Information and Updated Resources from RRCC and Minnesota State
Please read all information below and check back regularly for updates.
** Also check your RRCC email for important updates and information **
FAQ's and Resources for Students
As we continue to receive updates from the Minnesota State
system office and other government and healthcare partners, we will
continue to share updated information with you via your RRCC email, this
website https://www.rainyriver.edu/college-services/campus..., and through other official communication channels including RRCC's official social media.
This situation is evolving rapidly and information is changing quickly. The most up-to-date information can also be found through the Minnesota Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Latest Updates
UPDATED Wednesday, January 13 @ 10AM
Do vaccinated faculty, staff, and students have to continue wearing a mask?
Yes. All faculty, staff, and students at all Minnesota State colleges, universities, and the system office are required to wear a mask, social distance, and continue hand washing protocols until further notice.
UPDATED Thursday, October 29 @ 3PM
CARES Act Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting
UPDATED Tuesday, October 20 @ 1PM
UPDATED Tuesday, September 24 @ 6PM
Minnesota colleges and universities have worked hard to create an environment that will allow students, faculty, and staff to connect with each other safely. Find answers to frequently asked questions about COVID-19 for the campus community at the following link: COVID-19 and Higher Education Frequently Asked Questions
UPDATED Tuesday, September 15 @ 10AM
The Minnesota State COVID-19 Dashboard, where you can view just the Rainy River Community College Covid stats, is now live at https://minnstate.edu/coronavirus/index.html
UPDATED Tuesday, August 11 @ 9AM
RRCC COVID-19 Return to Work Preparedness Plan
UPDATED Friday, August 7 @ 3PM
Based on Minnesota Department of Health guidance:
- Self-isolate or quarantine immediately.
- Monitor your health, contact your healthcare provider as needed.
You should also:
- If you are a student:
- Contact campus healthcare services or the COVID-19 contact below for further assistance.
- Students living on campus should also contact your residence life assistant.
- Contact your faculty members to inform them that you will not be attending class.
- If you are an employee, contact your supervisor or human resources.
- If you are a visitor, contractor, or vendor, inform your campus contact.
- Contact the campus COVID-19 contact, covid@rainyriver.edu, for additional assistance (please do not send any health-related information to this e-mail address.
For further COVID-19 information visit https://www.rainyriver.edu/college-services/campus-health-safety/coronavirus-disease-covid-19.
It is recommended that you print or take a screenshot of this page to retain a record of this guidance.
UPDATED Friday, August 7 @ 2PM
Click here to view the RRCC COVID Self-Assessment Screening Tool
Click here to view the Minnesota State COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool Demo
UPDATED Wednesday, July 28 @ 4PM
NHED COVID-19 Campus Preparedness Plan - 7-28-20
UPDATED Wednesday, July 22 @ 4PM
Rainy River Community College responds to Governor Walz's Statewide Mask Mandate
UPDATED Monday, July 20 @ 8AM
UPDATED Tuesday, June 9 @ 8AM
Student Letter regarding Fall Classes from Dr. Roxanne Kelly
UPDATED Monday, May 21 @ 3PM
NHED COVID-19 Campus Preparedness Plan
UPDATED Monday, May 15 @ 11AM
UPDATED Monday, May 4 @ 10AM
RRCC Digital Graduation Ceremony, May 15, 2020 at 1:00 PM
UPDATED Tuesday, April 21 @ 10AM
Undergraduate Grading Considerations During COVID-19
UPDATED Tuesday, April 14 @ 12PM
Colleges work on Contingency Plans for Fall Semester
A message from Minnesota State Chancellor, Devinder Malhotra
Through creativity, a spirit of innovation, and
incredibly hard work, our faculty and staff migrated over 20,000 courses
to remote delivery for spring semester in a matter of weeks so that now more
than 95% of all our courses are being delivered with no in-person component.
