Dean Groth's COVID-19 update

Dennis Groth, Interim Dean

In conjunction with Indiana University, the LuddySchool is closely monitoring the rapidly evolving situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and is actively working to plan and prepare for a potential outbreak.

Each day, Interim Dean Dennis Groth sends updates to faculty, staff, and graduate students regarding the impact of the coronavirus on our school.

 See IU’s latest updates on Coronavirus.


March 26, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

Sorry that this is coming out as late as it is. It has been a very busy day, with many conversations and many decisions. Thank you all so much for your continued hard work. I hope you are all doing well, are safe, and are as productive as you can be in these challenging times.

The Provost sent out a note today to faculty with a great deal of important information. For an online version of the message

Just because this message went to faculty, staff and graduate students may still wish to review it.

Teaching & Learning

  1. In person summer classes will not be held. Instead, as I have previously indicated we should prepare for online instruction this summer. We will review the schedule to see whether there are classes that cannot work in this form.

Faculty - Extensions of Time for Probationary Academic Ranks

  1. All currently employed tenure-track faculty who are due to go up for tenure in 2020-2021 or later have the option to extend their tenure clock by one year.
  2. All currently employed clinical- and lecture-rank faculty who are due to go up for promotion to long-term contract in 2020-2021 or later have the option to extend their probationary contract by one year.

Please see the Provost's message for more details on the process and deadlines for filing the extension. I will also be talking to the chairs about this so that they can provide advise to faculty.

Research Hibernation

  1. As reported previously, except for essential research as defined by Vice President Cate, in-person research in our facilities cannot occur while we are under the Governor's stay at home executive order.

Facilities

  1. All Luddy Facilities are secured and only available for essential personnel. Otherwise, please stay at home for now.

Thank you all so much for supporting each other, our students and our communities.

Take care,

Dennis

Prior Letters

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are all well. Thank you all so much for your amazing work. The most important thing I can say is to please, please, please follow the Governor's executive order. It is critical that we all stay at home and minimize contact as much as possible. Please do so.

Facilities

  1. Our facilities are closed, except for essential personnel.

Staffing

  1. The School has developed a process to manage the reallocation of staff resources when and where it makes sense. Please read about the process at https://uisapp2.iu.edu/confluence-prd/display/SOICKB/Luddy+Staff+Reallocation+Process+during+COVID-19
  2. Staff should stay in touch with their supervisors as necessary. Supervisors should stay in touch with their staff. Let's try and maintain good communication lines.

Teaching & Learning

  1. Just a reminder that we published guidance for the Luddy School on the S/F grading flexibility at https://uisapp2.iu.edu/confluence-prd/display/SOICKB/Luddy+School+Spring+Semester+2020
  2. A message went out today to undergraduate students in the School. Faculty might start receiving questions from their students about S/F. If you are unsure how to respond, please consult with Associate Dean Sabanovic and Associate Dean Haghverdi.
  3. I know faculty are working hard to be ready for classes to start next week. Please let your chair know what the status of your class is if you have not done so already.

Please take care, and remember to take time to relax. It is important to not let the stress of this situation overtake you. Stay well.

All the best,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues

We are lucky to have so many great colleagues in our school. I am constantly seeing amazing efforts, and I thank everyone for what they are doing.

Facilities

  1. With the Governor's executive order, our facilities are closed except for essential personnel. We are working with the campus how to manage mail and package deliveries.
  2. In addition, except for essential research defined in Vice President Cate's message this morning, there will be no in-person, on-campus research.

Teaching & Learning

  1. We have posted guidance to instructors for the S/F grading flexibility. Please note that each school may have slightly different guidance. Please review the Luddy guidance at https://uisapp2.iu.edu/confluence-prd/display/SOICKB/Luddy+School+Spring+Semester+2020
  2. Esfan is working on a message to our undergraduates to provide guidance to them on our S/F grade process. Selma is working on a message to graduate students.
  3. Faculty/Instructors - please be in touch with your chair if you are experiencing any challenges completing preparations for online instruction.

