Dear University of Rochester Colleagues, Students, Parents, Alumni, and Friends,
I’m thinking of all of you at this time of isolation, social distancing, and high anxiety. I am grateful to so many of you for your creative ideas and supportive messages as the University navigates a public health crisis of uncharted proportions. I want to thank you all for adjusting to new ways of teaching and learning, coming to terms with the fact that we will not be able to celebrate Commencement for our 2020 graduates as planned in May, continuing to provide support and service to our students on campus, juggling the dual challenge of simultaneous remote work and childcare, and keeping this institution running. Most important, I want to thank the healthcare providers and support staff at the Medical Center, who are working tirelessly to provide exceptional and compassionate care to our patients and their families, and our researchers, who are studying ways to combat COVID-19, from possible clinical trials to the development of ways to increase the number of patients who can use a single ventilator simultaneously. I will have more to share on some of this promising research work in a future message.
I am writing today to share with you how the University is responding to this public health crisis. I hope you have the time to read through to the end because there is much to report. I promise shorter and more frequent messages going forward!
I’d like to start out by reminding all of us that if there were ever a time to live our Meliora Values, this is it. We have to work together as a community to make our way through this unprecedented time, even as we live and work in the greater isolation that social distancing requires. And this is why we all must be constantly mindful of the things that bind us together as a community and reject the things that divide us.
I have learned from Mercedes Ramírez Fernández, our vice president for equity and inclusion, and from the Campus Climate and Care sub-group of our Coronavirus University Response Team (CURT), of some recent incidents of prejudice and xenophobia, apparently tied to the current pandemic, targeting members of our University community. This is offensive to me and it should be to you. It is antithetical to our values, and it is wrong.
COVID-19 affects everyone. It is a virus that does not discriminate by country, nor does it discriminate by gender identity, race, ethnicity, or age. As members of the University of Rochester community, neither do we. We live and work by important standards memorialized in our common values of: equity, leadership, integrity, openness, respect, and accountability. These are not easy days, but our standards cannot be ignored or forgotten, whether we are physically at the University or working and studying remotely. Many of us are in the middle of an institution-wide effort to combat a common enemy: the novel coronavirus disease and the disruption and anxiety this pandemic has caused. Please be kind. Be patient. Be respectful. Be generous and understanding. Wash your hands – not just for you but for those you may come in contact with. Practice social distancing – and again, this isn’t just for your health but for the health of others. But most of all, be aware of the corrosive effects that fear, mistrust, and hostility can have on our community, and do what you can to call it out and stop it in its tracks. We are in this together and we must get through this together.
My top priority, above all, is ensuring the health and safety of all members of the University community – including, of course, our healthcare workers on the front lines, who are caring for the entire greater Rochester community. The actions and activities described below are inextricably linked to this overarching priority.
Clinical Care – Throughout the UR Medicine network, CEO Mark Taubman and his teams are working diligently to expand our workforce capacity, physical space, and equipment (including personal protective equipment) so we can accept a high volume of sick patients. This has included postponing elective surgeries and converting to telemedicine for outpatient visits wherever possible. The exhaustive effort is being coordinated with state and county health officials as well as all local health systems. You might like to view Dr. Taubman’s recent message to the Medical Center community.
De-densification – We spent the last week working to de-densify the University campus, following the advice of epidemiologists and public health officials. We completed an early move-out process for our undergraduate students, granting approximately 900 exceptions for those students who would have a difficult time returning to a home country or who have other serious challenges that would prohibit them to leave. Campus operations and residence life are also evaluating various ways to stagger density in the dorms and prepare for quarantine and isolation space on campus. Faculty members are receiving instruction and support to move all courses online. Our Human Resources, ITS, and Online Learning teams have worked to provide rapid guidance to staff at all levels of the institution for remote work. As of Monday, March 23, as directed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, 100 percent of our non-essential staff are working remotely.
