlotte team working tirelessly in the face of unprecedented
uncertainty to maintain the health and well-being of our 49er community, and to communicate those decisions to you as quickly as possible.”
Provost Joan Lorden commended faculty members for quickly moving coursework online to enable students to complete the spring semester.
“Please be flexible with your students, and listen to their feedback,” Lorden stated in an email to faculty members. “Our students will be served best right now, if the focus is on creative ways to fulfill course objectives, so that every student, regardless of circumstance, can successfully complete the course.”
Social work professor Sonyia Richardson, in addressing the importance of limiting contact with one another to slow COVID-19’s spread, stated, “Over time, we will learn how to adjust to this new daily routine and social distancing. Individuals will develop routines to support ongoing social connections and relationships with others despite the physical distance. For example, many may spend more time on the phone speaking to family, friends, colleagues or engaging more in social media.” University faculty and students responded positively to online instruction. For example, the College of Health and Human Services’ School of Nursing deployed virtual simulations to ensure students would meet the clinical requirements of accrediting agencies.
“I feel like even though this is a big learning curve for both students and faculty, we are all supporting each other during this time,” said student Haley Shriner. “The faculty have been understanding and have been working diligently, many staying up late to make sure we get our hours in.”
Intrepid Teaching Solutions
“We are very fortunate to have four certified health care simulation experts on faculty who have worked tirelessly to ensure that students receive the best possible simulated experiences,” said Dena Evans, director of the School of Nursing. “While direct clinical care hours are the preference, simulation provides students the opportunity to engage in well-constructed and meaningful clinical experiences designed to help meet course and program outcomes.”
Bobby Campbell, associate professor of graphic design, met with students one-on-one via Google hangout to discuss their work, and he demonstrated techniques via webcam. The annual exhibition of student work became a virtual display. Going forward, the College of Arts + Architecture plans to continue the online exhibition in addition to an inperson one.
Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies Senior Lecturer Debarati Dutta decided to offer asynchronous instruction to enable students to
The Student Emergency Fund Supporting students during a pandemic
BY JENNIFER HOWE
Many UNC Charlotte students live on a “thin edge,” balancing academic responsibilities with work to cover education expenses, rent and food—often without a family safety net. COVID-19 brought severe financial challenges to this group, threatening the ability of many to remain enrolled.
The Student Emergency Fund was created to help current students in need by providing financial support for unforeseen and unavoidable emergency expenses, pandemics included. While the fund does not cover tuition and fees on students’ accounts, it can help with expenses related to housing, transportation, food, medical needs and resources for remote learning. With support from Niner Nation, UNC Charlotte had at press time awarded more than $399,800 to 1,134 students.
“As a former student who worked full-time to make ends meet, I was compelled to give back,” said Owais Merchant ’08. “I struggled at times to balance classes with work and budgeting; I can’t imagine the stress that many students must be experiencing.”
Longtime UNC Charlotte supporters Demond ’97 and Kia ’98 Martin matched dollar for dollar the first $100,000 in gifts to the Student Emergency Fund through the Demond and Kia Martin Foundation. “Kia and I encourage fellow alumni to make a gift of any size to support our 49er students and families who need us now more than ever,” said Demond Martin. “Working together, we show our students that we all truly are Niners.”
Gifts also may be made to the Jamil Niner Student Pantry, which remained open—practicing social distancing—through the spring semester to serve students experiencing food insecurity. At publication, more than $41,800 had been raised for the pantry—helping to meet a 25 percent increase in visits since the pandemic’s start.
“We know that many of our students are adults without extensive support networks who have put their trust in UNC Charlotte to advance themselves, and now find their lives drastically altered,” said Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and her husband, James Hathaway, who works in the Office of Research and Economic Development. “As fellow citizens, we need to use our personal resources to do what we can during this time of mutual crisis to help them stay whole.”
The Student Emergency Fund continues to accept donations. To contribute, visit relief.uncc.edu.
Jennifer Howe is director of Advancement Communications.
engage with course material on their schedules; she discovered many students were accessing lesson plans late at night or during other nontraditional times. She scheduled one-onone virtual sessions with students each week.
Matthew Frasier, a lecturer in the Theatre Department, transitioned his scenic practicum online, altering the curriculum to include written lectures, multiple YouTube videos to demonstrate various construction techniques and links to other diagrams illustrating processes to be learned.
