COVID-19 Staff Forum | CC Transcription

 
12:19:06      ¬ª Adam:  Gina is saying that we're not -- they're working on it,
12:19:10  but they don't know, they don't have an ETA.   Not
12:19:15  necessarily being close to be able to expand it.  Looks like maybe we will either
12:19:21  have to maybe hold another
12:19:25  one.   CIT is working on the problem right now.  So
12:19:29  with that in mind, Mary, are you okay with going ahead and then we'll maybe
12:19:33  follow up with
12:19:37  another one?
 
12:19:40      ¬ª Mary:  Sure, of course.  We'll do whatever you think is best.
 
12:19:44      ¬ª Adam:  Okay.  So I apologize for this
12:19:53 , everyone.   We'll have to put together another one, set it up as a webinar
12:19:58  likely.  But no those of you who are here, thank you for joining
12:20:03  us.  As you can tell, this is somewhat of an
12:20:08  unless I dented situation and we're all working through it the best we can. 
12:20:12 On the employee assembly, we're not used to having such a large digital forum
12:20:16 , so we set it up one way and we should have probably set this up as
12:20:20  a web I that are, but we -- webinar.  We'll March
12:20:25  forward and do what we can and try to get some good afternoon out.  We'll also make sure that this is recorded
12:20:30  and that so that we can get that
12:20:32  out to folks as well.
 
12:20:36      I'm Adam Howell.  I am the Chair of the employee assembly for
12:20:41  the 2019/2020 term, as well as the College of agriculture and life sciences
12:20:45  representative.  Thank you for being here.  Those of you who could get in.  And
12:20:49  I lope that this * -- I hope that this helps.  This is very uncertain
12:20:54  time for folks.  There's a good amount of anxiety and likely many
12:20:58  questions.  And we're hopeful
12:21:03  this forum will help you answer some of those.  What we're going to
12:21:08  do it we will ask you all, first of all, to mute your microphone
12:21:12  and then how we'll proceed is you can either type in your questions in it the
12:21:16  chat log or what we will do is you can
12:21:20  use the raise your hand function in the side bar and we'll
12:21:25  recognize you to have these questions
12:21:29  be asked for Mary.  And I guess I should
12:21:34  also mention Vice President of Human Resources, Mary O
12:21:38 fferman, is with us and she'll be fielding questions.   Thank you, Mary, for taking the
12:21:42  time to be here.  And just I know that this is going to be a
12:21:43  big help and
 
12:21:47 hopefully we'll get a lot of good information out for
12:21:49  folks.
 
12:21:53      Hahe did he pew, vice-chair to the employee
12:21:57  assembly, will be taking down your questions if you type
12:22:02  in the chat log or recognizing you.  Gina Batis
12:22:06 ta, Director of the Office of the Assemblies, will also be assisting with this.   She
12:22:10  may be working on trying to open up
12:22:15  the zoom meeting for others, so Hahe, you may
12:22:19  just be doing this on your own for right now, but we'll
12:22:20  see.
 
12:22:24      So with that, Mary, I'll turn it over to you.  I'm
12:22:29  sure you have a few remarks you want to make and then we'll open it up for
12:22:33  questions.  Mary heir thanks, Adam.  I do have some remarks
12:22:34  --
 
12:22:38      ¬ª Mary:  Thanks, Adam.  I do have some remarks I want to make, but I really
12:22:42  appreciate that the employee assembly did this and the fact that
12:22:46  we're having some technical difficulties
12:22:51  is actually a moment to reflect on how we deal with things
12:22:55  that disappoint us.  So I know that people wanted to get in, but
12:22:59  I'd also just take a moment to thank the employee assembly
12:23:04  and the Office of the Assemblies for putting this together on less
12:23:08  than 24 hours notice.  We learn each time we try something, and
12:23:13  I just want to say to the assembly's office and to the EA,
12:23:15  thank you very much.  I appreciate this.
 
12:23:19      So I'm going to make a few remarks and then we can open this up no
12:23:25  * -- for questions.  Let me start by saying that this is truly an unprecedented
12:23:31  situation.  As many of you know, I'm far along in my career and I've
12:23:35  been through many situations that when
12:23:40  I was in them I thought they were unique and different and I didn't know how to
12:23:44  handle them. 
12:23:48  I was at another university when the AIDS epidemic hit and the reaction of
12:23:52  people in the workplace and how that evolved
12:23:58  evolved.  I was here through 9/11 and for the great recession, and each time I said
12:24:02  to myself, this is the most challenging thing I've ever dealt with.  And
12:24:07  here we are again dealing with something that is truly unprecedented
12:24:11 .   The whole world is trying to grabbal with the emerging understanding of what
12:24:16  Covid-19 means and what it means for
12:24:18  us.
 
12:24:22      We're working our way through this here at Cornell in a
12:24:26  thoughtful and careful way, yet we are moving quickly
12:24:30 , because the situation warrants it.  We have, right
12:24:35  from the start, prioritized the health of our community
12:24:39  and president Pollack and our leadership team have
12:24:43  made some very difficult and courageous decisions, including sending
12:24:48  people home in order to de-dense I identify our campus. 
12:24:52 When we moved to remote work, most of our staff, we moved to remote
12:24:56  work and most of our staff have either moved into remote working or
12:25:01  will be doing season.  But not all of our work can be
12:25:05  done remotely, and in those cases, our leaders are assessing
12:25:09  what work still needs to be done
12:25:14  and how best to do it.  Since this pandemic first became
12:25:18  known to us, we have been trying to respond to issues as we understand
12:25:23  them.   One of the things about this health crisis is what
12:25:27  we knew and understood yesterday may have changed today.  So we've
12:25:31  been focused on the issues right in front of us.  And let me
give
12:25:35  I just a few examples.  And these are just a few.
 
12:25:39      On March 10th, that was ten days ago,
12:25:44  we decided that it was best for students to
12:25:49  leave campus and we made the decision that they should not return
12:25:54  after spring break, which would begin on March 27th, and
12:25:58  that instruction would begin online after break. 
12:26:02 Three days later, it became clear that it was not in the best interest of our students
12:26:06  or the campus community for the students to remain on
12:26:11  campus until March 27th.  And so we made the decision to suspend
12:26:15  classes at the end of that day and asked students to begin
12:26:19  to leave for home.  That
12:26:23  significant change happened in three days. 
12:26:28      At the end of that day on March 13th, all K-
12:26:32 12 schools in the County closed through April
12:26:37  12th.  Other counties soon followed
12:26:41 .  On March 16th, 3 days later
12:26:45 , the governor ordered that all food establishments
12:26:49  must move to takeout only by 8:00 p.m. that night and the crowd capacity was
12:26:54  reduced to 50 people.  Yesterday, March
12:26:59  17th, daycare centers in the County were ordered to close for
12:27:03  all but healthcare workers and first responders. 
12:27:09      Many of you have probably felt like you've been in this situation for a very long time
12:27:13 , but in fact, we've been in this situation for less than
12:27:18  two weeks.  And so here's what I've learned.  What we
12:27:22  decided to may be outdated by tomorrow. 
12:27:27 It's very hard to communicate clearly in a rapidly changing
12:27:32  environment, because it's hard for folks to keep
12:27:37  up.  And it only takes missing one message for your understanding to be outdated
12:27:42 .  And that's absolutely okay.   People are doing the best
12:27:44  they can.
 
