was about 48% of that budget of 185 million. The capital improvement program budget is lower than in number year in prior years mostly because of the water and sewer reductions in the current year but the general fund as mentioned was added for general capital improvement program of 21.9 million or 22 million. Total budget overall for CIP was 73.9 million. Water CIP and sewer CIP totaled out 40 million and then stormwater was in it 11. It's a significant additions in terms of general capital projects. Moving on into the current the proposed the upcoming budget cycle as Ms. Wilson mentioned in terms of items where we look for in terms of direction and guidance and with regards to development of the budget. City manager of course develops guidelines for departments in terms of submitting the budget and the overall direction of the budget in order to accommodate the support city council strategic outcomes as previously described. One of the top areas of concern of course both with the city managers, other executive city staff as well as city council is ability to ensure that we have a qualified and capable workforce both retaining and attracting that workforce in order to provide services that we provide to our community every day but with that too is also making sure that those those employees have the tools and resources that they need in order to form their task and their work. Fulfilling the city's financial obligations is always a top priority when to make sure we pay off our debt and meet our financial commitments. Addressing critical city infrastructure by completing the priority projects that will be a big topic of today's conversation going forward as well as meetings and this ongoing needs of capital infrastructure things that we address seek to address every year roads sidewalks, water sewer, other city facilities and of course of course also addressing and improving city assets. Affordable housing and homeless services is obviously a top priority of the city council meaning food and securities addressing blight, addressing commercial and residential redevelopment and then of course beautification and gateways. Budget drivers that would be those items that that drive how we are able to develop this budget and where we're able to put our path forward. First off is revenues. We are seeing some in science improvement some some areas of revenues. We're able to be sustained or we're not as impacted during COVID or the pandemic. Some things we maybe saw some stunted growth if you will but maybe we're able to to withstand staying at least flat and never not necessarily significant reductions. We are seeing some improvements in those revenues mostly in with regards like hospitality tax and of course accommodations tax as we're all aware we're seeing some still some steady growth in those areas. General fund is a little harder to predict at this point but when we come back to you in March we will be talking a little bit further about the revenue projections going forward. Expenditure wise what's driving on the expenditure is of course those added and new programs or expanded programs that are in the general fund or even in water and sewer. One of the areas that seems to be a continued concern and constraint with our departments is staffing and vacancies being able to both hire and retain employees. Operating costs that we're seeing impacted by inflation some areas there's still a lot of fluctuation that we're seeing with regards to different costs both in terms of inflationary costs but also too with regards to some supply chain issues some things that ever that are improving some things that are still constrained. With regards to health insurance we are included in the budget a an increase of about $500 per employee to about $11,000 per year. That basically is a composite rate that we use to fund and cover our entire health care cost. State retirement rates have increased about 1% each year on the pores which is the non-sworn retirement rates which is a 17.5% percent interest. I mean 17.5% percent pores which is for sworn police and fire is 20.24% and of course these rates are subject to change based on what the legislature decides to do. They have covered it but that's still subject to the legislature. They've covered it in prior years but we don't know how consistently that will cover it. We've been told that we're going to start covering that. The word we keep getting back it's going to come in us. As we go through the budget process and we start talking about staffing and vacancies and impact on operations I think we got to start thinking a little bit strategically as well on if we're not going to be able to replace people and how technology or third parties are going to impact us and play and be more of resources for us in the future because I think we're seeing challenges across the US especially in certain departments. People just can't get people to apply no matter what kind of dollars they put around it so we need to start thinking you know what's out there you know in training technology creative ways to help fill those gaps so as as we're going down through the budget let's also be looking at what other people are doing and how we maybe can adapt what they're doing to help fill those gaps because I think we're going to end up with gaps unfortunately. Right especially in certain markets depending upon the type of position that you're hiring for. As far as the budget schedule of course today we're going to be doing a review of some of the priority projects discussing budget development. We're also looking in March at your next budget workshop we'll be talking revenues and then in April we'll continue with budget review and by May we'll be doing city managers proposed budget dates to point out there is May 18th if we stay on city council's regular work session or regular schedule the proposed budget would be or budget public hearing would be the first meeting in June which means the date that the budget has to be advertised is by May the 18th so at that point the budget has to be in balance. We're targeting May 18th for that publication or sending that for publication. Departments are putting together a little different approach to their budgets this year we're utilizing some of different tools and different technology in terms of developing the budget so hopefully we will hear not too many pain points from our departments in terms of changes and how they're developing their budget and how they're presenting their information. Any questions about the budget overview in terms of budget development and budget schedule? The next we'll go into priority projects. Just a sort of high-level review updating about these are this is not intended to be a complete comprehensive list but it's certainly a pretty thorough list of priority projects that are underway or have been allocated and approved by city council to move forward. There are about two hundred million dollars worth of capital projects that are in play. I'd also like to point out that almost a hundred million of those funds are grant dollars. Of course we'll be talking about various projects in priority in the executive session. You have a included in your materials a list of those projects and sort of where they stand but with regards to projected cost along with funding allocations and then their current high-level review or status. As Ms. Wilson mentioned we'll cover. So on that very comprehensive list the projects that you see pending beside or the ones that we need some collective discussion direction given and we'll talk about those today. The others were just sort of trucking along with all those in progress and or those being planned. Good thing but I manage it right. I noticed they left off the pickleball courts. Didn't we. I'm gonna get in training in January. I'm gonna hit the course. I have something for you if you're sure if you mean that because we there's they make I mean pickleball is so big they make these you can order the colors or the city on the paddles and your initials on there. I've got a gold plated that's right. Co-plated one. You do okay. You've got the golden paddle from southeastern. Oh okay. Well you're already there. That's when we discovered all this time Howard had never played one game. Advocating on behalf of his constituents. I think he was just telling people he played. You a booming thing when I heard about it. Eerily. Alright. We're gonna go through we're gonna spend some time on each of the ones and say pending. Yes ma'am. So that was something thank you for that Mr. Brennan that's more public and doesn't really any major decision points that have to be captured under legal advice so we were gonna talk about that one now and make sure that we're moving in the direction and what you all wish us to go. I mean there's some stuff in here that's probably coming out of the beautification. What's coming out. Beautification coming out. Okay. There's there's an item or two in there that may come out in progress. Funding from another source or not needed at all. Well we don't know what you're referring to but I know you'll let us know. So we'll do you want us to move forward with the beautification item there. Yes very excited. Okay. I think we're quiet long enough you might just maybe so Mr. Brennan I don't know. Well and I think for the beautification we have met probably with every garden club that's out there they really want to try to be engaged and involved and I think as we go through this plan we ought to figure out where they can be involved. One of the groups has twenty thousand dollars to put towards beautification so you know maybe maybe a gateway maintenance program is something they could be involved with as well as we move forward and some of our parks and enhanced our our gateways as we talked about. Maybe that's a play but I do think we ought to try to see how we leverage that. I think that's a great idea we've actually embarked on many different things under beautification than we have on this list and currently we're trying to redo many of the beds throughout Columbia to include East Urve, Rosewood, some of the beds that haven't had some beautification efforts in quite a while but before I get started I also want to point out that we've got some diseases in Columbia that we need to learn how to get rid of and one of them is is the Bradford Pairs. I'm not saying the city got overzealous but I think all places did but you know the knockout roses were one of the greatest things in the world they were supposed to be disease tolerant they now have a virus so all the knockout roses in five points are probably coming out there is no known cure for the virus to send the knockout roses and as it continues to make its rounds we've also got some dieback in a lot of our Indian Hawthorne around town that we're having to use so we're gonna look at using I know I don't want to mention five points but we're working with five points on using maybe if we do something on a beautification project is using a lot of different plants in five points so we don't get tied to any one thing so we're gonna reach out to a lot of people I need a lot of information on that so I think in some of the high traffic areas where tendency for trash to get overflow or things float around those especially in the medians that that grass whatever it's called that they you they're using a lot of cities now keeping that trash out and it's low maintenance you don't have to put mulch because the grass grows over and it's prickly so people won't walk through it so it's a win-win all the way around or grass and less mulch makes less work for us I know that so some of the things we've been working on is the welcome to Columbia sign the specifications have been written we've actually got them purchasing right now they're getting ready to release those they're gonna be it's kind of an RFP process so we're gonna let some people bring some designs back to us we will definitely share them with you when we get them one of the things we put in there is we want to a first take on them then we want some comment period and we want a second take on them so we kind of get what Columbia needs we're still looking at three types of signs I'll hit a I'll hit a lot of these so I get this is you know we're