GV COVID-19 campus data update

The Grand Valley State University community has had a cumulative total of 6,489 cases since Aug. 1, 2020. The university’s update for this brief was from Jan. 21.

Through testing results this past week, GVSU’s Virus Action team have so far reported 752 current active cases including 37 faculty members, 53 staff members, 127 on-campus students, 322 “off-campus Ottawa” students, 163 “off-campus Kent” students and 50 “off-campus other” students with active COVID-19 cases.

“Current active cases” is the count of positive cases reported to the Virus Action Team over the past 10 days.  This is an estimate of those currently in isolation, assuming a ten-day symptomatic period following the reporting of a positive test result. Actual periods of isolation are specific to the individual and determined by the county health department.

Vaccination: GVSU encourages all students, faculty and staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible. All students, faculty and staff are required to be fully vaccinated, barring a medical or religious exemption or postponement. According to the COVID-19 data dashboard, an 80% vaccination rate in the GVSU community is required to reach herd immunity and minimal virus transmission.

Currently, approximately 82% of students report being fully vaccinated, while approximately 93% of faculty and staff reports being fully vaccinated.

There are currently 2,178 students and 129 faculty/staff with approved vaccination exemptions.

Testing and Incidence: GVSU’s own testing program has performed 120,483 tests overall since Aug. 1, 2020, for a cumulative positivity rate of 2.01% from the latest update as of last week. A total of 2,182 tests were performed over the last seven days.

“GV Surveillance” includes the GV/Spectrum administered programs of randomized testing, regular testing of high-risk groups, and invited testing of individuals connected to potential clusters. A calendar is available. “GV Total” includes surveillance testing plus all symptomatic/exposure tests administered by Spectrum.

Johnson Center for Philanthropy releases report of new trends in the new year

Grand Valley State University’s Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy recently released its sixth annual “11 Trends in Philanthropy” report.

The Johnson Center is an academic center within GVSU’s Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence. 

The goal of the report is to highlight the topics and issues facing philanthropic organizations in 2022. 

New technologies and the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are some of the biggest trends the Johnson Center thinks will play a part in nonprofits’ missions. 

Some of the topics this year’s list examines are how nonprofits can utilize the growing market of cryptocurrencies, how the fractious culture wars are affecting philanthropy, and how nonprofits can reverse the trend of declining financial donations.