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After a set of premeeting breakout sessions with fellow Rotarians, President Pat called this meeting of the Rotary Club of Lansing to order at 12:25pm with the ceremonial ringing of the bell. Not sure what it was like in Lansing on this Friday, but I will share that I had my fleece back on as the temps in northern Michigan were at best in the low 50’s with winds out of the north. Brrrr. President Pat welcomed Rotarian guests Julie Pingston and Kevin Schumacher who were observing how all the bells and whistles work for these Zoom meetings from Pat’s office. Julie will be taking over Pat’s role in a few weeks and Kevin will be in charge of the Roast of our outgoing President that we all look forward to. Our invocation was performed by Stanley Samuels followed by our Patriotic Song which today was America the Beautiful, via a different but wonderful version by Ray Charles. With our many guests on the Zoon meeting to listen to our speaker today, introductions were skipped, but of course, all visitors were welcomed. Diane Sanborn presented the Health of our Club Report, sharing that Bill Kane had sustained serious injuries after a recent fall, which will require surgery and possibly a 3- month recovery. Our thoughts and prayers are with Bill. Our new segment to spotlight a member was then presented by Joel Hoffman, with the spotlight on Rev. Dick Ammons, a Rotarian since 1983, who began in the Kansas City Rotary Club before moving to the Lansing area and joining our club. Dick lives in St. Johns with his wife Betty, who refers to him by his actual first name, Lawrence, but to all of us, he will always be Dick. A Minister since 1977, Dick retired from the Unity Church in 2004. While in the Church, Dick held many roles at regional, statewide and national levels, including serving as the president and regional representative to the national board, and also being elected to the national board. During his amazing career, Dick has performed more than 800 weddings and 400 funerals. He has been active in numerous organizations and has served as the Chaplain for the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce. Of course, we all know Dick for his rich and soothing voice via the many invocations he has presented at our meetings. His hobbies include woodworking, gardening, Spartan sports and musicals, as well his 1 mile walks each day. To our dear friend and Rotary colleague, Rev. Dick Ammons, thank you for all you have done to make Lansing Rotary and our community a better place. You truly are a special person…and friend. President Pat then reminder members or the Club that our District 6360 Virtual Conference is taking place this weekend. Kurt Sonnenberg and a delegation will represent our Club. We will be recognized for a number of Club achievements at this meeting, and our Rotary Hero, Mark Hooper, will also be recognized. Serving as president of both the Haslett Okemos and our Lansing Rotary clubs, Mark has also served as president of our Foundation Board. He has also served as chair of our audit committee and chair of our Lansing Rotary Centennial Celebration, with his leadership resulting in the Club raising $250,000 which was used to create the water exhibit at the I-5 Museum here in Lansing. Mark has also been recognized by the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce as the recipient of the Community Service Award in 2016. Past President Dennis Fliehman said of Mark in his nomination, that Mark can be described by these words: Exemplary Rotarian; Active Leader; Mr. Rotary. Congratulations to our Rotary Hero- Mark Hooper and thank you for all that you do. Our Special Music was then presented via the MSU College of Music with wonderful versions of MSU Shadows and the Spartan Fight Song via a zoom presentation. Our Chair of the Day, Dr. Janet Lillie, Asst. VP of Community Relations at MSU then introduced our Speaker of the Day, MSU President Samuel Stanley, appointed after a nationwide search. A physician and researcher, Dr. Stanley came to MSU from Stoney Brook in Long Island, NY. He brings a wide range of experience, leadership and knowledge as well as impressive credentials. President Stanley began with an update of what is happening on campus and within the University in these crazy, uncertain times. Reflecting on what is going on within our nation, state and region, President Stanley commented on the George Floyd situation and the impact of racism within our society. Concerns, he suggested were important, but this is not enough. There must be a priority, especially at Michigan State University, that all will be safe, welcome and supported. He shared the many changes which are taking place on campus related to these concerns including the search for the University’s first campus-wide Diversity Officer, the development of a new multi-cultural center on campus and the introduction of new mandatory anti-bias training across campus. He then addressed the University’s response to the Covid 19 issue, the significant financial challenges that MSU are facing, and the plans to reopen the campus and welcome students back. Beginning with the issue of healthcare and the role of MSU, President Stanley stated that everyone should expect affordable, compassionate healthcare in our community, and MSU is working diligently to make this a reality. Actions