[CED/CD/EAT] FW: Guidance on Return to In-Person Work

Wed Apr 21 12:39:26 MST 2021

FYI… the points communicated here are also the products of our “transition back to work working group” that I have been working with and it is good to see that the SLT has accepted the recommendations, including the guidelines and bullets listed below, and they are now communicating that information more broadly.

We recognize that is very campus-centric but we have sufficient latitude to interpret and apply appropriately within the entire Cooperative Extension System (CES).  Please remember that the CES includes academic unit Extension personnel, county Extension units, and Extension personnel based at Arizona Experiment Station sites.  Therefore, please communicate, reinforce, and apply these guidelines among all relevant Extension personnel intersecting the programs in your units.

Thank you,

Jeff

From: University of Arizona <UArizona at comms.arizona.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2021 12:31 PM
To: Silvertooth, Jeffrey C - (silverto) <Silver at ag.arizona.edu>
Subject: Guidance on Return to In-Person Work

We hope to resume most of our regular in-person operations by the start of the 2021-22 academic year.

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Dear Colleagues,
During the summer, we anticipate a migration towards more in-person operations, with a view to resuming most of our regular in-person operations by the start of the 2021-22 academic year. In this communication, we aim to answer many of the questions we have heard about the functioning of our campuses during the summer transition period and in the semesters beyond, while recognizing that there remain many details to be resolved.

Background

Many of our existing and incoming "traditional" post-secondary students and families remain strongly interested in an in-person, campus-based education and continue to tell us how much they value the opportunity to build meaningful interpersonal relationships with our amazing faculty and staff, as well as with their fellow students. We will continue to prioritize such opportunities for our on-campus students, while also expanding our online options.

There are, however, real opportunities where we might leverage the new and expanded skills and talents developed while working from home without impacting our productivity or competitiveness as a research-intensive, land-grant university. In particular, through a judicious mix of in-person and online instruction, we seek to maintain our reputation for excellence as an R1 university and respond to the changing environment of higher education by offering flexible and affordable education options, including those for post-traditional students.

These opportunities come with many questions and uncertainties that we must begin to address. For example, productivity measures for employees working from home 100% of the time may vary widely, depending on the importance of teamwork and close collaboration for stimulating creativity and efficient problem-solving, along with the efficacy of digital teaming tools. Separately, we acknowledge that the business models and salary structures for purely online universities can be very different from those for campus-based, research-intensive universities. Further, managing a workforce that increasingly spans beyond our physical footprint can drive up overhead costs considerably due to the varying tax and employment compliance requirements in each employee’s residential locale and the limitations of our state-operated health care and retirement plans. (Updated guidance is forthcoming from Human Resources and Business Affairs that will help us better navigate requests from supervisors for employees to permanently reside outside of Arizona.)

Continued Work from Home (WFH) Arrangements

Some employees who worked mostly in-person prior to the pandemic have expressed interest in WFH arrangements continuing past the pandemic, and some teams have found they are able to function well with some or all members working from home.

We are supportive of unit leaders and administrators considering these options on a case-by-case basis, provided that the work of the team is not adversely affected.

The guidelines below have been developed to support unit leaders and administrators considering WFH arrangements:

  *   As in the past, all full or partial WFH arrangements are to be developed with your unit leader or administrator, recorded in writing, and reviewed regularly.
  *   To ensure that teams remain high-functioning, unit leaders or administrators may ask employees with WFH arrangements to attend scheduled unit meetings in person, unless the meeting is specifically structured as a hybrid/online meeting.
  *   To serve our students appropriately, all scheduled in-person course modality classes must be delivered in person, and the majority of student office hours must be offered in-person for these courses.
  *   Faculty and staff who have direct oversight of laboratory/research safety, and/or have responsibility for laboratory training of students or postdoctoral scholars, and who wish to have any portion of their time as WFH, are asked to work with their unit leader or administrator to develop an appropriate plan for managing that oversight and/or training responsibility.
  *   If employees are approved to WFH for two or more days per week, they may be required to share workspaces, and any previously assigned dedicated office or workspace may be used for other purposes.
  *   The unit leader or administrator will decide the degree to which they can provide technology and other resources that support WFH agreements.
  *   We ask that unit leaders and administrators, and the college deans and division vice presidents, work to ensure that consistent criteria are used for all their employees to ensure equitable outcomes.
We thank each and every one of you for your continued patience as we work to address the complex questions that have surfaced as we plan for our post-pandemic future. We are optimistic about the path ahead, even as we recognize that the timeline is still evolving, knowing that the collective wisdom of our fellow Wildcats will produce creative and effective approaches to address the challenges ahead.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth "Betsy" Cantwell
Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation

Liesl Folks
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Lisa Rulney
Senior Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer

Michael Dake
Senior Vice President for Health Sciences

Our physical address is:
University of Arizona
1200 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85721, US

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