12:27:48      I've learned that people deal with ambiguity and stress differently.  So their reactions
12:27:52  to this situation are different.  For most of us, the
12:27:57  enormity pandemic is hard to grasp and we find
12:28:01  that some people are searching for simple answers to complex
12:28:05  or even unknown questions.  This also is completely understandable
12:28:12 .  It is a way of coping with something that we cannot control.  And I've
12:28:17  learned that sometimes we just need to Showdown, reach out to
12:28:21  our friend friends, our family, and our colleagues, and take a
12:28:26  deep breath, even though we don't really know what's coming next
12:28:30 .   We have no answers for how long this is going to go on.   What we are
12:28:35  doing is learning as much as we can and responding as
12:28:39  best we can to a changing situation.  But
12:28:45  we are committed to getting through this and getting through this
12:28:50  together.  Can you all still see
12:28:55  me? 
12:28:58      ¬ª Yes, we can.
 
12:28:59      ¬ª You can?
 
12:28:59      ¬ª Yes.
 
12:29:03      ¬ª Sorry.  Something just happened.  So I'm going to keep on going in
12:29:08  case there are still people out there. 
12:29:12  Here's what I would ask of all of you.  Take care of yourselves. 
12:29:16 I hope by now you all know how to protect yourself by washing your hands
12:29:20 , refraining from common practices such as shaking hands
12:29:25 , and you should all be practicing
12:29:30  social distancing to the best of your ability.  And also take care of your personal well-being as
12:29:34  best you can.  Plan to the extend you are able.  Be mindful of your
12:29:38  eating habits.  Get outside and breathe the fresh air. 
12:29:43 Move around.  And get some rest.  As the
12:29:47  president says to me, this is going to be a marathon, not a
12:29:51  sprint.  And let me say one other thing before I turn it over for questions
12:29:56 .  I have spoken to so many
12:30:01  tap and tacklely and leaders over the last nine days.  Some of them are struggling
12:30:06  to put this into a place that they can understand and deal with, so they are understandably
12:30:10  looking for sometimes, looking for someone to give
 
12:30:14 them answers that we don't have and in some cases,
12:30:20  because they don't know what else to do, they're looking for someone to blame, and
12:30:24  I can understand that.  I want a human nature to try to make sense of such a
12:30:28  unique and challenging and changing
12:30:34  situation, and at least for a while being angry is a release of energy, and there's
12:30:37  something really healthy about that.
 
12:30:41      I'm asking you, though
12:30:45 , to be mindful of the impact that anger and
12:30:49  negativity have on your own well-being, because in the long run you need to take care of yourself
12:30:54  and find a way to do that that is healthy and sustaining.   So I'm going
12:30:58  to open up to
12:31:03  questions now and I'll do my best to answer them, but please understand in some cases my answer is
12:31:07  we don't know or we're working on it.
 
12:31:11      So with that, I'm going to turn this back to Adam and we can open it up for
12:31:14  questions.
 
12:31:18      ¬ª Adam:  Okay.  Again, thank you, Mary. 
12:31:22 We really appreciate this, especially as we're seeing in the face
12:31:26  of trying to adapt to an unknown situation.  This
12:31:30  is very helpful.  For everybody, again, if
12:31:34  you have questions, please do one of two things.  Use the raise your
12:31:42  hand function or type it in the chat log.  And A, I will turn
12:31:46  it over to you to start fielding some questions for Mary
12:31:48 .
 
12:31:52      ¬ª Thank you, Adam.  So we collected some questions that have come through chat, either
12:31:56  privately to me or to everyone
12:32:01  and also some questions that have been submit through e-mail.  One of the questions we have, Mary, and thank you so much
12:32:06  for your time, I think everybody appreciates, you know, this opportunity to engage
12:32:11  with you, the first question that we have is as students leave campus, this negatively
12:32:15  impacts the staff these to provide services for said
12:32:19  students.  We're thinking dining facilities.  Many staff members, particularly wage workers
12:32:24  who cannot perform their jobs remotely, may be subject to loss of hours, work.   I know
12:32:28  that we've added health and personal days, but this is ten days and
12:32:32  students are gone for the rest of the semester.  Can you shed some light on maybe
12:32:37  the preparations or discussions being made to accommodate a loss of demand
12:32:41  for these types of staff members, particularly wage workers who cannot perform their jobs
12:32:44  remotely, you know, discussions
 
12:32:48 beyond the ten additional days, which I think is pretty generous, but again
12:32:52 , this doesn't cover much of the spirit of time when the students are gone.
 
12:32:56      ¬ª Mary:  Yep.  So it's a great question and it's one I
12:33:00  completely understand.  Right this we
12:33:04  don't have answers toe that right now.  Here's what we're doing.  We're taking
12:33:09  a look at work that we do need to have campus.  We need to figure
12:33:13  out how long we need that work done for.  We're also looking
12:33:18  at other types of work that we are
12:33:23 , our service workers and others who are, I don't know, do
12:33:27 .  And we're successing on a regular
12:33:32  basis how long we can continued to find meaningful
12:33:36  work.  So I don't have an answer to that, although it's an understandable question
12:33:43 , because we're kind of going day by day as things
12:33:47  change and we're trying to, as boast we can,
12:33:53  keep the workers and their best interests in the tore front of our minds as we do
12:33:56  that.
 
