Category: For Staff Page 8 of 15

This message is sent to all Duke graduate and professional students.

March 13, 2021

Dear Graduate and Professional Students,

The stay-in-place directive does not at the moment include graduate and professional students. All graduate and professional classes will continue as planned. We will evaluate over the coming week whether there is a need to extend the stay-in-place longer or expand it more broadly

We ask for your help in preventing the further spread of COVID-19 on campus and in the community. Please do not host or attend gatherings in apartments and homes; please refrain from interactions you might have with undergraduate students (and each other) over the next week; please do not come to campus unless it is for classes or other academic purposes; please do not attend large gatherings of any sort, especially unmasked

We want to thank all of you who have taken seriously the practices that have made it possible for us to be together on campus. And importantly, we thank you for helping us at this crucial time in containing further spread of Covid in the Duke and Durham communities.

Sally Kornbluth
Provost

Kyle Cavanaugh
Vice President for Administration

This message was followed by the email sent to Undergraduate Students. That message is available here: https://coronavirus.duke.edu/2021/03/stay-in-place-for-duke-undergraduate-students-effective-at-midnight-saturday-march-13/

Stay-In-Place Message for UG Students sent to Faculty and Staff

By Kristen Brown

On March 13, 2021

In Community Messages, Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff

This message is sent to all Duke University faculty and staff.

March 13, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past several days, we have continued to see a steady rise in the number of undergraduate students testing positive for COVID-19, principally as a result of recent off-campus fraternity-related events. In an effort to mitigate any additional spread of the virus effective immediately we are now directing all undergraduate students to stay-in-place until Sunday, March 21. Please read the message below to understand what that stay-in-place entails.

Those of you teaching in-person classes this spring need to switch to remote delivery this week. The stay-in-place directive does not at the moment include graduate and professional students because we have seen little increase in COVID transmission spread among this population. All graduate and professional classes will continue as planned.

It is important to note that the majority of Duke students, faculty and staff continue to take seriously the practices that have made it possible for us to be together on campus. Unfortunately, though, the actions of those who have disregarded this guidance place others at risk and we must take these steps to protect the health and safety of our community.

Sincerely,

Sally Kornbluth
Provost

Kyle Cavanaugh
Vice President for Administration

Vaccination of Remaining Faculty and Staff

By Greg Whitaker

On March 11, 2021

In Community Messages, Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff, For Students, Testing & Reporting, Travel Updates

This message was sent by email to all Duke faculty and staff.

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

The State of North Carolina announced that it will expand eligibility for COVID-19 vaccination to include a subset of Group 4 (Adults at High Risk for Exposure and Increased Risk of Severe Illness, Homeless, and Incarcerated Individuals) beginning March 17. At this time, college students in congregate housing are projected to be eligible for vaccination beginning April 7.

As a result, Duke will be inviting all faculty and staff who have not already been contacted to register for the vaccine in the coming week. Those faculty and staff identified as eligible in Group 3 (frontline essential workers) will receive an email from Duke Employee Health by Friday, March 12 inviting them to schedule an appointment. All others on the Duke payroll, including teaching assistants and research assistants, will receive an email early next week with an opportunity to schedule an appointment beginning March 17. Appointments will be added as supply becomes available, so individuals should continue to check for availability every few days.

Please note that Duke Health continues to receive a limited supply of vaccines and cannot accommodate the current demand from eligible individuals. We strongly encourage you to explore all options for vaccination, such as local public health departments, pharmacies and other providers that may have additional supply. If you received your COVID-19 vaccine outside of Duke Employee Health, please submit your documentation to Duke Employee Health.

As a reminder, the criteria for eligibility and the amount of vaccine available are both controlled by the State of North Carolina, not Duke University or Duke Health. The availability of the vaccine will continue to dictate how many and when eligible faculty and staff will be able to schedule appointments for vaccination with Duke Health. In addition, Duke Health is still prioritizing underserved populations and those at highest risk who have not yet received their vaccinations.

