Faculty Senate took a look at the Cooperative Education Program, early warning grades and COVID-19 updates this past Tuesday.
Cooperative Education plan
John Mangiantini, director of the Cooperative Education Program at the University of Idaho, presented proposed program updates to Faculty Senate.
Cooperative Education at UI is an opportunity for students to take alternative semesters with full-time employment in the field they aspire to enter after graduation. The program started in 2018 with the College of Engineering.
Mangiantini said it is the goal of the Co-op Program to integrate into the university’s Brave and Bold campaign, growing the program. The campaign kicked off last fall with UI promising comprehensive opportunities for UI students.
“The Co-op Program will help us keep the promises we’re making the students in this campaign,” Mangiantini said. “I feel very strongly this campaign is speaking to our students and our families more than anything we’ve done in a long time. We’re going to have to deliver on these promises and I think the Co-op could do that.”
The goal of the Co-op is to become a dominant program in the region. Mangiantini said they hopes to offer the opportunity to every undergraduate student by 2025.
“I’m proud to say that we’ve got our first two students out of business-economics right now,” Mangiantini said. “There are two HR majors, and the employers are very excited to have them and there’s a lot of excitement building around the Co-op.”
Mangiantini said the benefits of the robust program include substantial wages for students, applicable work experience and improving upon professional skills.
Early warning grades
UI Vice Provost Diane Kelly-Riley said the office has been working closely with ASUI on early warning grades. Kelly-Riley said ASUI has been concerned about the need for early information and how students are continually doing into the pandemic.
“It’s just kind of a general thumbs up or thumbs down or kind of a flag if somebody is really having some trouble,” Kelly-Riley said.
COVID-19
447 students have submitted vaccine proof for UI incentives bringing the total of vaccinated individuals with proof at UI to 4,816 students. Kelly-Riley said there is two students in supported isolation and one student in supported quarantine.
“I’m noticing that Omicron is dropping rapidly,” Kelly-Riley said. “And we’re seeing that really in the number of cases that are being reported and the number of cases being reported both in Whitman and Lake County and around the state as well at our various sites.”
Sierra Pesnell can be reached at [email protected]