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House hunters now searching for more space to work, entertain at home
The Rochester housing market has remained strong for sellers throughout COVID-19, but the pandemic has changed what buyers are looking for in a residence. The six-county region remains a sellers’ market, with the region seeing 87 percent fewer homes for sale than they were five years ago, says Mark Siwiec, associate real estate broker with […]
Preparing for your audit of higher education emergency relief funding
Responding swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Congress signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which included approximately $14.25 billion in Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF). Those funds were specifically designed to provide financial relief for higher education institutions and their students. CARES was later[...]
Community colleges work through COVID, hope for stimulus relief
The pandemic hasn’t been kind to educational institutions such as community colleges that were suddenly challenged to keep their doors open but change the way they’ve been operating forever. Unlimited challenges The myriad challenges kept changing with little time for solutions. Community colleges had to shift from in person to near exclusively remote online courses. […]
Educators are still learning best practices for online classes
Even as Rochester-area higher education institutions have offered more online classes for almost a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, local educators say that they are still learning the best pedagogy for online instruction. “There are centuries and centuries of face-to-face pedagogy,” says Ryan McCabe, associate vice president for academic technology and high impact practices for […]
Pandemic, immigration policies result in lower international student enrollment
Fewer international students have been enrolling at colleges and universities across the country and those in the field locally say issues ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to federal immigration policies have played a role in that decline. Paul Keller, director of international enrollment at Rochester Institute of Technology, says the number of international students coming […]
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification: An obligation and an opportunity
Sometimes, regulatory compliance and an organization’s obligation to the law aren’t enough to drive change. A prime example is the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which came out in the early 2000s. There weren’t any HIPAA police to enforce the law, so it had no teeth. Such was the case with the Defense […]
Biometrics in the workplace: Privacy challenges and a roadmap for successful compliance
Biometric information is all around us. It enables us to tag friends and family in photos on social media, unlock our phones, pay for groceries and track our workouts. The technology is already beginning to take hold in the workplace as well, as more employers wish to capitalize on quick and reliable employee identification, security […]
Mitigating cybersecurity challenges with employees working from home
The continued increase in remote work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic presents cybersecurity challenges for companies. However, there are new processes and technologies being developed that can help address those challenges. Paul Bornemann, vice president of consulting at Entre Computer Services, says maintaining adequate cybersecurity is one of the biggest challenges that[...]
Experts dole out tips for companies to protect against cybercrime
Cybersecurity continues to be an increasingly important issue for companies, and while it can be impossible to keep a business fully shielded from an attack, area experts have some tips on how firms can best protect themselves, as well as what should be their first steps if they become a target. Andrew Gleasman, director of […]
Commercial real estate lenders growing more conservative due to COVID-19
In his over 30 years in the business, Kurt Sertl, director of leasing and finance for Gallina Development Corp., says that he has “gotten more phone calls from my existing lenders in the past nine months just checking in how things are going in our portfolio than I got in my entire career before that.” […]
COVID-19 affecting local banks’ commercial real estate lending strategies
Local lenders say the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way financial institutions consider certain endeavors or projects, especially those involving office space or badly battered industries, but financing is still available for those seeking to take on major developments or fund business improvements. The threat of COVID-19 forced millions of workers to their kitchen tables […]
Commercial real estate faring better than expected at pandemic’s onset
Commercial real estate continues to be a solid investment overall, even during COVID-19, those in the field say, with banks generally more willing to lend money to such projects now than they were at the start of the pandemic. Continued low interest rates are also helping drive growth in the sector, they add. “From a […]