looking for that big monumental sign maybe Columbia can put then we're looking at some secondary signs for some of the lower impact areas and then we're looking at the the last sign and that will be the sign that's replacing the ones that the mayor's calling me about every time he drives around right now is a capital place to be in a long time understood so the one on Jarvis Club of Boulevard is hung out over the river so we're working on that one today but there's a lot of signs out there from years ago there's one in Harveston I see I think it's been removed recently too so we're removing them but hopefully we'll have a something that brands Columbia as this is Columbia and the signage says this is going well we get that process and what do you think the time frame is to get some proposals what did y'all do a 30 day 60 day I don't think we've worked out that detail with purchasing it I'll be meeting with them we talked a little bit earlier it's we're gonna tweak it can we do it where it's a 30 day period because that way they're giving us an idea of the set of them drawing and spending so much time developing something that we may want to tweak you know I'm looking for something personally more simple big block white letters that say Columbia with welcome to you know across the top or something like that that could be done I noticed in a lot of the airports they're doing that you know the call sign easy maintained you know pressure washer and you're done which is what we need to think about the stone monuments of Rock Hill and other stuff that's not Columbia we've talked about going with a more modern feel that would stay timeless and be consistent with branding no matter what council or the city looks like is going to be important and I'll be with a big part on the top oh gosh and that's why I also recommend that there may be an opportunity once we do narrow it down to engage the public and make it something to share a little bit why we're doing what we're doing you know and I'm just an idea and I think we left it pretty wide open on the on the specifications is we wanted something to simple to maintain simple to do but we also thought a little bit about where we are as a city and some of the things we're trying to do one of them was lighting up the sign we want to be able to light the sign but we want to be able maybe to change the colors of the same for different times during the year like we do city hall and some other people are doing so we have some interesting things in there we'll get with purchasing on that make sure we move that forward I think 30 days don't sound you know something I love the idea and you know different colors are for different months and all that but our sign in the capital city with a major flag University can't have purple and orange in it I'm gonna be honest right now it's a cell phone that's all I gotta say can't happen with that I'll move to some I'll move to some of our internal projects that we're working on one of them was just completed you know chief Holbrook I'm sorry it took so long but that was the assembly street fence rebuild that was a the city didn't put a cheap rod iron fence in when they put that in so the fence was actually built off-site brought in and actually had to be re-welded but we also wanted to make sure that the fence had to some design issues in it for growth so as those trees grow the way to decide the fence was designed we'll be able to take a saws all on and actually saw the pieces of the fence off so the trees will have time to expand through that but nobody else will be able to hopefully walk across the medians and phase two of that is actually North Maine I know there's several sections of the fence out there so around Columbia College is knocked out so we got a bit on that last week so we'll be putting that in the Midlands business leadership group after three years or so is actually starting to move forward so that is going to begin with the 302 302 corridor what we are is we've got some good designs from a contractor we're actually moving those designs to a construction designer for 302 and for Forest Drive once we get the construction designs done that we may have to pay for out of MLG funding then we will move it through our purchasing departments to actually have them individually purchased so I would pretty sure they have the funds for 302 we're not sure what the bids are going to come back in right now but as we move that project forward we hope to do a Forest Drive also this year and get both those projects up and running City Hall Laurel Street I think some people have seen the concrete work we've been doing around Laurel Street we've got about $40,000 worth of planters to put around these buildings so we just need to finish our concrete work we've cut the trees down the Bradford Pairs on Laurel Street we're replacing them I believe with plum trees those flowers and everything will be changed out with annuals several times during the year and hopefully provide some some vibrant color and actually tie those two groups together the other one we're working on is we're working with the code enforcement department police department we talked about it this morning and that is the technology piece maybe the mayor talked about it's called City Detect and I'm not gonna talk a lot about City Detect because I think it's a code enforcement deal but my understanding is they will put cameras on the side of our trucks so if it's an automated truck it'll have one camera on it it'll take pictures of each partial that's in Columbia that we have it on they will get the pilot program we're working on right now they'll get a weekly report and it'll show blight overgrowth missing mailboxes shingle issue tarps on houses and hopefully it'll help code enforcement react to these a little bit quicker with maybe some shortage of manpower and I think if we do the pilot program and turns out I think David Hatcher mentioned this morning we might get a report daily on this as our trucks go through so we've got a little bit of work to do we got a little Wi-Fi issue down at public works we've got to take care of and I believe they think the project may roll up in April sometime for the demo the site renovations I mentioned we're working on East Urvee we're working on Garner's Ferry Road several years ago we Dominion took a bunch of stuff out of Garner's Ferry Road going up the hill past Rosewood Drive on the left working at putting junipers back in there we still have some stumps to work on our mowing contract can you remind what's what are we doing at East Urvee East Urvee is the medians they have a lot of plants in them that have died and we're just trying to redo those so that's on our radar right now I think we're working on Rosewood Drive with our crews right now several things do our mowing contract the bid just opened last Thursday or Friday I can't remember we're waiting on the bids for that of course we've had beautiful weather I came in the interstate this morning I noticed the dandelions are starting to grow and the weeds are starting to grow so we're gonna have to kick into mowing gear sooner than later we are planning on using a contractor to mow some of our larger areas what that will do is it'll actually put our crews back in hopefully the heart of down with the growth that we've had over the many years without adding people that will get to be spending more times in the beds we have now we know North Main's getting ready to come online also so that'll give our crews time to do some of that I don't know if anything's planned but the money was by the time the money got put in the budget we actually did the requisitions and got the bid on the street they came back in I think we're planning on turning them back around by April to Council so we usually don't start mowing till April so you know we're gonna start mowing a little bit early this year because of the weather right but that's eight months after the budget was in place that now we're when did the budget yeah I can't remember the money October November October and these contracts will only go through November I think they're November 1st of November and then they will subsequently quit again until we start next spring but these dates are are movable as we see the the climate's changing so we'll put mowers on the street a little we'd still grow in the median in the winter so the other thing we've worked on as a partnership with DOT and that was the medians on Gervais Street the medians on Hugh G Street what we've done is remove the debris we did paint the ones on Gervais Street we are waiting on hopefully DOT to provide some funding for that in the future if not then we're gonna have to decide a a different way to go worse and worse I think every district has a certain number of roads that need to be consistently cleared of litter and I'm sure you'd recognize all the contractors that DOT sent me for that so whether we pull from accommodations that completely support bump bumping that whatever level no overlap kind of get on the DOT's per per mile routine we have a collaboration meeting next week with the OT will actually bring this up see where they are okay they're gonna be back with the labor that's who normally has been able to help us in the gateways but we're gonna have to create the initiative internally to get our neighborhoods connected with each other and spend some more time cleaning up in the neighborhood I'm hearing from Mr. Shirley I don't think that they're gonna have the capacity to grow that program us making up that difference and lastly we just got a call this morning we've been trying to meet meeting with Matt kennel in the Main Street Association this week sometime to talk about some beautification efforts on Main Street itself there's some desires to have a little dog park somewhere I know where the hope sign is there's some barren land right there we're hoping to do something there we may do some fake grass we may do something we're not sure what we're gonna do front of the Marriott huge patch has been empty forever that is the place where you put the fake grass that's what we're meeting that's what we're meeting about Friday we actually believe that property is property we're thinking about you can spot there a spot off across the street so we're meeting Friday with Matt about that so with Matt that we we appreciate their constant donation and new flowers and we help would love to help them spend some of their money gotcha Robert the only other thing I would add maybe to your list which the mayor touched on briefly in April the citywide beautification effort to bring in neighborhoods and college students and whoever wants to participate and I know community development I think is working with you all to help the mayor organize that so we actually had a meeting about that this morning we've actually begun the process we're reaching out to some of the container companies around town they're not really wanting to participate which understood but we also have six roll-off containers I think what we've got set right now you didn't want to participate that would be capital I'd be waste management okay well let's call them up we did so I last time I checked we don't we don't we franchise out or we allow commercial to be picked up with that maybe we need to get back in the commercial business I think we're gonna get the franchise business starts franchise maybe that's a revenue generator but I think what we are looking at is we talked this morning we had a meeting with Justin PR is doing something with our six containers locating our six seconds six in different areas I'll call them for a week but also probably rolling out city detected the same talk to see IU all right so see IU is planning another big cleanup and I think we ought to try to do it with them last year they had 2100 volunteers show up and so I think if we can use their basis to engage the rest of the schools in our community I think we can get a ton and I'll work on the capital waste and others yep USC I think all we try to get everybody engaged and just have a massive clean start for fresh perfect timing so with that that's our beautification thank you thank you Robert there are a few items regarding the canal reconstruction that we will touch on in executive