The following message from Provost Magill to the UVA Community was delivered March 12.

Dear members of the UVA Community:

I write to provide a few updates following President Ryan’s email from yesterday about the steps the University is taking in response to the COVID-19 threat. If you have not yet done so, I encourage you to read his message closely.

To review, President Ryan announced a series of actions yesterday—gearing up to deliver classes on-line as of March 19th, strongly encouraging students to return home if they can,and prohibiting certain events on Grounds. These actions are all guided by the the desire (1) to protect the health of our students, faculty, staff, and Charlottesville neighbors; (2) to help slow the spread of the virus in Virginia and the nation; (3) to ensure the continuity of our teaching, research, and clinical care. We can advance all of those goals by reducing the number of people who are living and meeting on Grounds.

Today we are providing additional updates and announcing several additional changes, some of which are relevant to the entire community, and some of which are specific to faculty and staff.

First, the more general updates:

We will be making a decision about Final Exercises by April 15th.

• We know this is top of mind for many of you, especially graduating students, and we are working as fast as we can to give you some clarity – understanding that we don’t yet know what the situation will look like in May.

Events at John Paul Jones Arena are postponed at least through the weekend.

• Please visit www.johnpauljonesarena.com for the latest on each event. Ticket holders will be notified through Ticketmaster.
• We will continue to work with performers and others involved in events scheduled to take place at John Paul Jones arena to evaluate additional upcoming events. 

The ACC has suspended the Spring Athletics season.

• Earlier today, the ACC announced that they have suspended all athletic related activities. This means that all Spring sports at UVA are canceled.
• Fans who have already purchased tickets may contact the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office by phone at 800-542-8821 or by email at uvatickets@virginia.edu.

We are looking into offseting dining and housing costs for students.

• We have set up a Financial Resource Working Group that is looking into, among other things, offsetting dining and housing costs for students. More details will follow soon.
• We also have a Student Life and Leadership fund, which is a rainy day fund distributed by the Student Affairs Office for students with unexpected expenses. 

Students who are part of the Federal Work Study program will continue to be paid even if they are not able to work.

• This flexibility applies to students who started classes for the Spring 2020 term and earned FWS wages prior to the University moving to virtual instruction. It will remain in effect as long as virtual instruction remains in place.

If we resume in-person classes before the end of the semester, we will make sure any student who has gone home and cannot return to Grounds is able to complete the term.

Early this morning, the University suspended all of its current study-abroad programs, and encouraged all UVA students to return to the United States by this weekend. The International Studies Office contacted participants in these programs individually.

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Below are more specific updates for faculty, staff, and graduate students working on Grounds.

Let me start by acknowledging how difficult this situation is for all members of our University community and express the leadership’s deep gratitude for your hard work and your dedication to UVA’s missions.

The University is open and operating.

• Given normal operations, faculty and staff should continue to report to work as usual (you can find more detail on our human resources policies below).
• We will begin scaling back some services, like dining and bus service, but will still meet the needs of employees and the limited number of students who will be remaining on Grounds. Any changes in these services will be posted will be available on departmental websites.
• Libraries will remain open from 8am to 5pm daily, with the possible exception of weekends. Some locations that depend heavily on student workers may close.
• We are monitoring this rapidly evolving situation closely. A cross-university team,mincluding medical professionals, meets daily.  If any modification to the University’s operating schedule becomes necessary, we will let you know immediately.

Human Resources: All faculty and staff should continue reporting to work, but employees will be eligible for a new leave benefit.

• Faculty and staff should plan to report to work as usual. However, when possible, we do encourage managers to consider options for staff and faculty to work from home.  You can find answers to questions about working remotely here.
• If you have an underlying health condition that necessitates working from home, please talk to your manager, department chair, or dean.  They, in turn, are encouraged to be flexible if an employee has a compromised health situation or is caring for someone who does.
• As of today, all employees, including wage and temporary employees, are eligible for up to two weeks of leave if they have been impacted by the virus.  This includes employees in both the Academic Division and Medical Center.
• This leave is available to employees who have been directed to self-quarantine by a qualified health care provider, have been exposed to someone diagnosed with COVID-19, or have an immediate family member who diagnosed with the disease.  More details on this new policy can be found here or you can contact the or contact the HR Solution Center at AskHR@virginia.edu or 434-243-3344.

Teaching continuity: We are working to support faculty as classes move online.