Take care, be safe, take breaks and de-stress when you feel tired,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for your hard work in these challenging times. There have been quite a few developments since my last update, including the Governor's stay at home order, and President McRobbie's note just out about a wide range of concerns.

Clearly, the stay at home order impacts everyone. Please be in touch with your supervisor or chair to confirm you are set up to work from home. At the same time, I am asking supervisors and chairs to be in regular contact with faculty and staff to ensure they are supported.

Teaching & Learning

  1. Due to the Governor's work at home order, faculty that were planning on using one of our classrooms to support their course will be unable to do so until the order is lifted. Please let your chair know if this is an issue, and develop a contingency plan based on non-availability of a classroom.

Searches and Hiring

  1. As indicated in the President's memo, faculty searches are not stopped, but will be reviewed on a case by case basis. Because most of our searches are complete, or nearly complete I will work quickly with the Chairs and Deans to resolve the status of the multiple searches we have in action.
  2. Again, as indicated in the President's memo, staff hiring and any temporary recruiting is paused. We are working out a method to flex staff to support other offices across the school, as work requires, and as staff skill set aligns with those needs.

Residence Halls

  1. As I reported yesterday, students petitioning to stay in the residence halls were notified. I understand that some of the students staying in the halls are being moved to ensure adequate spacing, and also minimizing the number of buildings in use. There were some halls with very, very few students and so, for safety reasons, the campus is moving these students. I share this in case you hear about it.

IT & Logistics

  1. Please do not remove computer equipment from cubicles, offices, or labs. All IU-owned equipment is configured by the Luddy IT group to work on campus. If it is removed and taken home, it will not work. If you have not already done so, please reach out to your faculty sponsor to discuss the rest of this semester. If you have any questions regarding IT or facilities, please email sicehelp@indiana.edu or enter a service request at https://help.luddy.indiana.edu/request/.
  2. Please note, that due to the Governor's work at home order, our IT staff will be working from home, and will be unable to physically assist people with technology - either in our facility, or a staff, faculty, or student's home.

Summer

  1. The campus has not made any decision on summer classes yet. That said, I've asked Associate Dean Sabanovic and Associate Dean Haghverdi to advise me on which of our currently scheduled classes can be made available online. We need to plan for that contingency.
  2. All summer study abroad has been cancelled for this summer. We take this to mean IU students traveling abroad, as well as international students traveling to IUB.
  3. Most on-campus programs are also cancelled for this summer. This means that our camps need to be cancelled, and students and parents notified. If deposits have been received, we need to take steps to return those deposits to the families that submitted them.

Finally, as we all move to stay in our homes, I wish you all well and hope you stay safe and healthy.

Best,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

Just a very brief note to wish you all well. I know this past week has been extremely challenging and there is no doubt that the upcoming week will reveal new challenges. I'm equally certain that all of you will continue to be innovative, resilient and caring as we prepare for the remaining weeks of the semester.

Campus News

  1. Library Status - All services will be provided remotely for the spring semester. Branch libraries on the campus closed Saturday and the Wells Library will close beginning Tuesday the 24th. From their website, "IU affiliates (faculty, students and staff) are encouraged to access and/or retrieve materials from their collections or their graduate carrels or faculty studies on Monday the 23rd." https://libraries.indiana.edu/library-covid19.
  2. More facilities are being being secured. There are some reports of vandalism in some buildings on campus, so buildings are not necessarily closing, but will be operating in a more secure manner. Crimson Cards will need to be shown to access some of these facilities and staff will verify for access. As stated previously, Luddy facilities have been secured, with a plan to accommodate ongoing mail and package delivery.

Teaching & Learning

  1. Students are still technically on break this week, but we expect that they will start reaching out to their faculty to check on what is planned for the semester. I know that many of you have already communicated to students in your classes, and I thank you for that. For those that have not, please reach out to your students and let them know what your plan for the class is.

Thank you all so much for your very hard work in these challenging times.

Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you all are getting some rest, now that the past week is done. I know that many of you are not resting, and working hard even now, but I hope you do take some down time.