include working closely with the Ingham County Health Department, Sparrow and McLaren health systems to offer free Covid testing across our community. The College of Social Work is working with community leaders to mitigate racism. MSU is working closely with the Governor on a series of task forces. MSU is expanding its programs with the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit in the areas of medical research and the creation of student opportunities to create a long term relationship in the Detroit area similar to the relationships in the Grand Rapids area. The intent is to simultaneously expand the partnerships locally with Sparrow and McLaren, including the development of the new McLaren Hospital on campus (which is projected to open in late 2021- early 2022). Moving next to the new virtual world of teaching and working at MSU, President Stanley commented that 88% of MSU employees have been working from home during the pandemic emergency. Just recently have researchers begun to return to campus. The key determining factor is and will continue to be safety of staff. The decreasing number of new Covid cases is driving the decisions on opening the campus for the September return to classes. But he stressed, medical input on safety will determine how this happens. Teaching is expected to become more of a hybrid of on- campus and remote methods. Larger type lecture classes are expected to be remote with possibly smaller sections of on- campus meetings. Lowering risk will again drive these decisions. Some students are expected to choose to stay off campus in the fall, and this will be accommodated. This is expected to be the case especially for foreign students, who may face Visa issues. There will also be a host of new health protocols on campus and in the campus living environment. On- campus testing is being developed as well as isolation protocols if needed. Athletics, the topic that many are most curious about, is a fluid situation with much still unknown. What we do know though, is that student athletes are returning to campus next week, on a voluntary basis, to begin preparation for upcoming sports seasons. Plans to football and basketball still are not decided related to stadium and arena fan attendance. The financial impact of the need to close facilities and send students home in the middle of the spring semester has been significant. For the current fiscal year ending June 30, it is expected that MSU will experience a $50-60 million shortfall. Moving to on-line teaching has been very costly, and has not reduced costs as some think, due to the same fixed costs as before but added technical needs to facilitate this. The upcoming fiscal year is bringing anticipated cuts to University revenues of between $150-400 million, with expected state funding cuts of 20-30%. Expectations are that both International and Domestic overall student enrollment will decrease. To prepare for this, MSU has announced a hiring freeze and staff furloughs, capital projects have been placed on hold, pay and benefits reductions are planned, and department budgets are being cut. Finally, President Stanley shared that the MSU team has been active in a number of areas to address needs during these uncertain times including the development at the College of Engineering of an easy and less costly ventilator which is being shared with nations in Africa to address the pandemic. WKAR has increased its K-12 educational programming. A new Provost, Teresa Woodruff, current Dean of the Graduate School at Northwestern, will be joining the team, bringing a wide range of knowledge, experience and credentials. A new leader will also be joining the Broad Museum team shortly. This was quite the whirlwind tour of MSU by our new leader, Dr. Stanley. With time for Q & A, Rotarians had a number of questions for the president on such topics as diversity and inclusion, study abroad, the impact of projected enrollment in the fall, concerns about a second wave of Covid cases, plans to change student orientation, what dorm life will look like moving forward, the impact on fundraising of the pandemic, the positive that he has taken away from these past few crazy and unexpected months, and President Stanley’s observations of being at MSU. Lansing Rotary President Pat offered that this club traditionally provides an honorary membership to the President of MSU and closed with the question to President Stanley of what Lansing Rotary can do for MSU. It was agreed that together we need a strong and united community. Lansing Rotary has a long history with MSU, and today’s talk was one more important step. President Stanley was thanked for taking time to join us (remotely of course) today. In lieu of a speaker’s gift, a donation in his name will be made to a local charity. And one more thing… a special thanks to Janet Lillie for setting this up today, and for all she does. Next week’s Zoom meeting of the Lansing Rotary Club will be the Lansing Rotary Foundation meeting featuring John Person, who will tell us about the great things happening at our Foundation. The meeting was adjourned by President Pat with well wishes extended to all. This will be my last ‘scheduled’ Rotarian report as I will be retiring from the committee (although available to fill in at times). Not leaving the club, but retirement is hard work-haha. Best to all. It continues to be fun. |
