May 4 video message and letter to staff and faculty

Dear UND Community,

Please view our video.

As we continue to navigate through our fight against COVID-19, our entire UND leadership team is working hard to ensure regular communication to keep us connected as well as informed.  It’s important for us as presidents – both interim and incoming – to ensure that our voice is constant throughout the presidential transition to update you on current actions and planning for the future.

We would like to start by saying how much we are looking forward to seeing you on campus this fall. Planning is already under way. While we will look different and operate differently as we manage physical distancing for the well-being of our community, we will succeed as a campus together.

Since the early days of March, our campus community has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic threat with a professionalism that has long been the hallmark of this University. By effectively and appropriately practicing physical distancing, shifting to remote teaching and learning and doing our work from home, we have largely avoided the harsh realities that the virus has inflicted on many other organizations in our region and across the country.

To alleviate some of the hardships brought on by these changes, the University took swift action to support our students:

• We assembled a process by which our students could apply for refunds for portions of housing and meal plans they no longer needed.
• We acted quickly to secure CARES Act funding to provide additional assistance to our students, based on their individual needs, and those funds have been distributed.
• Working with the UND Alumni Association & Foundation, we were able to secure donations from our ever gracious and generous alumni and other friends of UND to provide even more help to students with unmet needs through the Angel Fund.

We’ve been impressed, though not surprised, by the way our faculty have reached out to students to check on their well-being in ways that go far beyond their expected academic responsibilities. And for our students who have nowhere else to go, such as many in our international student community, the University has provided a safe haven and sense of security during a very unusual time for all of us.

We can’t express enough our appreciation for the amazing work you all do and have done in the face of these challenges. That said, as the virus’ presence in in Grand Forks County seemingly grows by the day, now is not the time to let up. We are in this together and together we will get through it!

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has created parallel challenges with which we are dealing, especially the impact on the current academic year budget. It was right, given the pandemic threat, to send students home to take classes remotely and to have our staff and faculty do their important work remotely. It also was right to provide refunds to our students for housing and meal plans, pausing flight instruction and on campus events.  However, these decisions have contributed to an estimated $11 million revenue shortfall for the University in the fourth quarter of FY20 alone. We’re also anticipating a decline in overall enrollment next fall as current and prospective students and their parents weigh many personal unknowns brought on by the virus.

UND has weathered difficult times before, and we will again. The University’s leaders including vice presidents and deans are busy implementing decisions to address immediate impacts while also conducting budget and scenario planning so we are prepared for the future.

Budget action steps to date:

• We have put a hiring pause or “hiring chill” into effect
• We are re-examining projects and expenditures through the Request of Proposal process to make sure we really need to do them now.
• We have instituted a temporary Reduction in Hours process, which will result in reduced hours for an estimated 400 employees, whose work has been impacted by COVID-19 effective May 16 – July 31.
• We are asking all units, primary and service, to look for even more ways to limit expenses and preserve cash.

We want say a special thank you to those within the Division of Academic Affairs and the schools and colleges. Academic Affairs, deans and program and department chairs are at work to prepare UND for our new environment in the upcoming academic year. Rather than a one-size fits all approach, they are working within their budgets to make the most of the talents of each faculty member, administrator and staff member to move UND forward. We ask everyone to engage with their chairs and deans as active participants in this important effort. We are all UND, and we need your help.

Looking ahead

In the summer, we’ll continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation in Grand Forks County, across the nation and around the world to ensure the safety of our campus community.

For now, all precautions we have put into place will remain, including offering classes only online during the Summer Session and restrictions on University-sponsored events. The timeline for some changes is indefinite while others could be lifted sooner, including restrictions on University-sponsored travel, on-campus events of 10 or more people and University-sponsored internships or co-ops. Our expectation for employees to work remotely, when possible, also will continue until further notice. We will bring academic and social activities back to campus slowly and patiently over the summer, as conditions allow and in a manner consistent with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s ND Smart Restart plan and the President’s guidelines for Opening Up America Again.

As for the Fall Semester, we will offer both on-campus and online courses, as has always been the case. To reduce the risk of spreading the virus, we are taking great precautions in the way we will engage courses and in the way we will shape life at UND. Faculty teaching on-campus courses will be given guidance and options to ensure physical distancing in accordance with Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) guidelines. With the unknown trajectory of the pandemic, faculty teaching on-campus courses are asked to prepare to pivot to an online environment, if necessary as pandemic conditions dictate. Regardless of the type of courses students decide to take – online, on-campus or a combination of the two – academic programs will ensure courses are available to spark students’ love of learning and move students positively toward graduation.

‘We are one’

We realize that these changes will have significant impacts on everyone across campus – especially when we are asking our employees to change the way they do business, endure reductions in hours or take on more duties.  While this is a difficult time for UND, actions taken now will position us better as we head into the upcoming academic year and beyond. We have formed a Pandemic Planning Committee that currently is developing a thorough list of guidelines to help set your own expectations and responsibilities as well as what you can expect from us as we move forward.

In the upcoming weeks, work will continue to prepare for the upcoming academic year as we welcome everyone back to campus. We are committed to providing you with regular updates so you are aware of those decisions being considered and those with which we are moving forward.

In closing, we are eager to have life on campus return and to be able to interact with you in person. And although it will feel different from when you left in March, it is our belief that we will emerge from this extraordinary challenge with an even stronger sense of One UND.

Let’s work together to continue what we are doing to ‘flatten the curve’ and to ensure the health and well-being of our entire community. It remains essential to continue to maintain safe physical distancing and wash your hands frequently.

We will continue to share updates as we prepare for the fall semester. We will be ready, and we will get through this together and emerge stronger as One UND.

Stay safe and be well. We are One!

Joshua Wynne
Interim President

Andy Armacost
Incoming President