CoffeeBreak is an e-newsletter distributed to Averett faculty and staff to keep them up-to-date on campus activities and information. Please send information you would like included in CoffeeBreak via this form. For the next CoffeeBreak, please submit by Friday, Sept. 6, for a Wednesday, Sept. 11, publication.

SET Weekly Events

Wednesday, Sept. 4: Yoga on the Lawn for Wellness Wednesday from 11:15 a.m. to noon. Bring your own mat!

Sunday, Sept. 8: The last day to sign up for Dodgeball Tournament. Register at www.imleagues.com/averett. You can sign up as a team or a free agent! Contact Phillip Mitchell at [email protected] for more information.

Monday, Sept. 9: The last day to sign up for 3 vs 3 Tournament. Register at www.imleagues.com/averett. You can sign up as a team or a free agent! Contact Phillip Mitchell at [email protected] for more information.

Memorial Service for Averett Graduate Emily Bernard Bivens & Family

The Averett Family will hold a memorial service honoring Averett graduate Emily Bernard Bivens and her mother Joan Bernard and son Cullen Bivens on Thursday, Sept. 5, at 11:15 a.m. in Blount Chapel.

Emily finished her music degree in 2017, and was a beloved part of the Averett Family. She and her mother and son were victims in the recent tragedy in Pittsylvania County. Join as we uplift these families reeling from this great loss in our prayers, and continue to keep the Keeling and surrounding communities close in our hearts.

Additionally, should you need support, Averett’s Counseling and Spiritual Life services are available to you. Take advantage of our campus resources, like speaking to a counselor or spending quiet time for reflection in our Prayer and Meditation Room or the Prayer Garden. For questions, concerns or other needs, contact Averett Chaplain Skyler Daniel at [email protected].

Morning Brew

Averett and the Danville Pittsylvania Country Chamber of Commerce invite you to the President’s Suite for Morning Brew on Friday, Sept. 6, from 8-9 a.m. Morning Brew is a program put on by the Chamber to provide access to intentional networking to share your business’s message with business and community leaders.

Averett is excited to host this event and hopes students, faculty and staff will stop by! Register by clicking here.

Averett University Sponsoring Danville-Pittsylvania Heart Walk

Join us for the second annual Danville-Pittsylvania Heart Walk! Averett University’s North Campus is excited to be hosting the event once again this year, Saturday, Sept. 7, at 9 a.m. Heart Disease is the no. one killer of all Americans, and our community is no exception. Bring your family and friends (and dogs) out to enjoy a day of fun! Get your body moving, laugh with coworkers, learn hands-only CPR and more. Know that you will be saving lives in the community and making a difference if you join one of the Averett University Heart Walk teams; join Team Ave or Team Rett today! Please direct any questions to Emma Lugar at [email protected] or Tia Yancey at [email protected]. You can register at: www.DanvilleHeartWalk.org.

September is National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month, and the Averett Emergency Response Team will be offering weekly preparedness tips, as well as emergency procedure presentations for faculty, staff and students on the following dates and times:
– Monday, Sept. 9, 4 p.m. in Pritchett Auditorium
– Monday, Sept. 9, 7 p.m. in Pritchett Auditorium
– Tuesday, Sept.10, 11:30 a.m. in Pritchett Auditorium

Millennium Advisors On Campus

Take advantage of the enhanced options available to Averett employees through the new 403(b) MEP retirement plan contract! Millennium Advisory Services will be at Averett on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 9 and 10, to meet individually with interested employees. They will be located in the Schoolfield Booksellers Bookstore. Financial advisors will be available to meet with employees who are interested in:

• Understanding the changes to our retirement plan and the new MEP investment options available.
• Going through Millennium’s financial planning process offered to all employees.
• Retaining Millennium for professional fee-based investment management of their retirement plan account(s).

If you would like to schedule an appointment to discuss your retirement account or go through Millennium’s financial planning process, please contact Millennium’s Scheduling Team at 877-435-2489 (option 1), or via email at [email protected].

All Averett employees are offered the opportunity to meet privately with an advisor to go through Millennium’s financial planning process and receive a personalized financial plan. This goal-based financial planning process is intended to help provide guidance on issues such as how your retirement account should be invested, how much you should be saving for retirement and whether you are on track to reach your personal retirement goals. Spouses/significant others are encouraged to participate as well!

TRUTH Talk: Camilla Williams

Please join the CCECC and the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History for a screening of “Aida’s Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera and Concert,” as we celebrate Danville’s own African-American opera legend Camilla Williams on Tuesday, Sept. 10, in Blount Chapel from 6 to 8 p.m.  Refreshments will be available at 5:30 p.m.

This is part of the CCECC’s monthly diversity series called TRUTH Talks (True Rational Understanding Through Honest Talks).

9/11 First Responders and Veterans Appreciation Luncheon Copy

The CCECC invites all first responders and veterans to an appreciation luncheon on 9/11 from 11-1 at the American Legion 325 in North Danville (135 American Legion Blvd). We will welcome and serve guests starting at 11, and at Noon we’ll have a formal program (National Anthem, ROTC presentation of flags, and Mayor Alonzo Jones will speak). Come out and celebrate service to our community!