12:34:00      ¬ª Thank you.  We also have a question from Jamie who is an EA member
12:34:04  who wants to know what steps in the central university administration are being taken to ensure that
12:34:08  all units, departments are providing their staff with guidance and
12:34:13  instructions that meet the federal/state recommendations with regards to workplace
12:34:18  conditions?  Heir heir this may be related
12:34:23  to those who have to be on campus, but if not would you clarify it so I'm
12:34:27  answering the right question?  But here's what
12:34:31  we are doing.  We meet at least once a week with all of the college HR and business
12:34:36  officers.  They have bee been, since believe it or not, liking
12:34:41  last week or actually it might have been Investigators before, trying to develop
12:34:46  their remote work strategies and their on-campus
12:34:50  needs.   Again, I just want to say that what we
12:34:54  knew when we started the planning, what we expected to have happen is very
12:34:58  different than what's happening today. 
12:35:04 So each time something changes, the plans have to be adjusted
12:35:06 , so
 
12:35:10 the answer is yes, we are trying to -- and I know
12:35:14  I talked to the HR people every other day.  They're all looking -- they're
12:35:19  all developing their staffing plans, working with people to make sure that those who are remote
12:35:23  have the right equipment, working on social distancing
12:35:28  for those who are here. 
12:35:35      ¬ª Thank you.  I have several questions from Brian God Godell
12:35:39 .  I want to touch on some of them.  I think one is related to the question that Jamie
12:35:44  asked.  I believe that the question was posed, why doesn't Cornell
12:35:48  just shut down, period.  Front line workers are concerned, because
12:35:52  they feel that they still have to go to work everyday, because they can't work remotely. 
12:35:57 Trades, building care, front line workers don't feel safe.  They also feel
12:36:01  they're taking a chance by going to work and returning to their families and possibly exposing
12:36:05  themselves.  Many members, you know, in this field have family members who are in
12:36:10  higher risk group groups. 
12:36:15 That is the question.  Why doesn't Cornell shut down, period?
 
12:36:19      ¬ª Mary:  The university is not shutting down.  We are definitely in a reduced
12:36:24  operations capacity
12:36:28 , but at this point our intention is to continue to operate
12:36:33 .  Let me speak specifically to the question that Brian has asked, which is if people do
12:36:38  not feel safe coming to work
12:36:43 , can we develop an alternate strategy for them and the answer is, Brian, we will
12:36:47  try our very best.  For folks who, in the short-term, who feel
12:36:51  that they can't come into work, they should contact
12:36:56  their local -- their supervisor or their local HR person and we
12:37:00  will work with them to find another arrange
12:37:04  meant for them or they can take their time that we've
12:37:09  put into their bank.  In the longer-term, we're trying to figure exactly
12:37:13  that out.  We're trying to figure out what
12:37:19  services need to be here and how best to get them accomplished.  These are very understandable questions that
12:37:24  you all have.  But for me to give you a simple answer to an incredibly
12:37:29  complex situation would just be
12:37:31  irresponsible of me.  We're
 
12:37:35 working on T we're continuing to work on it.  This is a
12:37:40  24/7 effort on our part to do the right thing by people. 
12:37:44 If individuals have specific issues and they don't feel comfortable
12:37:48  talking to anyone else, I'm pretty much here all the time.  They could call
12:37:53  me. 
12:37:58      ¬ª Thank you for making yourself available.  We have a question to everyone
12:38:02 .  What actions are specifically being addressed for essential staff, support, and
12:38:06  safety if they have to work on-site?  I think
12:38:11  a lot of the questions that are come this go are this regards to staff members who feel the
12:38:15  nature of their work requires to them to be
12:38:19  at work and provide that support, whether they're cleaning items, clea cleaning
12:38:23  facilities and they don't feel safe doing so.  What is your guidance to that?
 
12:38:27      ¬ª Mary:  So they should be practicing all of their
12:38:32  safety requirements. 
12:38:36 If they include wearing gloves to do their cleaning, wear gloves.  They should be
12:38:41  washing their hands frequently.  They should be social distancing.  What does that mean? 
12:38:45 If they are needing to clean and there are still people in that building
12:38:50 , they should make every effort to stay
12:38:55  3 to 6 feet away from individuals while they do tha that.  If that is difficult for them to
12:38:59  do in their environment and they feel that they are at risk, they
12:39:03  need to talk to their supervisor.  If it they're not getting help from their
12:39:07  supervisor, they should talk to their HR person.
 
12:39:11      The best way to handle these concerns is
12:39:15  really one by one in the environments that they're in.  So
12:39:19  in some environments, the buildings are almost emptied out.  And so there's
12:39:24  very little risk in terms of social distancing
12:39:28 .   People are practicing good hygiene and watching their hands on a
12:39:33  regular basis.  There is no one in the building or very few people
12:39:37  in the building.  Wind be able to practice social distanceing.
12:39:41      That said, right now we are trying to get
12:39:48  instruction online, and it is not always possible while they're doing that for them to fully practice soci
12:39:52 al distancing.  And if they have concerns, then we want
12:39:56  to try to mitigate those.   What we need to know about them in order to
12:39:58  do that.
 
12:40:02      ¬ª Mary, that is Tony [Indiscernible] could I
12:40:06  add  a comment to that?  If F C S building
12:40:11  care, I have zero employees at my clock and what we're doing is stagger
12:40:15 ing start times so that we're abiding way the less than
12:40:19  ten people at a time.  So we're adapting and we feel that
12:40:24  as they understand the student population that's going to remain, that will establish our
12:40:30  priorities and we're actually able to maintain the social distancing
12:40:35  guidelines here, and that was just worded out yesterday.
 
12:40:39      ¬ª Mary:  Thank you. 
12:40:45      ¬ª I have a 2-part question.  One is from Laura Sant
12:40:49 ac Santacross.  Is there any number to the estimate of students
12:40:54  who will remain in-house examining off campus housing.  And
12:40:58  tran chess could asked on -- Francesca says there's a call
12:41:02  for volunteers to help students move out.  What tools are provided to volunteers to ensure
12:41:06  that they're doing this safely, especially since so many parents may come from
12:41:11  out of town to pick up students.  Do you know how many students still remain?  How many students have moved
12:41:14  out?  And what are the tools provided?
 
12:41:18      ¬ª Mary:  Okay.  So even if I wasn't
12:41:23  really tired littler I could never have remembered all of those parts to that one question.  So
12:41:27  I'm going to start and then, hey, you can prompt
12:41:32  me.  I'm not sure I remember the beginning.  Let me give this a try and then you can
12:41:36  prompt me for the different elements of this.  We don't
12:41:40  yet know how many students will remain in campuses housing
12:41:45 .  The number we originally had is changing
12:41:50 .  Some people that expected they would need to stay in on campus housing
12:41:55  are now going home or elsewhere.  And
12:42:00  others who felt they could go home or go elsewhere are indicating
12:42:04  that they need to stay.  It will till be
12:42:09  tractional -- still be fractional in comparison to the number of students on
12:42:10  campus in normal times.
 
12:42:14      In terms of off campus, it's a very good question.   People who are in
12:42:18  off campus parents, what we can do
12:42:23  is limit their
12:42:27  time ask the way they interact on campus, but
12:42:32  they have private leases and those are the decisions that they would
12:42:36  make as a private lease holder.  We know some are
12:42:40  leaving and we expect that some are staying.  I'm sorry.   What are the other pieces
12:42:44  of that question? 
12:42:49      ¬ª They wanted to know an estimate.  Sounds like numbers wise we don't have an exact count, and it's
12:42:53  kind of hard to know which students are living off campus.  There's also been
12:42:57  a call for volunteers to help move students out.   What tools are being provided to
12:43:02  volunteers to ensure that they do this safely? 
12:43:04 So many students are coming from out of town.
 
