Duke University’s COVID-19 testing program has administered 700 tests to 309 student-athletes, coaches, and staff in the first three weeks since student-athletes began returning to campus for voluntary practice.
Read the full story on GoDuke.
Category: Community Messages Page 13 of 19
TO: Deans and Senior Leadership
FROM: Kyle Cavanaugh, Vice President for Administration and Jennifer Francis, Executive Vice Provost
RE: Public Events for Fall 2020
After careful consideration of local and national conditions, the university has made some difficult decisions regarding events and activities for the fall 2020 semester:
- No in-person public events will be permitted on the Duke campus until further notice. This includes performances, concerts, lectures, reunions, alumni and development programs, conferences, symposia, tours, board meetings and any other event to which individuals who are not Duke students, faculty or staff would be invited or expected to attend. Schools, units and administrative departments will receive separate guidance about protocols that must be observed for internal events, such as departmental meetings and workshops, as part of the return to the workplace process.
- No in-person events hosted, sponsored or paid for by Duke will be permitted to take place off-campus, both in Durham and elsewhere in or outside the U.S.
- Student Affairs will be providing guidance to students for events and activities that will be permitted.
- Further guidance will be forthcoming on religious services.
The reason for this decision is simple: we need to remain focused on safely fulfilling Duke’s core missions of education and research. While public events and engagement are knitted into the fabric of the university, we need to limit public access to the campus and cannot accommodate the added demand on space, resources, and health care services that would be required to run even a severely limited schedule of public events.
We also recognize that, even with these restrictions, you may still want to propose public events and activities. To that end, there is an appeal and review process that Mike Schoenfeld will oversee in consultation with the appropriate university leaders. For more information see: http://events.duke.edu/2021request.
Thank you in advance for conveying this information to your faculty, staff and departments. As much as we would like to think of the fall semester as “normal,” our need to safeguard the health and safety of our university community, and in turn the wider Durham community, means that we will need to forsake many activities that would otherwise be routine. We will continue to monitor conditions closely and look forward to returning to our regular schedule of broad public engagement as soon as it is safe to do so.
President Vincent Price updated the Duke community on safety and health plans for the fall semester, reporting that Duke would continue on the path to resuming residential activity and outlining the changes in student and campus life that will enable students to safely return to classes on campus.
Read more on Duke Today.
Duke is instituting health and safety measures on all campus buses to protect operators and passengers from COVID-19 infection.
In preparing buses for the return of students, staff and faculty for the fall semester, crews in Parking & Transporation Services have followed a protocol since May ranging from a three-step disinfectant process to requiring physical distancing aboard all 25 buses and the rest of Duke’s transit vehicles.
Sarah P. Duke Gardens will not reopen in June and will remain closed until further notice. Read the announcement on their website.
Please see their resources page for information about free online classes and other ways to explore the natural world around us.
The following memo was send to University leaders and managers.
TO: Vice Presidents, Vice Provosts, Deans, Directors, Department Heads, and Managers
FROM: Kyle Cavanaugh, Vice President, Administration
RE: Update on Plans for a Return to the Workplace
As North Carolina and Durham continue to revise restrictions for public and business activity and Duke gradually reopens clinical facilities and research laboratories, we expect the majority of university staff will continue to work remotely through the month of June.
With the successful reopening of labs in the School of Medicine, Pratt School of Engineering, Nicholas School of the Environment and the Duke Marine Lab, several thousand faculty and staff have returned to the campus under controlled circumstances and with new protocols for safety, cleaning, scheduling, social distancing, symptom monitoring and testing.
University officials will be monitoring this new activity to ensure that the health and safety of all employees and students are protected and will make necessary adjustments as the reopening continues.
Each school and administrative department now has a Return to the Workplace Coordinator who is assessing staffing models, space configuration, scheduling, social distancing requirements, cleaning and safety procedures, and signage to facilitate the expansion of on-site work as departments are approved to reopen and staff their facilities. Any individual who is approved to return to the workplace will be required to submit a symptom monitoring assessment daily and wear a mask while on-site.
Please take a moment to review the Guide for the Return to the Workplace as we gain more experience in addressing specific needs of departments and more information will be made available over time.
Thank you for your ongoing support of your teams in helping Duke respond to the unique challenges of this time.
Dear Colleagues,
Over these past few months, the world has seen the best of Duke. Every member of our community has risen to meet extraordinary difficulties that none of us expected when the academic year began with such promise last August. For all that, and on behalf of your colleagues around the world, I thank you. I have never been prouder to be a Blue Devil.
Even as we rise to meet the public health challenges and navigate this new world of social distancing and working from home, we must also rise to meet the financial headwinds now confronting us, both individually and collectively. As I noted last month, the fallout from the pandemic has had a significant negative effect on almost every aspect of our operations. Indeed, as predicted, every one of our sources of revenue—tuition, research grants, clinical and patient care services, private philanthropy and income from our investments and endowment—has already suffered large reductions or is expected to be quite substantially diminished in the months ahead.
Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to provide you with a brief update regarding the planning process for Duke University’s Return to the Workplace efforts. These efforts are being carefully controlled and coordinated to ensure personal safety and mitigate potential risks of spreading COVID-19.
Team 2021, the strategy team convened by President Price to assess options and recommendations for the next academic year, continues to meet several times per week. While decisions about the fall semester will likely not be made until late June, the team is also coordinating more immediate plans to initiate the reopening of certain offices and facilities on campus. These areas will initially include clinical services in Duke Health and research laboratories.
While the stay-at-home orders for the state of North Carolina and Durham County’s are expected to expire on May 8 and May 15 respectively, please note we expect the majority of the University’s workforce to continue to work remotely until further notice.
No unit or department should increase on-site staffing beyond current levels until further notice and only employees who have been specifically designated and informed by their supervisors should make preparations to return to their offices after May 15.
The University has formed a Return to the Workplace group made up of representatives designated by each dean and vice president. This group will be coordinating the process, schedule and approvals needed to ramp up activity in Duke facilities. They will also work with their respective school, department and administrative unites to ensure appropriate social distancing practices, coordinate building controls and access, and distribute appropriate PPE and other safety resources.
A video Q&A and a comprehensive Guide for the Return to the Workplace will be made available to all employees later this week to provide more detail on policies, practices and expectations that will need to be observed as we continue the process of restoring activity to the Duke campus and our off-campus facilities.
We want to extend a special thanks to the thousands of front-line Duke Health staff who have continued to deliver exceptional patient care during this public health crisis, and the hundreds of University staff who are supporting the students who currently remain on campus, maintaining critical laboratories, utilities, and facilities, and providing essential operational support services to the entire Duke community. We are also deeply grateful to the countless others who are working remotely to advance our missions in new and innovative ways.
Sincerely,
Kyle Cavanaugh, Vice President, Administration, Co-chair Team 2021
Jennifer Francis, Executive Vice Provost, Co-chair Team 2021
This message is being sent to all Duke University faculty and staff.
Dear Students,
We are excited to announce a new and expanded schedule of more than 200 courses for Duke Summer Session II 2020. These courses are being updated on DukeHub and will be open for registration on Friday, May 1 at 9:00 am EDT. Most of the courses will be listed by 9 am on Friday but others will be added over the next couple of days and we encourage you to keep checking DukeHub for updates until May 3rd.
All Summer Session II courses will be delivered remotely. If you were previously registered in a Duke Summer Session II course which is now being offered online, you will automatically be moved into the new course. We will not automatically cancel your registration in these courses in order to maintain your enrollment in the class; however, we ask that you unregister through DukeHub if you no longer plan to take the online course so the spot can be made available to others. We have also maintained the wait list for all Summer Session II courses in order to preserve your position to get into a course.
For more information about the course, fees and schedules, visit:https://summersession.duke.edu/duke-students/frequently-asked-questions-summer-session or contact Kim Price at kprice@duke.edu.
Thank you for your patience and for your strong interest in this wide array of courses available for the Duke Summer Session.
Best,
Jennifer Francis
Executive Vice Provost
This week Governor Cooper announced an extension of the “stay-at-home” order for the entire state through May 8, and the City of Durham City and Durham County announced a joint extension until May 15. Area municipalities are also allowed to create provisions that are in addition to and extend beyond the state’s May 8 order.
Duke will phase in a return of faculty and staff over time in a coordinated process to ensure appropriate social distancing, availability of PPE (personal protective equipment) and testing capabilities for COVID-19. Expanded staffing will begin in more controlled areas of greatest need such as health clinics and research laboratories as early as next week.
These efforts are being tightly controlled and coordinated to mitigate potential risks and ensure the safety of faculty and staff, as well as the communities we serve. No unit or department should increase staffing levels beyond current needs to support critical on-site operations without approval from your respective dean, vice president or vice provost. Once decisions to expand on-site staffing in certain areas have been made, those areas will receive guidelines and instructions for returning to work on campus.
Our approach to staffing will need to be phased in over time and fluid as conditions change. As areas of the state and region begin to ease restrictions on activities, we may see localized spikes of COVID-19 outbreaks. Such outbreaks will increase demands on our health system and may force us to restrict on-site staffing again to only those necessary to support critical operations until the outbreaks are contained.
We continue to work closely with local, state and federal authorities as well as public health officials, including our own Duke Health experts in infectious diseases, to determine the safest approach for all members of the Duke community.
No decisions have been made yet as to activities related to the fall semester. President Price has charged Strategy Team 2021 with assessing options for a return of students, faculty and staff to campus. More information will be communicated regarding those plans as we assess conditions through the coming months and once decisions have been finalized.
Thank you for your ongoing flexibility and support in serving our core missions and upholding our shared values during this unique time in Duke’s history.
Sincerely,
Kyle Cavanaugh, Vice President, Administration, Co-chair Team 2021
Jennifer Francis, Executive Vice Provost, Co-chair Team 2021