session but the main points Clint is going to cover now publicly because it's good information for the public to know our progress thank you miss Wilson good afternoon Mayor and Council so we'll touch on the three of the legs of the three-legged stool that we talk about in terms of bolstering our water supply and and the reliability of that the first is the embankment breach repair as you well know the initial scope of work was 42 million dollars the beauty of that is we we agreed to a scope of work with FEMA regardless of a dollar amount so if those bids come in above 50 million and we know based on the time that they're probably going to be north of that that funding should be there I'll call your attention to the third bullet item the first first licensing amendment Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is asking that are requiring that we not renew our license but that our license be amended based on these repairs that we're making so I don't understand I'm struggling to understand myself sir but that is makes zero sense we have been we have been quiet for so long and not operating for so long they want to take a fresh look at the license and maybe require some some amendment to that license so we're working on that that yes sir and we'll speak about that one more but that that adds a time component also we'll talk about that that fourth bullet item a little more later but some additional work that may be requiring that FEMA has not agreed to find so we've got to work through that and we'll talk about that frustrating is there a way for us to pull some of our Washington connections to advance the ball here because for me they anticipated timeframe I still I just think we've spent an exorbitant amount of time with every regulatory agency and it is a massive eye sore problem develop its hindering development that we can move this up we know the money is appropriated so it's not a money issue at this point yes sir we need to talk about how we can utilize our our resources yes sir and I think we'll have some of those discussions a little bit later this afternoon but I echo your frustration just say that just the fact that the hydro plants are operating that's every amount of revenue every day coming back to us that we could be using the further other projects what's the percentage I mean how how much how much more is left of design is that what I'm reading here 30 we are 30% designed so yes sir and until we received first comments on the 30% design documents and FEMA reached a certain level of maturity with their environmental assessment they would not approve for us to move beyond 30% design they have since approved that so we're able to move to 60% design but but that design the 30% design has been complete for quite some time preliminary work to justify the funding yes sir that's correct if we proceed too far we proceeded our own risk and the design may not be reimbursable and but with the layers of reviews that have to happen we think the design is not good it's not the hold up do you have a estimated time when the embankment repair will be done finished yes sir we think early 2026 is it was about a 24 month time frame I'll move on to the headgate replacement unless there are other questions that was my next question wins the headgate gonna be replaced yes sir well we're gonna start fourth quarter of 2023 that one is not as long a time frame for construction eight million dollars awarded in the mitigation grant our estimate now is about a little over 10 million dollars we plan to put the extra 2.2 million in the water and sewer CIP request to to be able to proceed with that that one is also part of the FERC licensing amendment requirement so that is pending is that 2023 is a start when is the estimated finish day so that one's 12 to 18 months of construction 2024 yes sir possibly bleeding over in the 2025 then the last leg of the school still this is the resilient water supply that one is moving along a little more favorably we've completed design of that funding is in place through a combination of previously funded capital improvement program funds and the FEMA BRIC grant we are working out a memorandum of agreement with three tribal agencies and SHPO to take care of the adverse impacts of us cladding the river side of the embankment with riprap and doing a few things and also having the structure out in the river so we're working through that right now hoping to we've been at several discussions with John Sylveste and hoping to put a pin in that here shortly and be able to move forward that anticipated timeline for bidding again fourth quarter sooner the better that is that one is critical for we have consultants doing that yes sir communication yes sir they're assisting us yes sir fourth quarter of 23 start start bidding yes sir so that one is 24 months well for hopefully fourth quarter of 2025 so what questions do y'all have and we'll talk again about some of the strategies for accelerating one of the projects is not in this list because it's not canal but the joining up of the Lake Murray plant with the downtown plant I have seen some documents that y'all are beginning to move in that direction yes sir there are a few projects that we're including in our in our water CIP request for this year to bolster some interconnections to be able to share water so if we had a reduction in capacity from canal we'd have a little more these are very these are pretty small projects we are doing a we're hoping to renew our master plan for our water distribution system to look at any other low-hanging fruit to connect interconnect the two systems so manners so mayor the the interconnection I think that you might be speaking of we had we had conceptualized a 60-inch water line coming all the way down and that is prohibitively expensive right now and and we'll be in the future so we're talking about much smaller interconnections that could supplement some zones but we wouldn't be in a position to fully supply from Lake Murray the the alternate water the resilient water supply that intake is a much more cost-effective solution to be able to guarantee source of supply to the canal treatment plant regardless of the canal itself so the interconnection is is using finished water you connect to finish water yes the resilient Columbia is roll roll yes sir we are looking at ways that we can you know our systems growing in different areas we have a lot more room for expansion or a lake Murray treatment facility so we're looking for ways to utilize that we've seen quite a bit of industrial growth Mark Anthony brewing etc pulling off the canal plant so we're looking at ways to shed some of that canal base load to Lake Murray and I think there are a lot more cost-effective ways to do that rather than the 60 inch transmission line connecting the two facilities so those are hard lemonade flavor for an extra fee based on your presentation this morning the difference in the water coming out of Lake Murray treatment plant versus the Broad River treatment plant is huge we had to pay for that a few part per trillion and several tens of millions of dollars difference there potentially potentially we're hoping that doesn't come to fruition and any other questions thank you at that at this point those are the major projects updates that we're going to discuss publicly and we wanted to shift to the resilient Columbia fun I know Reverend McDowell probably wanted to weigh in on this item but we could related I mean my understanding from the last trips to Washington and so forth they're gonna be able there if we ended up in that situation there'd be different resources I don't know that holding two hundred and fourteen thousand dollars back right now it's gonna move the needle put it in the general fund let the manager decide where it goes yeah I don't know how you'd use it for COVID to be honest with you I mean I mean all the infrastructures there now we're at a whole different world than we were several weeks ago but so are we before we do that just so have clarity because I know there were a couple other items that were on the table that we potentially could have used the I suggest we we just move the 214 into to move it back to the general fund we'll we'll send them your way there's just one in particular that I think is being discussed that would you know maybe this could that was a 60,000 for the equity study we can yeah I don't know if I have enough information to make that call right now because if we're gonna do the 60,000 why not go general consensus everybody's good the 60,000 towards getting the community feedback on the equity study that was the request and the rest go and the rest you just want to wait I mean or do you can we move it into the general fund it's not going anywhere I mean well I think that's that's I guess that is my thing does it go into the general fund is a separate line item or does it go into just go to fund balance I don't have anything in particular I just know get tons of tons of requests that's more or less what I was thinking whatever you all and we're here to get direction I moved on from there Mr. DeVall Mr. Mayor I make a motion we go into executive session for discussion to manage relating to the proposed location expansion or provisional services encouraging location or expansion of industries or other businesses in the area served by the public body pursuant to 30-4-785 Olympia fire station the canal reconstruction Columbia Riverfront Gateway William Street extension 1601 assembly 22 21 Divine Street redevelopment 1401 Main Street outfit Washington Square CPT headquarters discussion of compensation of an employee pursuant to SC code 30-4 as 71 compensation and classification market analysis citywide compensation recommendations and fire pay plan receipt of legal advice relating to matters covered by attorney clamp privilege pursuant to 30-4 that's 78 to municipal court their second second motion is second madam clerk could you read the roll aye aye yes aye aye thank you


20 Mysteries in Work There is a good deal of time consumed in this world in planning for events that never occur. Sometimes I cannot help feeling that it would be an immense convenience to say the least if we could only know the end from the beginning. A knowledge of what was to come would have saved Miss Parkhurst from a weary day of arranging and rearranging for that interview with Mr. Tracy. No, on second thought it would but have added to her trouble and anxiety and given her sleepless nights and tearful hours. On the whole things are doubtless better as they are than as I would have made them. Mr. Tracy did not call on the evening in question in time for the opera. In fact he did not call at all. Into the dignity and aristocratic rush of business that obtains in a flourishing bank came one of those little papers that slipped so quietly through this world of ours with their electric voices and it said in six words what revealed a lifetime of pain. Mother, very low, come at once. Now it so happened that there was one person on earth whom Mr. Tracy loved almost better than he did himself and that one person was his mother. He looked at his watch and then at the traveller's guide in the morning paper, then he went with it to the inner office to consult with his superior. All the time there was such a stricken look on his face that you would have pitied him, however vexed you may be with him. There was need of haste, for the paper told of a three o'clock express and it was already two. So it came to pass that at eight o'clock, instead of sitting by Miss Parkhurst's side in the opera house as he had planned, he was curled in a dismal heap in the corner seat of a railroad car whirling toward Boston and only wishing that he could fly so slowly did they seem to move. He had been mindful of Miss Parkhurst, he had written underneath the telegram these words, this just arrived I must get the three o'clock train. Then twisting it had hailed the first boy who passed and sent it to her, but the boy loitered as some boys will and the consequence was the three o'clock train had been gone for an hour when she received the word. You are not to suppose Miss Parkhurst a hard-hearted girl when I tell you that she gave a little sigh of relief as she read this note. It was not that she did not sympathize with him, it was not that she would not have saved him from this trouble if she could have done so, but since she could not it was surely no harm to remember that it gave her more time to strengthen her heart and determine just what right was and do nothing rashly. The week which followed was a peculiarly hard one for Mr. Tracy. The scenes through which he had to pass ran directly a thwart his unspoken rule of life to have a free and easy life without thought for the morrow and its vexations. The vexations were upon him, nay the downright anxiety and trouble, and they would not be shaken off by a walk in the fresh air and a few puffs of cigar smoke. His mother was dying. He said, nonsense, to his sister, when she asserted with a burst of tears that there was no hope, spoke roughly to his father, told his mother that she must not think of giving up, that they were all frightened at their shadows, called the doctor a confounded niny and advised the sending for three others, all of different medical schools. But in his very heart he believed that they were right, and there was no hope for his mother.  