Dear Faculty and Staff,
As you know, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced a “stay at home” order beginning at 11:59 p.m., today, March 27. We must do our best to follow this instruction.
I am proud of how our campus community has pulled together and remained helpful in a critical time of need. For example, donations to healthcare facilities include donated swabs and N-95 masks from Health Services and gloves from our athletic trainers, scientific labs, and Communication Sciences & Disorders Department. Our faculty are using their research and expertise to assist with coronavirus responses and self-isolation support, and many other encouraging actions from our campus community. Watch this video to see some familiar faces and hear words of encouragement from our campus community.
In other good news, UMD has surpassed our capital campaign fundraising goal. You may recall that our public goal was $120 million and we just reached $141.8 million. The goal was reached with many gifts from generous donors. One exceptional estate gift will go to support student scholarships. As with all estate gifts, we hope it is many, many years until this gift is fulfilled but knowing that an alum is willing to commit such an extraordinary future gift to their alma mater is something to celebrate. We anticipate a very different fundraising landscape over the rest of the campaign, which makes exceeding the goal early even more important. The campaign lasts until June 30, 2021.
Access to Campus - Extended Reduced Operations
As a reminder, UMD has implemented “extended reduced operations” until further notice. Campus and all other UMD facilities are closed to our campus community and the public. You should not be on campus unless you are one of the very limited faculty and staff who are officially designated as an “essential employee” and informed by your supervisor to be at work on site. If you are not one of these people, please do not return to campus during this time. It adds an extra burden and risk to the essential employees who need to be there to help support basic operations and for the remaining students still living on campus. With the exception of essential employees still working on campus, at this point you should all plan to work remotely until the end of the semester. I will keep you updated if and when the situation changes and we need to make adjustments.
Student Information:
Vice Chancellor Lisa Erwin sent out a message to students last week with a useful Q&A that may help in your conversations with students. Today we sent a follow-up email to students with additional resources and information about supporting student wellbeing. Our staff in Housing and Residence Life, Dining Services, Health Services, and Facilities Management have done incredible work to ensure a smooth move-out and to develop a plan for providing care for our students who are living on campus.
The other major student update is that undergraduate and graduate students are able to select a Satisfactory/Not Satisfactory grading option in their courses instead of the traditional A-F format if desired. This is an important decision and students are being encouraged to talk to their faculty and advisors for guidance before they decide. The due date for them to select S/N grading is April 30.
Faculty and staff will be provided information on the UMD Registrar Resources page. It will include all of the information provided to students and also include what we intend to be helpful considerations or perspectives for all staff and faculty who are providing instruction, advising, and general guidance to students. Registrar Carla Boyd will send out additional specifics when that information is ready and available for the community to begin using.
For your students who are adjusting to this new temporary reality, you can share a great reference on how to successfully adjust study habits during COVID-19. UMD Stores works with several publishers who are offering many free digital materials for students, learn more on the UMD Stores COVID-19 website.
ITSS:
- Student computing: ITSS has been working with departments to leverage free software licensing from vendors, including Adobe Creative Cloud, Mathematica, and others.
- Internet access off campus: review this list of Internet Service Providers. Individuals who have exhausted Internet and cellular solutions and still need access should contact the ITSS Help Desk. ITSS has installed outdoor wireless for drive-up use in Pay Lot G by Civil Engineering and Lot B by HCAMS.
- We anticipate phishing and other types of malicious scams during this crisis and caution you to avoid clicking on links or responding to emails before confirming they are from trusted sources. Learn about defending against COVID-19 cyber scams.
- For technology support, contact the Help Desk: call 218-726-8847 or email itsshelp@d.umn.edu.
Operational Updates:
We are looking ahead to summer to identify activities and programs that may be affected if this situation goes beyond the semester. Most of our summer courses are already online, which is useful for our academic persistence.
Given the uncertainty in the construction job market, supply chains, and costs, we determined that it is best to postpone our Residence Hall and Dining Hall projects that were scheduled to start this spring. The projects are slated to be designed and a new timeline developed for construction.
The Office of Human Resources has implemented a hiring pause for all positions, meaning that any job postings or employment offers must be approved by campus leadership before proceeding. Approval will be limited to those positions that are essential and critical to maintain operations.
While the financial impact of this situation cannot be completely understood yet, we are working to track expenses and lost revenues. It is important to recognize that this impact will be substantial to the University System. We will work closely with our System partners to maintain the financial well being of our campus and continue to move forward.
Other on-going COVID-19 information and resources:
- UMD COVID-19 website
- Systemwide Safe Campus COVID-19 website
- FAQ: General information for students, faculty and staff
Thank you all for your continued support and patience as UMD, like the rest of the world, works through this time of transition.
Sincerely,
Lendley C. Black
Chancellor
