Employee Update 3-6-20

This week, I’m not sending out a student email because I have nothing new to tell them. As you know by now, the State of North Carolina now has two confirmed cases of the coronavirus COVID 19: one in Wake County and one in Chatham County. I want to assure you that we are taking the spread of this virus seriously, but we are also mindful of not adding to any panic.
To that end, here is what is happening:

• New hand-washing signs are being placed around campuses today (Friday) and Monday
• Additional hand-sanitizing stations were ordered earlier this week for placement. We are awaiting an ETA on this order.
• Students have been asked to make sure they can log onto Moodle so that they can get course assignments remotely in case of quarantine or absence
• We communicated that sick students should not attend class in person and notify their instructors of the reason for their absence
• We communicated that sick employees should not report to work in person
• Faculty have been asked to be flexible with their attendance policies in light of this precaution

As I stated in last week’s email, faculty should share with their Deans any concerns they have about attendance during this time. The Executive Team, Campus Police Chief, and HR Director will be meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss any new information about the spread of the virus, qualifying a temporary attendance policy, building out a potential quarantine situation response, and making recommendations about any upcoming scheduled travel for business.