We are hopeful that vaccine supply will continue to increase in the coming weeks and months. Our hope is to make the vaccination available to as many individuals as possible, as quickly as possible. In the meanwhile, everyone should continue wearing a mask, maintaining social distance, and frequent hand washing to keep everyone safe as we see our way to the end of this pandemic. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kyle Cavanaugh
Vice President, Administration

Carol Epling, MD, MSPH
Director, Employee Occupational Health and Wellness

Gail Shulby, RN, MA, CPPS
Chief of Staff to the Executive Vice President, Duke Health

Cameron R. Wolfe, MBBS (Hons), MPH, FIDSA
Associate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Duke Health

Co-Leaders of the Duke COVID Vaccination Work Group

Additional Updates on UG COVID Cases and What to Expect This and Next Week

By Kristen Brown

On March 10, 2021

In Community Messages, Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff, For Students, Testing & Reporting, Travel Updates

This message was sent by email to all Duke undergraduate students and to all undergraduate parents. A copy was also sent to all faculty from Provost Kornbluth and Vice President Cavanaugh.

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Dear students,

We are writing to follow up on our message from Monday regarding the recent spike in COVID-19 transmission among undergraduate students. Unfortunately, that spike has continued and the university must take additional steps to curtail further transmission in the days ahead. This new guidance will apply to all undergraduate students, and to all student groups regardless of their affiliation with Duke.

WHAT’S HAPPENED
Between Friday, March 5 and Tuesday, March 9 at 8 p.m. a total of 102 undergraduates have tested positive for COVID. Tuesday’s total of 32 positive undergraduate cases is the single highest daily count within our student population since the pandemic began. The majority of students in this group either have a known Greek affiliation and/or are first-year male students in the Class of 2024. Many of these cases are connected to the off-campus rush activities and parties hosted by individuals connected to Durham Interfraternity Council, which includes Greek organizations that have recently severed their affiliations with Duke. All of these are under investigation by the Office of Conduct and Community Standards and other authorities.

NEXT STEPS
All Durham-based students must adhere to the follow guidance until further notice:

Do not host or attend in-person events of 10 people or more. It remains Duke’s policy that student gatherings are limited to 10 people indoors or outdoors, unless specially approved by the Student Events Policy Committee.
Do not host, attend, or participate in any in-person rush events, on or off-campus, whether or not the group is affiliated with Duke. As has been stated, all rush events must also be virtual unless otherwise approved.
To be clear, students who are seeking to affiliate with any selective organization may not participate in any in-person rush, pledge, or other selection activity for any affiliated or unaffiliated student group.

Failure to comply with these expectations will be considered a flagrant violation of The Duke Compact and Duke Community Standard and will be dealt with accordingly in the student conduct process. Individuals and groups that violate Duke and Durham public health guidance are also subject to disciplinary action. Students found responsible for hosting off-campus events or other flagrant violations of The Duke Compact may face serious sanctions up to and including suspension and/or expulsion. Disciplinary processes for students found responsible for hosting off-campus events have already resulted in multi-semester suspensions.

GUIDANCE FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE TRAVELING THIS WEEK
It is essential that all students who travel away from Durham this week strictly adhere to the following guidance when returning to campus. Please note that any student who has missed their surveillance test this week will be presumed to have traveled and must also adhere to these requirements.

Every undergraduate living on- or off-campus returning from travel this week must sequester in their room or apartments until they have cleared two rounds of surveillance testing, including the 48-hour notification period following the second test.

Sequester entails staying in one’s room or apartment at all times other than to get food and essential supplies, participate in surveillance testing, or get exercise. Students must not attend in-person classes or access non-essential in-person resources until their sequester period is completed. In the fall semester, we asked students to sequester for a shorter period of time; note that the sequester period here is PENDING THE OUTCOME OF TWO TESTS. The return-to-campus sequester requirement is firm and failure to adhere may result in loss of campus privileges or suspension from the university.

INCREASED SURVEILLANCE TESTING FOR ALL UNDERGRADUATES
As always, undergraduate students will be called to surveillance testing twice in the upcoming week; many undergraduates will be called for more frequent testing in the near term. This increase is designed to help the modeling team track and respond to any patterns in transmission.

GOING FORWARD
These steps are designed to assist us in curtailing COVID transmission among undergraduates. We are confident that you all can adhere to this new guidance so that we can flatten the curve on campus without employing additional steps to restrict campus life. Should they be necessary, however, next steps may include instituting a nightly curfew, further restrictions on campus navigation and access, ending in-person courses or cancelling planned activities.

To be clear, we recognize that the vast majority of undergraduates are committed to ensuring the health and safety of our entire community— students, faculty, and staff alike. Following our Monday message, we each heard from students who asked that we be more transparent about the individuals and groups whose actions are disproportionately impacting their classmates. We are doing so by reiterating specific restrictions on, and consequences for, conducting or participating in rush events and will not hesitate to take further action if needed.

