[CED/CD/EAT] FW: COVID-19 Campus Mitigation Plan / Updates for Leaders 17 March 2020

Tue Mar 17 17:00:15 MST 2020

FYI… message from Provost Folks today.

We are working in the right direction in the CES.

Regards,

Jeff

Jeffrey C. Silvertooth, Ph.D.
Associate Dean
Director for Extension & Economic Development
Division of Agriculture, Life, & Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension
Forbes 301, Bldg. #36
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ       85721-0036
520-621-7205

Dear Deans, Provost’s Council, SVPS and SPBAC Members,

I know that you and your teams are deep in the work of your modifying teaching, research, support and service activities to accommodate the measures needed to slow the spread of COVID-19 by flattening the curve<https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-flatten-the-curve.html> in order to save lives, locally, nationally and globally.  Thank you.

I am writing with just a few updates for today, and to clarify a few points that have already been made.

New Items / Updates:

  1.  Buildings Closures: It is okay to completely close buildings if all personnel can be effectively moved to work-from-home assignments.  Please ask each of your official Building Managers to work with Chris Kopach<applewebdata://C5AD9616-E08D-490D-8D4A-AEE44E9B304C/Kopach,%20Christopher%20M%20-%20(ckopach)%20%3cckopach at arizona.edu%3e>, AVP for Facilities Management, to decide which buildings can be closed, and do please make sure that signage on the doors help people get access in case of an emergency need.  Then, please work with Ted Nasser<mailto:enasser at email.arizona?q=edward+nassar+arizona&oq=edward+nassar+arizona&aqs=chrome..69i57.7297j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8>, Chief Procurement Officer, to manage deliveries that were headed for closed buildings.  We rely on you to communicate these closures to your own personnel.
  2.  Classrooms to be Locked: Centrally scheduled classrooms will be locked to deter students from congregating in them, BUT faculty to be able to access them to deliver their online classes or record their lessons.  A process for reserving centrally scheduled classrooms through room and course scheduling will be communicated to instructors, who are actively teaching, today. If you manage departmentally scheduled classroom, these too should be locked, but made available by reservation to your faculty.
  3.  Technology Supports for Students: New information page up today: http://student.it.arizona.edu<http://student.it.arizona.edu/> with supports for WiFi access and computer access – please share widely, and also contact Darcy Van Patten<mailto:%20darcyvp at email.arizona.edu>, Executive Director Digital Transformation and Student and Academic Technologies, if you have information that could be usefully added to this page.
  4.  Xenophobia: Please be vigilant in supporting our community members of Chinese-origin at all times.  We are hearing reports of xenophobic attacks around the nation, and we absolutely want to deter anything similar on our campus.  Please find ways to remind your teams that now, more than ever, we are part of a global community, battling against a common threat.
  5.  Budget implications: We are building forecasts now for the impacts of COVID-19 on revenues, and the outlook is very grim indeed.  Please aim to curtail all expenditures in your units to the best extent possible while we weather this storm.  We will do the same centrally.
  6.  AFMY Process:  Please aim to hold with the timeline for our budget discussions, even if you have only limited time to prepare for these meetings.  We urgently need to understand where each unit is headed in the coming year, now more than ever, and the timeline is already very tight for decisioning that will give you the clarity you need for the next FY.
  7.  Summer Courses and Study Abroad: Guidance to follow in a memo this afternoon.

Clarifications:

  1.  Classes WILL be online until the end of semester:  We will be holding all courses online between now and the end of semester – no change will be contemplated henceforth.  The students need clarity from us on this issue - faculty and staff should reinforce this message repeatedly.
  2.  Personal Responsibility for Safety:  All students, staff and faculty must decide for THEMSELVES if they choose to spend any time at all on campus.   No supervisor can require on-campus presence until further notice.  If you are challenged to support any essential activity because of lack of personnel, please let Betsy, Lisa or me know, and we will help you to figure out a path forward.
  3.  Research operations:  Please be on high alert for any situation in which a staff member, student or postdoc does not feel free to decide FOR THEMSELVES how to keep safe from COVID-19.  Faculty MUST NOT coerce any group member into being on campus, either explicitly or implicitly.  Unit heads / chairs / directors are asked to be very vigilant on this item.  Some helpful language drafted up by OpSci is shared below, in case it is useful to you to repurpose to your unit.

With thanks,

Liesl

Language shared from OpSci on Managing Research:

  *   For research activities, we will ask that each faculty member overseeing a laboratory research group write up a brief set of bulleted operating procedures for their research groups that – AT A MINIMUM – addresses and/or is mindful of the following points:
  *   The baseline approach for the majority of situations will require faculty and supervisors to identify productive ways to support research goals from off-site wherever possible for all students that work in their group – graduate, post-doc, undergrads.  In the near term they will continue to be compensated from their existing support, and any deviations from this will be communicated at a later date.
  *   Group meetings should be held virtually to support off-site, remote participation.
  *   Under no circumstances should any faculty or staff pressure any students or other staff who are following university recommendations to work from off-site to instead come into the lab – the university is trying to minimize on-site personnel.
  *   Any students and staff who are serving in critical laboratory research roles, and personally desire to come into the lab despite guidance, must be provided as safe an environment as possible.  This will include not sharing any space closely with other students or staff, being alerted to avoiding exposure to COVID-19 from surfaces, being provided with disinfectant wipes, etc., where warranted.  This will generally preclude more than one individual using any research laboratory at a given time.  Any plan incorporating such continued operations involving students and staff in research roles on-site will require approval from the dean’s office.
  *   No plan contemplating continued operations should require face-to-face interactions with personnel who are at heightened risk to Coronavirus as defined by CDC<https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html>.
  *   Exemplary “critical” roles could include cases where major research resources or capabilities are put at risk if they are not attended to; other unusual circumstances could potentially include atypical research operations where researchers function effectively and safely in controlled situations that are demonstrably in isolation from other students, faculty, and staff.  As noted above, any such examples involving students and staff will require review by the dean’s office.
  *   Any plan for such isolated laboratory activities must not be in conflict with established safety protocols.
  *   A faculty or facilities plan that anticipates any such deviations could include rotations, etc., where required, to realize these required features.
  *   Any ITAR-controlled work cannot be conducted remotely in violation of a TCP
  *   The faculty plan should contemplate operations mindful of the fact that the COVID-19 response at UA will persist through the end of the semester.

Liesl

[The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.]
Liesl Folks, PhD, MBA
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Administration, 411
P.O. Box 210066 | Tucson, AZ 85721
Office: 520-626-8121
liesl at arizona.edu<mailto:liesl at arizona.edu>
She / Her / Hers
www.arizona.edu<https://www.arizona.edu>
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