A Christian mother she had been in the truest sense of that word, and her son, as he saw her follow him with wistful gaze, knew perfectly that her heaviest pain in this hour of trial was the thought of him. He knew that she felt the young and timid sister and the boy brother to be infinitely safer and more easily left than he. He knew he had it in his power to make her very happy for the last time in life by whispering in her dulling ear that he had taken her saviour for his friend and helper, and yet he did not do it. Verily human love is a weak and mysterious thing, and yet possibly I wrong him, I do not think he realized that he had it in his power to make her closing hours blessed. He looked upon conversion as a strange and mysterious something that must come to him from without, and with which his will had nothing to do. So at times he was half vexed with her for desiring him to have an experience outside of himself. They are all an inconsistent set. He muttered as he paced the dining-room alone, having just come from the wistful, clasping hand of his mother. They talk about conversion as an experience that comes only from God, and then blame people for not having it. Why on earth doesn't the Lord convert me if he wants me to be converted? Of course I do not mean to hint that Mr. Tracy believed this nonsense, for he really was gifted with common sense, and he knew perfectly well that God had not chosen to make a machine of him, subject to strings and wheels and bands, without an original motion of his own. No mortal could have resented such a change of plans more quickly than Mr. Tracy, and yet he took refuge behind this poor subterfuge or pretended to. Still I admit there was mystery about it to his mind, and there always would be so long as he spent his time in trying to understand that with which he had nothing to do, and passing over in contemptuous indifference the part that was plain to him. The simple truth was he had not the slightest desire to be a Christian. While his tastes and inclinations ran in another channel. He was decidedly of the earth, earthy, but he would have liked to please his mother, and it irritated him that he was unable to do so. It seemed necessary to lay the blame somewhere, and as he was not accustomed to blaming himself there was no resource but to blame his Creator. So he went on, sitting much with his mother, taking his share of the watching during the long dreary nights, feeling in spite of himself the solemnity of the shadow of death creeping over him, yet trying with all the force of his nature to shake it off, and keeping himself in a state bordering on anger with everybody and everything. Very little chance had that mother to say anything now. It must have been a happy thought to her that she had not left her work until this hour of weakness, but that of late every loving motherly letter that went from her room to her distant son had pulsed with the eager longing of her heart to see her son safe in the fold. Now her voice was almost gone, and the most that she could give was a low whispered hope that she would have her first born with her again in heaven. His wistful appeals he invariably answered by soft kisses pressed on the hot cheeks and lips, tender, clinging kisses, but only kisses not promises. Yet the memory of the disappointed look in her eyes sometimes drove him half-wild when he went to the silence of his own room to get rest and sleep. The end came suddenly. How strange it is that however much one may be watching for and dreading the coming of the angel of death, still his coming is a bitter surprise. We had not thought it would be this morning or to-night. He sat alone beside his mother, she was sleeping, and more quietly than it was her won't to do. A distant clock had just wrung out twelve solemn strokes, and Mr. Tracy, who had risen to shade the lamp more carefully, as he tiptoed back to his seat beside her, looked at his mother's face, and stopped, and it seemed to him that his heart stopped beating. He had never looked upon the face of one dying, yet, as by swift instinct, he knew that death was there. Mother, he said, and even then he noticed the strange sound there was in his own voice. Mother, don't look so. What is it?  What is it? It is heaven, she said, and her voice was clear and ringing, not at all as it had been during the last week. No, George, I want nothing, only this, see to it that you come home in time. And then, though he roused out of the spell which seemed to hold him, and rang the nurse's bell and sent for his father, and rang the servant's bell, and ordered the doctor to be summoned with all speed, and brought ammonia and camphor and the most pungent restoratives, and worked with a fierceness and a determination that made the frightened lookers on shudder, his mother spoke no more, breathed no more, but lay there still and smiling, just as she had looked when she said, it is heaven, and yet, with the solemnity that she had looked when she said that other sentence that would ring for so many long nights and weary days through his brain, see to it that you come home in time. So the end was reached. Mr. Tracey's mood changed after there was no more chance to see his mother's smile, changed to that of sullen vindictiveness. He felt wronged, almost insulted. Why should his mother have died? Other mothers lived to old age. He had planned that his mother was to visit him when he had a home of his own. In short, this rude stranger had broken in on a whole array of plans, and ruthlessly held sway until he made it impossible ever in that direction to plan again. A most unhappy son and brother did Mr. Tracey prove the few remaining days that he spent at the homestead, so hopelessly solemn, not to say sullen, that the grief-stricken father, who was trying hard to keep from sinking, was feigned to avoid him, and I am obliged to confess that it was with an actual sigh of relief that father and sister turned away from the departing train that bore him homeward. Meantime he had not forgotten Miss Parkhurst. Almost every evening a line had been sent to her, full of gloomy forebodings and dismal repinings over the threatened shadow. She on her part was very tender and sympathetic, and the cloud that had risen between them seemed to have lost itself in this real trouble. Curiously enough, the strongest feeling that Miss Parkhurst had, when she thought of Mr. Hammond and her conversation with him, was a sense of thankfulness that he had kept her from revealing more than she had of their estrangement. She had felt so touched by his sympathy, she was so free-hearted naturally, that she had been on the very verge of telling him the whole story. It was so pleasant now to think he had kindly checked her, and that no one but George and herself knew ought about it. She told Mr. Hammond the story of her friend's impending trouble, and heard his earnestly expressed sympathy, and then they too had engaged to pray that the cloud might have a very silvery lining, that indeed it might be the means of leading him to a better sense of life and a higher reaching after comfort and happiness. It chanced that the letter containing the news of his actual bereavement did not reach her so early as it should, and he was but a few hours ride away when she sat with the sympathetic tears dropping on her cheek, reading the bitter story. Mr. Hammond was again the first one to extend his sympathy. He called with a business message for the mother, and met her as she came downstairs. Oh, Mr. Hammond! She said, coming forward as one who had learned to expect sympathy from him. Mrs. Tracy is dead, and George is nearly heartbroken. He loved his mother as I think few young men do. It is a heavy loss, said this young man with tender, tremulous voice, and eyes that were humid. It was nine years since he had buried his mother, and the name was so dear to him that he could not speak it now without a trembling of lips. It was the evening for prayer meeting, and they walked down to the church together, talking all the way about this matter. Miss Parkhurst, some way, had a feeling that Mr. Hammond was an elder brother who was immensely interested in George and herself. The Lord has many ways of calling his own. He said, as they neared the church, this may be his chosen method of enticing your friend within the fold. This was his answer to her expressed fear that the trial would have a tendency to harden the young man more against religion. It was not ten minutes after they left the house that Mr. Tracy rang the bell violently, and received with frowning face the intelligence that Cora had gone to prayer meeting. I had forgotten that miserable meeting, he said discontentedly. I should have thought Cora would have waited for me. I told her I was coming. Then your letter couldn't have reached her, the mother said, ready as a mother always is to find excuse for her daughter. In fact I am sure it didn't, for she told me not an hour ago about getting the news of your mother's. I know, he said, interrupting her hastily. Mr. Tracy was one of those strange human beings who, a trouble once having actually fallen upon them, want as little as possible said about it. Then he betook himself in all haste and speed to the Harvard Place prayer meeting. Cora he must see as soon as possible, and he was in no mood to loiter the time away until the close of meeting. He took a seat near the door, and waited with what patience he could for that to pass in which he conceived that he had no earthly interest. It was just two weeks since he had sat there before, a great deal can transpire in two weeks, and the later events that had come to him had been of such a nature as to make the earlier ones retire into the background. He hardly remembered that his last meeting with Cora had ended in a quarrel. He simply knew that his heart was sick and sore, and that he needed soothing and petting. She knew just how to give him this to his satisfaction. This was not such a meeting as you have formerly attended in Harvard Place Church. During these two weeks the spirit of God had come very near to the Harvard people. I doubt if they will ever again have just such meetings as they used to have. Something happened that recalled Mr. Tracy sharply to the present. It was the sound of the voice that he pleased to think belonged solely to him. I have found Christ very precious to me this week. This simple sentence was all she said, and yet what a whirl it raised in the brain of one listener! In an instant that annoying past rose before him, and it had lost none of its importance by reason for being for a time forgotten. It was simply forgotten because he looked upon it as a thing of the past that was not to occur again. He had supposed that his wish was law in this matter, and however annoyed, or even actually angry, Miss Parkhurst might be about it, the idea that she would composedly do again the thing that he had expressly declared must not be done had not for a moment presented itself to him. I shall not attempt to describe the fever of indignation into which he worked himself. The manner in which he had chosen to accept the teachings of the last two weeks