21 rostered players as well as two unsigned draft picks and three invited training camp attendees set to report for preseason at Fairmont Austin and St. Edward’s University on Monday, March 8; Team scheduled to permanently relocate to St. David’s Performance Center in Spring 2021; Austin FC and St. Edwards University also confirm The Austin FC Endowed Scholarship, benefiting St. Edward’s students

AUSTIN, Texas (March 1, 2021) - Austin FC, the 27th club in Major League Soccer (MLS), announced today that its official 2021 preseason, presented by St. David’s HealthCare, will officially begin on Monday, March 8, at Fairmont Austin and St. Edward’s University in Austin.  The sites will host Austin FC’s first team before permanently relocating to St. David’s Performance Center, Austin FC’s $45 million, state-of-the-art training facility in North Austin in Spring 2021. Optional training sessions will be available to Austin FC first team players, draft picks and training camp attendees from March 1 to March 7, while adhering to MLS quarantine protocols.

“We are very excited to start our first preseason as an MLS club,” commented Josh Wolff, Austin FC Head Coach. “The organization has worked tirelessly for over two years for this moment, and we look forward to officially starting this project and getting our players and staff on the field.”  

A group that presently consists of 21 rostered players, two (2) unsigned draft picks and three (3) training camp attendees will report for six (6) weeks of preseason training and preseason competitions, playing a series of closed-door scrimmages and matches before the Club embarks upon its inaugural MLS season. The series of preseason scrimmages and matches will begin with two (2) closed-door scrimmages at St. Edward’s University against USL teams OKC Energy (March 19) and Louisville City FC (March 25). Fans and media are unable to attend closed-door scrimmages and preseason matches due to preseason COVID-19 protocols.
Austin FC has officially partnered with St. Edward’s as the Club’s temporary training facility while development concludes on the St. David’s Performance Center. As part of the agreement, current St. Edward’s students will also benefit from this partnership through the Austin FC Endowed Scholarship. In perpetuity, this fund will provide generous support for NCAA Division II student-athletes, providing talented students with critical financial support to achieve their dreams. 
“Austin FC will be a major asset for the city, and we are honored to partner with them,” said Joe DeMedeiros, Vice President for University Advancement. “In addition, their thoughtful philanthropy to St. Edward’s University will change the lives of Austin FC Scholars through access to our values-based education. We are very grateful to count their scholarship as one of 131 new endowments established at St. Edward's since 1999, all for the benefit of young learners."

Austin FC rostered players reporting for preseason include goalkeepers Brady Scott, Brad Stuver and Andrew Tarbell; defenders Matt Besler, Julio Cascante, Hector Jimenez, Freddy Kleemann, Nick Lima, Jhohan Romaña and Ben Sweat; midfielders Diego Fagundez, Daniel Pereira, Alex Ring, Ulises Segura and Jared Stroud; and forwards Cecilio Domínguez, Jon Gallagher, Danny Hoesen, Kekuta Manneh, Rodney Redes and Aaron Schoenfeld. Tomás Pochettino will join the roster upon completion of his International Transfer Certificate (ITC) and P-1 Visa. 

Austin FC 2021 SuperDraft picks, defender Aedan Stanley and midfielder Daniel Steedman, will be invited to participate in the Club’s inaugural preseason camp. In addition to the rostered players and SuperDraft selections, three (3) training camp attendees have also been invited to participate in preseason, including goalkeeper William Pulisic, defender Samuel Rogers and midfielder Luis Argudo. 

Austin FC will announce details related to three (3) additional preseason matches that are scheduled to be played in April, prior the start of the 2021 MLS regular season. Austin FC and MLS will announce the complete 2021 regular season schedule in the coming weeks.  

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NOTE: All Austin FC training sessions and scrimmages at St. Edward’s University and St. David’s Performance Center are closed-door events, conducted under strict COVID protocols. No media attendance is allowed at any session. Austin FC will be making video and photography assets from the sessions available to media. For more information, please contact Mauricio Villarreal. 

About Austin FC  
Austin FC joined Major League Soccer (MLS) as the 27th club in January 2019. Austin FC will officially begin play in 2021 in the new, 100% privately financed, $260 million, state-of-the-art Q2 Stadium in Austin. 

About St. Edward’s University
St. Edward’s University is a private, liberal arts university in the Catholic, Holy Cross tradition with approximately 4,000 students. Located in Austin, Texas, it is one of the top universities in Texas and offers more than 50 undergraduate and 10 graduate programs. With a network of partner universities around the world, St. Edward’s delivers a premier, highly personalized education that helps students explore their own transformational pathways to knowledge, experience, understanding and success. St. Edward’s has been recognized for 18 consecutive years as one of “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S. News & World Report and holds the #8 spot among Best Regional Universities in the West in the U.S. News 2020 and 2021 rankings. For more information on St. Edward’s, visit stedwards.edu/about.

AUSTIN, Texas - Updated at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23

St. Edward’s University will resume remote and in-person classes and operations at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 24. 

We recognize that some members of our community may still be significantly impacted by the storm and may be unable to resume tomorrow as scheduled. Should this be case in your situation, please see the following:

Staff: 

• Please consult with your supervisor regarding return to work

Faculty: 

• Please consult with your Dean or supervisor

Students: 

• Please work with your appropriate faculty member(s). We also encourage you to check in with the Student Success Center or your Success Coach.

EMERGENCY SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS

• Students can apply for emergency assistance, and community members can submit a Student of Concern form for any student (undergraduate or graduate) experiencing an emergency. Examples of emergencies include assistance with technology needs, rent, utilities, food and other essential household expenses. Learn more about support and resources for student emergencies. 

