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RESILIENT
from XAVIER GOLD: RESILENT: Xavier weathers the pandemic and paves the way for others to follow.
by xualumni
Xavier weathers the pandemic and paves the way for others to follow
A TWIST OF FATE
Ironically, just prior to publication of this issue, Xavier found itself facing yet another unexpected challenge – this one in the form of Hurricane Ida, one of the most destructive storms ever to hit Louisiana. Fortunately, unlike in Hurricane Katrina some 16 years ago to the date (August 29), the University was spared wide-spread damage. The City of New Orleans, however, as did most of the southeastern part of the state, saw its electrical and water services devastated. Facing an unknown duration of such conditions – estimated to last several weeks – University administrators made the proactive decision to move all residential students who had not previously evacuated to Dallas TX, from where they could safely return home. Remote instruction resumed in an asynchronous, or selfpaced, form Sept. 7. The campus reopened for inperson classes on Sept. 20. Yet again, Xavier demonstrated its resilience.
In the nearly 100 years since its founding by St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (SBS), Xavier University of Louisiana has faced several watershed moments where its essential mission – perhaps even its very continued existence – was challenged by difficult circumstances or unforeseen events.
Most notable was Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which caused such extensive infrastructure damage to both the campus and the Greater New Orleans area that the University was forced to close for nearly six months. Other game-changing events included the 1955 death of St. Katharine – which cut off nearly all the University’s then financial support – and the 1968 decision by the SBS Order to turn over leadership of Xavier to a then young, untried Dr. Norman C. Francis and a predominantly lay Board of Trustees. In each of those situations, Xavier found a way forward. Such was the case again in March 2020, when yet another unexpected challenge reared its ugly head – this one in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic. As it eventually played out, the University was forced to improvise fall 2020 and spring/summer 2021 under a hybrid instructional modality and a modified academic calendar. Presented with another set of unprecedented circumstances that required an equally unprecedented reaction, Xavier responded with a transformation which not only allowed the institution to survive, but to emerge even stronger. The complete story of this undertaking would take a novel. This is the short version.
D-Day
The declaration by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards that effectively shut down the state and the Xavier campus came in mid-March of 2020, but fortuitously the University was not caught unawares. Having followed the progression of the virus from China to other areas of the world via news reports, in January President C. Reynold Verret wisely pulled his cabinet together to discuss the future. “We said, what if the virus makes it to the U.S. and to Louisiana, what do we already have in place and what do we need to add that would allow us to stay in operation,” recalled Verret. The result was that over the next three months contingency plans were formulated to address such issues as communications, student housing and health precautions, remote learning, and a myriad of other concerns.
Staying in Touch
Xavier’s Marketing and Communications Department, led by its director Ashley Irvin, stepped up to the first challenge by designing and implementing what turned out to be an award-winning digital campaign. Known as One Safe XULA, the campaign kept students, faculty, staff, and parents informed as to best health practices, reassured them of an eventual safe return to campus, and shared positive news and stories to keep them uplifted during isolated times. The campaign included vibrant, branded infographics, a COVID-19 landing page, feature stories, and a series of instructional and inspirational videos featuring President Verret and other prominent Xavierites. Through it all, the University remained transparent, responsible, and strategic in implementing polished messaging which resulted in the development of a new culture at Xavier, where everyone – students, faculty, and staff – held each other accountable and remained diligent in enforcing the rules and policies put in place to protect the community. “Our priority was to reach our students wherever they were,” said Patrice Bell, Vice President of Administration and Chief of Staff. “The One Safe XULA campaign served to ensure that the entire Xavier community understood that they are not alone and that Xavier, their home away from home, would return in the fall.” The One Safe XULA campaign was seen and shared by more than 50 million people world-wide, and the team presented the One Safe XULA campaign to more than 1,000 healthcare and higher education professionals as part of an online event hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Housing/ Health Concerns
Limiting campus access to commuting students was easy enough: turns out college students – much like their adult counterparts – would prefer to work from home anyway. The challenge then facing Office of Student Affairs Vice President Curtis Wright and his staff was assisting those residential students trying to return home as well as providing resources to any students who, upon leaving campus, would lack resources which would allow them to continue their classwork. They responded by assisting students with travel arrangements and helping supply hundreds of laptops. Then there was the health and safety of those residential students who had no way of getting home mid-semester. With no on-campus option for downsizing the remaining students into the single-ocupancy rooms suggested by local, state, and federal guidelines – and with 200 students already in private rooms at the University of New Orleans due to the high demands for on-campus housing – the answer had to be found elsewhere. Curtis credits three of his staff with finding a workable solution: Chermele Christy, who arranged to move some 600 students to rooms at the Hilton Riverside; Judy Bracy, who shepherded the Community Health Ambassadors who served as peer educators on COVID transmission and reduction strategies; and Darryl Keller, who coordinated shuttle services and virtual programming. The University also put in place rigid health protocols for those who remained on campus, including mask-wearing, physical distancing, hand hygiene guidelines, testing, and participation in a Daily Wellness Screener.