12:43:08      ¬ª Mary:  Great question.  So campus life will give safety instructions for how to help. 
12:43:13 I was around this past weekend and I can tell you they're asking the parents
12:43:17  not to go into the residence halls.  They are bringing
12:43:23  the dorm -- the stuff that was in the
12:43:28  room out.  They're doing everything they can to
12:43:34  not have the parents go in.  And that's been working actually pretty well.
 
12:43:37      The other thing I would say is we -- I think we have had
12:43:42  a pretty steady -- more than a trickle,
12:43:46  but a pretty steady number of parents
12:43:50  coming through, so they haven't been as inundated i in any one day
12:43:54 .  That also helps with social distancing. 
12:43:59      ¬ª Mary, this is Tony again.  If I could comment in housing
12:44:04 .  As of the end of the day yesterday, 50%
12:44:08  of the students on campus have left, and there really hasn't been a lot of
12:44:12  chaos.  Parents are coming, as you said.  There are signs.  Parents
12:44:16  and visitors should not go into the buildings.  So it's been quite orderly.  So the big
12:44:21  move out is scheduled for this Friday and this weekend.  So we'll have extra
12:44:25  staff in on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but it's been really orderly
12:44:30  and I haven't seen any large groups of people.  So it's been going pretty
12:44:31  well so far.
 
12:44:35      ¬ª Mary:  Great.  Thank you. 
12:44:41      ¬ª Adam:  So really quickly, I just have a brief announcement about
12:44:45  the meeting.  We anticipate being able to add a few hundred
12:44:49  more people to this particular
12:44:56  zoom meeting and we'll probably have to set up another one correctly as a webinar
12:45:01  very briefly in the future.  I know that there are people listening
12:45:06  in on other folks' computers and such.  If you have your own questions,
12:45:09  we'll try to get something set up correctly in the future.
 
12:45:13      And just as a reminder, please don't ask
12:45:18  direct questions -- please type your questions
12:45:23  in the chat or raise your hand to speak and we'll try to get -- we'll try to
12:45:27  get to you.  So that's jus just a quick announcement about this.  And again, sorry for
12:45:31  the technical difficulties, everybody. 
12:45:41      ¬ª Thanks.  So I'm just continuing on the questions that we've been collecting right
12:45:46  now.  One of the questions that came in from UMP
12:45:50 4, temp employees are not eligible for personal sick time.  Are there plans to provide
12:45:54  a safety net for those employees in the event they may get sick?
 
12:45:58      ¬ª Mary:  Yep.  Let me say
12:46:03  there's a lot of concern in general for everyone, and I completely
12:46:07  understand that and I appreciate that.  We are trying as
12:46:12  best we can to figure out how to take care of our
12:46:16  folks as much as we can for as long as we can. 
12:46:23 Temping officials without benefits don't get sick and vacation days, and right now
12:46:27  there is no plan to do that. 
12:46:35      ¬ª More questions are coming in had.  We received one question from
12:46:39  Joshua Holden.  Will the UAW staff be able to collect
12:46:42  unemployment?  Heir Mary so if there is a --
 
12:46:46      ¬ª Mary:  So if there is a lack of work and the UAW staff are furloughed
12:46:50 , we're working right now with the
12:46:54  unemployment compensation office, and you can imagine that they are inundated, so it's
12:46:58  a little hard to get informatio information, to understand what
12:47:03  benefits would be available if that were to come to pass. 
12:47:10      ¬ª Thank you.  We received one question.  If staff members are negative financially impacted
12:47:14  by Covid-19 due to loss of wages, whether that
12:47:19  is from self-quarantine, loss of demand from the employer, can they tap
12:47:23  into any emergency funds?  Are there any plans or discussions on goin ongoing for
12:47:24  these staff members?
 
12:47:28      ¬ª Mary:  Let me answer that question in two ways.   One, we're looking at what we can
12:47:32  do here at the university. 
12:47:37  But the other I think is a really important thing to say in general
12:47:43 .  This is a situations the
12:47:47  entire globe has never dealt with. 
12:47:52 Italy is dealing with these circumstances.  We are not going to be able to
12:47:56  get through this and out the other side. 
12:48:02 Simply and only from the efforts of individual employers.  It just isn't going to be able
12:48:06  to happen.  And while we need the
12:48:10  kinds of responses we are starting to see from the state and federal
12:48:15  governments in order to be able to get ourselves through in it a manner
12:48:19  that will allow all organizations, including Cornell, to be able to get
12:48:24  back to business when this subsides, and so we are doing
12:48:28  the very, very best we can
12:48:32 .  And I just want to say, I've been in this community a long time and I completely
12:48:36  understand and actually appreciate the high standard
12:48:41  that our community and our workforce holds under the circumstances to,
12:48:45 but there are -- this is an unprecedented
12:48:51  situation.  Completely unprecedent.  And we're going to need the kinds of help that's coming
12:48:55  from the government.  So as those become available, and I'm confident that they will
12:49:00 , we'll make sure that we let people know what those are and how
12:49:05  they affect our workforce. 
12:49:09      ¬ª Thank you.  We received a question from Michelle Po Podalack. 
12:49:14 I super vice a team of hourly employees.  Will the university be coming out with additional
12:49:18  guidelines on working at home for hourly employees?  Can we allow team members
12:49:23 ' expanded work hours?  Our team members are vital
12:49:26  to supporting the transition to virtual for staff.  I'd like to make
12:49:31  sure my team members can meet the heavy workload in it the transition
12:49:35  while still accepting the fact their children may need daytime attention that may impact
12:49:39  the staff's ability to work full time, 8:00 o'clock to 4:
12:49:44 30, ten extra days of HAP is very generous, but I
12:49:48  need to be able to use as many work hours as possible for our team's transition to virtual
12:49:49 .
 
12:49:53      ¬ª Mary:  Hourly workers can, indeed, work remotely.  And that information is already
12:49:57  on the HR website about remote work. 
12:50:03 If you have other questions, though, specific questions about how to set that up, and
12:50:07  they're not answered on the website, send me an e-mail and I
12:50:11  will get you to the right person.  But yes, we have
12:50:16  -- we absolutely can have hourly workers work from home.  They must
12:50:20  track their hours.   Yes, you can be flexible in how those hours are collect, but
12:50:24  they must track their hours.  So look on the website.  See if what
12:50:30  we have there answers your question.  If it doesn't, then I'm happy, send me an e-mail
12:50:34  an and I'm happy to get you to the right person.
 
12:50:38      ¬ª Thank you.  One question about the 10HAP days
12:50:42 .  Is there expiration date on using these ten sick days?
 