Theatre major Blake Briles was skeptical how the course could be transformed, but he stated Frasier’s efforts exceeded his expectations. He said, “The transition made me proud to be part of his class, a part of such an amazing program and proud to be a student at UNC Charlotte.”
Best laid plans
Two important spring semester campus events, the April 30 anniversary and Commencement, were reimagined due to the pandemic.
Instead of presenting the community concert, “United,” scheduled for the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, and campus vigils planned by UNC Charlotte student leaders to mark the one-year anniversary of last April’s campus shooting— the saddest day in the history of the institution—the University utilized technology to bring together Niner Nation via “United: A Remembrance Program” (page 38).
Commencement, too, became a virtual observance. Four ceremonies on Friday and Saturday, May 8-9, had been scheduled to celebrate the Class of 2020. Graduates received a congratulatory email message from Chancellor Philip L. Dubois with links to a Commencement website with video messages from him and student speakers scheduled for each ceremony. A copy of the Commencement program also was mailed to each graduate. (Note: The University is considering holding an event during the fall 2020 semester to honor graduates, but a decision had not been made at press time.)
Prior to Commencement, graduates were encouraged to record video messages to express what completing their degrees means to them and share them with University Communications. “To the Class of 2020,” a compilation of those messages, along with those from University faculty and staff, was shared on social media.
UNC Charlotte launched NinerNationCares. uncc.edu, an information resource for students, faculty, staff and alumni, to help navigate academic, financial, health and wellness, and other services related to COVID-19.
Phillip Brown is assistant director of internal communications in University Communications and editor of this publication.
Faculty pitch in with 3-D face shield printing
A learning opportunity
BY PAUL NOWELL
Faculty members from three UNC Charlotte colleges teamed up with local high school students and manufacturers to produce recyclable protective shields designed to extend the life of the disposable face masks used by health care workers combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
What started as a homegrown effort using a host of 3-D printers producing about 250 shields per week quickly escalated. Starting March 30, the group, known as Charlotte MEDI, has worked with manufacturers like Texlon Plastic Corp. and Caro-Poly to create shields via injection molding that allow for a more aggressive production timeline. An injection molder can make four shields per minute (up to 10,000 per day), versus four every eight hours with a 3-D printer.
The decision was made to produce the face shields because they could be worn in front of an original, industry-tested N95 mask. This recyclable shield effectively extends the life cycle of a mask that otherwise is a one-time-use item.
Tapping academic energy
Early in the crisis, the group delivered more than 38,000 shields from injection molding and 2,500 shields from 3-D printing for local and national frontline health care professionals and shared what they learned with researchers across the country as they prepared for patient numbers in their states to climb.
The quickly assembled project illustrated the University’s capacity to deploy its academic energy from across the curriculum to tackle enormous and complex problems in the region and even across the country and the globe.
Terence Fagan, associate teaching professor, Mechanical Engineering; Alex Cabral, director of Fabrication Labs for the School of Architecture in the College of Arts + Architecture (COA+A); and David Wilson, professor of Software & Information Systems in the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI) have helped lead production efforts from their homes.
They were joined by art professors Heather Freeman and Tom Schmidt (CoA+A) along with Robby Sachs (CoA+A), Johanna
Frontline health care workers who received 3-D face shields produced by UNC Charlotte faculty and students express their appreciation.
Okerlund (CCI), Bob Price (J. Murrey Atkins Library) and Joshua Tarbutton (EPIC).
The project got its start when Fagan learned about a local grassroots fundraising campaign to manufacture the protective shields. The #MillionMaskChallenge was spearheaded by Tom Dubick, an engineering teacher at Charlotte Latin School. He and Fagan, who has helped to train Charlotte Latin faculty, have worked together for more than a decade on various engineering projects in and out of the Charlotte Latin Fab Lab, part of a global Fab Lab network that Dubick directs.
“It was almost a serendipitous thing,” said Fagan. “Looking to the future, this is the perfect storm of what we need to do to break down barriers in the academic world and help bring manufacturing back to the United States.”
A learning opportunity
Though 3-D printing face shields is more time-consuming than injection molding, the process has been a significant learning opportunity for UNC Charlotte students and faculty alike. David Wilson, who leads CCI’s Makerspace lab, said the University currently has an embedded group of faculty members from different disciplines working together on research projects with 3-D printers.
