COVID-19 update for AHS faculty and staff from Dean Fernhall

Dear colleagues,

As you know, President Killeen issued new preventive polices for all three campuses designed to protect our faculty, staff and students from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Provost Poser and Vice Chancellor Barish issued guidance for these new preventative policies. It is important that our college move as quickly as possible to institute and adhere to these policies while also considering how to best ensure continuation and progression in the education of our students through the end of the semester. Below are some points of clarification.

1. The UIC campus is not closed! All faculty and staff are expected to come to work as usual. Students can also come to campus and use computer and library resources.
2. The migration of courses to an online format will start immediately. However, all courses need to be migrated by March 23. This means it is possible to teach courses on campus as usual for the remainder of this week and most of next week. It is the responsibility of the course instructor to make the decision of when to migrate to an online format, but the migration needs to be completed by March 23. It is also the responsibility of the instructor to contact students in the course to inform them on how the course will proceed.  Contact your unit head if a course cannot be moved online.
3. Exams scheduled for next week can be conducted on campus as usual or conducted online if possible. It is the responsibility of the course instructor to make the decision of whether to proceed to conduct exams in person or online. After March 23, exams will need to be conducted online.
4. Essential small group laboratory or clinical courses can still be conducted in-person on campus. It is preferable to move these experiences online if possible, however, some laboratory courses must be conducted in person with small groups. Contact your unit head if a laboratory course cannot be moved online and will continued to be delivered in person.
5. Students in clinical placements or internships will continue those experiences following their site’s infection control procedures.
6. All events with more than 50 attendees are suspended indefinitely. Essential events with less than 50 attendees may continue but contact me directly at fernhall@uic.edu before proceeding. Visit Inside AHS for more information on canceled events.
7. University-sponsored international travel is not allowed. “University-sponsored” means any travel on university time or as a representative of the university, regardless of the source of funding (state funds, grant funds, external, etc.) – even if the travel is being paid for directly or reimbursed by a third-party. Personal travel that occurs on non-university time is not governed by this policy. However, university employees are encouraged to restrict international travel to avoid exposure and spread of the virus.
8. Non-essential university-sponsored domestic travel is not allowed. “University-sponsored” means any travel on university time or as a representative of the university, regardless of the source of funding (state funds, grant funds, external, etc.) – even if the travel is being paid for directly or reimbursed by a third-party. Standard travel to meetings, for consulting, evaluations, lobbying, board meetings etc., are not essential and are not allowed. Contact me directly at fernhall@uic.edu if you believe you have essential university-sponsored domestic travel for approval before the trip. Personal travel that occurs on non-university time is not governed by this policy. However, university employees are encouraged to restrict domestic travel to avoid exposure and spread of the virus.
9. Research activities will continue as usual following appropriate procedures to ensure the safety of faculty, staff, students and research participants.
10. Our clinical services will continue as usual following appropriate procedures to ensure the safety of our faculty, students, staff and patients.

In addition to these clarifications, we have created more detailed guidelines and instructions for how we will approach this difficult situation:

• COVID-19 resource list for AHS faculty and staff
• COVID-19 guidelines for AHS instructors

Please make sure you read and familiarize yourself with the information in these documents. I appreciate the efforts by our faculty, staff and students to provide a safe and effective learning and work environment during this difficult time.

Please feel free to contact your unit head or the AHS Office of the Dean for any further clarifications or information.

Best regards,
Bo Fernhall