March 19, 2020 UPDATE

To the Dartmouth community,

This is an unprecedented time for our entire community, filled with difficult decisions and tremendous change, and each of you has responded with compassion, industry, and ingenuity. Thank you for all you are doing to safeguard the health and well-being of our students, faculty, staff, and Upper Valley neighbors.

We write to inform you about several important pieces of news in this evolving COVID-19 situation.

First, officials from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services are contacting people who have been identified as close contacts of the undergraduate student who recently tested presumptive positive for COVID-19. Their investigation is ongoing and may take several days.

We also want you to know that by the end of this week, all employees should be working from home unless they have been directed by their manager or supervisor to be on campus to perform necessary duties. While Dartmouth remains open, we will be scaling back over the next two days in areas including facilities and dining to provide only necessary services using smaller teams, for example serving food to-go to the group of students still living on campus.

As we have previously indicated, Dartmouth will continue to pay all regular, non-temporary staff--exempt, non-exempt, and union employees--at their regularly scheduled hourly or base rate of pay through the end of the spring term.

Employees who cannot perform their duties from home and are not scheduled to work on campus will still be paid. They are to utilize personal and vacation time until those hours are exhausted. Non-exempt employees will then record their time as "Other Lost Time" when recording their work hours. Departments will work with those employees to create on-campus rotations to ensure this work is scheduled fairly and to identify whether there are other duties that can be performed from home to support efforts such as moving to remote learning. Those employees who are able to perform their duties while working remotely should be available during office hours.

We will begin restricting access to buildings in the coming weeks, requiring card-access and limiting access to only those employees who are performing necessary duties. Office access for faculty who are preparing for the remote spring term will remain open.

At this time of great change and uncertainty, it can be helpful to speak with a professional counselor. GuidanceResources, our online Faculty/Employee Assistance Program (FEAP) partner, offers telephone counseling 24 hours a day, every day at 844.216.8308. All contacts are confidential. Faculty and staff can also contact FEAP counselor Sharon Morisi at sharon.a.morisi@dartmouth.edu. Sharon is available via Zoom and telephone during normal business hours and offers support to supervisors who are assisting staff. Confidential virtual counseling is also available to students, faculty, and staff with Daveen Litwin, the College chaplain, and with the United Campus Ministry advisers of multiple faith traditions. Email college.chaplain@dartmouth.edu for an appointment.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lisa Adams
Joshua Keniston

Co-chairs, Dartmouth COVID-19 Task Force