COIVID-19 Updates for Travel and Sunrise Operations
Based on a June 12 email update from President Gabel new guidelines for travel are as follows:Consistent with CDC recommendations, the University has modified our travel policy in the following ways, effective June 15.
- Domestic and Canadian vehicle travel: We are ending travel restrictions for staff or faculty using personal or fleet services vehicles. Please follow CDC recommendations to lower your COVID-19 risk. Federal restrictions regarding car travel to Canada can be found here.
- Domestic Air Travel: We will begin allowing domestic air travel, however; we continue to discourage any air travel unless it is absolutely necessary for University purposes.
- International Air Travel: We have extended the ban on international air travel through August 15 and will update this decision by mid-July.
This means that domestic travel to research sites does not need approval at least for the time being. As of today, the college is still requiring those projects that include travel to University of Minnesota facilities (ROCs, etc.) to complete the research check in form. This is so that we can continue to manage people going to our ROCs and communicating their arrival and other needs for their time on site. Note this form requires approval by the station director not the department head.
Important: The ending of reduced operations still does not mean that everyone can return to campus. Those who can do so, must remain working at home. This is important because the fewer people on campuses will lower employee capacity and improve the safety of all people.
For those returning to campus, it will become even more important for people to carefully follow COVID-19 protocols to assure the safety of themselves and others. CFANS will continue to advertise and promote communications for safety and monitor people's compliance.
Sunrise Lab Procedures:
Sunrise On-Campus Requests: For details see: CFANS-COVID-19 Resources. We will continue to require those requests to be submitted prior to people coming to campus. The primary goal of those requests is to identify people who are coming on campus, and to also inform facilities planning and maintenance of an approximate number of people and locations in facilities. This helps to plan cleaning, maintenance, and at a high level determine required staffing.
The procedure for a Sunrise request is as follows:
Please note that only PIs and Supervisors can request approval. Support staff and students will be listed by the PI/Supervisor in their request and then a secondary form will be filled out to indicate their willingness to come back to work on campus.
- PI fills out request form
- Convert the form generated in an email to a PDF and then place the PDF request file in this Sunrise Pending Head folder
- Department Head will then review and if approved will sign and place in the Approved by Head folder.
For support employees:
For those labs that have been approved to resume laboratory work in the Sunrise process, the final step is for the support employees (staff, postdocs, graduate students, and paid undergraduate students) to fill out a form that indicates that they are willing to return to campus. Here is the process:
- Fill out the form that acknowledges the request by a P.I. or Supervisor to return to work
- Once you submit this form you will receive an email back with the subject line: CFANS "Sunrise" SUPPORTING OR COLLABORATING EMPLOYEE FORM FOR SUBMISSION TO UNIT HEAD: Acknowledgement of request by P.I. or Supervisor for Support of On-Campus and ROC Office Research and Education Activities during COVID-19 Reduced Operations
- Copy the body of the email and paste into a Word document.
- Convert the Word document to a PDF
- Upload the PDF for Support Pending Head folder
- Department Head will then review and if approved will sign and place in the Support Approved by Head folder.