• We have an all-hands-on-deck approach to bringing our teaching on line. Below are updates on some of the key developments from the cross-university team that is working on this.
• We sent out a survey to faculty and instructors yesterday to determine the support needed to move classes online and we have a plan in place to provide support – either centrally or through schools. If you received the survey and have not responded, please respond immediately.  The responses to the survey will be critical to understanding the needs and responding to them.
• You can find general information on teaching continuity here.  More specific answers about academic instruction related to yesterday’s announcement can be found here.
• We are working to identify and support any students who might have connectivity or other assistance needs in accessing online instruction. As a reminder, while online classes will begin on March 19th, there will be no in-person classes between now and March 19th. That is, we are taking a pause in classes.  Given that this is only 3 days (similar to snow days in the past), we are confident that we will complete the term with the teaching days available.

Research continuity: We have plans in place to ensure research can continue.

• Faculty, staff, and postdocs engaged in research are permitted to continue that research. Principle Investigators can designate some of their laboratory staff and postdocs as essential to the continuity of their research.
• Graduate students whose research takes place in the University’s labs will continue to have access to those facilities in consultation with their faculty advisors.  Graduate students with appointments as research assistants should be in touch with their faculty advisors to learn about any changes to the activities of their research group.
• We do not know how disruptive this virus will be and encourage anyone conducting research to begin planning for what to do if that research gets disrupted. We have created a research continuity website with information on how services might be affected and recommendations for how to plan. 
• All PIs with an active open research grant have been reached individually. There will be additional guidance for social and behavioral sciences, as well as for patient care-based clinical trials, shortly.

We are suspending all international and non-essential domestic University travel, effective immediately and continuing at least through April 15th.

International Travel for University business

• Effective immediately, we are prohibiting all University-related international travel by faculty and staff. If you require an exception, please submit a request to the Provost’s office at COVIDTravel@virginia.edu. Requests will require an endorsement of the employee’s dean, vice president, vice provost, or manager.

Domestic Travel for University business

• Effective immediately, we are suspending all non-essential domestic travel. Essential travel is defined as supporting activities that are absolutely necessary, cannot be rescheduled, and must be done in person. If a supervisor, associate dean, or dean deems the travel essential, it will be reimbursed. If not, it will not be reimbursed.

Return from international travel

• If you do travel internationally, it is important to note that return may be difficult.  As a result of the U.S. Presidential Proclamation on March 11th, University faculty and staff who have been in Europe’s Schengen area (26 European countries that allow free and unrestricted travel between them) in the previous 14 days before re-entry to the United States will face enhanced screening procedures for returning to the U.S.  Please consult the Center for Disease Control for details. 
• University faculty and staff who are not American citizens or legal permanent residents of the United States who have been in the Schengen area in the previous 14 days may not travel to the United States, even with currently valid nonimmigrant visas, for the 30 day period beginning at midnight, March 13th.  We are currently exploring whether the U.S. government may change this policy, and will share more information as we get it.

Return from personal travel

• We ask all University employees to take account of this guidance as they evaluate their own personal travel. Check the state and territorial health department websites for the latest information.

Reimbursement

• If you must cancel travel, seek waivers and refunds directly from the airlines and hotels first. If airlines and hotels are not issuing waivers or refunds, employees can submit expense reimbursement requests through ExpenseUVA after the date of travel.
• For more information, please see the “Travel and Expense” website and the more specific “Travel and COVID” site.  If you have a question that isn’t covered on either of these sites, contact the travel team at travel@virginia.edu or 434-924-4121

Event restrictions remain in place for the foreseeable future.

• To re-emphasize, President Ryan’s message yesterday announced two policies about University-sponsored events: 1) we have suspended all university-sponsored events that involve more than 100 people and; 2) for events that involve fewer than 100 people, we strongly recommend alternatives to having an in-person event and, if that is not possible, taking all necessary precautions to mitigate the risk of infection. We also ask that those hosting events that involve visitors traveling to Grounds, of whatever size, consider alternatives or cancelling those events, depending on the risks involved. 
• Deans, vice presidents, vice provosts, or unit heads (or their designees) will apply these rules. Any leader with questions about a specific event should direct those questions to the Office of Major Events at uvaome@virginia.edu.

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I want to thank all of you again for your patience and understanding. We will continue to share as much information as possible as soon as we can, and we will do our best to answer any questions that may come up.  

Sincerely,

Liz Magill, Provost

University of Virginia