Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

University of Mississippi

Thursday, 26, 2020 COVID-19 Update

Mobile COVID-19 Testing Sites, Testing FREE OF CHARGE, MARCH 27 ONLY
The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) and the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) will open two mobile COVID-19 testing sites in Coahoma and DeSoto counties for one day only on Friday, March 27. Testing is free of charge. The sites will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the following locations:

Coahoma Expo Center
1150 Wildcat Drive
Clarksdale, Mississippi

Lewisburg High School
1755 Craft Road
Olive Branch, Mississippi

Anyone experiencing symptoms related to the novel coronavirus who feel they should be tested must undergo a screening first from a UMMC clinician by calling 601-496-7200, or through the C Spire Health UMMC Virtual COVID-19 Triage telehealth smartphone app. During the screening, a medical provider will determine the patient’s level of risk for having COVID-19, based on their symptoms of fever, cough, shortness of breath or sore throat. Anyone found to be high-risk will be given an appointment for testing at the collection site closest to them.

Appointments for testing will be given only to people who are symptomatic for COVID-19 and are determined to need testing. Anyone not experiencing symptoms is asked not to use the app or call. See full details at https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/23,21908,341.html.

Quote of the Day
“You don’t make the timeline. The virus makes the timeline.”
— Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert (Source: MarketWatch)

Featured FAQ
Q: Can I get into my room in my residence hall?
A: Given the requirements of the City of Oxford’s “Stay-At-Home” order and the larger public health need to practice social distancing, we cannot accommodate any requests to access residence hall rooms at this time. We are operating with a dramatically reduced staff presence on-campus as the overwhelming majority of Student Housing staff are working remotely. Our residence halls are locked, and your belongings are safe and secure in your room and can remain there.

University News

Case Notifications
While no new confirmed cases among university students and employees have been reported officially to the university, we have established a case notification page on the COVID-19 update website.

What’s happening on campus?
Be sure to check out “This Week in Photos” where our outstanding university photographers have captured how the past week reshaped life on campus and around Oxford in so many ways. Also, spring has sprung in Oxford, and you can enjoy the handiwork of our award-winning Landscape Services team that keeps America’s most beautiful campus looking so amazing.

Students

Correct Link for Rental Returns and Book Buyback
For updated information on rental returns and book buybacks from the Ole Miss Bookstore, visit https://ole-miss.bncollege.com/shop/ole-miss/home.

Faculty and Staff

Avoiding “Zoombombing”
Faculty are reporting instances of “Zoombombing,” or un-invited attendees showing up in Zoom classes to be disruptive with offensive video and audio. The easiest fix? Stop participants from screen-sharing during your Zoom class when you set up the Zoom meeting by using the host controls at the bottom of your screen within Zoom. See this and other tips at the end of today’s newsletter.

Alternative Assessment Strategies
With the shift to remote teaching, our first thoughts are how to teach effectively and assess the learning. Many default methods for assessment used in face-to-face classrooms do not translate readily to online teaching. “Keep Teaching” has a list of resources to help you think through the best choices for your course. Also, if you are interested in Proctorio, live sessions will be offered Friday, March 27 at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. The 9 a.m. session is an introduction to Proctorio, while the 3 p.m. session is dedicated to helping you set up Proctorio.

Zoom Drop-in Sessions – Daily on March 26-27

Other Things to Know

The United Way of Oxford-Lafayette County (UWOLC) established a COVID-19 fund to help provide short-term relief to individuals and families living in Lafayette County who have been affected by a loss of wages due to COVID-19.
https://twitter.com/UWOxfordMS/status/1242534969848877062

Doors of Hope Transition Ministries in Oxford established an online application for COVID-19 assistance.
https://doorsofhopeoxford.org/412-2/

The Association of Public and Land-grant University’s Office of Governmental Affairs has developed a detailed analysis of a third emergency supplemental funding measure in response to COVID-19.

On the lighter side: The New York Times started At Home to share recommendations on what to read, play, cook and more.

Preventing Zoombombing
“Zoombombing” occurs when hackers infiltrate a non-secure Zoom meeting. Before hosting a Zoom meeting, please read the following tips to protect yourself and your attendees.

  1. Change your settings so that only you can share your screen. Most Zoombombing occurs when others take control of the screenshare function. Before hosting a meeting, log into your Zoom settings, scroll to “Screen sharing” and mark “Host only” under “Who can share?”
  2. Use an automatically generated meeting ID instead of your personal meeting ID. When scheduling a meeting, go to “Meeting ID” and choose “Generate automatically.”
  3. Do not share your meeting ID publicly, and ask that all meeting attendees keep your meeting ID private. When meeting IDs are public, anyone can join your meeting.
  4. Add a password to your meeting. This ensures that only invited attendees can join, even if the meeting ID is public. When scheduling a meeting, check the “Require meeting password” box to automatically assign a password to your meetings, which will be included in the Zoom invite.
  5. Enable the “Waiting room” feature, which allows the host to decide whether any user, even an invited attendee, can join the meeting at any time. Visit your Zoom settings and scroll to “Waiting Room” to enable.
  6. Enable “Identify guest participants in the meeting/webinar” in Settings. This adds an identifying orange banner to usernames of attendees who were not invited by the host.

Additional quick tips:

  • Lock an in-progress Zoom meeting to prevent new participants from joining, even with a meeting ID and password. Click the “More” dropdown menu and then “Lock Meeting.”
  • Remove users by hovering your cursor over their name, then click the “More” dropdown menu and “Remove.”
  • Turn off file transfer to prevent attendees from uploading anything to the in-meeting text-based chat function. Visit your Zoom settings and scroll to “File Transfer” to disable.

For more tips and how-tos, visit Zoom’s blog post about meeting security, or read more pointers on the Keep Teaching website.

Questions? Call or email the UM IT Help Desk for support: 662-915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu.