Dear Pitt Public Health faculty, staff, and students,
The chancellor’s July 17 message provides an overview of the University’s Resilience Framework and highlights how the plan’s flexibility allows us to respond to the rapidly changing pandemic conditions and to operate under a full range of conditions. Like Pennsylvania’s red, yellow and green county phases, Pitt’s operational postures define what is allowable across our people, places, and programs. We are currently operating in the elevated posture. Under this posture, life on campus resumes at a minimal level, prioritizing activities that have high value but lower risk, such as certain research activities.
Information about Pitt’s plans is starting to come very rapidly. Below we briefly highlight some of the recently released information that is of greatest import to Pitt Public Health faculty, staff, and students.
Information Sources
The most important sources are coronavirus.pitt.edu for general University information and COVID-19 standards and guidelines for detailed University policies on a variety of topics.
On July 23, the provost held the first of three town halls on Pitt’s Resilience Framework. The University Times article about the town hall summarizes many of the questions that faculty raised about Flex@Pitt, safety on campus, and other issues.
Pitt Public Health will hold town halls for students and for faculty and staff in the first week of August to answer additional questions. Please watch your email for separate announcements of those events.
Classes
The Instruction Standards and Guidelines document clarifies that under the elevated posture, classes will be conducted remotely with certain exceptions such as laboratory classes.
Flex@Pitt will continue for spring, providing both faculty and students with ongoing flexibility about whether to participate in person or remotely.
Class schedules, and particularly room assignments, are still a work in progress but should stabilize within the next week or so.
Other Student Issues
The Off-campus Academic Experiences Standards and Guidelines document provides information on practicums and internships. Experiences that are necessary to meet requirements for graduation are permitted in person at some level in all operating postures; Pitt Public Health will be developing more specific internal guidelines for such experiences.
Under the most recent ICE guidance, NEW international students planning to enroll in a university that is entirely online will not be able to obtain visas. The guidance also clarifies that international students already in the U.S. won’t be forced to leave the country if their university switches to be fully online during the semester. Pitt Public Health will continue to ensure that all affected students are enrolled in some in-person credits as needed.
Details about campus arrival and sheltering in place can be found in the leadership messages at coronavirus.pitt.edu.
Resources for Remote Work and Education
Students, faculty, and staff can all borrow various technology devices if needed for learning, teaching, or work.
The On-Campus and Remote Work Standards and Guidelines document outlines principles for who works remotely and who works on campus. Most faculty, staff, and students will continue to work remotely under all operating postures. Pitt Public Health will be developing more detailed internal plans soon.
The Center for Teaching and Learning has a number of available resources, including a Flex@Pitt Teaching Support Playbook, with ideas about how to organize your classes with such flexibility. It’s important to note that Pitt Public Health received approval to offer several of our courses 100% remotely, so the in-person requirements do not apply to those courses.
Eleanor Feingold, Executive Associate Dean
feingold@pitt.edu
Jessie Burke, Associate Dean for Education
jgburke@pitt.edu
Renae Brinza, Associate Dean for Administration and Finance
brinza@pitt.edu
7/27/2020