STUDENTS’ WELLBEING AND MENTAL HEALTH

• Student wellness and wellbeing activities are operating normal hours. Please visit www.stedwards.edu/recreation-wellness for details and follow Recreation & Wellness social media channels for updates. As a reminder, COVID-19 protocols are still in place, and require students secure a reservation for all RecWell activities. Visit www.imleagues.com/SEU OR the RecWell Task Center on MyHilltop to reserve a spot now. Students experiencing a state of mental health crisis can contact an on-call counselor to get connected with crisis resources on campus by calling the Health and Counseling Center’s main number during business hours at (512) 448-8538. For after hours support, please call UPD at (512) 448-8444 to connect with the counselor on call. When calling after hours, simply let UPD dispatch know that you are in crisis and would like to speak to the counselor on call. This is a confidential resource available to St. Edward’s students only.

STUDENT SUCCESS CENTER and STUDENT FINANCIAL SERVICES (VIRTUAL SUPPORT)

• Student Success Coaches and the Student Financial Aid Counselors virtual front desk will be available on Tuesday, Feb. 23 until 4 p.m.

ON-CAMPUS DINING (Limited service availability):

• Hunt Hall Cafe is open daily from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.
• The Meadow Coffeeshop (Jo’s) will be open Wednesday, Feb. 24 through Friday, Feb. 26 from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Weekend hours on Saturday and Sunday will be from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.
• Grab & Goat closed through Friday, February 26. Service is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 28 and Sunday, Feb. 28 from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.

DONATIONS AND SUPPORT

• All donations to the Hilltoppers Overcoming Obstacles Fund to help students are greatly appreciated.

COVID TESTING:

• COVID surveillance testing will resume on Wednesday, February 24th; there is no need to reschedule past appointments. Please use the MyTruthPortal to schedule appointments on or after Wednesday, February 24. Those required to test only need to complete one test this week. 

We know technology can be intimidating. Technology is constantly changing, and as I'm sure we all know by now, change can be overwhelming. Every time you blink, there's some new gadget, app or tool to learn. Trust us, we know. But that's why we're here, to offer solutions to the technology questions you've been too scared to ask. Software, hardware, wearables, robots. Each month we'll answer any questions you've got about tech. You can send us your anonymous questions, and OIT's Yasmeen Yahya and Jesse Plaza will hound our in house experts to get details. Then, we'll share our expertise with you on the last Friday of each month. Let's get started!

Q: I set Zoom to record automatically every time, but they don't, and it drives me batty. And yes, I watched the videos online and read the support articles from zoom.

A: The issue with Zoom is that there are a lot of variables. So, whether you created a Zoom recurring meeting in Canvas if you're a faculty member or made a separate meeting on your Zoom Pro account itself, you can select that option to automatically record the meeting. That's either locally or in the cloud. Downloading the recording to the cloud is preferred because you get an email notification when your recording is done, ready to view and share. However, to make this work consistently, we're recommending that you log into Zoom through your St. Edward's account on myHilltop before starting your meeting. If it's signed in and you've set it to record automatically, saved to the cloud or otherwise, then that automatic setting should start. Keep in mind that these Zoom cloud recordings usually take about two times the meeting duration or so to process. Basically, Zoom takes the raw recording and splits it into a video and then an audio file. That takes some computing power. We've seen it take up to twenty-four to seventy-two hours in some instances. Though, that was with longer meetings. If you're still having issues, then it's time to talk to OIT Support. You can do that by sending an email to support@stedwards.edu, and we'll help you out as best we can. We've been fielding questions about Zoom for nearly two years—a good 80% of those have come in the last ten months—but we like to think we're getting pretty good at it.

Q: Students tell me it's hard to see my feedback on papers or surveys on Canvas. I tend to write a fair amount of feedback, and if they can't read it, that seems counterproductive. How can students view feedback on a paper like I can see it as the teacher, a big full-size page with my comment bubbles all over it, rather than having to peer edit through a tiny window?

A: Students are just a few clicks away from viewing faculty feedback in Canvas! First, go into Canvas, click on "Grades," click on the assignment name, then click on view feedback. That will let you view all the feedback on a submission. For more information, visit our knowledge base article about Viewing Instructor Feedback in Canvas. 

Q: Does Excel create rows as you scroll down? I feel like I can never find the bottom of an Excel spreadsheet. It goes on, and on, and on with blank rows. Is there any way to stop this function?

A: Yes, but no. There's no way to stop this function when you create an Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheet. You create the document and it'll have that default function. However, you can clean it up by deleting all those rows once you're done putting in your data. 

So, as an example, let's say you're using cells A1 through B15, but you want to get rid of all of the other empty cells, so there's no extra noise on your document. It just takes two steps to clear those out. First, click on the number of the first empty row. If you're using the example of A1 through B15, it would be row 16. Highlight everything in that row, press control, or command depending on if you're using a Mac or PC, shift, then the down arrow key. This will select everything from row 16 down to the very bottom of the document. Then all you have to do is delete the selected cells, which you can do by going to "Edit" in your toolbar, then clicking "delete rows." You can do the same thing for everything to the right of those data cells. For this example, you would highlight all of column C, press control/command + shift + the right arrow key. Then, you can delete that. Now, all you're left with is the data that you want without any extra noise. Again, you can't stop Excel from creating all those extra cells, but you can clean it up, and it takes very little time.

That's all for this month's #AskOIT blog and podcast! Remember, whether it's about robots or your personal iCloud account, we want you to pick our brains. Even if it's not necessarily work or university-related, we're happy to take those esoteric technology questions. Between editions of #AskOIT, you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all kinds of Tech Tips and important updates from OIT. See you next month!