Update from Chancellor Black

Dear UMD Faculty and Staff,

In addition to dealing with and adjusting to COVID-19, the pain, frustration, and fear created by the killing of George Floyd continues to disturb me and our UMD community. As I work to take meaningful action for our campus, I am listening to your concerns and thoughtfully considering the many suggestions and requests that have come to me over the past few weeks. In addition, I am working with the Vice Chancellors, Susana Pelayo-Woodward, the Campus Climate Leadership Team, and UMD faculty, staff, and student leaders to develop specific action plans to move our critical work in equity, diversity, inclusiveness, and social justice to new levels, to address structural racism, and to demand accountability from units and departments on addressing equity and inclusion.

The Campus Climate Leadership Team meets next week, and we will develop the process to identify new initiatives, programs, and scholarships, as well as the process to examine systems that impact campus climate. We will move forward plans to increase required training for faculty, staff, and students in diversity, equity, inclusion, and implicit bias. We will work with students and partners to ensure equitable access to technology on and off campus. We will work closely with our UMD Police Department and with the police and public safety departments in the Twin Ports area to ensure all members of our community are treated equitably with a primary focus on public safety.

Fall 2020

This week, University of Minnesota System President Joan Gabel outlined the University’s plans for fall semester. To build upon President Gabel’s proposal, which was approved today by the Board of Regents, I want to share UMD’s roadmap for welcoming students, faculty, and staff back to campus.

As always, I am looking forward to a fall semester that provides our new and returning students with the exceptional educational experience they expect, while prioritizing the safety of our campus community. Please know, the University continues to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. UMD is committed to the prevention of COVID-19 spreading even as we look toward normalizing operations in accordance with public health guidelines and with the following in mind:

• The University as a whole is doing everything it can to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among our University community.
• We all have an important role to play: being honest about our own health and keeping others around us safe.
• Students will be on campus for the fall semester and we will alter the ways we work and learn to make our campus as safe as possible for our entire UMD community.

These changes will include things such as reworking classroom spaces to allow for appropriate physical distancing, providing hand sanitizing stations and masks for members of our campus community, and adding sneeze guards and fixed partitions where necessary according to Minnesota Department of Health guidelines. Classes will be offered in alternative formats, and the instructional day will be extended with additional evening classes. We will use staggered work shifts, have in-office and out-of-office days each week, and adapt student support services for both in-person and virtual delivery. We will start our fall semester as scheduled with classes beginning August 31, cancel the fall break, and end face-to-face classes by the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, most classes and exams will occur through distance modalities.

Ending Extended Reduced Operations

On Monday, June 22, we will end our extended reduced operations status and ease domestic travel restrictions. If you are able to work from home you should continue to do so. Any individual or unit seeking to return to work should continue to work with their supervisor and follow the Sunrise Plan process.

While the pandemic requires us to operate differently this fall semester, these adjustments prioritize the wellbeing of the campus and provide us the flexibility to adapt as necessary depending on public health guidance. These changes and public health considerations also allow us to have significant numbers of students on campus, while keeping our community as safe as they will be in other public locations. Please visit the UMD Coronavirus website for more information about this plan. At this time, we hope to have a full spring 2021 semester, but we have to continue to be flexible as public health conditions evolve.

Thank you for your outstanding work during this difficult time. I look forward to seeing you and our students this fall.

Best wishes,

Lendley C. Black
Chancellor