had not tended to help him in this experience. He heard not a single other word that was spoken during the half hour that followed. He gave himself up to the arrangement of the next scene. He should wait for her as usual, and meet her as quietly as though she had not angered him beyond endurance. They would have no more outside exhibitions. But in the course of their walk home he would say to her, with the utmost quietness and plainness, that this thing had gone on quite as far as it was at all necessary, that she must decide then and there whether she really did intend to move in exact opposition to his expressed wish not to say command. If she did it would be better for their lives to part there before further trouble grew out of it. Thus coolly he planned, seeming to have an idea that the day when wives were simply dutiful subjects of a stronger will had returned again. Let me tell you a strange thing about this young man. Can you understand that this excitement of feeling had its outgrowth in jealousy? He was practically jealous of her Christian life, of this presence that he did not understand, and that she said in a tone of such quiet assurance that she felt. He wanted her to feel no presence that he did not understand and sympathize with. He wanted her to be content with him. So long as religion had only been to her a name and a certain sense of propriety and respectability, he was content to let it alone. But the moment it became a living, pervading idea he hated it. But this was the man who had heard only so recently that solemn sentence, Be sure that you come home in time. Verily he was travelling very far away from home now, and at that very moment two hearts were praying that the journey home might be already begun. The benediction spoken Mr. Tracey rushed out and stepped a little in the shadow. He knew he was not expected there, and he was in no mood to meet any one. Ten minutes before, little Timmy Hughes had sauntered that way, and into the very shadow that Mr. Tracey assayed to step, he had thrown the peel from his last quarter of orange. A strange thing it was, in this chapter of tragedy, if any one could have traced it, that the giver of the orange was Miss Cora Parkhurst. On that very bit of orange, no larger than a penny, Mr. Tracey stepped. In an instant his foot slipped, and his forehead struck against the sharp projecting corner of the stone window seat. That excited brain, with its dark, angry whirl of thoughts, how utterly unprepared it was to endure a blow. The one who caught him as he fell, and who supported him while a carriage could be called, and who went to his boarding-house with him and spent the night, that anxious troubled night at his unconscious bedside, was Mr. Hammond. CHAPTER XXI Work done by the master Now all the plans and fears and hopes were changed. What a wonderful and terrible thing a little bit of orange peel can become! Oh, the days and nights that followed! The old story of pain and fear and agony of apprehension to be lived over! So many people know all about it. Miss Parkhurst was taking her first lessons. Her life had been one long stretch of sunlight. She felt that the night had dropped down on her suddenly without any twilight warning. Mr. Tracey's sickness was very sad in some respects. He was very friendless for a young man who had such a host of friends. There was no mother to come to him, and he had never been sick before without feeling the touch of her tender hand all about him. The young sister could not come, for the father had sickened almost immediately after his son's departure, and needed all the strength and wisdom she had. But he missed none of them except in a wild, delirious way. There was little doubt that his thoughts were busy with the past in some of its forms. Those about him did not understand what his fancies were, and puzzled in vain over the probable meaning of the constantly and earnestly repeated sentence, See to it that you come home in time! Mother said so, I must do it! He said to Mr. Hammond on one of these occasions, fixing anxious, troubled eyes on his face, and thereupon Mr. Hammond concluded that he understood it, and that the sick brain was busy with the scenes of childhood, and anxious over some command of his mother's, perhaps a command that was disobeyed and had come back from childhood memories to haunt him. He tried, on the strength of this interpretation, to soothe the troubled sufferer, assuring him that he should certainly go. They would help him to start in ample time to get home. If he had known what home was meant, and felt the solemnity of his promised help, it would have made him tremble. There would have seemed to him need of haste, for there was scarcely a hope that the threat of life would not snap. The manner in which Mr. Hammond devoted himself to the sick man, who had not by any means been his friend, was a matter of wonderment to many a looker on. Every moment that could be spared from business was devoted to him, and far into the night, nearly every night, he was the alert, careful watcher. Even Miss Parkhurst, in the midst of her tearful thanksgivings over this marked care, was filled with surprise as to its cause. Its causes, I should have said. They were fourfold.  So many friends to spend evenings with him, at the opera, at parties and sleigh rides, and entertainments of all sorts, so few who had the ability or the inclination to give him intelligent, self-sacrificing care. Then, too, he had just buried his mother. Since Mr. Hammond was sick with a fever, and it was a year after his mother's grave had closed over, but he remembered even after the lapse of so many years the sick longing that he felt to have one touch of that mother's hand. Even that experience was being visited in blessing on Mr. Tracey's head. Then, too, he had a great pity in his heart for Miss Parkhurst.  He had an unselfish desire to help and comfort her. Finally, there was a sad, sore feeling at his heart that this life was slipping away, and there was a whole long array of neglected opportunities staring him in the face. Times when, if he had but endured what was distasteful and cultivated a kindly interest in this young man, instead of holding him aloof, he might have helped him. Who could be sure that he might not have saved him? So he waited with patient prayerful watching in the hope and longing that the quiet interval would come when reason would resume her sway long enough for him to say, Forgive me, and let me speak a word for my master. Meantime, almost of necessity, he became the communicating link between the sick room and the anxious watcher at her home. She had neither the physical endurance nor the wisdom sufficient to make her a helpful nurse, and her anxious mother eagerly decided that it was best for her to keep entirely aloof. Glad in her heart that the peculiar nature of the young man's sickness made him oblivious to all sights and sounds. For who could tell what might not develop from a sick room? His parkhurst's horror of infection was such that she imagined even a brain fever might suddenly change into smallpox or some other horrid disease so she willingly and thankfully stayed away. And Mr. Hammond, knowing how much he was depended upon, how utterly his word was trusted, and feeling an unutterable pity for the sad-hearted girl, accepted the situation and acted the part of friend and brother to the utmost. It is very strange indeed, she said, with a heavy sigh, as, after having come with a message from Mr. Tracey's room, he waited while Mrs. Parkhurst made up a basket of sick room comforts.  If she dreaded and shunned sickness, there was still a basket ready to fill and a shelf in her storeroom where it belonged, and she seemed to know by a sort of instinct what ought to go into it for the sick and suffering. Since her basket did what her presence could never have done, gave help and comfort, may she not be forgiven for withholding the latter? It is very strange indeed, I cannot understand it, I have puzzled over it until my head whirls.  Now that I am eager and anxious to do all that I can, and at this time when there is so much to do, and my girls so need the help that I can give them, I am so troubled and sad that I seem unable to think of anything. It seems so strange that I should be led in this way at just this time. Now I think that Miss Parkhurst fully expected an encouraging answer from the gentle man. She was depressed and troubled. She could not rise to the heights of restful faith. She had been too long a stranger to trustfulness to rest easily, but she knew the way of such natures as Mr. Hammons. She could fancy the assuring words that he would speak, the calm, cheerful reminder that the Lord would take care of his own work. She could not use such language herself because she had not learned to feel it, but knowing that the man before her had long lived a very different life from hers, and knowing that he meant such words in his very soul, it helped and rested her to hear them. But Mr. Hammond had been working very hard, and sitting up of nights, taking heavy responsibilities. He sympathized with Miss Parkhurst's depressed feelings more than he liked to admit even to himself. The ways of Providence seemed very strange to him. He had been praying and working for his boys for many weary months. Now he was just beginning to hope for them. The strongest and most hopeless one had deserted the enemy's ranks, and the hearts of the others seemed more impressable. It had seemed just the time for extra effort and attention. He had planned so much that he had intended to do for them.  To give up all these plans and sit quietly down most of the time with folded hands in a sick room required a stretch of faith beyond which his blind eyes could not take him, and he answered with a sigh. The bell tolled for evening meeting. Shall you try to go? He asked Miss Parkhurst, and she answered quickly. I can't. I tried that last week, and I am so weak and nervous, so anxious, that it is impossible for me to sit still. I have lost all control of myself, I think, and I know my girls are watching me, and that makes the matter worse. No, I shall not try to go. It seems very sad that I cannot work now that my heart is in it. Despite his effort to feel differently, it seemed so to Mr. Hammond. He had meant to interest Larry Bates in this meeting, at least he had hoped to get him to be present, and he knew that Lester was at work for Will Gordon, and looked to him for help. How strange it was that he should have, instead, to spend the evening with a man who had not even been a friend, held there by a cord that was very strong to a nature like his. The consciousness that there was responsibility to assume, and that he knew both what to do and how to do it, which was more than could be said of the few who were at hand to help. His sigh was more long drawn than before, as he said, It is certainly a very strange providence. And then he rallied just enough to say, but we must try to trust, saying it with a very one smile, as if he meant, however dark the day, and however discouraging the prospect, they would hope that it would come right somehow, even though it did require a heavy strain on one's faith. And it was just such meager, low-born feelings as these, that the master is obliged to accept from us as faith. Well, good night! Mr. Hammond said, at last, as the basket was pronounced ready, Try to keep up as good courage as you can. You shall hear at once if there is any difference between this and morning. No, I do not expect to leave him. I have engaged to watch to-night. Then he hurried away, leaving Miss Parker's thankful indeed for his help and his faithfulness. But oh, so heavy-hearted! There were two letters written that evening, and you shall have a copy of each of them. The first was Miss Parker's, addressed to Mr. Hammond. It was written an hour after prayer meeting. It ran thus. Mr. Hammond, my dear friend, I feel very much ashamed. I must have appeared a very weak and worthless Christian in your eyes this evening. I do not say in the eyes of my Saviour, for he who knows just how weak and foolish I am, knows also that I love him, though I may not appear to do so. But to think that I should have the folly to suppose that he could not take care of my girls