WKSU Wins Two Public Media Journalists Association Awards
In the category for student feature, WKSU’s newsroom intern Ella Abbott won first place for her sound-rich story on the last performance of the 70-year-old member of the Ashland University Marching Band. And, in the category for student hard feature, WKSU’s newsroom intern Carter Adams won second place for his touching story on a tight-knit group of Lordstown workers saying a final goodbye at the conclusion of last year’s General 
Motors strike.
WKSU recently received two awards from Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA). PMJA is an association representing those responsible for the day-to-day direction, reporting and editing of local public media newsrooms. The mission of the association is to enhance news and information services and programming throughout public media. The association also serves reporters, producers, students, educators and others in public media journalism.
Photos courtesy of Carter Adams, WKSU
Cleveland Foundation Grant Provides Opportune Funding for Kent State Geauga
Kent State University Geauga Campus is pleased to announce a $20,000 award from the Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation towards a student emergency fund and technology advances.
The $20,000 grant will be split evenly between the two initiatives. Half of the award is earmarked for the installation of a Zoom Room at the Geauga Campus in Burton. This will include state-of-the-art technology allowing the institution to deliver synchronous and asynchronous courses to students. The remaining $10,000 will assist Kent State students residing in Lake and Geauga counties facing financial hardship due to COVID-19.
“This award is a godsend for our students,” says Lance Williams, Director of Special Projects and Operations at Kent State Geauga. “We will continue to seek out opportunities to help students in need within our communities and scale our capacity to deliver distance learning within the region.” 
The Kent State Regional Campus system has implemented the use of Zoom software since 2018 in classrooms that are appropriately called ‘Zoom Rooms.’ These Zoom Rooms provide students with the ability to; take classes at their home campus without having to travel to other campus locations, access expert faculty in their respective fields, and provide dynamic interaction with faculty and students from across the Kent State Regional Campus system.
Prior to the pandemic most of the coursework was delivered face-to-face, with the remainder being offered in either an exclusively online format, or synchronously through the use of our Zoom Rooms. As we continue with both remote and synchronous instruction, our faculty will continue to use these Zoom Rooms to teach coursework that students need to stay on track as they pursue their degrees.
The $10,000 award for the implementation of the Zoom Room at the Geauga Campus will go towards purchasing and installing hardware, software, labor for network and power access, and signage. “Adding another Zoom Room on campus will provide greater availability of course offerings to Geauga Campus students,” Williams said.
For the remaining $10,000 of the award, Kent State Geauga is pleased to offer Kent State students living in Lake or Geauga counties student aid awards through the campus’s Emergency Relief Fund. This fund is specifically for those students who are currently experiencing financial hardship, food insecurity, unexpected medical or childcare expenses, housing instability, or transportation barriers hindering their ability to succeed as a student.
Students living in Geauga and Lake counties who applied for CARES Act relief and were not funded will have their prior applications considered for possible student aid. Funding will be awarded based on several factors, including individual needs and the circumstances surrounding their need for funding.
“Kent State Geauga sends its sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation for this significant and timely award,” says Dean Angela Spalsbury.
The Lake-Geauga Fund aims to fund initiatives solely in Lake and Geauga Counties. “The fund has been a critical resource to the Lake and Geauga county communities as it has provided funding to jumpstart new ideas, guide organizational strategy, leverage additional dollars, and address high priority program needs.” Kent State Geauga is continuing to look for other grant opportunities to expand Zoom Room implementations and financial relief for all Kent State Geauga and Twinsburg Academic Center students.
WW (formerly Weight Watchers) - Kent State Group
Transitioning to Virtual Workshops
Employee Wellness was recently informed by WW (formerly Weight Watchers) that after careful consideration, WW has decided to discontinue Workshops in the Workplace. This decision was based upon many factors, including WW's aim to focus on digitally led solutions, such as their Virtual Workshops.
Many who were previously attending Kent State's Workshops in the Workplace have already transitioned to Virtual Workshops, and now Kent State can grow its WW community even larger by expanding the offering to those working at all campus locations.
Kent State employees can attend WW meetings 'together' by logging on for the same live Virtual Workshop each week. While WW members can join any workshop that fits their schedule and preference, we have identified Virtual Workshops hosted by Susan Mattingly, who was KSU's onsite WW coach. Susan currently leads the following group and times: 
- North Canton Connect Group on Thursdays at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., or Fridays at 11:30 a.m. Susan would love to keep the KSU connection going!
If you are already a WW Digital + Workshops member but haven't joined a live Virtual Workshop, now is the time! Check out this video for a little bit about what other WW members are saying about their experience. You may also find general instructions on how to join a live Virtual Workshop by clicking here.
Those interested in joining WW, regardless of group or time selected, can still join using Kent State's Employer ID to receive a discounted rate. To learn more and sign up for a membership, visit www.weightwatchers.com/us/wwhs and click on "see discounted rates," then enter Kent State Employer ID: 20894. Make sure to select the Digital + Workshops plan if you want the ability to attend Virtual Workshops. After joining, download the WW app and use the links below to get started! All KSU full and part-time employees, spouses/partners, family members, students and retirees are also welcome to join WW.
Click here for instructions on finding and joining a Virtual Workshop.
Click here for Virtual Workshop FAQs.
For questions, contact Employee Wellness at 330-672-7505 or wellness@kent.edu.