Arts@Averett: Charlotte’s Web

We are excited to invite you to check out and join the University in celebrating the arts with its 2018-19 Arts@Averett lineup, which includes the 1859 Coffeehouse Lecture Series. All events are open to the public. Averett students get in free with a student I.D., and faculty and staff receive two free tickets. To view the full schedule, click here.

In Pritchett Auditorium on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 19-20, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 21, at 11 a.m., the Averett Theatre for Young People Series brings you Charlotte’s Web. Based on the beloved children’s novel by E.B. White, the show tells the story of Wilbur the pig, who is born the runt of the litter and thought too weak to live, and his friendship with Fern Arable, the little girl who saves him and adopts him. We then meet a few barnyard friends but most importantly, Charlotte the spider, who truly saves his life.

Save the Date: Strategic Planning Roundtable Session

The Averett 2025 Roundtable Session for all faculty and staff will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 24, from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Carrington Gym. Stay tuned for more details to follow soon!

Flu Shot Clinics Coming Soon

SOVAH Regional Family Medicine will once again provide nurses for us to have a two-day flu shot clinic this fall on Tuesday, Oct. 1, and Wednesday, Oct. 2, from 7 a.m.-12:30 pm in the multipurpose room.

Remember a flu shot qualifies as satisfying your Wellness Premium Incentive requirement for 2020. Contact Kathie Tune at [email protected] or (434) 791-7106 with questions.

Medicare Presentation

A Medicare Workshop for anyone interested will be held by Carolyn B. Smith, president and CEO of The Marketplace Insurance Agency and ElderCare Associates, Inc., on Wednesday, Oct. 16, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Carrington Conference Room. She will present a one-hour workshop and will have booklets available. Contact Kathie Tune at [email protected] or (434) 791-7106 with questions.

Download the LiveSafe App

Please remember to download the LiveSafe app, Averett’s tool for emergency notifications. Click here for instructions on how to download the app from iPhone or Android.

The LiveSafe service is a two-way communication application between users and safety officials. It consists of a mobile app for users on their cell phone and a web-based dashboard for officials. The tool ties right into our existing “See it, Say it!” campaign, and allows for tip reporting, emergency communications, mapping and user-to-user communications.

Faculty and Staff Meal Plan

Bon Appétit  is pleased to offer meal plans to Averett’s faculty and staff. These meal plans are designed to offer further discounts over the door rate at the café for those who will eat more than the occasional meal. For additional information, click here.

WEPA Print Stations

Since the semester began, there has been discussion on the WEPA Printer subsidy that was pre-loaded onto students’ accounts in prior years. When we implemented the WEPA program, it was in response to skyrocketing printing costs and the resulting impact on our ability to try and keep overall tuition costs for students as low as possible. Originally, the plan was to phase out the subsidy over three years; however, in the end, it was actually stretched to four years (providing $25/student in year one, $15 in year two, $15 in year three, $10 in year four, then ultimately zero in year five). As a note, the vast majority of institutions who implement WEPA offered no subsidy at all.  In following with our plan, we have eliminated the final $10 of subsidy for students this Fall. Not only does this cut down on our printing costs, it also gives our students the opportunity to be more accountable for their print costs, thereby creating a more efficient campus overall.

Additionally, in order to continue cutting printing costs, to be more environmentally-friendly and to mitigate the financial impact on students, we encourage faculty to transition to a more digitally-based coursework process, as much as possible. However, for those that still prefer to grade hard copy papers rather than electronically, we encouraging you to have students submit their work electronically, and the individual faculty member can print the papers, rather than requiring the students to use their own ink or to pay for WEPA services.

Housekeeping Updates and Protocols

As you’ve heard, Budd Group recently made some account management changes within Averett’s housekeeping team. Jeff Hubbard has transitioned to Roanoke to manage an account there, and we are appreciative of his many years of service to Averett. April Whitsett ([email protected]) is now the housekeeping manager for Averett. She is working to re-organize cleaning schedules and tasks for her team, and is carefully defining where her folks are supposed to be all throughout the day. In order to help her get the campus, as a whole, cleaned on a regular basis, we will have to request that we curtail individual requests to housekeepers as you see them on campus. When this happens, you may be requested to contact April to discuss your needs. Please accommodate this – again, to help her clean campus as a whole. If you have a specific need for an upcoming event, or if you identify an area that appears to have been missed on a regular schedule, please do put in a work order in the SchoolDude system. This will help us track these and allow April to make corrections, as needed.

Also, to create efficiencies across campus and to make it easier to ensure we never run out of supplies, the Budd Group has been working with a new supplier to install all new soap, toilet paper and paper towel dispensers throughout campus. If you find your restroom completely out of supplies, please let Aaron Howell, Mike Fisher or April Whitsett know and we’ll be sure to get transition supplies to the space. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we go through this switchover.

For any housekeeping or facilities questions or concerns, contact Aaron Howell at [email protected].