Beginning in fall 2020, returning students were required to submit a negative testing result to Student Health Services. Students who tested positive to the virus were required to start the semester virtually while isolating at home. Students were regularly re-tested during the semester to track patterns and respond to any potential health threats. As a result, the University’s overall infection rate has remained below two percent. “What we witnessed was remarkable sacrifice, innovation, and adaptability,” said Verret. “The overwhelmingly positive response to our efforts to provide a safe environment is a testament to the spirit and qualities of Xavier students who persist and succeed regardless of the obstacles.” The regular testing of Xavier students, faculty, and staff was aided by the support of the Thermo Fisher company and the Bill Gates Foundation, which provided instruments, kits, and testing infrastructure, and funding for a campus COVID testing lab, respectively. In addition Xavier was designated as one of eight regional testing sites for Fisher’s “Just Project” for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), testing student samples from Grambling, SUNO, and Dillard. Xavier further extended a hand to its neighboring Gert Town, Hollygrove, and Dixon communities by partnering with LCMC Health, the New Orleans Health Department, and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center to launch the first mobile community testing site bringing COVID-19 testing to individuals and families that are medically vulnerable. As the campus fully reopened this August, appropriate precautions were still the order of the day. Returning students, barring extenuating circumstances, were required to be vaccinated for the virus while masking was mandatory both indoors and outdoors.
Virtual/ Remote Learning
When the University began its crisis table-top sessions to deal with pandemic in January 2020, it quickly became evident that a major missing piece of the puzzle was Xavier’s immediate ability to take its instruction remote. The percentage of faculty who had experience with online instruction was frightfully low. The short-term fix to finish out the spring 2020 semester was a hastily put together creative mixture of the video teleconferencing software program Zoom and email, but a longerterm solution was needed. “Some faculty were already using our D2L (Desire to Learn) Brightspace platform to share class materials and create quizzes for their students, but most of the faculty had no firsthand experience in building entire courses on the platform,” said Dr. Jason Todd, Associate Director at the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development (CAT+FD). “We knew we had to act fast to equip our people with the tools and training they would need.” With that goal in mind, CAT+FD and the Information Technology Center teamed up to create a targeted quick-start training course, and the University offered incentives to faculty who successfully converted at least one of their courses into a fully online synchronous course using the Brightspace platform. The training covered everything from the most basic user journeys, such as logging in and setting up student grade books, to more advanced capabilities, such as accessing analytics data or using release conditions. According to CAT+FD Director Dr. Elizabeth Hammer, Xavier educators passed the test with flying colors, with nearly all the 217 full-time faculty members achieving certification in the foundational capabilities of the Brightspace platform and remote pedagogy by the end of the summer – an outstanding achievement given the tight timeline. Moreover, more faculty now see how the Brightspace platform adds value to their in-person courses. President Verret was quick to credit the success of the transition to the dedication of the faculty. “The enthusiastic response by faculty was essential to sustaining what Xavier is doing,” he said. “I dare say the faculty put in more hours in making remote learning a reality than if we had simply continued to teach face-to-face.”
Pharmacy Research Team Answers Call
IN THE HEIGHT OF THE PANDEMIC WHICH MARKED THE SUMMER OF 2020, THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH) PUT OUT A CALL TO SCIENTISTS NATIONWIDE FOR RESEARCH ON COVID-19 TESTING.