In turn, we ask the entire student community to renew its commitment to our collective goal of looking out for each other and completing our semester on campus. In a year of loss, let’s come together to ensure that our seniors can complete their time at Duke without additional interruption and that the campus community can get through a hard-fought year without wholly preventable and dangerous setbacks. We know you can ALL meet this challenge together.

Thank you and go Duke,

John Blackshear
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students

Gary Bennett
Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education

Mary Pat McMahon
Vice Provost of Student Affairs

COVID Increase in the UG population, including the Class of 2024

By Kristen Brown

On March 8, 2021

In Community Messages, Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff, For Students, Testing & Reporting

The message below was sent to all Duke undergraduate students. Additionally, this message was forwarded to all faculty and staff from Provost Kornbluth and Vice President Cavanaugh.

Monday, March 8, 2021

Dear students,

We are writing with some urgent information and to outline steps you must take to protect your health and safety and of those around you. Last week we had a noticeable one-week increase in positive COVID tests, with 46 total undergraduate cases (28 on campus). By comparison, the prior week we had 22 total undergraduate cases (8 on campus). This increase poses a significant risk to our effort to stop COVID’s spread and to maintain some semblance of normal university life. We need every student’s help in order to curb transmission.

WHAT WE’RE SEEING
Contact tracers do not share identifying information about individual students’ identities or actions, but they do report the following aggregate trends:

The majority of the undergraduate cases are connected to students who attended unmasked off-campus gatherings or have travelled.
19 of the 28 on-campus positives are first-year male students who reside on East Campus.
Contact tracers are also noting an increase in students who are reluctant or unwilling to disclose important information that is necessary to keep others at Duke and in the community safe.

Our surveillance and Student Health teams are also reporting a trend in which students—later determined to be COVID positive—are experiencing symptoms but not reporting these on the SymMon app.

This delay in reporting possible infection increases the risk of transmitting the virus to others in our community.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NOW
We need all undergraduates to take the following steps this week:

Report your symptoms accurately and fully every day, regardless of whether you are on campus this week or not.
Do not attend any unmasked gatherings or any gatherings of more than 10 people, on or off-campus. Remember that repeated flagrant violations of the Duke Compact and COVID safety expectations—such as organizing events or providing incorrect information to contact tracers—can lead to increased severity of sanctions for individual students.
If you are screened by contact tracers, you must fully report your potential exposures and patterns. To reiterate: contact tracing is confidential, but it’s also possible to triangulate when a student or group of students are withholding information and putting others at risk. Failure to comply fully with contact tracing is a safety risk to others and a violation of the Duke Compact.
If you are travelling this week but have not registered your travel using the travel form, we still need you to do so by Wednesday at noon in order to help us track and manage spread.
If you are away from Duke and begin experiencing possible COVID symptoms or are exposed to COVID, seek guidance from a local medical provider. If you test positive for COVID, notify Student Health. Do not return to Durham or travel otherwise until you have completed all isolation/quarantine directives.
If you are traveling this week, you will be required to participate in surveillance testing immediately upon return and you will be required to sequester in your room during the 48 hours in which you would expect to hear about any positive test results. Failure to do so will be considered a flagrant violation of the Duke Compact.

While we all wish it was otherwise, COVID is not over. Every student’s actions and decisions matter in our effort to stop the pandemic. The risks to you and to others in the Duke and Durham communities remain very serious, and any group or individual’s actions that incur additional risks may severely jeopardize vulnerable individuals in our community.

We hope everyone gets some truly needed downtime during this week’s days off from classes. So many of you are working diligently to protect your health and that of our community; it’s urgent that we keep this up through the rest of the semester. Thank you for all that you are doing.

Go Duke,
John Blackshear
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students

Mary Pat McMahon
Vice Provost of Student Affairs

Gary Bennett
Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education

Important Reminder to Students about Days Off Next Week

By Kristen Brown

On March 5, 2021

In Community Messages, Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff, For Students, Testing & Reporting, Travel Updates

This message is being sent to all Duke undergraduate students.

Friday, March 5, 2021

Dear students,

As you all know, undergraduates have two days off next week. These days were inserted into the Spring Calendar after DSG advocacy in order to give you all a well-needed break. University leadership did so because we are confident in your partnership in following the Duke Compact. We are writing to share a few important reminders before those days:

Rules related to travel are still in effect. If you have any planned travel, you must let us know via the travel form. Per the Duke Compact and Duke’s COVID policies and expectations, all students are expected to stay in Durham for the entirety of the spring semester.
Surveillance testing will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. Unless you are pre-approved to travel via the form linked above, you will be called in for surveillance testing during those days.
We will be checking Duke IDs at all testing sites next week. Make sure to bring your physical DukeCard with you or have your Mobile DukeCard on your phone.