Faculty Contemplating COVID-19
A 17-year employee at Kent State, Joel Hughes, Ph.D., professor and director of Clinical Training, Department of Psychological Sciences, is studying the long-term mental health impact of the novel coronavirus on the university community.
Read the full interview in the ongoing Contemplating COVID-19 series.
Do You Know Your Numbers? Set Your Screening Date Today!
Preventive care has become one of the victims of the coronavirus, with Americans forced to skip routine physicals and screenings. Following the advice of your primary care physician, we want to encourage you to resume your routine physical and age-appropriate screenings where practical.
To assist in that endeavor, we have resumed our on-campus biometric "Know Your Numbers" screenings provided by physician-owned wellness partner, Be Well Solutions. Within minutes, employees will have their personal results for total cholesterol (HDL and LDL), triglycerides, blood pressure, glucose, and body mass index.
Incentives Continue
We will also continue with the wellness incentive associated with the Employee Wellness program, Wellness Your Way. So, a win/win for you and your health. Learn your essential numbers and earn wellness dollars for your wallet.
Action Steps
Participation in an annual "Know Your Numbers" health screening is incentivized under Tier 1 of the Wellness Your Way Rewards Program. For the 2020 reward program, your screening must be completed between September 1, 2019 - August 31, 2020 (Tier 1 deadline extended due to COVID-19). You can take advantage of the convenient and free onsite screenings by Be Well Solutions* or have one completed with your primary care physician and have the results populated on the Tier 1 Physician Screening Form available on the Be Well portal. The choice is yours.
How to Schedule Your Appointment
- Login to your private Be Well portal at portal.bewelldata.com. If you have never logged into the portal, click here for first-time login instructions.
- Once logged in, click on "Worksite Screening" under "My Appointments".
- Choose the date that best fits your schedule. Available dates include July 30 and August 12.
Added Safety Measures
In adherence with CDC, state and local government guidelines, Employee Wellness and Be Well Solutions have enhanced and updated our protocols to safely deliver onsite screenings to Kent State faculty and staff. Please click here to learn about these enhanced safety measures, participant expectations, and general flow prior to attending your screening.
For questions, please contact Employee Wellness at 330-672-7505 or wellness@kent.edu. For scheduling questions, please contact Be Well directly at 1-888-935-7378.
Important Information about Final Grading of Summer 2020 Summer 2 (POT S2) Classes
Online final grading for Summer 2020 Summer 2 (POT S2) begins Tuesday, July 28, via FlashFAST. Grading is also now available for any Summer 2020 course section that was flexibly scheduled. The deadline for grading submission is midnight on Sunday, August 2. Any final grades for Summer 2020 courses not reported in FlashFAST by the grades processing deadline will have to be submitted using the Grade Change Workflow. These Summer 2020 courses will be available in the Workflow on Tuesday, August 4. To access Final Grades via FlashFAST, log into FlashLine and click on the Faculty & Advisors Category / Faculty Dashboard / Grading Resources Section.
Blackboard Grading Process:
The Grade Push application has been developed as an option to assist in streamlining the university grading process. The use of this application is not mandatory, though it is encouraged. Grade Push will allow you to “push” the final grades recorded in Blackboard into our KSU Final Grade Roster, thus eliminating the time and effort spent manually entering them. To access Grade Push, log into FlashLine and click on the Faculty & Advisors / Faculty Dashboard / Grading Resources. If you have questions or concerns, please go to support.kent.edu and search “Grade Push.”
Incomplete Mark Workflow:
The instructor must create and submit an Incomplete Mark contract via the workflow. Instructors are no longer be able to select the incomplete mark (IB+, IC+, IC-, etc.) from the final grade roster in FlashFAST (Self-Service Banner). The primary instructor must initiate and submit the contract using this new workflow process, which mimics the old paper process. Once the contract has been accepted by the student and approved by the department chair/campus dean, the student’s grade will be updated automatically. The primary instructor will be able to initiate and submit the contract for a student after the deadline to withdraw (10th week of a regularly scheduled section in fall and spring, or prorated for flexibly scheduled sections) through the end of final grading.
Access the Incomplete Mark workflow in FlashLine from the Faculty Dashboard under Grading Resources or Faculty Workflows.
NF/SF Administrative Marks:
The administrative mark NF (Never Attended–Fail) denotes that the student neither attended one class session nor formally withdrew from the course. If a student has never attended your course, mark the student as “Not Started” on the Academic Presence Verification Roster, and the NF will automatically populate to your Final Grades roster.
The administrative mark SF (Stopped Attending–Fail) denotes that the student stopped attending the course and did not formally withdraw and must be accompanied by a date of last attendance in the course. If a student has stopped attending your course the SF can be entered on the Final Grade Roster along with the student’s last date of attendance.
For complete information on university grading policies including Incomplete Mark and NF/SF grading policies, procedures and timelines, please visit the Grading Policies and Procedures section in the University Catalog.
Grades Processing Tips and FAQs may be found on the Registrar's website. Any faculty member needing personalized instruction on submitting their grades via FlashFAST should contact their campus Registrar's Office during normal business hours for assistance.
Troubleshooting TIP:
FlashFAST is accessible from any Internet-capable computer that has the cookies function enabled. We recommend that you clean out your cookie and cache files regularly to help your computer run faster, and to potentially restore and/or improve your access to FlashFAST and/or FlashLine by improving your connection to the server. Our Helpdesk is prepared to offer assistance with these issues. Please contact them at 330-672-HELP (4357) for one-on-one assistance and technical issues.