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March 31, 2020

TO:                  UAF Provost and Vice Chancellors
FROM:          Daniel M. White, UAF Chancellor
RE:                   Essential employee approvals

Last week Governor Dunleavy issued two new health mandates. Per these mandates (11 and 12), work at UA can only be performed on campus if it is specifically exempted from the new restrictions. UA President Johnsen issued UA wide guidance in this regard on Saturday (3/28) with a follow-up memo to Chancellors on Sunday (3/29). My communication to campus Sunday afternoon (3/29) relayed the President’s additional detail on specific exceptions for on-campus work. Per the guidance we received, supervisors must issue exception letters to all employees required to work on campus, whether for full or partial work.

UAS develop a tool to be used across the University for different purposes, from documenting on-campus work to tracking leave status. This tool, called the UA Employee Tracker Tool has been adopted for UA wide use to document and auto generate on-campus work exemption letters.

For all employees in your area that are required to work on campus under one of the exemptions, please ensure supervisors fill out the UA Employee Tracker Tool as soon as possible. The tracking tool only needs to be completed for those essential employees who are exempted from the mandates for the following:

  • Working on campus - The employee is physically present on campus for their work.
  • Reduced time on campus - The employee is required to come to campus for some of their hours, but is working a reduced schedule and/or a portion of their hours remotely.

There are other categories in the tracking tool that we are not requesting be filled out at this point. The additional fields were developed for other types of time tracking.

For employees who are required to be either “working on campus” or “reduced time on campus”, supervisors must enter the following information and justification in the notes section:

  • The specific exception for which the employee must continue to work on campus.
  • The parts of the employee’s work that must be performed on campus.
  • Approved travel to campus to perform the specific duties.
  • The safety plan for the employee to perform the required duties (e.g., social distancing, closed office spaces, limited interaction, staggered schedules).

When finished, clicking the “Save” button on the lower left corner of each employee’s box of information will generate an “exception letter” that will be emailed to that employee. It is important to note, if not working on campus by exception, all work must be performed remotely. If supervisors determine that an employee’s work cannot be done remotely and the does not fit an exemption, administrative leave should be charged.

Thank you for working with your units to get this information entered for the few employees that will continue to perform work on campus and in person. I ask that we get as much of this entered as possible by the end of the day Wednesday.

If you need technical assistance with the UA Employee Tracker Tool, please email ua.covidstatus@alaska.edu.

  Download signed memo (PDF)