without me, when he has had to do it without my help all these years. I have just heard from the meeting. I wonder if you have. Your Lester St. John took a decided stand. And, don't you think, May and Fanny Horton both said they wanted to be Christians. Sarah came to me afterward, and she says Fanny thought there must be something in the religion that could sustain me at this time. That makes me very humble, for I feel that I have not let it sustain me as it would have done. But isn't it blessed in all this trouble to think that the girls are coming, my girls whom I have misled so long? Celia, too, the last one for whom I had hope, sends me word that she is thinking. And oh, one thing was so kind and precious that I must tell you of it. Fanny and May sent me word that they are learning to pray, and that they would pray for me and for my dear friend tonight. God bless them for that. I feel stronger. I think God will save George's life. Do you know that next to him I shall know that I am to thank you? I wish I could tell you how very grateful I feel to you. It does not seem as strange to me as it did. Miss Providence, I mean, I have a faint, glimmering feeling of great things that may be brought to pass out of it. I suppose there is a place higher than that which is to know that God will bring to pass great things for those who trust him out of all pain. But he is very patient with my blunderings. The letter closed abruptly for the reason that there came a messenger from Mr. Hammond bringing a note to her, and she waited only to see that there was no worse news than she had had during the day. Then she sent her letter back by the same messenger, and sat down to read what Mr. Hammond had to tell her. This was his letter. Dear friend, you came to a broken reed for comfort this evening. I can only hope that you were driven to the strong arm and are resting there. What a foolish thing this is that we dignify by the name of faith. It seems we can only trust just as far as we can see the shadow of the footsteps. I have had a wonderful evening. It began in gloom. The silent companion on the bed was more quiet and restful than usual. In my ignorance I feared it to be a bad sign. Let me tell you right here that it is the most hopeful one we have had for many a day. And my heart was very heavy. I was motioned to the door to meet Will Gordon. His father had sent him to inquire and to offer help. That being done, he tarried for a moment. Then turning took my hand and said, Mr. Hammond, I wanted you to know that the question is settled. I have gone over to the king's side. Just that and he rushed away. Can you imagine what that was to me? My boy Will, for whom I have so longed and prayed, coming to me at the moment when my heart was filled with questioning thoughts as to why I should not be permitted to get him to go to the meeting with me this evening as I had planned. Will was scarcely gone when the boy brought a drop letter from Larry. It was characteristic, only two lines. It is done at last, and when I decide anything, you know it is decided. I knew what he meant. Two boys, think of it! And I in my weakness had spent this day in lamentation. Oh, Miss Parkhurst, you and I are not the right sort of teachers yet. We must remember that we are only underteachers, assistants, and because we are trampled is no sign that the principal cannot do his work well. Now my friend, you will think we had victory enough for one evening, but in the course of the next half hour came Wells Horton to see Mr. Tracy. He shivered a little as he stood looking at him. Then to my surprise he quoted solemnly, There is but a step betwixt me and death. You did not know that I was familiar with a Bible verse, did you? He asked, noticing my surprised look. But I tell you I have thought of but little else since this accident. I have passed through a strange conflict since that time, but I wish the dear fellow knew that I had learned to pray and that I am praying God to give him back to us. Dear Miss Parkhurst, I tell you this in detail because I think it will answer some of your sad questions tonight. God is calling these young men to himself, and strangely enough the means that he is using, in this instance at least, is this accident that has seemed to us so utterly dreadful. What may he not be going to bring to pass through it? My faith has taken a higher reach. It would be strange if it could not with all these helps to lift one. I believe that God will give your friend to us in a renewed life, not physically only, but spiritually. Take heart of grace. There are new voices praying tonight that have never prayed before, and they are asking for him. The Lord forgive us for trembling and doubting, and feeling that our ways of working were the only ways. There are depths of mercy that we cannot understand, but let us learn to trust. There was a little note that followed this. Before Miss Parkhurst had finished reading it, a hurriedly written sentence on the back of an envelope. These words. Midnight, the doctor is here. He says there has been a change. The breathing is becoming natural, the pulse is better, and he is almost certain that all will be well. The Lord reigns and is all-powerful and wonderful in his loving-kindness. It was after reading that sentence that Miss Parkhurst fell on her knees, and the prayer that she prayed for Mr. Tracy was such as God hears. End of Chapter 21 End of Cunning Workmen by Pansy Recording by Tricia G. Thanks for listening.


Hello again, everyone. Thank you for coming to our presentation. I will just take a brief moment to do my share screen here. And let us see. I'm sure you can see that. Right. Okay, so thank you again for attending our presentation. My name is Regina Gong and I am from Michigan State University. I am the OER and Student Success Librarian there. And I have Aaron. Hello, everyone. My name is Aaron. I use he him pronouns. I am currently serving as the ASM issue or the associate students of Michigan State University's Vice President for academic affairs. I'm a third year MSU so I'm a junior this year, studying secondary education, social relations and policy. But prior to my position as the VPAA, I also served as the representative for undergraduates in the College of Education at MSU as well. And that's where I got my start for advocating for OER across campus. And then that is Aaron's email and if you want to follow him on Twitter, that is his Twitter handle. My name is Regina again. And in my capacity as the OER and Student Success Librarian at MSU, I lead the OER program as well as the OER award program at Michigan State. I also manage our open textbook publishing by press books. And as part of what I do, I give a lot of professional development presentations to our faculty, staff, librarians on various topics that deal with open. And since last academic year and onto this academic year, I have been facilitating the open pedagogy learning community at MSU. So this presentation is really all about student advocacy and support. I know that our students are at the heart of what I do or what we all do in the open and I'm so proud that I am sharing this presentation with Aaron, who is our student leader at MSU. So before we start, we just want to share with you our origin story or how we came to be here in the open. So for me, I started at a community college. So back in 2014, I became the OER project manager at Lansing Community College. So that is not far from MSU. It's just in downtown Lansing. And in that role, I led a very successful OER program at LCC. And in a community college where a lot of students are non-traditional and it's a commuter college, I was able to harness the power of student participation and advocacy by starting with our student employees in the library. I'll talk about that more as we go along, but let's hear about Aaron's origin story. Aaron, tell us about it. Yeah, so as I said before, before I came to the position I am now as the Vice President for Academic Affairs at ASM issue. Last year I served as a representative in the General Assembly, which is the legislative body for the undergraduate population as the representative of the College of Education. And you know this was a time during the pandemic. So one of the biggest and most pressing issues that I was trying to tackle is how do we make sure that we are still giving students access and access to an affordable education. Back in my mind, you know, there were many things that were often harder to push for such as decreasing tuition because those have other externality, more externalities to them, such as you know state appropriations and just, you know, cost of functioning the universities but I look deeper and think like how can we actually decrease those hitting costs as I like to call them for students which includes, you know, buying textbooks or you know seeking transportation or other costs that you don't see on your tuition bill right away. So I wanted to try to tackle that first and my first instinct is like, let's tackle the issue of the increasing cost of education materials that students would have to purchase. So in my experience, I've definitely spent at least $500 once on, you know, textbooks, e codes, which I could have used you know to pay rent to pay down my student debts to even maybe buy some gas so I can travel home to go see my parents who live an hour away. And that, you know, my experience is one of over 40,000 students experienced here at I'm issues campus so I really wanted to tackle that issue head on. Starting with you know just education materials and the cost of those so you know my first instinct was let's create a textbook library where you know a service where we can, you know, buy textbooks and check them out to students. You know, looking further into it, it was not sustainable, it was not, you know, encompassing of all the issues. So digging a little bit deeper and researching more I stumbled across open educational resources and I found the many benefits that it had not only that it, you know, addressed the overall issues of you know those increasing increasing costs of buying them but also address issues of you know how do we teach students how do we encourage students and how do we, you know, create a better learning environment for students so as I was doing my research and research more into that I happened to stumble across the MSU libraries live guide page on OER which is ran by Regina. And I found it interesting that we at MSU already had a system in place that is fostering OER initiatives. And so I said, Hey, if there's a system in place let's let's get on board with this so if Regina wants to go to the next slide I actually emailed her around October last year so almost, I think, over a month ago yeah over a month ago we or over a year ago I sent this email to her, saying that I found your web, your web page and I found it really interesting let's let's get together let's talk I want to learn more about what what MSU is currently doing and how as MSU can help. So that's kind of like my long origin story in OER. And that's how I found Regina and now my, my partner in crime as I like. You know what, when everyone said that to me 526pm. I think I like I jumped to my feet and like, oh my gosh it's like, you know, someone from as MSU is emailing me about OER. I, you know, replied right away and told him when can we meet. And I think within two days we met in my office right. Within like the week we've met virtually, and I was just a static that you responded to me in such a quick manner I wasn't expecting an email that I jumped right to let's we scheduled the meeting and I, you know, I learned more about what we're already doing with OER and how as MSU could help out with that. And as you know, all of you know you all of you here in this Zoom room working with and involving students is really critical in any OER initiative. And if you were at this morning's plenary when we were doing the Mentimeter questions, we asked, we asked the community what, what motivates you to do OER work and a lot of you says it's our student, right. And so, if we are doing this for our student, it really is critical that we let them be involved in the work that we do. So, um, yeah, so this is actually the this general assembly. Can you tell us