12:50:46      ¬ª Mary:  We just haven't gotten that far yet.  I think that we'll all be very happy
12:50:51  if, in it the outcome, we have ten sick days
12:50:56  that no one had to use for either themselves or anyone else.  That will be a nice
12:51:00  problem to have.  Right now, we are focused on what's in front of us and what's in front of
12:51:04  us is trying to make the current situation as d doable as
12:51:09  possible.
 
12:51:13      ¬ª The campus life division has been sending e-mails with the expectation that staff are expected to be working
12:51:18  on campus.  The person submitting this wants to remain anonymous, is
12:51:22  in this division my position is not considered essential.  I have been on campus this week with
12:51:27  no official timeline to be transitional
12:51:31  * -- transitioned to work from home.  The remainder is desolate with administrative
12:51:36  meetings.  Can units be re-encouraged to quickly transition nonessential workers
12:51:40  to work remotely and is there an expectation to make staffing
12:51:44  plans due Friday that nonessential staff are to
12:51:46  physically report to work?
 
12:51:50      ¬ª Mary:  So I will follow up on their staffing plans.   I had several conversations
12:51:55  with them as you can imagine.   Student and campus life is on the front
12:51:59  lines of trying to get our students moved out. 
12:52:05 So they have understandably been trying to prioritize where the efforts of the leaders
12:52:11  go.  As I said in opening
12:52:15  remarks, we have one set of understanding for how we do our dining,
12:52:20  and then in one day, because of the change in state regulations
12:52:24  * losses, we had to move to takeout.  When each of those things happens, what we
12:52:28  find is that we just stop where we are.  We have to go back and look at everything
12:52:33  we thought we were going to d do.  And
12:52:37  replan.  So I know that student and campus life is working on their staffing plans and their
12:52:42  remote plans.  If you haven't heard yet how that's
12:52:46  going to impact you, you can send a message to their H
12:52:51 R people or send me an e-mail and I'll get it to the right person, but I know they're working on
12:52:57  it. 
12:53:03      ¬ª For colleges requiring factual to come to campus April 6 to do
12:53:07  lectures, how are staff who must support them be protected some I think we're getting these
12:53:12  questions about people who are doing research.  We're getting questions about people who have to support faculty
12:53:18  staff. 
12:53:26      ¬ª Mary:  Just a quick recap of what I said before.  So
12:53:31  the situations are changing daily.  For example, in researc research, we're winding
12:53:35  -- we're putting on pause a lot of our research because of
12:53:39  social distancing issues.  And those plans are really
12:53:43  just starting to form, because that decision was made over the weekend
12:53:48 .  In terms of the staff needed
12:53:52  to move faculty to virtual
12:53:57  teaching, I do expect that some of that right now really does need
12:54:01  somebody there to make sure it's set up, and it may be
12:54:05  that those faculty will do their classes
12:54:10  from their offices or from classes
12:54:15  rooms.   And we are talking right now about the extent to
12:54:19  which that support, that technical support needs to be on premise
12:54:23  and how much of that technical support can be done remotely
12:54:28 .
 
12:54:32      ¬ª We received a question from Scott Burke.  Is the pandemic creating any new jobs
12:54:37  at Cornell?  Program at IT.   If so, what are the jobs?  What are ways that
12:54:41  the pandemic is making Cornell University stronger?  Are there anyways
12:54:43  we can volunteer to help?
 
12:54:47      ¬ª Mary:  What a wonderful question.  Thank you so muc much.  to date, we haven't
12:54:51  come up with new jobs
12:54:56 , but I think in time we may find some new opportunities and new assignments
12:55:05 , so stay tuned.  I will tell you if we do ask for people to volunteer
12:55:09  to take on new responsibilities, we're going to do
12:55:14  that through the talent marketplace and a gig.  So more to come
12:55:17 .  We haven't gotten to that place yet.
 
12:55:21      I will say, let me tell you personally how I think this is making
12:55:26  us stronger.  First of all, the
12:55:30  leadership team is
12:55:35  working around the clock to try to address issues that come
12:55:41  up.  I have seen heros across
12:55:45  this campus who have gone above and beyond to support
12:55:50  each other, to support our students, and I
12:55:55  know that in some cases it's frightening
12:56:00  to be in situations where the students and their families are, and that's completely
12:56:04  understandable.  But I would just ask us
12:56:08  all to remember that they're scared, too, and for our seniors,
12:56:12  this was the end of their senior year and this is not at all what
12:56:17  they expected.  So I guess what
12:56:21  I would say is I feel
12:56:30  a sense of pride in how hard everyone is trying to do what is best for everyone, recognizing how many
12:56:35  different priorities there are. 
12:56:40      ¬ª SASCL Becker asked in the event that
12:56:45  our UA summer positions that we've already signed up for are eliminated, will we
12:56:49  be guaranteed any sort of compensation?  Because we were guaranteed summer work when
12:56:53  we signed our contract. 
12:56:58      ¬ª Mary:  Yep, I understand.  There were a lot of things we expected to be handled in it a different
12:57:02  way on March 5th than what we're dealing with now.  We will get to summer
12:57:08  work.  Whoa just are not there yet.  I understand the concern
12:57:12 .  We have it on the radar and we'll get to it. 
12:57:21 If we can't fulfill summer expectations, we'll see what we can do to address
12:57:25  that.  We just are not there yet. 
12:57:31      ¬ª I know that you addressed this before.  They're
12:57:36  receiving more staff members
12:57:42  if afternoon R. an employee doesn't feel
12:57:46  comfortable, an example of isolation rooms was given
12:57:51 , they shouldn't be required to clean those others. 
12:57:55  They teal they height have retaliation if they refuse. 
12:57:59 Can you tell employees they won't be retaliated against if they see it as an
12:58:02  unnecessary health risk?
 
12:58:06      ¬ª Mary:  Let me start this answer by saying I'm not a
12:58:10  health professional and so I just want to be
12:58:15  really clear here about what I am saying is being guided by what we are learning
12:58:22  from health professionals.  We are not putting anyone in situations that the
12:58:26  Health Department has indicated we should not put them in.  That
12:58:31  said, individual individuals' own comfort with this unknown situation
12:58:36  is different.  And so
12:58:43  what I think is if somebody really feels afraid, to first and foremost
12:58:48  talk with someone to figure out why. 
12:58:53 It may be that they don't have all of the information they need to make that decision for themselves. 
12:58:57      It is the case that there's a lot of information swirl
12:59:02  swirling around about the virus and about how to
12:59:06  get it, most of which is speculation on the part of others.  And
12:59:11  so we have made our decisions and we have pretty carefully stuck
12:59:15  to this based on what the Health Department has told
12:59:20  us.  With you if an individual is still concerned, we should
12:59:25  first and foremost talk to their supervisor and express their
12:59:30  concerns.  Of course there are situations where people are afraid to do that
12:59:35 , but everyone right now
12:59:39  is trying to come to terms with something we've never dealt with before, and I have confidence
12:59:44  that our supervisors will
12:59:48  understand if someone is just worried and can't figure out exactly what they should
12:59:52  do.  If they're thought comfortable doing that, hopefully
12:59:56  they are comfortable going to someone else, a manager above that individual, a manager
13:00:02  above that, the HR person, someone who can help them talk
13:00:06  through these. 
13:00:10 High general advice to everyone is take a deep breath and
 
13:00:14 try to figure out where your
13:00:18  reaction is coming from.  If it is coming from a place where you need
13:00:23  more information, let's help you get that information.  That's totally, totally
13:00:27  understandable.  If it's coming from a place
13:00:31  where you believe you have the information and you need to act, then let's figure out how to help
13:00:35  you do that. 
13:00:42      ¬ª Thank you.  We have a question online that asks, do you anticipate a mandate
13:00:46  for nonessential staff to be required to work?  Is there an expectation from the unit
13:00:51  staffing plans through Friday that nonessential staff are to physically report to work? 
13:00:57      ¬ª Mary:  So let me start by saying that
13:01:02  we don't identify essential people.  We
13:01:06  identify essential functions.  And the essential functions
13:01:10  functions that we are -- that the colleges and units are determining are
13:01:16  those that then, after we've identified the essential functions, we're trying to figure out how to get
13:01:20  them done.  So in some cases, they can be done remotely
13:01:24 .  In some cases, they can be done mostly remotely.  And in
13:01:28  other cases, the only way to perform those functions is on
13:01:30  campus.
 
13:01:34      So we do expect and have seen the staffing plans coming in
13:01:40  that are clearly identifying the work that must be done on campuses and how
13:01:44  they are going to get that accomplished.   Did I answer that question? 
13:01:48 I'm not sure I did. 
13:01:55      ¬ª I think so.  If anybody has any follow-up questions about that, they can e-mail me
13:01:57  or submit it in the chat.
 
13:02:01      Another question that came in through Brian good
13:02:06  El -- Goodell, I have a question about front line staff.  If the only reason they were here is because
13:02:10  Cornell thinks they're expendable, can you reassure the after it that they're at
13:02:14  Cornell because theory replaceable?  Not expendable?  I think that's
13:02:19  the sense of some staff members.  Yes. 
13:02:25      ¬ª Mary:  That makes me really sad that that's how someone would feel.  The university has
13:02:29  worked so hard to prioritize its workforce and to try to find ways
13:02:33  to keep people in pay as long as
13:02:38  we possibly can.  That for someone to feel that the fact that we're
13:02:42  trying to do that is because we of course they're expendable
13:02:46 , it's really sad.  I just have to say it makes
13:02:51  me really sad.  What I would say is we're working very hard to try to find
13:02:55  meaningful opportunities for people to continue to
13:02:59  perform services that we need done in a time where a lot of things are slowing down
13:03:05 .  So if the
13:03:09  individuals that work on our campu campus, those who are working
13:03:13  in grounds and in housekeeping
13:03:18  and custodial and dining are very important members of this community.  They
13:03:24  help with our buildings and our people, our
13:03:29  students and our spaces, and
13:03:33  we have such a sense of obligation to them that we're doing the best we can to
13:03:37  try to keep them in a job that needs to get done.  And
13:03:39  I would just implore
 
13:03:43 those of you who are in positions where you can help
13:03:47  people, find a space
13:03:52  there's healthy and resilient to work through those feelings of anger and upset so
13:03:57  that they can come to a police where they're not looking
13:04:01  at
13:04:06  the actions taken in the worst possible way, but whether generosity of heart and
13:04:11  spirit and that his the healthiest way for all of them to get through this
13:04:15  together.
 
13:04:19      ¬ª Okay.  I think to counter that
13:04:24 , I think there's been a lot of tremendous response from staff member
13:04:28 s to say the response has been very effective, very efficient, very quic quick, and
13:04:33  there have been a lot of comments be
13:04:37  turning the university.  They want to thank you.  They want
13:04:43  to thank
13:04:49 .   They have asked earlier, knowing there's a lot of appreciation from staff members to yourself
13:04:55  and to Martha
13:04:59  for the steps being taken and also a lot of questions I'm really glad we have this forum to
13:05:00  try to answer those.
 
13:05:04      Moving on to another question. 
13:05:08 For those who pay to Park and are not coming back to work, will we be credited
13:05:11  and not charged for the parking fee?
 
13:05:14      ¬ª Mary:  I don't know.  We'll take it to transportation and ask.
 
13:05:19      ¬ª Thank you.  We have a question
13:05:23  from other live.  Are there any plans to make
13:05:27  empty student housing available to healthcare organizations or potential facility
13:05:31  overflow if the situation worsens? 
13:05:37      ¬ª That's a great question and I saw that on the
13:05:41  news.   That's something we haven't dealt
13:05:46  with in Upstate New York.   Our campuses in downstate is very different than what we're dealing
13:05:51  with here.  So our medical college
13:05:55 , be our Dean and our faculty
13:06:01  and our staff who are working on the front lines are true heroes, and you should be really
13:06:05  proud to be their colleagues.  They are dealing with just an
13:06:10  unbelievable situation and they're doing a fantastic
13:06:16  job.  . 
13:06:20 This is really I think mostly a campus conversation, but
13:06:25  our leadership at Cornell tech has quickly ramped up a remote
13:06:31  work situation.  Our medica medical college is trying as best they can to
13:06:35  get people who can do remote work off.
13:06:39  Their doctors and nurses and technicians are busy in the
13:06:44  hospitals trying to deal with a situation that really is not at all like what we're
13:06:48  dealing with here at this time.  And they're doing an amazing
13:06:52  job.  So I don't think
13:06:59  we've had that situation happen here.
 
13:07:03      ¬ª From Lisa Dean, are you moving students to one building that will be remaining or are the students be
13:07:04  being scattered throughout several buildings?
 
13:07:09      ¬ª Mary:  Actually, that's a great question.  I thought that question
13:07:13  might come up and I don't know the answer to it, but it's a really good question.  I know that they've been
13:07:18  trying to figure out -- they
13:07:22  wouldn't squash them all to the same building.  This whole idea is to create social distancing,
13:07:27  but I don't know whether or not they might disburse them into more than
13:07:32  one.  And I don't think they're really going to know that until they see how many
13:07:36  are staying.
 
13:07:40      ¬ª If somebody that his to go to Cornell for one reason or another, will
13:07:44  they be ticketed if they go to a spot in the appropriate parking
13:07:49  pass.
 
