COVID-19 Update 6/4/20

I am writing today to provide an update on the progress on our Return to Learn restart initiative.

As a reminder, we began our return to campus with the restarting of research facilities, guided by our Research Reopen Plan. We now are beginning our next phase of academic restart, which is the limited use of approved academic facilities to support individualized learning, such as MFA student access to art studio space. For the month of June, we will continue with limited academic use of our campus.

I know that many of you are curious to learn more about the academic restart plans. Our Learning Spaces Strategy Committee and the Academic Affairs Advisory Restart Group are actively working to answer many of the questions you may have about how we can safely return to campus. We have a dedicated team that is giving careful thought to how we can deliver our mission safely during this pandemic. I understand that the most pressing questions on your minds – and the minds of our students – are “what will fall look like?” and “when will we know?”

It will be another 4 to 6 weeks before our plans are finalized. Please understand that every step – and every decision – we make is being undertaken to support our community’s health and ensure the best possible education while also working to help keep each of you as safe as possible. I know that you may have ideas about how we can best return to campus. Ideas can be sent to provost@unt.edu. I also invite you to participate in a small group discussion on June 17 3-4 pm, June 29 2-3 pm or July 8 10:30-11:30 am as we talk about how we can foster our students learning on a socially distanced campus. Please contact Joanna.Hussey@unt.edu to sign up for one of these small group discussions.

On June 23 at 2-4 p.m., I will be hosting an Academic Affairs Restart Town Hall. I hope that you will join this town hall to learn more about the progress being made toward restarting our academic operations.

Continuity of Teaching

  1. Our class schedule for the Fall semester will be modified beginning at Thanksgiving. I ask that you plan accordingly.
    1. Classes will start on Monday August 24th  (no change)
    2. In-person classes will have their last in-person meeting the week of November 24th.
    3. In-person classes will move to remote delivery the week of November 28th
    4. Final exams will occur remotely
  2. As we continue preparing for the fall, we are busily working toward offering in-person classes where possible. We will be engaging in social distancing, which will limit the number of students in each classroom space. We will be converting additional campus facilities to use as classroom space, allowing us to teach more in-person classes than otherwise would be possible. We will extend our academic week to allow for courses to be offered on weekends to accommodate the ability to teach more students in person. We also will offer a number of courses online, including many of our large courses. Thanks to those of you have been flexible in enabling us to move a number of our courses to remote or online for the fall.
  3. This week is the start of the 5W1 and Full Summer Session. I want to thank each of you teaching this summer for adapting your courses to a remote or online format. Throughout the summer check on your students and make sure they are regularly logging into your course. If a student isn’t regularly logging in – please reach out to the student directly and you can ask an advisor to reach out to the student as well. Based on feedback from the SPOT evaluations in the spring our students said the more that the faculty member communicated the better.  

Continuity of Operations

  1. As a reminder, when you come to campus you are asked to wear a mask and we are asking that everyone be mindful of social distancing. To help keep our community as safe as possible, our university is using the UNT System Guidelines. Our safety and operations restart committees are working hard to prepare more specific details about expectations for the next phase of restart. We will share more information at 3 p.m. June 22, when President Smatresk will be hosting a Safety Town Hall for faculty and staff to report on the progress of our safety and operations restart teams (details to be forthcoming).
  2. Willis Library is open from 10-4 and available to support the needs of our students, staff and faculty. The libraries has added inter library loan services and pulling books from remote facilities.

Continuity of Student Services

  1. Our student services are preparing to begin offering in-person services starting July 6th, as well as continuing virtual services. Days and hours of in-person operation will be posted on the website for each student service.

Continuity of Clinical Operations

  1. Our clinics have begun to submit reopening plans with some clinics intending to continue with telemedicine and some planning to begin seeing patients as early as July 6th. Each of these plans is being reviewed to ensure we are providing for a safe environment for our patients, students, staff and faculty.

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 Travel Advisory Globally. To learn more, visit the UNT System’s travel guidelines. Exceptions are only for essential business purposes, such as traveling to support state of federal COVID-19 recovery efforts. To request an exception, please complete the request to travel to high-risk destinations form.
  2. We want you to be safe this summer if you’re planning to take a vacation. To prepare for your vacation, review COVID information from the state or local health department in your location, along your travel route, and at your planned destination. Tips can also be found on the CDC’s travel webpage and on the Travel Texas website. Depending on the COVID activity in the areas where you travel, you may have to self-isolate off-campus for 14 days upon your return. If you travel out of state or internationally report your travel to our travel risk office  or call 940-369-6154 to receive clearance before returning to campus. As a reminder we are asking all faculty and staff to avoid travel for the two weeks prior to the start of the fall semester.

I greatly appreciate your patience while our teams work through many difficult questions to create the best learning environment possible under these new circumstances.

I am incredibly proud of how our university community is responding. As two examples, the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) has asked Jessica Nápoles, UNT Associate Professor of Choral Music Education, to take the lead in drafting a COVID-19 response report, aiding choir teachers nationally on how to teach choir during a pandemic. Guido Verbeck, in partnership with InspectIR, has developed a breathalyzer to detect COVID-19. Your adaptability and resiliency during this event is critical to our ability to meet the needs of our university community.

I have appreciated hearing the stories of our faculty’s dedication to preparing for classes this summer and fall, as well as from our staff who continue to deliver outstanding support to our students. Thank you for all you are doing.