more about this and then I'll follow up with what happened. Definitely. So our General Assembly is made out of representatives based on population from all the degree granted colleges that have undergraduate students in them so that ranges from the College of Agriculture natural resources to James Mandelson's to the College of Public Policy to the College of Nursing so each student each college gets representative representatives additionally to our other groups on campus such as the Coors and Cops which are the Council of Racial and Ethnic Students and the Council of Progressive Students as well as other major governing groups such as fraternities and sororities and the Housing Cooperative and the Students Athletes Advisory Committee. So, we have a wide range of representatives that represent, you know, all the diverse backgrounds at ASMSU. So, we have the people in like this in the side right here in the front here that you can kind of see me in the corner looking at my laptop there that's our office is the president whose kinds of navigates the advocacy that the General Assembly passes so that's the most important thing the General Assembly does is they pass our legislations and policies that we want to pursue on MSU's campus or in the broader community around us. And that is also my first involvement with our student government so I came on board at MSU in July 2019 and I really want to reach out to our student government and so you know I through our dean, we were able to get an agenda time, right, an agenda in one of their General Assembly meeting and I think that was October 2019 when I was invited to talk to their General Assembly I was given 25 minutes to talk about OER. And at the time, Aaron wasn't involved in ASMSU yet because you came on board in 2020, right, like spring. So, at the time, you know, Aaron probably doesn't know about the OER initiative because he wasn't in the in the GA assembly yet, but in that presentation that I did with the student government I was able to connect with Aaron's predecessor Brie Aiello, who was the vice president for academic affairs and she was so excited to be working with me with our OER initiative and at the time I was telling her that I am thinking of forming an OER advisory committee and I would love for her to be part of it. And so that was that was the start of my relationship with ASMSU. So as I was saying, this is the OER program advisory committee members. This is the new one now, that's why Aaron is there. The first member, student ASMSU member is Brie Aiello. And like I said, that's Aaron's predecessor and another student, student leader representing a different college. So there's two students in the advisory committee and right now Aaron is there as the VPAA and we are going to do a call for membership in the next GA assembly that I will be a guest again. So Aaron, just want to talk about how does ASMSU advocate support and champion OER? Yeah, so definitely. So one of the primary ways that ASMSU just advocates for anything is by passing legislation through our general assembly, which is again legislative body. So after that initial meeting with Regina, I said to her, let's create a bill. I mean, that's the starting point for all our advocacy at ASMSU. So over the next week and before the next full session, we're all the general assembly representatives meet. We drafted this bill. So our bills kind of have a basic structure of who's introducing it, what the bill is meant for and then kind of our argument and then later our resolve. So just to kind of go over the bill a little bit, we wanted to initially start off with what was the issue at hand and the main issue at play was that students are spending a lot of money on, you know, buying textbooks and education materials, oftentimes out of pocket if they don't if they're not eligible for Pell grants or grants from the university or from scholarships. That includes also access codes, which have been have been more prevalent in classes now and I have personal experience with that I've for my freshman year to now I have been using more online textbooks with one time access codes. And then I am using a physical textbook. So those were our first, you know, arguments and then we got into the arguments of, you know, what is we are and how that can address the issue so we talked about initially what, you know, we are is and then talking about what we are can do. So we went from, you know, OERs are, you know, these materials that reside in the public domain and permitted for free use, and they can be, you know, not just textbooks but homework assignments quizzes labs activities that students students actually have the part taken oftentimes are graded on, and then OERs also allow some, you know, customization to the content classes to fit, you know, real world issues, you know, real time issues, as well as addressing the most important aspect which is, it's not only affordable but it opens up the doors for more students as well. And then we continue with that talking about MSU is OER program and how that's in existence, and then the last part of the bill which is on the next slide. We, we did our call to action so resolve that the, the associates units of Michigan State University shall advocate that MSU's undergraduate courses utilize more open educational resources for instruction materials and most importantly when it's specifically appropriate so we were advocating that professors look at their current, you know, instruction methods and see if using an OER was something that they could utilize in their classes. We understand that you know not all courses at MSU will benefit from OER but we understand that if we can get classes that can do can use OER, that's where we wanted to start, but not only do we want to see the utilization and more OERs but just an expansion So that means, you know, expanding the program that we have on campus already expanding the use of OER to other courses, especially in other, you know, study areas that you may not initially see as beneficial of using OERs but could be. So yeah, and then we passed that over 29 so again if you look at the date between our first email and then very fast, yeah it was very fast, we worked really fast when when Aaron told me I wanted to really to sponsor a bill on OER we didn't waste time I think we crafted this bill within three days. So and I really am proud because really this is collaborative. And there's four pages in that bill. We set the stage as Aaron was saying but but also Aaron it's aspirational and I think this is unique because ASM is to you in your resolved clause, you mentioned that throughout MSU undergrad courses. Right. Yes. And so, so we have this this bill right we have this bill that the ASM is used student body has passed, and we publicize aside from that how can how can the student government help make OER sustainable. So definitely I mean the first way that we make it sustainable is that it is present on our mission.  So this was actually a succeeding bill that we passed to create an awareness week that aligns with open at week, so that we can engage a student body, but most importantly faculty members on the utilization and the usefulness of OERs. And you know that's embedded within our mission as the student government is to enhance individual and collective student experience through education. So additionally with that I can go more into detail about what we did last year for our inaugural awareness week, which was from March 1 to March 5. Because of the time that was was during the pandemic, most of our events were online more informational. So we had at the beginning of the week we kicked off with a featured video featuring Regina. And throughout the week we did you know social media campaigns, and then one of the best things that we did was do a panel with faculty members who have adopted OER, and you know talked about their experiences adopting it talked about how they were very official in their classrooms, and I attended it and also was one of the moderators for it and you know the student interest and it was very, you know, that was great in my opinion you know we had about 20 to 30 students in that panel just wanting to know about what is this, you know, what can I do to you know, increase this increase this movement around campus. And another way we like to keep stuff sustainable is making sure that there's a presence all over. So one of the ways that we make sure that there's a presence of our services or our advocacy is through our merge distribution so last year we asked our marketing department to create some OER merchandising, so they created this little notebook which you know which is first off recyclable it's always out of recyclable material so it's sustainable in that way. But also stickers because we know that students love to put stickers on their laptops or the tablets or their water bottles so you know we made a sticker so students can add that to their collection of stickers and you know, other students can see it. And you know ask questions about it if they if they initially knew what an OER was. I think there's some. Just interrupt. We actually ASMSU earmarked some funds to buy this merchandise and they had so you had your designer designed this logo, right the MS, ASMSU branded OER logo of course it has to be Spartan green. I think it's 1500 is that right. We allocate actually just $1,000 as a pilot to this so a little quick context ASMSU collects a student tax every semester about $21 on which funds all the services and programs we offer but also includes a general fund where we can pull out for you know donations allocations so the GA was ecstatic to give $1,000 to start this initiative and they're probably gonna be ecstatic more to give more money so we can increase our awareness week programming in the future. And we went around the library distributing merchandise to our students who are there that was around March right right after the semester break and also some of some of your your student colleagues Aaron I think distributed it in the residential halls in the union in various locations around MSU right. And we also have some at our office at our like office space where students can come in we have a little table with all that. With all the information about our advocacy and I think we still have maybe a couple more stickers left from there but we're definitely going to get more this year because we knew that was that was such a hit especially with only only a small handful of students on campus, you know, time. Yeah, and so, you know, because you are the student government you have that pulse of the student right, but can you tell us about how do you help us advocate for we are with administration and faculty and the unique role that you as a student leader occupy in in the governance at MSU. So one of the great privileges that I have as the VP a and as well as my predecessor Brie yellow had was that we had regular meetings with you know top administrators at the university. I have monthly meetings with the provost which is the executive vice president for academic affairs at MSU, and we also have biweekly meetings with the undergraduate associate provost. So, you know, having these months of these really regular meetings allows me to really, you know, argue that these initiatives, especially we are is what's beneficial for the student body more specifically the undergraduate population. One of the things that we are currently working on right now as an organization because we had a lot of bills that dealt with undergraduate education and this is kind of one of the forefront initiatives is creating a best teaching slash instructors guideline. And that's something that we're currently working with the office of the provost to create so instructors can look at that kind of guideline sheet and see what they can implement in their classrooms to make sure that their students are successful. Additionally, you know, MSU just recently passed our strategic plan, which is a 10 year plan and goals that we want to achieve by the year 2030. And the first and the first listed goal and initiative is student success so we were able, you know, we are now able to argue that, you know, if you want students to succeed you want students to graduate