13:07:53      ¬ª I know the question -- I thought that had been addressed.  Let us
13:07:57  check.  I thought they had relaxed the parking. 
13:08:05 Let's make sure that's been done.  Yes.  And I believe they have relaxed them
13:08:10 .  And so if you haven't seen that, we'll make sure
13:08:15  that you can find them.  I believe that they've relaxed
13:08:19  the parking restrictions until Apri April 19th. 
13:08:23      ¬ª Mary, it did come out today.  The only thing that's
13:08:28  prohibited is handicapped parking.  No parking assigned.  So if you don't have a
13:08:32  permit or a lessor permit, you can Park in any permitted parking
13:08:36  spot.
 
13:08:40      Another question we received online, from Lel
13:08:44 a Ellis is if there's a shortage of, say, dining work, or could somebody come in
13:08:50  to put an hours with the grounds department botanic gardens, would it be
13:08:54  possible to fill in those gaps where appropriate?
     ¬ª Mary: 
13:08:58 Again, we're not quite there yet, but once we have a sense of our staffing,
13:09:02  we may very well be calling for people to volunteer
13:09:07  to take other assignments, and if we do that, we put
13:09:12  that call out through workday and we use that opportunity market lace, and
13:09:16  in it there's sort of a gig request and we'll gut them in as gig requests.  If
13:09:20  we do that, because that all sounds like something from another country to should have us, we'll
13:09:25  make sure that we give lots of information about
13:09:29  that and walk you through how to do that.  But it may be that we have that
13:09:35  situation and we'll thank you for asking that.  Yeah. 
13:09:42      ¬ª What are some preparations being made to alleviate any negative long term impacts to
13:09:43  the staff?
 
13:09:47      ¬ª Mary:  I just saw a question come through.  Gigs are generally unpaid.  So we're just using
13:09:52  the gig technology.   That's a good question.  Thank you for clarifying it.  We're just
13:09:56  using the gig technology as a way
13:10:00  to put the call out and get the information.  It's not a gig in the
13:10:04  way we use them for professional development.  I'm sorry.  I just
13:10:07  wanted to clarify.
 
13:10:11      ¬ª That's fine.  Thank you for clarifying.  So the
13:10:16  question was what do you project are the long term impacts
13:10:21  to alleviate any long term negative impacts to the
13:10:21  staff.
 
13:10:25      ¬ª I Jeff I knew.  I think we're
13:10:29  all watching and reading.  We don't know what the long term impacts of
13:10:34  Covid-19 are, and I'm not a publi public health professional.  And for
13:10:38  me to give you a sense of what I think that would be would just be me repeating what I've read
13:10:42  or heard from others. 
13:10:53 I want you to remain as strong of a community as
13:10:58  we can. 
13:11:02      ¬ª Does Mary know when a staff member event eventually is diagnosed
13:11:07  with a positive case how the healthcare department wants to make sure
13:11:11  colleagues are detected
13:11:14  to make sure others aren't exposed?
 
13:11:18      ¬ª Mary:  That's a great question and I had on my list to address this. 
13:11:23 I will just stop to say this is all
13:11:27  I've done for six months.  As I looked at the calendar, it's been less than
13:11:32  two weeks.  When I first started realizing that we had to
13:11:38  develop plans there were no test kits available anywhere
13:11:43 .  So it was very few people were being tested.  Now the test kits are
13:11:48  starting to come out and more people are being
13:11:53  tested.  We are getting way more questions, because of that, which is good.  I'm glad those
13:11:57  questions are coming.   If a positive
13:12:02  test, if someone on the
13:12:07  campus is tested positive, the Health Department
13:12:12  contacts us ask
13:12:17  contacts them and they work with a person to develop what I
13:12:21  believe they called a contact map.  And
13:12:25  that contact map allows the Health Department
13:12:30  directly, not us, directly to of this the individuals who have been in contact
13:12:35  with that individual.   For us, if
13:12:39  we were to be informed, we would not be informed of who it is. 
13:12:41 That person may choose to tell us,
 
13:12:45 but the Health Department would not.  That's my understanding
13:12:48 .
 
13:12:52      ¬ª It seems like some people have been able to join this chat, so might
13:12:57  have missed some of the questions asked earlier, so I apologize if any of
13:13:01  this seems redundant. 
13:13:06  Rereceived a question online.  Other colleges and universities have relieved their
13:13:10  custodial staff due to high risk environments, but Cornell has yet
13:13:14  to send custodial staff at home.  The risk
13:13:19  with shaving this virus are children and parents is of paramount concern.  When they come in
13:13:23  at night, it is a huge risk.  Is Cornell going to be
13:13:27  moving to have custodians to stay home?  If not, are there ways in which they are
13:13:33  being protected with no masks being available?  What is being
13:13:33  done?
 
13:13:37      ¬ª Mary:  So it's he a great question, and let me just
13:13:42  say that one of the reasons we de--dens
13:13:46 icifiied the campus, people
13:13:50  here can practice social distancing.  And in social distancing and
13:13:55  hand washing, the risk to an individual of being in a
13:14:02  relatively
13:14:10  is Relatively low.  Well, let me stop.   I don't know that.  I'm not a health
13:14:16  professional.  In order to increase the protection of individuals, if a
13:14:20  custodian feels that I or she is unsafe in
13:14:25  doing the work they're doing, implore them
13:14:29  to talk to their supervisor.  Implore them to do
13:14:33  that.  Also, please read the actual information that we have on
13:14:38  our websites so that the best you can
13:14:42 , you can separate for yourself what you're feeling
13:14:46  that feels like fear and what you're feeling that feels like concerns
13:14:51  you can get answers to.  It will help you to figure out what
13:14:54  you want to ask and what you want to do.
 
13:14:58      It is true that other places have made the decision to
13:15:03  let go and stop paying the individuals that have been doing
13:15:08  this work.  to date we have tried to find ways
13:15:13  as we have the we can to keep workers in pay as long as possible. 
13:15:17 And when we have work, we're
13:15:23  asking people to do it.  I understand that may feel very frightening to some of
13:15:27  you.   Please, if you want to, you can call me and talk to me.   Let's figure
13:15:31  out why.  In we can understand why you're having that reaction,
13:15:35  then maybe we can figure out what the best next step is for you.
 
