APU Staff and Faculty,

Quyana (thank you) for your incredible efforts and for your dedication to APU as we continue to move through unchartered territory. Your extra measures have ensured that our critical work continues in a safe, responsible manner. We hope that our collective commitment to COVID-19 mitigation has helped to ensure the health and safety of you and your families.

We recognize that some have embraced working from home while others are ready to come back to the office. We all wish we could see into the future to understand how and when we will get back to “normal”, but we recognize that we have to move forward making the best decisions we can with the information we have now. To that end, we are working on a plan to safely return to our campuses over the summer and for the fall semester. Three subcommittees are actively meeting to address the multi-faceted issues: 1) Instruction & Technology chaired by Dr. Hilton Hallock, 2) Campus Operations chaired by Ben Hahn, and 3) Employee/HR chaired by Sheila King. These committees have representation from diverse campus stakeholders and welcome input shared with the chairs or with the Faculty and Staff Assembly chairs and ASAPU president.

We are also in the process of collecting data regarding office workspaces. This information will help us determine specific adjustments needed to bring employees safely back to work and comply with COVID-19 safety precautions and mandates. We will be conducting a walkthrough of campus buildings with public health engineers to assess our facilities, classrooms, and other common spaces to evaluate various scenarios for the Fall semester and ongoing efforts to address risks related to the pandemic.

In the meantime, our current telecommuting agreement is through June 19th. We recognize the uncertainty that is inherent with returning back to work during this time. We have committed to providing a two week notice prior to returning to allow you to make accommodations in your personal lives, and we will keep you updated.

With regard to Fall courses and programs, we are gathering as much information as possible in order to make an informed decision by July 1st.

It’s a beautiful time of the year and we are fortunate to have great weather right now. Alaska provides so many options for healthy outdoor activities that include social distancing. While you enjoy the summer season, I encourage you to follow best practices of hygiene, physical distancing, and masking so that we can continue to stay safe and see each other on campus again soon.

Quyana (thank you) again for your incredible work on behalf of APU.

Val

Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson
President
Alaska Pacific University