Not surprisingly, the Xavier College of Pharmacy, whose mission is to reduce health disparities, answered the call, focusing on a vaccine hesitancy in the African American community. “The initial call for research was for COVID-19 testing, but we are clinicians, so we knew the real issue down the line would be vaccinations and vaccine-hesitancy,” recalled Dr. Sara Al-Dahir, a Clinical Professor in the Division of Clinical and Administrative Sciences. “We knew we needed to be proactive, and it turns out we were one of the few groups to do so.” Al-Dahir’s team - which included Clinical Associate Professors Dr. Christopher Gillard and Brittany Singleton, Clinical Assistant Professor Martha Earls, and several pharmacy students – analyzed the relationship between vaccines and the African American Community with the ultimate objective of increasing vaccine uptake among communities of color. This was accomplished by conducting a series of surveys to determine community concerns about the vaccines, and then training pharmacists and other community outreach to communicate with patients to address those concerns. “We had a vaccine that was 90 percent effective, but most of the African American population wasn’t interested,” said Gillard. “That’s the issue we had to address.” Among the findings were that African Americans – who have disproportionately limited access to healthcare and information, who suffer the most from underlying conditions that make them even more vulnerable to the virus, and who have been subjected to historical mistreatment – had an underlying mistrust of the nation’s health care systems. The results of the research – which was supported by a $958,000 grant from NIH obtained with the assistance of College of Pharmacy Dean Dr. Kathleen Kennedy and Special Assistant to the President Dr. Gene D’Amour – was wellreceived. Among the hundreds of proposals submitted nationwide to the NIH, only three institutions/teams were focused on the topic of vaccine hesitancy. As a result, Xavier was invited to present its research findings to the Biden administration. “We are happy to share that our project was uniquely situated to be successful because of Xavier’s longstanding position with the community,” said Al-Dahir. “Our relationship with the New Orleans community as clinicians and advocates for health equity was instrumental in building the trust around this critical issue of vaccine hesitancy.”
Class of 2020 From Front Lines to Graduation and the Future
Not only did De’Lacy Lewis take on two majors at Xavier, but she successfully completed her programs all while assisting with COVID-19 efforts on the front lines. She graduated with a BS in Pre-Med Biology and a BA in Spanish. De’Lacy’s parents were not able to attend college, but her mother operated her own daycare business and her father worked as a plant supervisor for thirty years. Their hard work set an example that she wanted to follow. It was not long before her interest in medicine and language sparked. “I became interested in obstetrics and gynecology early. I loved to watch labor and delivery shows! It was crazy to me that women have the power to give life to another person – another soul,“ she recalled. “That meant a lot to me. I was able to see a few live births doing medical shadowing, and I knew it was what I wanted to do.” She credits former Xavier professor Dr. Karen Becnel Moore for inspiring her to add Spanish as a double major and then later to study abroad in Peru for two months. As the current health care emergency began to emerge in the U.S., De’Lacy was quick to realize that people of color were being affected by COVID-19 at a much higher rate than any other race, due largely to a lack of diversity in health care among a multitude of other issues. During her final semester at Xavier, her passion for medicine and helping others extended all the way to the front lines during the initial COVID-19 outbreak. She served as a medical scribe working alongside doctors for hours dealing with patients, handling lab work, and other documentation necessary to facilitate the hospital’s processes. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in biological science. From there she plans to attend medical school and pursue her dream of working as an OBGYN.
One area where transitioning to remote learning was less dramatic was the College of Pharmacy, where most professors already had their courses available online to some extent, even labs. It was a different story, however, regarding its clinical rotation program, the vehicle through which pharmacy students receive valuable in-service experience at local hospitals, retail pharmacies, and various other health outlets. Those 1,740 hours are also a non-negotiable standard set forth by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and a prerequisite for the Louisiana state pharmacy exam. “When it became clear that the hospitals and nursing homes would not be able to accommodate our students, it put us – indeed, all pharmacy schools across the country – into a serious bind,” said Dr. Kathleen Kennedy, long-time dean of the College. She said while retail pharmacies remained open and provided some relief, it came with a potential health risk to participating students. The situation was not as challenging for students in their final year (pending 2020 graduates), as most had already earned significant rotation hours prior to the lockdown. It was more problematic for prospective 2021 grads. The solution was a creative mix of retail pharmacy experience, online patient consultations with senior center and hospital patient reviews, simulations, and virtual meetings. “It took a concerted effort, but I am pleased to say we were able to make accommodations which allowed our students to meet all their requirements,” said Kennedy. That was pretty much the case University-wide, and certainly no one was happier about it than the 548 graduates in 2020 and the 584 graduates this past May.
