Dear Infrastructure and Sustainability team,
Congratulations on getting us through a monumental 2020-2021 academic year! I hope many of you will have a chance to recharge as we transition to the summer and get ready for Fall 2021. In that vein, as of June 1, campus departments are able to start transitioning back to in-person work once their leadership teams have developed plans to do so. Your department heads and supervisors will be updating you in the days and weeks ahead on their plans for your specific units.
This shift will not impact many of you who have continued to carry out your roles on campus throughout the pandemic, other than possibly providing the chance to see more of your colleagues in person once again. For the rest of you, this transition will mark a significant shift in the way we’ve all conducted business over the past 15 months.
Our I&S leadership team has been actively working on the plans for their respective units, and many of you have likely been involved in these efforts through active participation or through individual interviews. We recognize that any plan we put together will be slightly different for each unit or individual. We also realize that many of you will have varying levels of comfort with coming back to work in person. And, for various reasons, some of you may have discovered that your role is better suited to a hybrid or remote work arrangement.
While we don’t have all of the answers yet, I do want you to know that the choices we make will be rooted in the Guiding Principles posted on the campus human resources website. We will be as flexible as we can, understanding that some folks will be enthusiastic about returning while others may be hesitant. And we aren’t rushing back to campus all at once.
The summer and fall will be a transition period for us to figure out what works best for each unit, keeping in mind that we must also make the choices that help us best serve the campus mission. We will learn lessons over the next several months. And we’ll continue to make any necessary adjustments this fall and beyond as we learn what works best for both our employees and the university.
Finally, I want to reiterate again the importance of getting vaccinated. Vaccination is the single most effective measure you can take to protect yourselves and prevent the transmission of COVID-19 on our campus so we can make our return to a more traditional campus experience a successful one for all of our students, faculty and staff.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or your supervisors. I am optimistic for the days ahead. And I’m so proud and thankful for all you do for this university.
With gratitude,
David Kang, vice chancellor for Infrastructure and Sustainability
