Items

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  2021-03-17

  Spring 2021 St Marys Jazz Clinic

  This is an email getting the approval from the university to hold the St. Mary’s spring jazz clinic. It details the protocols the music department was planning to enact to ensure a safe environment for all of the bands coming to perform at the university. This email is significant in that even a full year after the start of COVID there were still certain restrictions on what the band could or couldn’t do, and the band required confirmation from the university that their protocols were sufficient.
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  2020-09-04

  The St. Mary's Wind Ensemble and Instrument Coverings

  This is a set of emails containing information regarding the ordering of instrument coverings for the band in the late Fall 2020 semester. These instrument coverings were intended to be used to minimize the risk of COVID transmissions during outdoor in-person rehearsals that were to begin shortly after their arrival. They represent some of the steps taken by the band to protect students as they worked to facilitate a more normal style of band rehearsal.
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  2020-08-11

  The St. Mary's Wind Ensemble and Online Rehearsal

  This is a series of emails between the music department head and St. Mary’s residence life discussing a way for band members living on campus to practice their instruments without disturbing other residents. These emails are significant as it demonstrates the lengths the music department was working to find ways for band members to continue regularly practicing their instrument even in the midst of COVID.
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  2020-03-02

  The St. Mary's Wind Ensemble returning for the Fall 2020 Semester

  A series of emails from the university president explaining university policies for the upcoming fall 2020 semester. What is significant about these emails is how it demonstrates the university and the music department’s steps to try and maintain the ability to hold in-person events on campus when COVID was at its height in 2020.
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  2020-03-12

  St. Mary's Wind Ensemble and St Marys university policies at the start of COVID

  This is a collection of emails between the music department chair, other members of the music department, the University President, and members of the band program. These emails represent the initial steps taken by both the university and the music department during the first few weeks of covid. It gives us insight into where their priorities were and exactly how they intended to protect members of the band.
• 
  2020-02-27

  School Emails regarding COVID-19

  Some emails sent by my school to students and family as the COVID-19 situations developed. I selected these emails because it shows the lack of information there was about COVID during the beginning. Shows a situation a lot of people experienced. I think first hand sources are great and I hope in the future people will look back and see first hand emails. It will help a lot of people in the future place themselves in our shoes.
• 
  2020-07-22

  How it started v. How it's going: How StMU planned to incorporate COVID-19 precautions for the Fall 2020 semester and how that's played out

  These images are screenshots of emails from St. Mary’s University detailing how the university will adapt for the Fall 2020 semester, updating students on the ongoing changes to in-person classes, tracking the number of COVID-19 cases throughout the summer and into the fall, and showing how St. Mary’s slowly begins to open up and allow in-person gatherings. In the beginning of the semester, St. Mary’s University was very cautious in thinking of how and when to resume in-person classes and welcome students back to campus. The first couple of weeks were strictly virtual, and this virtual learning was even extended in response to a mild spike in cases across San Antonio. Classes resumed in person one week after the Labor Day weekend, and St. Mary’s didn’t experience a significant outbreak in those initial weeks. Towards the end of September, the number of COVID-19 cases began to mildly grow. As of right now, the University has had 25 COVID-19 cases since March 2020. In October, keeping up with Halloween and other events to come, St. Mary’s began allowing small in-person events. These events were usually outside, with the exception of some indoors. All events have a maximum number of students allowed to participate, and some even require temperature checks and confirmation of negative tests. I, at first, thought it was concerning that as the number of COVID-19 cases in the St. Mary’s University community grew, campus began and continued to organize and advertise on-campus gatherings. I was afraid that St. Mary’s was giving in to the celebratory attitude across the city for “Spooky Season” and fall weather, but neglecting the health of students. However, I think St. Mary’s has been doing the best job they can to provide the “college experience” within the safety parameters set by the CDC. Our mild number of cases may be considered an accomplishment when compared to larger outbreaks at a number of universities such as Baylor, Angelo State, Sam Houston State, Texas Tech, and Wayland Baptist (to name a few). The New York Times breaks down campus outbreaks for most campuses in each state linked in this post. The number of COVID cases began slowly rising towards the end of September, which is also when campus organizations began hosting in-person events. Despite happening simultaneously, there has not been a major spike following these events (so far). In speaking with resident students, the attitude shared on campus seems to be one of caution, which starts at the top. St. Mary’s is not just implementing social distancing and capacity limits in classes and events, the university is maintaining these standards within all campus facilities and student are complying. Reflecting on these emails and thinking about Texas universities all together, I consider myself fortunate. I’m thinking that because San Antonio has a harder history with COVID-19 in the city, our universities are more diligent than those situated in towns or cities that are not. It can feel like campuses are a completely different town within a city or town, but I think St. Mary’s sees themselves as part of the larger San Antonio community.