Full Steam Ahead
Despite having to deal with the many challenges posed by the pandemic, Xavier leadership never took its eye off the future. Several new academic programs and partnerships with other prestigious colleges and universities – many of which had been in the works for several years – became realities, opening new options for undergraduates and graduates in the health sciences, law, business, and the humanities. Xavier partnered with Ochsner to develop two new graduate degree programs in genetic counseling and health informatics, with Xavier providing classroom instruction and Ochsner holding clinical rotations at their extensive health facilities. Genetic counselors provide information, advice, and support to individuals and families affected by or at risk for genetic disorders, while health informatics professionals identify, capture, organize and interpret health data to develop effective healthcare processes and solutions. 2020 also marked the launch of a third graduate offering in partnership with Ochsner, the Physician Assistant Program, which is based in the College of Pharmacy. A new Digital Humanities minor – a curriculum grounded in data science and social justice – also made its debut. The spring 2020 commencement saw the first eight graduates of the University’s new master’s degree program in Public Health receive their degrees. The program, which welcomed its inaugural cohort in Fall 2018, centers on advanced public health policy and advanced epidemiology as well as a host of other health promotion and behavioral sciences framed around the advancement of health equity. Xavier also announced several other new partnerships, all designed to provide graduates with additional career training and options. A collaboration with the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston will allow three qualified Xavier students to participate in a Medical Track Program that facilitates assured acceptance into its School of Medicine. The initiative builds on Baylor’s commitment to inclusiveness while offering Xavier students a smooth transition from undergraduate programs to more advanced graduate programs. Xavier had previously also established early assurance programs with six other institutions including Tulane University, the University of Rochester, St. Louis University, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, and Penn State University. Xavier also announced a new affiliation with the Duquesne University School of Law which offers graduates a clear pathway to careers in the legal profession, solidifying the traditions and commitments of both schools to academic excellence, diversity, equity, and inclusion in education. Duquesne’s Bar Preparation program is ranked No. 9 in the country by National Jurist. Finally, Lehigh University’s College of Business and Xavier have partnered for a unique “4+1” joint program which opens the door for liberal arts or STEM field majors to enter Lehigh’s 10-month master’s program in management. The combination of liberal arts or STEM with business training will further enhance each graduate’s workplace readiness in numerous industries. Accepted students are guaranteed generous scholarships. “Creating new opportunities that are altogether rewarding, challenging, and innovative for our students remains one of our top priorities at Xavier,” said Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Anne McCall, also noting that the establishment of these new partnerships speak to the exceptional academic quality of Xavier graduates.
Additional Funding
As life-altering as it has been, the pandemic was not the only major issue of the times. Social unrest and the quest for social justice has also swept through the U.S. Because of its stellar reputation as a leading educator of young African Americans, Xavier found itself well-positioned to receive the support from those looking to find real solutions. Foremost among those was a historic $20 million-dollar donation from MacKenzie Scott, part of a cumulative $1.7 billion contribution to some 120 organizations. The largest private donation from an individual that Xavier has ever received, it has provided the University with a unique opportunity to expand student scholarships, endow new faculty positions, and address other priorities needed to sustain its mission. Verret said the unrestricted monies came at an opportune moment, when the University was looking for ways to increase student financial support in light of the fact that many families – and many students themselves – were facing economic hardships due to lost wages. He said that making it possible for students to remain in school was imperative. Additional substantial funding – further solidifying the University’s financials going forward -- came via several other sources: from Google ($5 million to support scholarships, technological infrastructure support, career readiness, and curriculum development in STEM); from TikTok ($1 million to support programs in the health professions}; from Gilead Sciences ($500,000 to establish the Center for Equity, Justice and the Human Spirit’s Gilead Sciences Social Justice Scholars program); from NBCUniversal ($500,000 for a new and innovative multiplatform journalism training and development program for minority students); and Diageo North America ($250,000 to provide financial aid grants to talented, local African American students). “These gifts represent a remarkable demonstration of support and encouragement for Xavier and its mission, and a reminder that what we do is important for our global community,” said Verret in expressing the University’s gratitude. “These gifts will enhance the university’s capacity to educate in the medical sciences, pharmacy, law, the arts, and the social sciences.”
A Bright Future
With its vastly enhanced ability for online instruction, new academic programs and partnerships, and much needed financial support, Xavier has indeed much going for it. Perhaps the most positive sign for Xavier’s future is the interest shown by perspective students. After a slight decline in overall enrollment to around 3,200 last fall – mainly attributable to pandemic-related health concerns and financial stresses – all indications are that interest in attending HBCUs in general, and Xavier in particular, is substantial. Leadership was optimistic that enrollment would see significant growth this fall. “Xavier University is as strong and as vibrant as it has ever been,” said Verret, “and I am enthusiastic about the future – as far as I can foresee it.” A wise and necessary hedge, as who could have foreseen the events of the past two years. XG
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