Today's update will be brief.

Residence Halls

  1. It has been reported to me that all students who submitted petitions to remain in the residence halls have been notified of the outcome.

Teaching & Learning

  1. Please remember that the websitehttps://keepteaching.iu.eduhas lots of great information as you are transitioning online. Also, please consider sharing thehttps://keeplearning.iu.edu​ website link with your students.
  2. The chairs are supposed to be checking in on how everyone is fairing with the transition. The Department of Information and Library Science reports being 100% ready - thanks!

Campus-Level Discussions

I participate in a daily (not on the weekend) meeting with the Provost, the Vice Provosts, and the Deans to discuss the various concerns we are facing. These meetings cover lots of ground and often discuss information on issues that are still being formulated. For this reason, I am being careful to present finalized information whenever possible, for the sake of not causing confusion, or misspeaking relative to the final campus message. Items being discussed include Safety, Communications, Academic Issues, P&T, Research Impacts, Budgets, etc. The list is long and senior leadership is working through the most pressing issues first.

Please take care, everyone, and remember to be safe, and kind.

Best,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

I am truly grateful for all of your amazing efforts. We really are lucky to have a strong community within the school. I thank everyone for the flexibility with work, work location, uncertainty with what the next day brings.

I know that everyone, including staff, faculty, and students are dealing with the stress of the situation, and also are dealing with childcare as well as other issues, so please be in touch with your chair and supervisor and let them know how you are doing.

Events

  1. The University has still not made a decision about commencement. Again, all school, program and department commencement events have been cancelled. We will work through options on how we can recognize our graduates.

Building Access

  1. We've added Luddy Hall to the list of our buildings that require card/key access. This brings the list of secured buildings to: Luddy Hall, Myles Brand Hall, 611 Woodlawn, 821 10th St. (Undergrad Annex), and 815 10th St. MESH went card access last Friday, from what I understand. We have a solution in place to support continued mail and package deliveries. Again, do not prop doors open.
  2. Because the buildings are likely to be lightly occupied, please take care, and also notify our facilities staff of any problems you see by emailing to sicehelp@indiana.edu.

Teaching & Learning

  1. I know that the shift to online may be a challenge for some, and the shift is made more stressful for colleagues managing childcare, parent-care, and care of others near and far. Let me encourage faculty to be in communication with their chairs about how they are doing personally.
  2. You can expect guidance on the S/F grading flexibility, as well as some advice for free-weak (also known as dead week) soon. I hope to have the general campus statements complete tomorrow, and then we will follow with more specific details right away.

Non-Coronavirus News

  1. The construction fence is up around the new location for the Luddy Center for Artificial Intelligence. Equipment has already started clearing the site. The groundbreaking has really occurred!

Please take care,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you again for your hard work, and I hope you are all well.

Events

  1. Just a reminder that we are not hosting any in-person events through the end of the semester. All hiring, colloquia, student, staff, faculty events are to be help virtually through the end of the semester. Please do not plan any in-person events immediately after the semester at this time. Please contact your chair or supervisor for any questions.
  2. The University has still not made a decision about commencement.
  3. The University has decided that school, program or department recognition/graduation events have been cancelled. We are working on a way to recognize our graduates, but there will not be any in-person events.

Building Access

  1. I've decided to start securing some of our facilities, so please carry your Crimson Card or Building/House key with you as appropriate. The campus and our facilities are still open for work, but some of our facilities (Myles Brand, 611 Woodlawn, 821 10th St. (Undergrad Annex), 815 10th St) will require card or key access. Do not prop doors open. Luddy Hall public spaces are still open while we work out logistics of mail and package delivery, which continue.

Teaching & Learning

  1. For faculty that are ready for online offering, if you have not let your chair know you are ready please do so. If you are not yet ready, please continue your work in preparing to be online.
  2. Students have a one week extension to their spring break, faculty do not. Next week is intended to support preparation for shifting to online - for those that have not already prepared. Please do not wait until next week to prepare if at all possible.

