North Central College in the News
North Central College dean and student interviewed by NCTV
Oct 19, 2020
Dr. Marci J. Swede and student Mikel Mays share a COVID-19 campus update
Colleges across the country all had the same dilemma this year—how would they open safely in the age of COVD-19? To tackle the issue, North Central College created the “COVID-19 Institutional Response Team”, which would be responsible for creating a plan to get back to school. The team’s, along with other subcommittees’, strategy involved a multi-pronged approach to testing.
Dr. Marci J. Swede, dean of the School of Education and Health Sciences at North Central, interviewed with Naperville Community Television (NCTV) about the campus testing and safety protocols and the success the College has seen thus far.
“We are looking at what’s called a ‘surveillance testing model’ in which we routinely test a percentage of the students, staff, and faculty on campus,” said Dr. Swede. “To kind of get a sense of how our prevention methods are working, and to contain any potential outbreaks.”
Mikel Mays, a junior and a resident advisor at North Central College, also spoke with NCTV and said it was key to have a good relationship with his residents so they could understand and follow the health protocols.
“Building that relationship with the first years and having that empathy saying ‘I know that your senior year was horrible and you got these guidelines in place for your freshman year in college, but let’s just work together and get it done. So, we can stay here and get what we need to do [done]’,” said Mays.
