Policy for Working Remotely

Dear Staff:

I want to thank you for your continued vigilance as we sort through the daily challenges that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak presents. Our focus has been, as always, to prioritize the health and safety of our students. This week we are working hard to get all students safely home with the items they need from their residence halls and studios, and to prepare our faculty for remote instruction, so that the semester may proceed without further delay or interruption. For our seniors, we will do everything we can to make sure they graduate on time and will soon shift our thinking toward accounting for the missed opportunities and moments they expected to experience during their last semester at Moore.

These are unprecedented and strange times for all of us. Like me, I know you are watching the news and thinking about your colleagues, your community and your loved ones, near and far. Please be assured that you are valued members of the Moore community and we are dedicated to ensuring your health and safety as part of the greater good, both on campus and in society. The members of Moore’s Boards of Trustees and Managers and I are grateful for your collective commitment to Moore and to each other, and extremely proud of what we have already accomplished together during this crisis.

I want to thank Moore’s Emergency Response Team (ERT), which has gathered many times over the last few weeks to prepare us for the scenario of staff working remotely. This week, we are moving forward with a rollout of remote work for staff, with the overarching goal of closing campus to all but critical personnel by 5 pm on Friday, March 20, until further notice. We are staggering the rollout with the goal of continually decreasing the number of people present on campus each day—and this effort has been hastened with news from the City earlier today. We are doing this to ensure the safety of those who are needed on site this week to assist students with moving out, to conduct training for faculty and other key tasks.

It is important to note that any employee working remotely must work from home in order to keep other people in their immediate community safe. Employees must perform essentially the same work that they would in the central workplace, in accordance with the same working hours (9 am to 5 pm for all or most), performance expectations and other agreed-upon terms. Employees must maintain a normal workload to the fullest extent possible and must be available to their supervisor during normal working hours. Please speak with your supervisor as soon as possible regarding further expectations around working from home.

All staff will also be expected to share a phone number with their supervisor, which will then be collected by Alysson Cwyk and posted publicly online. If you are not comfortable with sharing your personal home or cell phone number, please follow the instructions below for setting up a free Google Voice number, which you can change or cancel at any time. If you need assistance setting this up, please contact Alysson at acwyk@moore.edu and she will be happy to help.

In addition, please review our available resources for remote work and computing from home, including instructions for access to 1TB of secure online storage with Microsoft OneDrive. Depending on the day you begin working from home, please develop a plan to prepare for that transition and use the available resources as needed.

The ERT will be in touch with individual managers about this week’s schedule, and which departments and/or individuals will be affected each day. With support from Senior Managers, the ERT will address any questions or needs as quickly as possible. Of course, we will also keep you updated as needed with communications about when it will be safe to return to campus—and we hope that time comes sooner rather than later.

Thank you for working with us to ensure a smooth transition during this process. While I will miss seeing your faces in person, I look forward to the myriad ways in which we will all rise to the occasion during this critical time.

Most sincerely,

Cecelia Fitzgibbon
President

COVID-19 ACCOMMODATION POLICY

 As part of the College response to COVID-19, Moore College of Art & Design is committed to supporting employees and their immediate family members who are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, this generally applies to people 65 years and older and people with underlying medical conditions. COVID-19 specific workplace accommodation requests will be considered by Human Resources. In addition to these high risk factors, Human Resources will also consider COVID-19 specific accommodation requests for employees with issues accessing childcare. COVID-19 specific accommodation requests are for 30 days. Employees who want an extension of the COVID-19 specific accommodation request must reapply. 

For purposes relating to COVID-19 specific accommodations, immediate family is defined as those who reside in the same household and are related by kinship, adoption, or marriage. When requested by an employee, for immediate family members or themselves considered at high-risk from exposure to COVID-19, Moore College of Art & Design will: 

• Provide options for alternative work assignments such as working remote, schedule change, additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) -above and beyond what is provided to all employees- or social distancing measures. 
• Require employee to provide supporting documentation such as but not limited to medical documentation or proof of age. Proof of age is applicable only for immediate family. 
• Where alternative work assignments are not possible, permit high-risk employee to apply for other leave benefit such as FMLA, FFCRA, ADA and/or use any of their accrued paid time off.