“When this issue of shortages in health care protection equipment came to light, it really took root and production ramped up,” Wilson said from his home, where he has been using a small 3-D printer for his research. “People are doing as much as they can to help out.”
UNC Charlotte students have had the opportunity to work directly on the fabrication project.
“We created clear instructions on the printing process and began sending out ‘packages’ of 3-D print files for our students to complete on their home machines,” said Cabral. “We shared all of our injection mold models and tooling here in the U.S. and globally, free of charge. We are fully opensource and hoping to help other communities replicate our model.”
Cabral wants his students to understand they are working on concepts that exist in the physical world.
“This is an opportunity to live by those teachings while making a difference for thousands of people risking infection to help those most in need,” he said.
UNC Charlotte faculty members shared their work across the country, including the states of Maine, Iowa, Colorado and California and internationally with Germany, India and Ireland.
Cabral said, “This effort shows how much our faculty, staff and students care about this community. We are neighbors, friends, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters of people working to keep us safe in hospitals and clinics around the globe. Clearly, UNC Charlotte is integral to the identity of our city.”
Other companies in the Charlotte area assisted in the efforts. Bravo Team LLC, New Wave Acrylic, Makerspace Charlotte, Charlotte Latin Fab Lab and UNC Charlotte’s School of Architecture are securing materials and cutting the transparent shields. Logistics, transportation and delivery are provided by CLT Freight, Spangler Restoration, Hendrick Motorsports and 2ULaundry.
Paul Nowell is a senior communications manager in University Communications.
-MIKE SPRAYBERRY NORTH CAROLINA’S DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Leading the State’s Emergency Management Operations through COVID-19
BY JENNIFER HOWE
As North Carolina’s director of emergency management, Mike Sprayberry ’79, ’87 is used to being in the middle of a crisis. But even he says the COVID- 19 pandemic is unlike any other crisis he has faced through 15 years in emergency management.
“Our State Emergency Operations Center has now been activated for longer than any other crisis,” said Sprayberry, who was around for the largest disaster in the state’s history, Hurricane Florence. “With COVID-19, we have moved into uncharted territory as we don’t know when or how this pandemic will end or the types of new operational strategies and tactics we will have to employ.”
Sprayberry leads with a calm, steady demeanor, constantly striving to keep his team motivated and morale high.
“You must lead from the front and by example, and it’s very important to demonstrate steady leadership,” said Sprayberry, who can also be selfdeprecating at times so no one gets overly grim. “We all know it is a very serious business but, for the long run, the team must be a happy team to be effective.”
His team is effective as they work cooperatively with other state agencies and organizations such as the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and local hospitals to purchase additional protective equipment and testing supplies, while ensuring there are enough beds and ventilators throughout the state. At the same time, Sprayberry
Mike Sprayberry has begun planning response and recovery methods in preparation for the upcoming hurricane season.
Sprayberry was drawn to emergency management after a 25-year career with the U.S. Marine Corps and North Carolina Army National Guard. Military service reinforced what his parents taught him about integrity, hard work and trying one’s best. The military also taught him to be decisive.
“You can’t wait until your plan meets 100% of your needs,” he said. “You do the best you can with the staff you have and roll.”
Military experience, coupled with his UNC Charlotte education, prepared Sprayberry for the life of an emergency management director. He worked fulltime while attending UNC Charlotte, which taught him the fine art of balancing school, job commitments and family responsibilities. And multitasking has proven critical for him in his current role.
The professors he had at UNC Charlotte, in both the Belk College of Business and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, challenged him. He recalls history professor K. David Patterson taking the time to call him, making sure he was focused on the end goal of graduation.
“He knew that being a full-time husband, father and soldier as well as a part-time grad student was a full plate, and he wanted me to know someone was thinking about me,” said Sprayberry. “I have carried his passion on in my military and emergency management careers, as he taught me to get to know and to care about the person.”
It is Sprayberry’s passion for helping people that led him to emergency management, where he has had the privilege of serving under two governors, Pat McCrory, a Republican, and Roy Cooper, a Democrat.
“We are here to help all of the people in our state,” said Sprayberry. “It’s really the best mission there is and so rewarding.”
Sprayberry received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Belk College of Business and a master’s degree in history from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. His daughter, Alison, graduated from UNC Charlotte in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
Jennifer Howe is director of Advancement Communications.
