This small but mighty team of six employees answers phone calls, live chats and e-mails from the campus community including faculty, staff, students and parents. Since March, they have responded to over 1,200 questions and concerns related to the university’s COVID-19 response. The team has addressed nearly 13,000 business operations related questions in 2020 alone. In order to accommodate the additional COVID-19 support duties, the team reprioritized their work and met each morning at 8 a.m. to review the latest information, while also spending many late evenings summarizing daily data for senior leaders and the Coordinating Committee.

UofL News had an opportunity to sit down with the lead members of the COVID Support Team to discuss their workload, challenges and how they approach such a large volume of inquiries: Melissa Long Shuter, executive director of operations support services; Pamela Frank, director of customer service and quality improvement; and Cheryl Capito Paul, business operations manager.

UofL News: What were the challenges originally faced by the COVID Support Team?

Melissa Long Shuter: Our team existed before COVID, so we took on the additional work. The team did a great job of anticipating the questions from the people that would call, so we were able to pull that information together and refine the FAQS (on the UofL COVID-19 website). The major challenge was really met well in advance of COVID. The challenge was having a team that is agile, nimble and willing to take on new challenges quickly. We already had that in place.

UofL News: What are the most common questions that your team receives?��

Pamela Frank: How do they get their (COVID-19 test) results. That’s why we have so much information available on FAQs now, because we get so many questions from people that haven’t gotten their results and want to know how to get them. Then I would say how to sign up for testing, when it is available, and what locations are open. We keep that information handy.

UofL News: How does your team update COVID-19 information?

Cheryl Capito Paul: Our goal is to answer questions consistently and to make sure it’s accurate information that we are giving. We make sure that we are current on all the changing information, which can change on a dime. We are also intimate with the website to ensure that our information changes as the most current information on the virus is available.

UofL News: Which form of communicating with the COVID Support team is most utilized?

Pamela Frank: The majority of questions that we get come through e-mail. They e-mail it and it goes right into our system. And then phone next, followed by chat.

UofL News: How have you handled the high volume of work?

Melissa Long Shuter: There were days when everybody was just kind of exhausted. There were a lot of late nights where Pam, Cheryl and I were connecting well into the evening to make sure the Pivot (Coordinating) Committee had timely data. Particularly in the early days, it was so important for us to get those FAQs refined and to understand how people in our community were responding to COVID from a personal standpoint.

UofL News: How do you handle the high-stress calls coming in?

Cheryl Capito Paul: We stress being sympathetic and being empathetic because we know that these can be high stress, high anxiety calls coming in. So, we have to check on our own team and say, ‘how are you doing? If you need a break, take a break, let us know.’ We have to be sympathetic, empathetic, and have the patience to take call after call after call.

UofL News: When can questions or concerns be submitted to the COVID Support Team?

Pamela Frank: We always have a line available. And we’ve had a lot of people comment on that. They’ve called other places but haven’t gotten an answer, and they say they’re so happy to talk to us. We get a lot of calls and emails that come in after hours, and then we can follow up with them in the morning.

UofL News: How has the Covid Support Team handled questions they do not have answers to?��

Melissa Long Shuter: Our daily reports to the Pivot Committee include all the types of questions that came in, as well as questions we didn’t have answers to yet. Often times, the Pivot Committee would be responding and giving answers overnight. We would then meet at 8 a.m. each morning and review any new information from the prior 24 hours.

Cheryl Capito Paul: We also came up with an escalation plan within our team to get questions to the correct areas within the university. Within our team, they would escalate those questions to myself or Pam, and then we would have our cheat sheet of people to send that question to. If it wasn’t answered right away, we would fall back onto the daily report with the outstanding questions that need to be answered.

UofL News: What is one thing you would like the university community to know about the COVID Support Team?

Melissa Long Shuter: We sincerely care about the person on the other end of the inquiry.�� We value their feedback. Even if we can’t get the answer, we’ll get them connected to someone who can if there is an answer.

University members with questions or concerns about the university’s COVID-19 protocols and operations can with a member of the Business Operations COVID Support Team Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The team will not be available during the winter break and will resume their support services Jan. 4.

UofL News did not have the opportunity to interview all six members of the Business Operations COVID Support Team. The other three team members who have also worked tirelessly on the frontlines of the COVID call center are Donna Casey, Allie Jones and John Spivey.

