Thursday, March 5, 2020
Dear Merage School Faculty and Staff:
After a virtual meeting of the School’s leadership team and a conversation with the Provost’s office, I’m writing to provide a quick update regarding moving forward in the short term with regard to the School facing the novel coronavirus. I emphasize “short term” as we need to be flexible and adjust according to the situation. There is no playbook for this, so I appreciate your patience while I hope you trust that we are doing little else right now but working through how to deal with things in a manner that is safe as well as effective.
Current Merage School positions:
- We will wait for Central Campus to dictate policy. That is, we don’t want to jump the gun, but we want our staff and faculty (and students) to know that your safety is our first concern. Therefore, we will continue our business with necessary adjustments while being vigilant. We are preparing to take further action as immediately as possible should that become necessary.
- We will continue to communicate daily with updates and hygiene reminders. Importantly, we should all be respectful of students, faculty and staff who are taking precautions we may not personally feel are currently necessary.
- We will be preparing to work remotely as necessary, but not going to a remote solution across the board until directed otherwise. We are putting together a survey regarding resources needed for remote workers, and what service implications there might be with regard to going remote. You know your job better than anyone, so we are counting on you to help us plan accordingly here. Some people may feel entirely fine working in their private office on campus and that could be a personal decision at such a point in time.
- To reiterate, we must respect the perspectives of others while being personally responsible for our own safety and actions. The FAQs on the campus website direct students to counseling if they feel uncomfortable attending class. (https://www.ehs.uci.edu/PublicHealth/coronavirus/faculty_staff-faq.html and https://www.ehs.uci.edu/PublicHealth/coronavirus/student-faq.html)
- Remote working accommodations or reduced face-to-face time in the office on a case-by-case basis are possible. In fact, this should always be the case whether facing the novel coronavirus or not. People with responsibilities for others (e.g., children, elderly) who feel they need accommodations in order to deal with such challenges should discuss how to handle these situations with their managers. If someone can’t do their job from home (e.g., tech support, some student services), this is a time for those who can to step in to help their colleagues. If someone can temporarily pick up some face-to-face work for a colleague, they may be asked to do so during a time such as this (if you are comfortable from a safety perspective). Some degree of job-swapping to help out those with specific needs should also be on the table. Let’s get creative as necessary.
- Units are free to make decisions regarding cancelling large gatherings at this point (i.e., we will not mandate action or inaction here—case-by-case basis decisions). No direction from campus has been given here, but we’ve already set precedent by cancelling the R2R conference.
- Sanitizer and wipes will be made available as much as possible (we’ve already taken steps in this regard). Be vigilant in watching for symptoms. Encourage anyone feeling ill to stay home. Please don’t let a shortage of sick leave tempt you to come in when ill; share your situation with your manager and we will do whatever we can to accommodate you to heal and others to avoid exposure.
- Be flexible and ready to adapt as conditions change.
Thank you all for your continued diligence during this time. We’ll all be better off with open communication. Feel free to reach out to me or others on the leadership team with any thoughts generated by the above bullets or otherwise.
Best,
Eric R. Spangenberg, PhD
Dean, UCI Paul Merage School of Business