From Provost Arden: Designation of Faculty, Graduate Teaching Assistants and Graduate Research Assistants with Mandatory On-site Status for COVID-19

MEMORANDUM

TO: NC State Faculty

FROM:  Warwick Arden, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

SUBJECT: Designation of Faculty, Graduate Teaching Assistants and Graduate Research Assistants  with Mandatory On-site Status for COVID-19

DATE:  July 31, 2020

Based on the State of North Carolina and UNC System COVID-19 reporting requirements, NC State uses a mandatory on-site designation to apply to faculty, staff and select students who may be expected to work at least some portion of their time on-site. Some faculty have already been designated as mandatory on-site so they can come on-site to use their office or research space. Other faculty have been advised to stay away from campus until they are designated in this way. 

The existing administrative process related to designating employees as mandatory on-site has been important for tracking and reporting activities on campus. As the fall semester approaches, we don’t want this process to remain a barrier to you working on campus as needed. To make things easier, University Human Resources is working with the Office of Information Technology to designate all NC State faculty, including adjuncts, in the following categories as mandatory on-site: 

• tenured faculty, 
• tenure track faculty, 
• professional track professorially-ranked faculty, and
• lecturers and senior lecturers.

This batch approach to designating faculty as mandatory on-site will eliminate the need for you to work with your department head or departmental/college HR representatives to get your designation changed. Your mandatory on-site designation will be effective immediately and will continue until normal university operations are restored. As a result of this designation:

• You can come to campus or other university facilities as needed for your work, but in keeping with public health recommendations you should continue to limit your time on-site.
• Faculty members designated as mandatory on-site will be exempt from completing the mandatory on-site Google tracking form and you will not be required to report your hours spent on site. This includes faculty who were previously designated before the current batch process.
• You will not be required to work on campus instead of remotely. This designation merely allows you to come on site if you need to without additional authorization or tracking. 
• If you want to use laboratory or research facilities, you must still follow the guidelines established by the Office of Research and Innovation. 

No action is required from you to effect your change in designation.  

Your department head, associate dean for academic affairs, department/college HR liaisons and deans have received a similar memo to this one, explaining the designation process and covering the information shared here. Since facility access is specific to each department, please communicate with your department head or HR liaisons about any key or card key access restrictions or expectations. 

Teaching assistants and research assistants will also be designated as mandatory on-site in the same way. The Graduate School will be following up separately with department heads and directors of graduate programs regarding this change. However it is very important to note that research assistants will still have to go through the research restart process filed by their research supervisors and meet density, scheduling, PPE and Phase III criteria to be permitted in research spaces. Postdoctoral scholars and staff must still be individually designated by their department or college as mandatory on-site before they can return to work on campus or at another university site.

Please reach out to your department head or department/college HR team if you have any questions about your designation or need assistance with making mandatory designations for your postdoctoral scholars or staff.

Link to pdf version of memo.