We need each of you to continue to do your part to keep our community safe. After seeing recent testing numbers and Duke’s tentative commencement plans, we are excited and hopeful—let’s not erase this good work so close to the end.

If students are found traveling outside of Durham without prior approval, please keep in mind that this is a violation of the Duke Compact and will be treated as such. Please do your part: submit the form if you are leaving the area, sequester once your return, and report to surveillance testing when called.

Hang in there, Dukies. Help us continue the semester as planned.

Go Duke,
Duke COVID Response Team

County Vaccination Registration

By Paul Grantham

On March 4, 2021

In Community Messages, Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff, For Students

If you are eligible to be vaccinated based on the Priority Distribution Plan defined by the State of North Carolina, you can register for an appointment through your respective county of residence. Below are the links to the registration forms for Durham, Wake and Orange counties.

Durham County: https://tinyurl.com/DCoWaitlist
Wake County: https://covid19.wakegov.com/vaccine/
Orange County: https://redcap.link/OCHDvax

You can also use the North Carolina’s “Find Your Spot” website to determine your group for eligibility and the COVID Vaccine website to find other local providers in your area.

Plans for Vaccination of Priority Group 3

By Paul Grantham

On March 2, 2021

In Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff

Dear Colleagues,

The State of North Carolina has announced that individuals in the remainder of Group 3 (frontline essential workers who must be in-person at their place of work) will now be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations beginning this week.

For Duke, this means that approximately 600 faculty and staff who meet the Group 3 eligibility criteria will be invited to receive the vaccination this week, including all Duke housekeepers, dining staff, and faculty who are teaching face to face on-site. Other employees who meet the criteria for Group 3, such as researchers working in labs, teaching assistants, Student Affairs staff in student-facing roles, dining contract staff and staff supporting our on-site COVID support activities, will be invited for vaccination in the coming weeks, as supply becomes available.

The number of eligible individuals invited to get the vaccine each week will depend entirely upon the amount of vaccine allocated from the State to Duke Health. Supplies continue to be limited and will vary from week to week. Based on our experience with Duke Health staff, we expect that it could take as long as three months to provide vaccinations to all Duke University employees who are eligible in Group 3, and we ask for your patience as we move through this process.

As a reminder, the criteria for eligibility and the amount of vaccine available are both controlled by the State of North Carolina, not Duke University or Duke Health. The availability of the vaccine will continue to dictate how many and when eligible faculty and staff will be invited for vaccination. In addition, Duke Health is still prioritizing those individuals in Group 1 and Group 2 who have not yet received their vaccinations.

If you are eligible under Group 3, you can also sign up for vaccination at non-Duke hospitals, local public health departments, pharmacies and other providers, and we encourage you to explore these options as well.

While beginning to vaccinate faculty and staff on campus is an incredibly positive development and is one more way to protect our community, it is going to require patience and ongoing compliance with public health recommendation of wearing a mask, maintaining social distance, and frequent hand washing to keep everyone safe as we see our way to the end of this pandemic. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kyle Cavanaugh
Vice President, Administration

Carol Epling, MD, MSPH
Director, Employee Occupational Health and Wellness

Gail Shulby, RN, MA, CPPS
Chief of Staff to the Executive Vice President, Duke Health

Cameron R. Wolfe, MBBS (Hons), MPH, FIDSA
Associate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Duke Health

Co-Leaders of the Duke COVID Vaccination Work Group

Update on Duke Travel Policy COVID-19 Addendum

By Paul Grantham

On March 1, 2021

In Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff, For Students, Travel Updates

Dear Travel Policy Update listserv,

Thank you, to all of you who have reached out to share your questions, thoughts and feedback regarding travel. These are extraordinary times and keeping lines of communication open is more important than ever and has helped us to plan and anticipate needs better. We want to share with you an update on where things stand today for Duke’s travel policy.

The suspension put into place by the COVID-19 Addendum to Duke’s Global Travel Policy will be extended to August 8, 2021.