IT & Logistics

  1. Do not take your office desktop system home without contacting Luddy IT first via Service Request https://help.luddy.indiana.edu/request/ Desktops must to be configured for home use or they will not work.

Take care and stay well,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you again for your hard work, and I hope you are all well.

Events

  1. Just a reminder that we are not hosting any in-person events through the end of the semester. All hiring, colloquia, student, staff, faculty events are to be help virtually through the end of the semester. Please do not plan any in-person events immediately after the semester at this time. Please contact your chair or supervisor for any questions.
  2. The University has still not made a decision about commencement.
  3. The University has decided that school, program or department recognition/graduation events have been cancelled. We are working on a way to recognize our graduates, but there will not be any in-person events.

Building Access

  1. I've decided to start securing some of our facilities, so please carry your Crimson Card or Building/House key with you as appropriate. The campus and our facilities are still open for work, but some of our facilities (Myles Brand, 611 Woodlawn, 821 10th St. (Undergrad Annex), 815 10th St) will require card or key access. Do not prop doors open. Luddy Hall public spaces are still open while we work out logistics of mail and package delivery, which continue.

Teaching & Learning

  1. For faculty that are ready for online offering, if you have not let your chair know you are ready please do so. If you are not yet ready, please continue your work in preparing to be online.
  2. Students have a one week extension to their spring break, faculty do not. Next week is intended to support preparation for shifting to online - for those that have not already prepared. Please do not wait until next week to prepare if at all possible.

IT & Logistics

  1. Do not take your office desktop system home without contacting Luddy IT first via Service Request https://help.luddy.indiana.edu/request/ Desktops must to be configured for home use or they will not work.

Take care, and stay well,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues

Thank you all, again, for your incredible efforts in helping deal with our most pressing issues related to Coronavirus. I am continuously impressed with the outpouring of support for our students, colleagues and community.

Teaching and Learning

Again, please use the main resource, https://keepteaching.iu.edu, for help with technical details.

1. For faculty, graduate student instructors, and all other instructional staff, please add a backup instructor to your canvas site. This could be a faculty colleague that you know can cover your course if necessary, but also your chair, and the associate dean of undergraduate studies or graduate studies as appropriate. We ask you to do this as a contingency that a faculty member is unable to teach due to personal illness, necessity to care for a family member or friend, technical details, etc.

2. Please use lecture capture, either through zoom, or Kaltura to record your lectures. It is okay to record multiple classes and post them in canvas in advance. This follows a flipped teaching model where students can view the lecture in advance, and then the "live" lecture is a discussion and more of an opportunity to expand upon materials. Lecture recordings will also be useful for students that connect connect synchronously.

3. Please strongly consider posting your assignments for the remainder of the semester. I'm not suggesting you change the due dates, just to create visibility for the students to manage the work.

4. Please reach out to your students to check that they are ready to connect to your class in the way you are expecting. The campus is working on collecting information from students as to their ability to connect to our systems from their homes.

5. I am working with Associate Dean Šabanović and Associate Dean Haghverdi on guidance for the possible application of S (Satisfactory) grades. Watch for more information later this week.

Students

1. The campus will distribute the petition to students still in the residence halls today. The goal is to significantly limit the number of people on campus. Students living in Bloomington and not in University Housing are not involved with the petition process.

2. The Office of International Services is recommending to international students to go home if at all possible, principally driven by concerns that students might get stuck here in case all travel gets shutdown. The advice is all driven by an assumption that students will have the technical ability to access their coursework and other work from where they will be.

IT/Logistics/Shipping

1. Shipping times are delayed - please do not assume current overnight or 2-day shipping expectations can be met. Supply chains are stretched thin, and we should try and use what we have at hand.

2. IT has constructed an evolving knowledgebase page for IT Tips where we are trying to collect what people are asking about most in one place:https://uisapp2.iu.edu/confluence-prd/display/SOICKB/IT+Tips+and+Resources

3. When to use VPN (Virtual Private Network): Use VPN if the IT staff has instructed you to use it for a specific purpose. Most IU resources do NOT require the VPN. You DO NOT need to use VPN for Zoom, Canvas, Box, Skype for Business, or IUAnyware.

