Matt Arend and Cheryl Krause Act as College’s Co-COVID-19 Coordinators

During the fall 2020 semester, Albion College’s only COVID-19 coordinator was Cheryl Krause, a registered nurse and the director of Albion College Student Health Services. However, this past winter break the college announced that both Krause and Athletic Director Matthew Arend would act as COVID-19 coordinators for the duration of the college’s spring 2021 semester. 

This change to the COVID-19 coordinator position was prompted by Krause’s plans to retire in the spring of 2021.

“As many people know, I have been working at the College since 1998. I have always worked in the Student Health area. As a registered nurse for 43 years, I have worked in many hospitals and clinics,” said Krause. “A few years ago, when the Student Health Services closed, I began to make plans to retire. Last year, I stayed to serve as a liaison between the College and the Express Care clinic. This year, I stayed on to work on the College’s COVID-19 response. I have now made the decision to retire from the College in May.”

Krause hopes to use the upcoming months to transition Arend into the role of COVID-19 coordinator. 

“I am here to assist Matt with understanding the lessons learned last semester, learning what went right in the fall and learning what we can do better,” said Krause. “My goal is to make the transition from myself to Matt as smooth as possible and to assist Matt in tapping into many of the resources I have accumulated over the years.”

This semester, Krause will be working to inform parents, students and staff about close-contact quarantine and isolation protocols. She will also be managing the COVID-19 testing of Albion College students and employees while assisting with contact tracing and working to fulfil her duties as the director of health services. 

 Arend, meanwhile, is currently acting as the primary liaison between Albion College and the Calhoun County Health Department. Arrend is also working to stay up-to-date on current local, state and national COVID-19 policies while overseeing the coordination and implementation of these policies and procedures on Albion’s campus.  

Because of his past experiences, Arend said he should be well equipped to execute these tasks in a proficient manner.

“As the director of athletics, I spent much of this past summer and fall working on testing plans for our student athletes, reviewing state emergency orders and ever changing NCAA guidelines as it related to COVID-19 and athletic play,” said Arend. “So, a lot of the work I had been doing prior to January was very similar to what I am doing in the COVID-19 coordinator role now. It was just for a subset of our student population.”

Arend hopes to use his new position to help Albion College students, faculty and staff function as safely and as normally as possible. 

“[My goal for this coming semester is to] keep our students, staff, and faculty as safe and healthy as possible,” said Arend. “I intend to utilize the MDHHS emergency orders to help guide us in policy creation, so we can get as close to some sense of ‘normalcy’ and ‘normal business operations’ as we can at the college.”