COVID Cases Decreasing, But Campus Remains ‘Restricted’

Tuesday, July 28, 2020  

Students and Colleagues,

 We continue to monitor public health information daily and, over the last two weeks, there has been a decrease in the number of new positive COVID-19 cases in El Paso.

While, by our guidelines, this would justify moving from “Restricted Campus” to “Limited Campus Operations” in our Campus Recovery Matrix, we see no need to rush and open additional campus departments immediately and bring more people to campus as we wrap up the summer session.

Essential personnel will continue to work on campus. We will continue remote work for all others. Vice Presidents can approve on-campus exceptions.

I would ask all leaders to review your Work/Safety Plans for your units this week in anticipation of a formal move to “Limited Campus Operations” in early August. In particular, any employees who are able to work remotely should continue to do so when we move to “Limited Campus Operations.” 

We will have to accomplish our important mission in the presence of disease this fall.  One of the ways we will do that successfully is by allowing people who can work remotely to do so. We’re counting on you as leaders to review your plans, use good judgement and implement that intent.

We have significantly redesigned the fall semester course delivery to reduce presence on campus. At this point, we are planning for the fall semester to begin following this revised planned on Aug. 24.

We will continue to monitor the local public health situation daily.

Thank you for your work to adapt to these unusual circumstances.

Regards,
Heather Wilson 
President