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To Faculty and Academic Staff:
Welcome back to the beginning of what promises to be another exciting academic year. We are gearing up for opening with the Chancellor’s Convocation on Friday, August 28, and the first day of classes on Monday, August 31.
As you know, near the end of this past spring a new influenza strain (H1N1, originally nicknamed “swine flu”) caused widespread outbreaks across the globe. As we approach the new academic year and the upcoming flu season, we want to communicate with you about how Syracuse will balance the very important aims of reducing the negative effects of flu and promoting public health, while mitigating academic and business disruptions for our students, faculty, and staff.
At SU, the effects of H1N1 last spring were very mild as we came to the end of the school year. Over the summer the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization continued to track the occurrence and severity of influenza. The CDC has developed advice for individuals, businesses, and educational institutions based on their opinion that there will be a new wave of cases in the US over the fall, overlapping with, but not replacing the normal seasonal flu. H1N1 has thus far caused mild-to-moderate disease, especially among the most vulnerable populations, which includes most of our students (the young up to 24 years).
The University’s Pandemic Flu Committee is working closely with the Onondaga County Health Department to monitor flu conditions and to advise the Chancellor’s Cabinet and other University officers about the best steps to take on our campus. Conditions and recommendations change frequently, and we will keep you updated with new information as it becomes available. For more information about the flu in general, please seehttp://www.flu.gov. The latest campus information on flu and other related matters can be found athttp://sunews.syr.edu/h1n1flu/index.html and the County Health Department site: http://www.ongov.net/Health/SwineFlu.html.
As you know, flu can be spread easily from person to person. We are taking steps to prevent the spread of flu at Syracuse University whenever
possible, but we need your help. We are asking all who study or work on the campus to take these steps to help contain flu transmission:
SU will have a seasonal flu vaccination program for students, faculty, and staff, as we have in past years, when the doses arrive. Health Services recommends participating in that program to reduce your overall chances of getting the flu. However, the University is unlikely to receive sufficient doses of the separate vaccine for H1N1, which is still in clinical trials, to be able to vaccinate beyond the CDC-proscribed priority lists, which will include most of our students. Faculty and staff should expect to receive H1N1 vaccine, according to the CDC guidelines, from health care providers in the community.
We are working closely with staff of Health Services and our other campus colleagues to develop more detailed advice and policy for instructional staff and the schools and colleges as we prepare for the flu season. Our primary recommendation at this time is that you, knowing the dimensions of your own work, begin, individually and in conjunction with your colleagues, to plan and prepare for the disruptions and demands that may well occur during this flu season. We are working with ITS to support distance solutions to some of the instructional issues that may arise during flu season and developing guidance for you regarding:
1) Student course attendance policies. We would like individual faculty to begin considering ways to continue to deliver course content in the event that there are numerous student absences. We will be working toward ensuring that the public health considerations (keeping sick students at home and not in class) and the academic goals central to all of us can be mutually accomplished through technology or other means. Associate Provost and Acting Dean of the Graduate School Sandy Hurd (snhurd@syr.edu) is your contact for concerns, questions, and suggestions as you develop your plans to fit the size and contours of the curriculum you are teaching. As we develop more general strategies or conditions change, we will be communicating with you. At this time, we do know that the Health Center will not routinely generate excuses for class absences unless the student is seen by the Center’s staff during the illness and unless the clinical staff specifically recommends that the student modify his or her activities.
2) Special student cases. We will be working with those units whose students are placed for internships in schools or health facilities or who work in early childhood programs to ensure that they receive proper vaccination and other preparation in order to complete their programs.
3) Faculty and staff illness. Just as when the students are ill, the University asks that faculty and academic staff who are ill observe the flu protocols above in order to limit the spread of disease. We expect that academic units will be as flexible as possible in helping to reduce the presence of ill persons in the workplace. Departments should begin gathering the human and technological resources to support faculty absence due to illness for a week or more. Associate Provost Kal Alston (kalston@syr.edu) is your contact for concerns, questions, and suggestions as you work on human resource issues in academic units.
4) Faculty and staff dependent care. Faculty and staff who have dependents or partners who may be in need of care due to flu should work with department heads to propose telecommuting or other distance solutions to support simultaneously the academic mission and the public health consideration.
We thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation as we work together to keep our SU community as healthy as possible while we pursue our common goals of education and research.
Regards,
Eric Spina Sandy Hurd Kal Alston |