13:15:35      ¬ª
13:15:40 Mary, this is Tony again.  Again, from Bill and Cara
13:15:44  Cara.  Appreciate all of the concern for custodians, but just to share, for general knowledge
13:15:48 , all custodians receive extensive train
13:15:52 ing on cleaning, personal protective equipment. 
13:15:57 They have everything available to them:  Masks, gloves, training procedures
13:16:02 .  There's special training being set up now for cleaning isolation
13:16:07  rooms.  And it's
13:16:12  always, to my knowledge, custodians have always
13:16:16  been able to loca localize if they feel that they're in if an unsafe situatio situation.  So
13:16:20  it's really appreciated, but another perspective
13:16:24  is custodial staff kind of feel proud that, you
13:16:29  know, they're seen as being essential and this is part of their daily
13:16:33  mission and an extension of that.  So not to speak for them, but
13:16:37  that's a sense we get.  And again,
13:16:42  somebody says I'm not comfortable being here, they can go home.  I don't feel I should do this,
13:16:46  then don't do it.  So yeah, custodians are not forced
13:16:49 , nor would they be to do anything
 
13:16:53 they're comfortable doing and they are totally properly prepared and trained to do
13:16:57  what they do. 
13:17:05      ¬ª We have a question from Catherine Burke online.   Mary, can you please
13:17:09  explain the purpose of the extra half days and when to use them is this I've heard difficult ways people
13:17:13  have been interpreting how to do [Indiscernible]
 
13:17:17      ¬ª Mary:  Thanks for asking the question.  They are added to your banks
13:17:22 .  For most of the campus, it's a half pay.  For
13:17:26  some we have sick banks.  So what we've done is
13:17:31  we've broadened the access to HAP
13:17:36  to help your own, to care for someone in
13:17:42  your care and for personal reasons. 
13:17:47 Those are just days.  So I do know that people are asking questions about
13:17:52  that.
 
13:17:56      ¬ª Some other questions we've been asked online, some people want
13:18:00  to know what the likelihood of the university closing is.  What would be the implication for their jobs? 
13:18:04      ¬ª Mary:  Right.  Not there
13:18:09  yet.  And
13:18:13  so we are doing our very best to remain open and to continue to do
13:18:18  the things what we can continues to do.  I think that's very important for our workforce
13:18:22 .  We also think it's important for our
13:18:27  ability to come back after this
13:18:32  situation.  But we just aren't there yet.  Right now we're open
13:18:36 .  We're continuing to
13:18:41  do work and that's where we are today.
 
13:18:45      ¬ª What advice do you have for those who, even though we're practicing social
13:18:50  distancing, there might be times when they might have to congregate in the
13:18:55  same space if there are time clocks that
13:19:00  require people to be clocking in and these time
13:19:04  clocks accommodate 30 plus people.  What is your recommendation in instances like
13:19:09  this?  Both facilities and campuses serves have made changes
13:19:14  to the clocks so they can spread them out
13:19:19  and not find them congregating at the clock.  If if you find yourself in
13:19:24  the situation where you're not social distancing, remove yourself 6 feet away
13:19:33  and have the conversation with the individual so we can provide
13:19:37  for that next time.  You're not perfect with this
13:19:42 , but
13:19:47  I know we're staggering start times and using social distancing as an expectation
13:19:52 .
 
13:19:56      ¬ª I think we're reaching about the end of the questions.  And also probably
13:20:01  the end of the allotted time.   If Nick
13:20:05  has any other questions, please submit to me via
13:20:10  the chat.  Again, I'm seeing a lot of individuals expressing their got I
13:20:15 itude towards -- gratitude towards this opportunity to be able to engage.  I know that there are
13:20:19  technical difficulties that we've experienced, but I think a lot of
13:20:24  this is growing things and trying to figure out how to make the necessary accommodations in these times that we're
13:20:28  finding ourselves in.  And things occurred that
13:20:31  we were not anticipating, like the zoom room chat.
 
13:20:35      ¬ª Can I say something before we all depart?
 
13:20:35      ¬ª Sure.
 
13:20:39      ¬ª Mary:  I just want to thank everybody.  You know, when
13:20:44  we open to questions, we get the hard questions and we get people's
13:20:48  fears and anxieties, and I actually really actual
13:20:52  grateful that people felt comfortable enough to answer
13:20:57  those questions.  I think it says a lot about our community.  And I also
13:21:01  want to thank you all for being so flexible and resilient during this time.  It's
13:21:07  very difficult to be dealing with
13:21:12  something so unknown and filling out how to make all of these changes
13:21:17  happen.  How you're doing or why you're doing it.  I just couldn't be prouder of everyone.  I know
13:21:22  we're making lots of mistakes and we're stumbling here and there and you're not
13:21:26  getting all the information and I wasn't able to answer a lot of
13:21:30  questions.  But I university really appreciate how dedicated
13:21:35  everyone is and how much concern you're all showing for
13:21:39  each other and I ask you to continue that and also to
13:21:43  please, please take care of yourselves.  Please take care
13:21:45  of yourselves.  Do things that
 
13:21:49 help you see how to kind of breathe through a situation that
13:21:53  none of us have ever been through before.  So it's
13:21:59  just my parting words are ones of gratitude and admiration
13:22:05 .
 
13:22:09      ¬ª Some last minute questions.  Some individuals have asked if there are any plans to address any
13:22:13  potential bur burnout in the future from staph members who have been
13:22:17  asked to work and who might be feeling some stress from that
13:22:19  -- staff members.
 
13:22:23      ¬ª Mary:  Yes.  That's a great question.  We're looking at things like how to manage the isolation
13:22:27  of being remote.   How to deal with this ongoing
13:22:32  stress.  And what you can look forward to is that we're looking
13:22:36  at putting some short videos up, at least a couple of too tips
13:22:41  a week, is some from me.  Although you're probably sick of looking at
13:22:46  me.   Some from me, some from others with helpful tips and tools to try to
13:22:50  deal with such a changing situation.  The so when we do those, we'll try
13:22:54  and make sure you all know where you are so you can see them.  And if you have advice for
13:22:58  other things we should be addressing, please let us know. 
13:23:02      ¬ª Thank you.
 
13:23:06      ¬ª Adam:  I guess to kind of wrap things up, Mary, I really want to thank you for your
13:23:11  time, for being here and answering these questions.  I know that it's a
13:23:16  great help to everybody who was able to join us.  And
13:23:20  also, I apologize to everybody who could not get through.  We're going to try to work through this.  We're
13:23:25  all dealing with this as an ab normal situation.  So we're
13:23:29  going to try to see if we can -- what we can do for the future
13:23:34 .  And thank you to all the staff members joining us and just
13:23:39  to echo Mary's comments to everybody else out there
13:23:43  who are keeping the lights on and keeping things running as
13:23:47  best as possible.  What you do is truly appreciated.  I think the staff are
13:23:51  being great stewards of the university at a very trying time
13:23:56 , and all of those efforts are truly appreciated.
 
13:24:00      Thank you all, once again.  And hopefully we'll
13:24:04  see if we can do something in the future, but I appreciated
13:24:09  you all being here and joining us for
13:24:13  this and staying healthy.   Take care,
13:24:17  everyone.  Have a great rest of your week.
 
13:24:19      [Event Concludes]
 
    
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