Continuity of Teaching and Research – We have made the transition of all instruction to virtual classrooms. Remote courses were up and running as of Monday, March 23. Keeping in mind those of us in our community who have special needs, our Office of Disability Resources team has developed guidance documents to help with accessibility of courses, and individual access coordinators are checking in with students about accommodation needs. In terms of the University’s research enterprise, all but a very few essential lab research programs were ramped down by March 24. With respect to when we will resume in-person education, we are modeling various scenarios that take into account current disruptions with travel, transportation, and services both domestically and internationally, and right now, there are no easy answers. In the meantime, we’re actively exploring ways to enhance our online education capacity.
Workforce Support – We are committed to continuing to pay our employees for the foreseeable future, even when work functions can’t be performed from home. We are looking for ways to reassign staff to essential duties, if needed. We’re also looking for ways our available staff might provide volunteer support to many of the local Rochester agencies that provide essential goods and services to our most vulnerable neighbors.
Emergency Operations – The University has established two Emergency Operations Command Centers, one for the Medical Center, and one for the River Campus and other non-medical University properties. These centers, which are directed by our Emergency Operations/Health and Safety teams, serve as central hubs for all University operations, including healthcare provision, staffing, equity and inclusion, purchasing and supply chain, budget and finance, residential life and dining services, facilities operations, government relations, and others. Daily meetings are conducted by command center leaders with representatives of all key departments to make sure everyone is operating with consistent information so that our University continues to run smoothly. Our colleagues who are supporting the work of these Emergency Operations Command Centers are doing two jobs at the moment, and we simply could not continue to operate without their efforts. When this particular moment in history concludes, we will all owe these people our most sincere thanks!
Ongoing Support for Students, Faculty, and Staff – Student services staff in all of our schools are working to provide virtual student programming and services during the remainder of the semester. The Campus Climate and Care sub-group of the CURT is focused on ensuring that students who are on campus feel safe, supported, and informed, and have access to food services and the resources (e.g., printing, internet, etc.) to complete their course requirements. We recalled all undergraduate students and faculty from study programs and research postings abroad. In many cases, our Office of Global Engagement was key in arranging travel at the last minute for members of our community who would otherwise have been stranded overseas as countries around the world closed their borders. Another team of medical and student services professionals is coordinating with returning students from abroad who require quarantine as well as creating safe spaces on campus for both quarantine and isolation in case these are needed in the coming weeks. We also continue to explore ways to support our workforce as we transition to primarily remote work where many skills and functions may need to be repurposed and workers redeployed.
Continued Stewardship of the University – With advice and counsel from the Board of Trustees and my senior leadership group, we are conducting scenario planning on potential impacts to revenue and operations, short-term and long-term. We are asking the leaders of all units and divisions to explore ways to reduce costs and increase savings and revenue. If anyone has ideas about these efforts, please let me know! Although our Advancement team has suspended virtually all solicitations at this time, we do have two special emergency funds for students on the River Campus and at the Eastman School of Music. The Medical Center is accepting donations of supplies, food, and money as they work to meet the challenges of COVID-19. You can find out how to support this effort by visiting the URMC How Can You Help website.
Communication – Information about COVID-19 and the impact it is having on our community changes daily. We are committed to providing as accurate and up-to-date information as possible on our Coronavirus Updates website and on the Medical Center’s COVID-19 web page. In addition, we are now publishing @Rochester seven days a week and sending the newsletter to faculty, staff, and students. Parents and alumni can sign up here to receive it.
As you can see, we are all working very hard during these unsettling times. I will be in touch more frequently in the coming weeks and months with more updates. I’m also looking forward to bringing you uplifting and inspiring stories of the great work our faculty are doing to provide virtual instruction, what our research teams are doing to combat the virus, how our students are creating virtual community, and, of course, everything our staff and clinical teams are doing to care for our community.
In the meantime, please stay healthy and safe!
Warm regards,
Sarah