This amazing achievement has given us tremendous flexibility as we consider our
approach for future semesters. There is still much we don't know about the
public health and safety challenges that fall semester will bring, but
this much is certain: every one of the 30 colleges and seven universities of
Minnesota State will be open to serve our students, providing an
extraordinary education and adapting and
adjusting our educational delivery as conditions warrant to protect the health
and safety of our students, our faculty, and our staff.
UPDATED Wednesday, April 1 @ 3PM
UPDATED Monday, March 30 @ 3PM
UPDATED Monday, March 30 @ 10AM
Our apologies for this late notice.
Last evening we received a directive from the Executive Branch that holding in-person instruction, even as we had planned with social distancing and CDC cleaning standards, should be delayed for at least two weeks. This is a change in their guidance from earlier this week.
About 90% of instruction and student services throughout the Minnesota State system have been moved online, thanks to a lot of creativity and hard work by faculty and staff. These classes will continue as planned. However, given last night’s change in guidance, face-to-face classes have been suspended.
I ask that faculty reach out to students as soon as possible to communicate directly regarding specific classes and if course plans have changed for the week.
I sincerely apologize for the late timing of this message and the inconvenience it causes, and I thank everyone for your patience as we navigate through this ever-changing situation.
Thanks so much for all you are doing!
UPDATED Monday, March 30 @ 8AM
STAKEHOLDER ANNOUNCEMENT: USDA Rural Development Launches COVID-19 Resource Webpage
WASHINGTON, March 27, 2020 – USDA Rural Development has launched a COVID-19 resource page to keep our customers, partners, and stakeholders continuously updated on actions taken by the Agency to help rural residents, businesses, and communities impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Visit www.rd.usda.gov/coronavirus for information on Rural Development loan payment assistance, application deadline extensions, and more.
View the full Stakeholder Announcement
UPDATED Tuesday, March 26 @ 9 AM
NEWS RELEASE - Rainy River Community College responds to Governor Tim Walz’s “Stay at Home” Order
UPDATED Wednesday, March 25 @ 3 PM
March 25, 2020 Chancellor Letter to Students re: Governor's "Stay At Home" Order
March 25, 2020 Chancellor Letter to Faculty and Staff re: Governor's "Stay At Home" Order
UPDATED Tuesday, March 24 @ 12 PM
The Minnesota Department of Health has slightly evolved their guidance for people who live in the same household as someone who thinks they have COVID-19. Their new guidance is as follows (the highlighted areas is what is new):
If you feel you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, The Minnesota Department of Health recommends:
1.Stay at home for at least 7 days, and for 3 days with no fever and improvement of respiratory symptoms – whichever is longer. (Your fever should be gone for 3 days without using fever-reducing medicine).
2.Use the CDC website on how to Care For Yourself at Home with COVID-19.
3.If your household contacts were exposed to you while you had symptoms, they should try to stay home as much as possible for 14 days.
a. They should closely monitor their health, and if symptoms occur, they must isolate themselves. More guidance on this can be found here: MDH COVID-19 Basics
b.Use the CDC website for How to Minimize Spread.
UPDATED Friday, March 20 @ 11 AM
UPDATED Friday, March 20 @ 10 AM
Rainy River Students, Faculty, Staff and Partners,
As you all know with the event of the COVID -19 virus the college has had to make some adjustments to the way we do business. This includes the way we deliver classes, the way we advise, support, and recruit students and the way we go about our daily work. So many things have happened over the past week that I felt it was important to capture at least some of them here. Let me start by saying thank you to all members of the RRCC community for pulling together to effectively and efficiently make the changes necessary to keep everyone safe!
First and foremost, our primary concern continues to be the safety of our students, employees, and the public.
To that end please note the following:
- Classes will resume on Monday, March 30th. All RRCC courses will transition to a virtual or online format for the remainder of the spring semester. The decision was made to cancel two classes that were scheduled to begin on March 16 due to the required face to face component – Trained Medication Aide and Phlebotomy.
