Campus Coronavirus updates, March 10, 2020

UW-Green Bay Provost Michael Alexander sent e-mails today to faculty and staff, and to students, regarding flexibility for illnesses, especially in regards to COVID 19 Virus.

Faculty and staff members received the following notification:

1. Effective immediately, all students should be held harmless in any UW-Green Bay class if they report being sick or have a compromised immune system.  This means you should be flexible from here moving forward with attendance policies.  I will also email the students to let them know that we must trust them in this situation to not abuse this decision.  In the event of absences, students should be given every possible opportunity to make-up any work they are missing remotely.  We do not want students to come to school while sick because they are concerned about a grade.  If you have questions about an individual case, please work with your Chair, Dean, and the Provost’s Office for guidance.
2. The Emergency Operations Committee will provide as much notice as possible to faculty if it appears that we need to cancel any events.
3. All travel sponsored by the University continues to be monitored by the International Travel Safety Committee and the Emergency Operations Committee.
4. Each Dean has been tasked with updating Continuation of Operations Plans.  All instructors, working with their departmental colleagues, should think creatively of ways to deliver curriculum in alternative modalities should the need arise.  For example, can your course be moved online, are there alternative assignments you can use in place of things like labs, etc., or in the case where this is not possible, can we determine how to work with students to complete the semester in the event of an interruption?  We hope this will not be the case and have no indication currently that we will need to do this, but we should be prepared.
5. CATL has prepared collections of resources in regards to moving courses online and ensuring that we are teaching with tolerance.  These resources are available at:  https://www.uwgb.edu/coronavirus/

UW-Green Bay students received the following notification

While we continue to take guidance from the CDC, DHS, and the UW System, it has become apparent that we need to clarify a few issues regarding the COVID-19 virus. UW-Green Bay faculty have been informed, effective immediately, that all students should be held harmless moving forward in any UW-Green Bay class if they report being sick or have a compromised immune system. In the event of absences, students should be given every possible opportunity to make-up any work they are missing remotely.  We do not want students to come to school while sick because they are concerned about a grade. If you have questions about an individual case, please work with your instructor and the Dean of Students Office. Thank you for being responsible and acting like the great students that we know you are.