Non-Coronavirus News

I'll use this space for news that is not specific to the public health incident:

1. Fil Menczer reports that their research on networks will be featured on the Networld show airing on PBS tonight at 8:00PM EST.

 

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you all for your amazing efforts working through this unprecedented public health incident. I will continue sending daily updates . Occasionally, as I did last night, I will send more than one update a day.

The campus remains open, but with much limited staffing working on-campus. The main webpage for University news on COVID-19 is https://coronavirus.iu.edu

Teaching & Learning

1. The university has published a self-paced course for students to prepare for learning online. Please publish the following link for your students https://go.iu.edu/keeplearning

2. The campus has authorized faculty to assign a grade of S (Satisfactory) in addition to regular letter grade options. This step should ameliorate concerns by faculty on how to structure work through the end of the semester, and also for students, in terms of worries over GPA. You'll notice that it requires approval of chairs and deans and we will begin discussions at that level for how we will handle it. The guidance is as follows:

​Faculty will be authorized, at their discretion—with approval from chairs and deans—to assign an end of term grade of S (Satisfactory) in addition to letter grades (A+, A, A-, etc.) for graded courses. This flexibility may be helpful for faculty as they are quickly converting to an online format as they plan assignments and assessments. Faculty are advised to consult with their chairs and program directors as to whether a department or program will take a unified approach, and also for how they will consider S grades in the context of existing policies. This last point might be especially important for specialized accreditation programs. We encourage faculty to inform students whether they will be assigning Satisfactory/Fail grades. We further recognize that some students may request a letter grade (or a satisfactory grade) from their faculty member and we ask that faculty make reasonable accommodation based on the information they receive from the student. Normal grade change policies stay in effect.​

3. The campus has decided to suspend the administration of the Online Course Questionnaire (OCQ) this semester. Faculty may elect to administer their own formative data collection to help them diagnose the switch to online, or other data they wish to collect.

Students living on campus

1. Students living on campus are being asked to go home. The dean of students is communicating this, as well as the Office of International Students. There is an appeal process, but that is a campus-level activity, not a school-level process.

Facilities

1. Faculty and staff can still work from they offices. Maintain social distancing and keep yourself healthy.

2. Portions of our buildings are accessible only with Crimson Card. Don't forget to carry your card with you.

SICE-ALL-L Mailing sist

1. Just a reminder that the SICE-ALL-L mailing list switched today to a moderated list. We want to make sure that our faculty, staff, and students have at least one source of information from the school that has some moderation on content. If you think there is something you want me to include in my daily update, please send it to me and I will include, or respond with some advice as to whether a different list is a better choice. The other lists remain non-moderated and, of course, we want to have good lines of communication of good information.

Thanks and take care,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

Things have progressed very fast this evening, and I want to ensure you that we are working diligently to focus on safety of our community. Our first emphasis is on public health considerations and safety of our students faculty, staff, and community.

For events and interviews through the remainder of the semester:

1. Shift to online interviews only. Do not bring people to campus.

2. Please cancel all nonessential events, postpone all other events beyond the semester, or move to virtual events. Let me know if you are having trouble determining what is essential.

3. Commencement has not been cancelled yet, and is still under consideration.

As you read in the President's message, spring break is extended an extra week to accommodate extra preparation to carry online teaching through the end of the semester. I will ask the chairs to develop a mechanism to check on faculty to make sure they are okay. If anyone feels ill, please let their chair or supervisor know.

The main resource for shifting online remains keepteaching.iu.edu. Because our students will be spread across multiple timezones please try and record your lectures and make them available to accommodate remote students.

Please try and work from home if at all possible, and follow all appropriate UITS notices for maintaining safe and secure connections to University Systems and Data.

If you cannot work from home, please take extra precaution to avoid meetings, and practice safe social distancing at all times.