at higher rates if you want students to have a more well rounded and diverse education, only ours is one of those initiatives that can that can drive that goal. So we're in talks with you know with the again with the associate provost for undergraduate education's office on how we can begin persuading faculty members and instructors to utilize we are in the classroom in their construction. Overall, you know, when it comes to student success students know what's best for their success because we're in the classrooms every day we understand we know we, we, we know like what's what's working for us what's not working for us and I remember looking at some of the surveys and many students love the use of OERs and I think we'll get that. We'll get to that and to your point, to your point, Aaron, you know the proximity to power right that you have as student leader is really integral for for us, you know, we are leaders who may not have that regular meeting right with with the provost or certainly with the associate provost graduate education or undergraduate education and when it comes to faculty, this is what we did right when when we did the Open, Open Education Aware Awareness Week, we awarded or the ASMSU student body awarded the OER leadership award to our faculty OER creators so I worked with them to determine who are the faculty who are using OER created OER and we did a list and they printed this out and Bri was still the the VPAA at the time next year when we do our Open OER Awareness Week you are going to sign this right, yeah. And I think let's get to the part, oh, if we can go, yeah, I think it's because the part obviously with faculty members so at the end of the day faculties are the individuals that get to decide how they instruct their students so we also not only conduct administrators but we also were circulating letters to you know leadership and faculty to address you know using OERs as an instruction a part of their instruction.  Let me test it out let me see if that works for my course. And we're seeing I hope we're seeing more faculty members getting involved or you know, you know moving into using OERs in their classrooms for students. Yes, and we are we are increasing our OER creators and adopters of OER. And as you were alluding to Aaron earlier so beyond cost savings. This are some of the things that our students are telling us right how does the use of OER in their courses impacted them and this narrative. This narrative is not new to us right in our survey we are able to dig deep into the impact that we have with traditionally underrepresented students and so we have these testimonials attributed to first gen Pell eligible students and how it is impacting them. Can you speak more about this. Yes, definitely. So, you know, talking with representatives, especially the representatives who supported the OER bill, you know I was asking them, you know, what else is this mean to students, and many pointed them, many pointed out those especially who had who were already using OERs in their classrooms that they thought their instruction was more meaningful. So, you know, these OERs allow us to, you know, take present issues and insert that into the curriculum or even in the textbook, which is something that students crave nowadays you know they're not just wanting to learn about theories and you know bullet points they want to know how we can use that information in the real world when we get into our actual professions in the future. And I think that OERs allow that to happen where you know, you know professors can insert articles of you know what happened that day or what happened recently or they can insert you know information that's relatively new. So allows real world learning to occur and especially large classrooms or oftentimes OERs are used, but I think one of the most important, you know, the successes of OERs is that addresses one of the other issues that students have and that is mental health. So as MSU has, you know, long standing advocacy on improving mental health at the university. And I think OER especially at the time during COVID, you know, would would have been very beneficial to students, especially, you know, since COVID had impacted many of their financial situations impacted, you know their proximity to MSU and their access to textbooks. I remember you know herring some students say that I cannot get my textbook from the local bookshop that sells it because I am literally all the way across the across the coast, and I have to wait now to get it. And even weren't able to purchase her textbooks until a couple weeks into the semester already behind on their work. OERs allow them to immediately have that because it's again it's in the public domain, it's used. It can be used by anyone and it's readily available and again read and readily changeable when needed. And I think, you know, these testimonies speak to itself, you know, once that I love this book so helpful and well written. I enjoy the fact it was very comprehensive. The quality was great so OERs you know they match the quality of the textbooks that we were already getting and buying but it addresses those other issues that students have which is you know how my education in general but also my mental health and my well being as well. Yeah, and you know I want to address some of the things that are in the chat I have not seen it yet but you know we want to have some time for Q&A. So lastly, what can you recommend you know that we do as OER leaders so that we can collaborate more with students and student government leaders. OER has been you know some of the challenging areas in OER work and OER advocacy harnessing the power of student participation collaboration and engagement with the greater OER initiative on campus. So what might be the ways in which we can we can do that. One of the big ways that you know we OER leaders can collaborate with students and student governments is first off presence. You know I would have never figured out that OERs were a thing unless until I found out that MSU had a lib guide about it so making sure that you know that initiative is accessible and present when students are researching that you know online is something that I recommend you know if you don't have a lib guide or you know like a blog about it or a website I recommend that you you know you start one because you're able to you know students will be able to find it and then especially student leaders this we're very active in our research and our you know solution I think the next big thing is forming that long term partnership um you know and that means a lot of things you know so not only you know having partnerships with you know the current leadership and student governments making sure you have sustainable partnership so I'm a junior right now this is my second year working with Regina but in about a couple years I'll be I'll be gone from MSU which is sad to think about but I mean Regina already working on a ways and how we can get freshmen representatives you know new leaders in the organization and to to have some interest in this initiative. But also not not only a sustainable partnership but also a very personal partnership. I remember me and Regina's first meeting. Yeah we're both Filipino and I think that was kind of cool that I that you know someone who someone who I already felt familiar with was felt even more familiar and more familial, you know I feel like we're, we're basically not only friends but we're she's she's part family now. So you know students are looking for you know people who they can you know share their stories with share their experiences with. And Regina was awesome at that you know she listened to students concerns she she addressed them in a very professional but also conversational manner because sometimes we're just hired of hearing professional top we want to hear, you know, personal discussions about you know how this could be helping us so you know it's love that motivate you know love for students that that we love to see from people who are trying to help students and I see that when you know me and the General Assembly see that from Regina all the time. And lastly I think, you know, just going back to presence you know seeing how you can attend a meeting and talk about the issue and the initiative at hand, even if it's not to the General Assembly but just to the leadership. I think that's important as well.  So, I don't always see a lot of us right in academia, and when I see that one I really hold on to it and we have really this personal relationship that I hope we can maintain you know long before long after your, your days here at MSU. You know are over right so when you graduate, hopefully you will you will imbibe that that open ethos as you progress in your career in in academia. So we'll stop talking, and we'll, we'll, we'll try to you know address some of the questions that you have in the chat. And if you want to unmute yourself, please do and ask us questions. Thank you. I'm going to read your your, the things in the chat now. Oh, okay. So, the green says, could you share a copy. Yes, actually one of the bill that they pass in relation to the main OER bill is putting a CC by license in the bill itself, a first right because you don't do that. It's like, well, folks will probably want to adopt your bill and so, yes, while putting a CC license and we'll give you the link probably embedded in our presentation so you will see it. And the third, do you have a list of the questions that. Yes, I have a list of the questions so it's, you know, it's 11. No, 10 questions, not that many because we don't want to inundate students, when we do our end of the semester feedback. Yes, I can share that with with you to let me see what else is in here. Do you track how many faculty members. Yes, I do I am big on assessment I am big on tracking. So we are adoptions in my presentation prerecorded on Wednesday, you will hear more about that. So, yes, we do track, we started tracking it fall 2019 semester and have been doing that every semester. So, did higher administration help with your efforts. Maybe Iran, you can, you can address this. Yeah, definitely. So, um, we usually like our, when we meet with administrator administration, it's, you know, addressing like the bills that have passed so oftentimes they kind of guide us to other organizations like MSU on where we can start the initiative so we talked with the provost about creating and teaching best guidelines and then that she moved us to the associate provost for undergraduate education has more of the resources more of the, the tools to actually begin crafting a best teaching guidelines so soon we'll be working with possibly you know the teaching and learning center on campus or the hub, as well as working with you know the libraries I mean we already have a special relationship with libraries. They often guide us and then they can also you know support initiatives through other other governance systems throughout the university. We're still kind of in our, you know, planning phase right now but we are definitely seeing higher admins you know direct us and give us resources that we need to and advice to to like pursue the advocacy. And one question here from thoughts upon says how often do you educate the GA membership. So, I am. Ideally we do it like every semester so I, the next guest thing that I have is the November meeting of the General Assembly. Aaron, do I have 20 or 25 minutes. I think we have about 20 to 25 minutes to me, yes. So I have 25 minutes to talk about the only our initiative, the success that we've been having and also put a call out there for another member of the OER program advisory committee. And how do you advertise to students so right now we do not have OER course markings yet in our student information system. We just migrated or yeah we just migrated to a new SIS and so a lot of the campus systems are still working towards optimizing that new SIS so that is a plan in the future. Yes. Hi, I'm sorry, I just put down in the chat that we are out of time but I am going to just turn off the recording and but you are welcome to stay and talk. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, if you have any questions we can stay up to three, four.