The specific criteria required for exceptions to this suspension to allow travel may be revised and possibly broadened if warranted by positive developments such as declining hospitalizations and wider distribution of vaccines. Any such revisions will be further specified and updated officially within the Addendum in mid- to late-March and will be available online at https://travel.duke.edu/travel-policy-and-covid-19-addendum. As with all travel at Duke, a significant change in the public health and safety environment can lead to a policy revision, with possible cancellations of travel and return of participants to their homes or Durham. The policies we outline here are subject to change at any time and such changes would be announced via this listserv and on the policy webpage noted above.

For Undergraduates: As stipulated in the January 28^th email from Provost Sally Kornbluth et. al., Duke support for undergraduate travel during the Summer of ’21 will be suspended. This suspension holds true for both individual students and programs, domestic as well as international, and regardless of whether the travel is for research, internships, fellowships, academic study or another purpose. Our fervent hope is that the outlook improves substantially so that support for some undergraduate travel can resume in the Fall of ’21.

For Graduate and Professional Students: The Duke Global Travel Policy and COVID-19 Addendum will remain in effect therefore, support for travel by Graduate/Professional students, both domestic and international, remains suspended. However, an avenue for individual students to apply for an exception via their “Top-Level Manager” (e.g., School Dean, Institute Director, etc.) does exist. At this point, most units, schools, and institutes have developed protocols under which a Graduate/Professional Student and/or their Faculty Advisor/Grant PI can apply for an exception which if granted would allow for travel to proceed. (If you need help identifying who to turn to regarding travel within your unit, please reach out for assistance.)

As has been the case throughout the Academic Year, the decision-maker, faculty/PI or individual Graduate/Professional student can request a review of proposed travel by the COVID-19 Travel Sub-Committee of the Provost’s Global Travel Advisory Committee (GTAC) for input and advice on the safety and security of the planned travel and activity. The COVID-19 Sub-Committee’s review and recommendation is not mandatory for Graduate/Professional Student travel. The ultimate decision for the exception lies with the leadership of the school/institute that will be supporting the travel. If the supporting unit is different than the student’s home school/institute, approval must be secured from both the supporting unit’s leadership and the home school/institute’s leadership. For example, if a Nicholas School of the Environment (NSOE) Grad student has research funded by a Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) grant, the student needs approval from both the leaderships of NSOE and DGHI for the travel to proceed.

For Faculty, Staff and Others such as Post-Docs, Fellows, etc.: The Duke Global Travel Policy and COVID-19 Addendum will remain in effect, and exceptions to the travel suspension can be granted by “Top-Level Managers.” The decision-maker can request the COVID-19 Sub-Committee’s review and recommendation on the safety and security of the proposed travel and activity.

For all travelers: Students, Faculty, Staff and others must remit a copy of approval for travel to the COVID-19 Travel Sub-Committee and individuals must enter their personal and trip details into the Duke Travel Registry.

A note to decision-makers: As stated above, we are working with senior leadership to refine the decision-criteria to aide in granting exceptions for academic and research-related travel for Faculty, Staff, and Graduate/Professional Students. We will have more specific guidance on this in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We also plan to host an online Travel Forum sometime in late-March or early-April once the policy changes have been formally announced. Please watch for the invitation to this forum in the coming weeks.

Kindest regards,

Eric Mlyn, Chair, Global Travel Advisory Committee and
Christy Parrish, Travel Policy Administrator

Update on Gatherings, Events, and Remote Work

By Kristen Brown

On February 25, 2021

In Community Messages, Duke University, For Faculty, For Staff, For Students

Dear Duke University Faculty, Staff and Students,

While Governor Roy Cooper announced an executive order on Wednesday that eases restrictions on gatherings in North Carolina, Duke will maintain its current policy of limiting in-person gatherings other than scheduled classes and approved student activities to 10 persons, 6’ social distanced, masked, and neither food nor beverages consumed.

We are also maintaining our policy regarding events. 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.

While we have seen progress in recent weeks with a decline in positive cases among students, faculty and staff, we are also at a critical juncture. We have seen several instances of policy violations in the last week that have led to additional positive cases. We understand and empathize with the “pandemic fatigue” everyone is experiencing, but we must continue to remain strong for one another to ensure we can complete the semester as planned.

Because the majority faculty and staff are not likely to be vaccinated until later this summer, most university staff should continue to work remotely through the end of May, unless you are specifically designated to return to Duke facilities. Having fewer people on-site continues to be the best way to reduce the potential spread of this virus and protect our campus and community.

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to follow public health guidance to protect yourselves, your loved ones and the broader community. We have continued to accomplish extraordinary things despite the pandemic, and we will come out stronger together on the other side.

Sincerely,

Kyle Cavanaugh,
Vice President, Administration