Take care,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you all so much for your hard work over the last week, and thank you in advance for the hard work you will undoubtedly do in the coming weeks. Students come to Indiana University for an outstanding education and I have no doubt that we will continue to deliver to our students the outstanding education available from the Luddy School. I acknowledge fully, that the effort involves faculty, staff, graduate students, and also the students in our classes, so thank you all.

I also want you all to know that our colleagues across the country at our peer institutions are in continuous contact with each other to share best practices. As those ideas make sense to share I will do so. I have heard from many people that they are using our keepteaching.iu.edu site, either directly, or as inspiration for their own sites. We are lucky to have such a strong resource, that was developed long before this current incident.

The campus leadership has scheduled daily meetings to touch base on concerns, policy adjustments, and operational decision-making. Although I have no operational news to share today, I wanted to share that we have set up these daily meetings and I will provide updates as I can throughout the days ahead.

All the best,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues

Well, we made it to the weekend, and I thank all of you for your hard work, patience, and collegiality as we work through this challenging process. I had hoped to send this earlier, but was waiting on some additional information from the campus.

Teaching

The campus has decided to extend the Auto-W deadline for students to withdraw from a class without any special permission. The deadline has now been extended to April 5. After that date, students will require authorization to withdraw from a course from their school administration. The entire process is electronic and initiated by students through the self-service E-Drop process.

For faculty, if a student communicates an interest in withdrawing, please direct them to their advisor to discuss the impact of a withdrawal.

For students, please communicate with your advisor to ensure that a withdrawal does not negatively impact your academic progress.

Grants - Travel/Employees

We have received the following guidance from Research Administration regarding cancelled travel and employees associated with grants.
Under normal circumstances (death in the family, blizzard, etc.) it is fine to charge cancelled trip expenses to a grant so the circumstances with Coronavirus would be no different. Additional rules include:
1. It's ok to charge the cancelled trip as long as the trip was initially intended to be charged to the grant.
2. All credits should be credited to the grant. In the case where a credit is for a future flight, and not an actual refund, then the cost of the trip should be moved off the grant (to a 22 account most likely), and only reapplied back to the grant if the future flight benefits the grant.
Further, if PIs have grant employees that are unable to work or run out of paid time off, then we can’t charge them to the grant, since we would not be able to charge this to IU either.

Social Distancing

Please remember that the campus is still open, and that students unable to travel home may need to stay on campus and use facilities to keep up with their coursework. Please take care to be sensitive to everyone else and decrease density, maintain social distance, and wash your hands - frequently.

Please take care,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues

I hope you are all well. Thank you all for your efforts in this complicated situation.

First, I have received a number of emails voicing concerns about what appears as official information posting to email lists. Please use the lists responsibly, and for good.

I have seen many conversations between faculty that are sharing ideas on how to approach certain activities or processes online. I’m proud to see our colleagues actively engaging in creative problem solving, and also helping each other. Keep these kind of exchanges going.

For now, I have decided to change our largest and most broadly distributed list, the SICE-ALL-L, list to a moderated list. This is the only list that will have this action taken, and all other lists will continue operating as normal. This change does not mean that people cannot submit messages to the list, just that they will be reviewed before transmitting on.

Facilities

Maker spaces are closed, except for essential personnel to maintain the equipment.

I have noted that people are leaving dirty dishes in the sinks in kitchen areas. Do not do this. We will not be washing dishes for people and will dispose of dirty dishes in the sinks.

The campus is open. Buildings are open. Some spaces will be locked for card access. Make sure you carry your Crimson Card with you.

Teaching

I know that all faculty and graduate students teaching classes are working hard to prepare to be online. Make sure you are in communication with your students about what they can expect. Please be flexible with your students, and also ask your students to be flexible with you.

No decision has been made about extending the online teaching beyond the current timeline. That said, you should be prepared if a decision is made to extend online teaching.

Finally

Take care of yourselves. Use best practices and wash your hands frequently, use good social distancing. Stay home if you are sick.

