On Friday, March 13, 2020, UHPA met with UH administrators and voiced our concerns for the health and safety of our membership as a whole, as well as, making sure all Faculty Members received the required support, services, resources, etc. to help with the transition to on-line instruction, as well as, other conditions as they may arise. UH agreed with UHPA that a working group should commence immediately to address these concerns that UHPA raised and jointly noticed all Faculty Members of the establishment of the working group and an email address to allow all Faculty Members to share their concerns to the working group – which consists of UHPA and UH representatives.
The working group includes eleven (11) Faculty Members. In constructing the committee, UHPA wanted to ensure that we had broad representation, and included a total of four (4) Faculty Members, including two (2) Librarians, that are non-instructional. The working group has been meeting daily since Tuesday, March 17, 2020 and will continue to meet on a regular basis in order to address the multitude of questions, concerns, and seeking clarification over the numerous messages that have been issued by our State’s government leaders. UHPAʻs goal is to obtain all the necessary information on these issues so that we can collectively, with the UH, provide a list of Q&A’s on these topics and seeking commitments from the UH to provide a safe workplace as required by OSHA rules and regulations.
UHPA’s position is that we need to ensure that all Faculty Members are provided with all available resources, services, and support in helping them transition to on-line instruction. We also want to ensure that all Faculty Members who continue to teach courses, programs, and classes that require face-to-face instruction, as well as non-instructional faculty that will remain on campus for their duties, have access to the required resources, services, and support to protect their health and safety needs. In this regard, we are ensuring that any and all recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are being recognized and will be implemented by UH on this matter. The CDC recommendations are changing and evolving. The links here are the most up to date issued by the CDC on this subject:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/workplace-school-and-home-guidance.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/colleges-universities/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-ihe-response.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/community-mitigation-strategy.pdf
It is important to point out that instructional faculty have not been assigned to “work from home.” What has changed for them is that students will no longer meet with them in person in a classroom. The joint committee has been working to identify issues and are looking for different ways that they can engage in and develop ways to teach their classes in other modes. All non-instructional faculty can utilize the voluntary work-from-home process announced by President Lassner last week, if such accommodations are available.
The University has shared the COVID-19 Work-From-Home Request form. This form should be completed by non-instructional faculty members solely to be used as a means to document their request and ability to work from home.
The situation is constantly evolving, and we will be sure to send updates based upon directives from the Federal, State or County officials.
We are still in discussions with the UH Administration through this working group on addressing all of these concerns, inclusive of UHPA’s concerns over the health and safety of it’s membership, and we will continue to meet and function as a working group to collaboratively address these issues as they arise.