- Effective immediately all aspects of spring sports have been canceled and the athletic facilities will be closed until further notice
- Commencement - Minnesota State announced this week that in-person graduation ceremonies at all colleges will not be held.
UPDATED Monday, March 16, 2020 @ 3 PM
Minnesota State and our colleges and universities are closely monitoring the developing situation related to COVID-19 and are committed to taking steps necessary to protect the health and safety of our faculty, our staff, and our students.
All faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to heed the guidance of the Minnesota Department of Health, and in particular, staying home when sick, covering your cough, and practicing good hand hygiene.
Update from March 14, 2020
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated their Novel Coronavirus Travel Information where most countries in Europe have now been designated along with China, Iran, and South Korea at Level 3 (Warning, Avoid Nonessential Travel) and the rest of the world, including the United States, has now been designated at Level 2 (Practice Enhanced Precautions) as a Global Outbreak Notice.
Effective immediately:
All travelers that are returning from a Level 3 country must stay home for 14 days after returning from travel, monitor their health, and practice social distancing. The full guidance from the CDC is located at https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/warning/coronavirus-europe
Travelers returning from other countries or from domestic travel need to monitor their health and limit interactions with others for 14 days after returning from travel. Travelers that are sick with fever, cough, or have trouble breathing should stay home and call ahead before seeking medical care. The full guidance from the CDC is located at
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/alert/coronavirus-global
If you are faculty or staff member that needs to self-quarantine or stay home to monitor your health after traveling, please notify Brad Krasaway at brad.krasaway@rainyriver.edu.
If you are a student that needs to needs to self-quarantine, stay home to monitor your health, or needs accommodations to self-quarantine, please notify Brad Krasaway, brad.krasaway@rainyriver.edu.
If you have questions regarding exposure as a result of travel, Minnesota Department of Health asks you to call 651-201-5414 or 877-676-5414 for guidance.
Update from March 13, 2020
Rainy River Community College and the Minnesota State colleges and universities are committed to protecting the health of all students, faculty, and staff. Therefore, all classes at Rainy River Community College have been suspended for the week of March 16-20. Classes are scheduled to resume on March 23.
Students and employees should check their campus email and this webpage for more information.
- March 12, 2020 Chancellor Letter to Students re: Spring Break Extension
- March 12, 2020 Chancellor Letter to Faculty and Staff re: Spring Break Extension
- March 11, 2020 Chancellor Memo to Leadership Council re: Academic Continuity Planning
- March 5, 2020 Frequently Asked Questions Sheet re: International Travel Suspension
General Guidance
What do I need to know about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have provided this Fact Sheet on COVID-19: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/2019-ncov-factsheet.pdf
What should I do if I am sick and diagnosed with COVID-19 or suspect I am infected with the virus that causes COVID-19?
The CDC has provided this Fact Sheet outlining steps to help prevent the disease from spreading to people: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/sick-with-2019-nCoV-fact-sheet.pdf
What can students, faculty and staff do to protect themselves and each other?
We encourage students, faculty and staff to practice respiratory
(coughing and sneezing) etiquette and hand hygiene. Those who feel sick
are recommended to stay home until they are free of fever, signs of a
fever, and any other symptoms for at least 24 hours, without the use of
fever-reducing or other symptom-altering medicines (e.g. cough
suppressants). Employees should notify their supervisor and stay home if
they are sick and seek medical attention depending on the severity of
their symptoms.
For specific questions or concerns at RRCC, contact Brad Krasaway at Bradley.Krasaway@rainyriver.edu.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND RESOURCES
ACADEMIC CONTINUITY RESOURCES
To support Minnesota State faculty and staff with their academic continuity planning, the system office has alternate technologies available at no additional cost (D2L Brightspace, Kaltura MediaSpace, Zoom, Office 365).
For quick start guides, or to schedule drop-in sessions or one-on-one sessions, visit https://asanewsletter.org/events/..