All the best,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues

First, let me thank everyone for their diligent work in preparing for keeping themselves, each other, and our community safe. I appreciate the hard work of our faculty in shifting their courses to an online format. I realize that there are challenges in doing so, but I am confident that all of our faculty will do their best in this complex and challenging time.

Please continue to check https://coronavirus.iu.edu/ for up to date campus information.

Remember, if you are sick – stay home. Take care of yourself. By doing so you are helping everyone else.

The campus is open. Follow public health best practices for populations that remain on campus. Please review the following guidance/questions:

  1. HR GUIDANCE
  2. Can the employee work from home (reduce density of on-campus population)?
  3. Does the employee have daily tasks that must be done in the office (ex. Daily cash account reconciliations)? If so, employee is not a good candidate for being home all day)
  4. Does the employee have the equipment needed to work at home? That usually includes reliable internet access
  5. Employees working from home are expected to:
  • Fulfill all of their normal duties
  • Ensure that they are connecting securely and following all university policies related to access, data security, and data confidentially. Employees should contact their IT Local Support Provider (LSP) for IT-related questions.
  • For general university guidance on telecommuting, please visit the HR Telecommuting Guidelines for on Campus Positions in Emergency or Adverse Situations.
  • IU Human Resources will remain open for all questions by contacting askHR at 812-856-1234 or askHR@iu.edu Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.–5 p.m. ET.
  1. For those unable to work offsite, units should create a safe onsite work environments with an emphasis on social distancing.
  2. For student contact, use telephones and teleconferencing such as Zoom
  3. For meetings, use conference calls and Zoom
  4. Appropriate supervisors/chairs/Deans have the authority to send any sick employee, including a faculty member, home.

iii. Student employees

  1. Students who want to leave campus should be able to do so.
  2. Student employees should otherwise be subject to the rules above, if they are needed for continuity of operations. If there are student employees who are not needed (or their facilities close, see gyms) we will try to move them into positions that are emptied by students who want to be away from campus
  3. Sick employees should not come to work or, if they do come, should be sent home, They should use sick days.

Additional Campus Status

  1. The campus is not closed. People can work, but should limit contact and maintain social distance.
  2. Certain buildings, or spaces of buildings may be more secure over the coming months. This may require card or key access as necessary.
  3. Students that cannot go home will remain in residence, but are small in number.

Teaching

  1. Remember to refer to https://keepteaching.iu.edu/ for up to date information and advice on moving online.
  2. I understand that a statement is forthcoming from the Graduate School on virtual doctoral defenses.

Thank you all. Take care,

Dennis

Dear Colleagues

Instruction and Moving Courses Online

The transition to distance delivery involves all in-person coursework. For the sake of safety, there should be no exceptions, and we are ready to assist with addressing faculty concerns that may arise. We understand--and are sympathetic with--the challenge before all of us. It has been clarified that simply suspending class for these 2 weeks is not an acceptable option. Faculty are expected to continue instruction in some format during these two weeks.

We are confident that the university has the technology and resources available to support this transition, but we also know that a great deal of the burden will fall to our faculty implement this transition. We encourage faculty to share their expertise in helping their colleagues begin this transition. One of the best strengths we have is our community’s commitment to providing excellent and innovative coursework. We are also thankful that the campuses have already begun reaching out to their community to facilitate this transition, and we want to support this good work.

To help provide a list of resources available, the task force outlined the following as key elements of the university’s response plan to this announcement:

  1. The primary channel of information regarding the current status of IU’s response to COVID-19 will be protect.iu.edu.
  2. The primary channel of information regarding support for transitioning to distance delivery will be keepteaching.iu.edu. Important resources are already available there, and the site will be updated regularly to provide additional resources as they become available.
  3. The primary contact for your faculty to obtain assistance with technologies currently available will be their campus teaching center. Their contact information can be found by going to https://teachingonline.iu.edu/support/teaching-centers.html. Additional support from UITS will also be provided to the teaching centers, as needed.
  4. For assistance after hours, or if the teaching center is currently unavailable, faculty should contact the Support Center. Contact information can be found at https://kb.iu.edu/d/abxl.
  5. FACET is developing a list of faculty who have volunteered to serve as expert recourses should your faculty request a colleague to connect with to learn how to best implement an online strategy. This contact list will be shared with your campuses as soon as possible.
  6. The teaching centers will be hosting a series of webinars which will be recorded and shared to provide a venue for faculty to learn about how to manage this transition.
  7. Managing the transition will be managed through the normal academic structure of the campuses. We will continue our communications with the campus administration to facilitate communication to the campuses.

