I want to thank each of you for all of your hard work to prepare UNT for the fall semester. Our work isn’t done, and we all know we may need to adapt throughout the fall semester due to changing health conditions, which we are monitoring closely. I am incredibly grateful for your efforts to date. 

Continuity of Communication

1. I strongly encourage those faculty who are scheduled to teach in-person or partially in-person to participate in the Guidance for Face-To-Face Teaching – Fall 2020 training session on Tuesday, July 28, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. This event will cover classroom protocols, processes and safety. Please submit your questions in advance to Provost@unt.edu so we can address as many questions as possible during the training session. If you are unable to attend, we will be recording the session and making it available on the Return to Learn website. Note a separate training session for TA’s and TF’s is being scheduled for early August – stay tuned for more details. 
2. I greatly appreciate your patience while our teams work through many difficult questions to create the best academic environment possible under these circumstances. I invite you to participate in a small group discussion on July 30 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. or August 6 from 3 to 4 p.m. as we talk about our Return to Learn plan. Please contact Joanna.Hussey@unt.edu to sign up for one of these small group discussions.
3. The Return to Learn academic restart website is regularly updated with the latest information, as is the Health Alerts website.
4. Safety campaign signs have been placed in most buildings and all elevators.

Continuity of Teaching

1. Faculty members may choose to hold office hours on campus while adhering to campus safety and social distancing guidelines, or remotely. As office hours are determined, please consider the delivery mode of your course and what may be most helpful to your students. 
2. Prior to the start of the fall semester, all courses should have the course syllabus and associated course materials (as appropriate) loaded into Canvas, regardless of the course’s mode of delivery. 
3. All faculty teaching in-person or partially in-person should have a plan in place should a change in mode of delivery be necessary due to changing public health conditions.
4. CLEAR has a series of professional development opportunities to help support faculty preparation for the fall. Sign up at: https://clear.unt.edu/getting-started-online

Continuity of Student Services

1. At this time, no in-person events are being approved for August or September. This includes faculty luncheons, department meetings, student organization meetings, etc. While faculty and staff can be thinking about how to host events that align with UNT’s COVID response guidelines, please also consider how the event can take place virtually. 

Continuity of Research

1. Phase III of Research Restart will begin Monday, Aug. 3. Phase III permits undergraduate research and in-person human subjects research with social distancing. Refer to the Research Reopen Plan for additional information.

Continuity of Operations

1. Our Student Health and Wellness Center is implementing a plan for testing and contact tracing. 
2. A COVID Hotline is available to help UNT community members understand and report COVID-19 symptoms, get access to testing information and/or results, receive guidance on actions they may need to take following potential exposure, and ask any other questions related to COVID-19’s impact on university operations. The hotline number is 844-366-5892 and the email address is COVID@unt.edu.
3. Facilities has installed 347 hand sanitizer stations and 275 Plexiglas shields across campus, with more being prepared to be deployed. 
4. More than 165 sanitation kits have been placed in rooms across campus and are being checked and restocked by the custodial team. 

Travel Restrictions

1. As a reminder, university-sponsored and work-related international or domestic travel is currently not allowed for students, faculty or staff due to the CDC Level 3 Global Travel Advisory. To learn more, refer to the UNT System travel guidelines. Exceptions are only for essential business purposes, such as traveling to support state or federal COVID-19 recovery efforts. To request an exception, please complete the Request to Travel to High-risk Destinations form. Exception requests are only being reviewed for travel commencing prior to Sept. 15.
2. As a reminder, we are asking all faculty and academic staff to avoid travel for the two weeks prior to the start of the fall semester.

Thank you again for your commitment to making the fall semester as successful as possible for our students and university community. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.