Provost Beth Boehm opened her report by��thanking senators for the arduous work they’ve endured throughout the last six months. “For many of us this has been the hardest parts of our careers ever, and I just want to thank you all for all your hard work,” she said.����
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She reported that fall 2020 enrollment has been stronger than what was budgeted. The fall 2020 budget was developed expecting 223 fewer students to be enrolled compared to fall 2019. The actual is an increase in enrollment by 361 students. Summer 2020 enrollment also experienced an increase by 885 students, as compared to summer 2019. One senator pointed out that the higher enrollment numbers indicate the value of offering remote and hybrid courses. He recommended these offerings be a continued strategy to attract more students going forward. Boehm agreed saying, “I think this is the future of higher ed in a lot of ways and we’re significantly going to have to increase the number of adult learners that we have.”��
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Provost Boehm thanked Senators��Reginald Bruce and former Senator Scott��LaJoie, co-chairs of the 2019-2020 Faculty Roles subcommittee,��for their work on that was given to the Faculty Senate and to the Board of Trustees. “The board was quite impressed with the fact that faculty took on this work. I’m��really grateful��to you. We’ve already implemented a number of recommendations,” she said.��

Due to concerns, Provost Boehm clarified the frequency of meetings that take place regarding the university’s continued COVID-19 response. The COVID-19 senior leadership group meets daily to closely monitor the areas of campus health, operations, research and academics. The coordinating committee, which develops university operations in response to COVID-19, and the academic scenario planning committee, which developed UofL’s hybrid learning model, both meet weekly. The ASP Committee is already discussing courses for the spring.��

Boehm announced that free flu shots are coming to campus soon and the university ordered three times the amount they normally do. “While we are not going to mandate flu shots, we are going to strongly urge that you get them because if we get a bad flu season and we confuse it with COVID, we could really flood our healthcare providers and we don’t want to do that,”��she said.

Provost Boehm apologized for not first coming to the senate with the decision to mandate COVID-19 testing for all university members on campus.�� During the summer, when the university first decided to only encourage at-will testing, it was not certain if there were enough tests available to mandate testing. By the first week of fall classes, however, the university was informed it would indeed have access to a high volume of tests. Mandated testing has shown to be a key factor in other ACC universities’ successful navigation of the pandemic, so the decision was made quickly to mandate testing once the university had certainty about its increased access to testing. She also explained that after the second week of at-will testing about 2,000 tests were performed each week. After just one week of mandated testing, the university increased to almost 15,000 tests.��

Senators had multiple questions regarding the operations, privacy and enforcement of mandated testing. Provost Boehm confirmed the university is focusing its compliance efforts at this time with students living in residence halls. Many new FAQs have been added to the����section of the university’s COVID-19 website to address the concerns about testing operations and privacy. She reminded senators of the new��. The dashboard is now being updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays by Campus Health Services.

Faculty Senate Chair Krista Wallace-Boaz shared a����of university activity over the summer. A key update from her report included the launch of a����in early August. The Call Center can be contacted via live chat, phone call or email for questions related to UofL’s COVID-19 response. The Call Center is fielding approximately 40 calls per day. Most calls are addressed immediately or within 24 hours.����
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Faculty Senate Officer elections (which were postponed during the spring) were finalized at this meeting. Senator was voted as the new Faculty Senate Chair and Senator was voted as the new Faculty Senate Vice Chair. The����were also approved.����

A new certificate in����was proposed for approval.��The purpose of this stand-alone certificate program is to prepare adult learners who are working in healthcare, public health, private health insurance, and other health-related businesses. The 12 credits students earn from this program may be used toward a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and learning.��

One senator questioned the value of a certificate that doesn’t need an accompanying degree and expressed concern that as a stand-alone certificate, students might not see the value of pursuing a degree. Another senator argued that the stand-alone certificate helps UofL meet its mission to be responsive to the needs of the local Louisville community— a community that has a variety of needs for a skilled workforce in the healthcare industry. The new certificate was approved.��
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Committee reports and a����of the virtual meeting can be accessed on the��. The next Faculty Senate meeting is scheduled for��October 7 via Microsoft Teams.��