Visitors, Seminars, Colloquia

As with classes, visits, seminars and colloquia should either be cancelled, or postponed through April 5, or held virtually.

Travel

A reminder that all university sponsored international and domestic travel outside Indiana is cancelled through April 5.

Building Access

We are considering securing parts of our buildings to card-access only. If this occurs we will send a communication about the situation.

Office and Telecommuting Options

Please work with your supervisor to determine how best to continue our services over the next 3 weeks. Our services are not closed, just operating in a different modality.

Personal Care

Please take care of yourselves. Avoid close contact, large groups. If you are in a higher risk population we strongly suggest you strictly minimize contact.

Best, Dennis

Dear Colleagues,

President McRobbie has just released a University-wide letter concerning decisions on Coronavirus. Please see the announcement at https://news.iu.edu/stories/2020/03/iu/releases/10-suspend-classroom-teaching-for-two-weeks-after-spring-break.html

And the letter at

https://president.iu.edu/speeches/statements/2020/03-10-coronavirus-letter

As I indicated in this morning’s update we are in a highly dynamic situation. For faculty, staff, and graduate students teaching, please complete your planning for moving online. In addition, please inform your chair or supervisor of your plans. They will be reaching out to you to verify.

In addition, as indicated in the letter, all supervisors should communicate with their staff about the possibility of telecommuting and working from home. For student service areas, it will be important to communicate to students about online or phone service options. This will be particularly important for advising, for example.

Please take care,

Dennis


Hi Everyone,

As news emerges with the impact of Coronavirus I will be sending a daily update, typically in the morning. The message is distributed to Faculty, Graduate Students, and Staff. Some portions of the message apply to all, some to a subset, but I would rather at this point that everyone sees as much as possible.

For everyone

  1. Continue to check the University’s website at https://coronavirus.iu.edu/for up to date information.
  2. Take care of yourself, your families and loved ones, and your colleagues. If you are sick, please stay at home. Notify your supervisor, chair, or faculty member that you are sick and are staying home.
  3. Try and minimize risk of the spread of virus. Wash hands, use hand sanitizer, avoid shaking hands and crowded places.
  4. Make sure you have internet connectivity from home, or wherever you may be to access email, Canvas, course materials, etc.
  5. If you are traveling over the break, take special care. Please let your supervisor, chair or dean know of your plans so that we are aware.
  6. Those over the age of 60 and those of any age who have a compromised immune system need to be extremely cautious to avoid potential exposure to the virus. In particular:
    1. For faculty and graduate students, if you feel that teaching a course increases your risk, then move your course online now. Refer to the keepteaching.iu.edu site for best practices.
    2. For staff, please work with your supervisor to coordinate coverage of duties, and to determine whether and how working from home can be accommodated.

For Instructional Faculty and Graduate Students

  1. Please be actively reviewing how you can shift your class to an online delivery format. As I send this email there is no decision or mandate to require this but, as I have indicated previously, this might become a necessity. Be prepared.
  2. Consider how assessments and exams will be accomplished. At this time, a remote proctoring solution is not authorized for IUB. Consider alternatives to exams, including additional homework assignments, papers, projects, take home exams. You decide what is best for your class. Now is the time to look ahead for final exams. If you need to have some other graded work between now and then, today is the time to consider it. It may be that you will have enough to determine final grades without a final exam. There is no policy that requires a final exam. The policy that exists describes when a final exam can be held. Develop a plan.
  3. Please make accommodations for students that cannot attend class in person due to risk of exposure.

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Take care, Dennis