Communications

Dear Lawrentians,

We offer a heartfelt thank you to all faculty, staff, and students who made it through an academic year unlike any other in recent history.

Everyone approached their work and studies with compassion, innovation, and creativity to end the year on a high note. We also greatly appreciate everyone’s ongoing individual and collective efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Two weeks ago, we introduced the campus to the Lawrence Pandemic Planning Team (LPPT) and its five groups: Health, Curricular, Co-Curricular, Outside-In, and Employee & Legal Aspects. At that time, we shared that, upon the recommendation of the LPPT and following consultation with the Faculty Governance Committee and the Curriculum Committee, the Cabinet has decided to keep our existing fall academic schedule. Classes will begin on September 14, and exams will end before November 25 and the Thanksgiving holiday. A final decision regarding the mode of instruction for fall term will be announced by the end of July.

Today we write to provide you with additional updates on the LPPT’s work:

Health Group

• A first draft of social distancing guidelines for the fall is currently under review.  
• Members of the team are currently in negotiations with health partners in Northeastern Wisconsin to institute campus-wide testing and contact tracing. We hope to finalize a partnership within the next two weeks. 
• New campus cleaning protocols have been instituted to decrease person-to-person contact. For example, custodial staff are focused on cleaning common spaces, and individual offices and departments have received supplies of cleaning products, along with cleaning instructions. 
• Plexiglass barriers have been installed in several high-traffic areas, such as Brokaw Central and Chapman Hall, to help decrease the transmission of viral droplets. Additional barriers will continue be installed over the summer. 
• Signage and other physical reminders about health and safety protocols have been posted around campus, with more planned for the fall. 
• All campus buildings with a central ventilation system will be outfitted with new filters that exponentially increase air filtration and will help to disrupt viral contagion. Many systems across campus will be recalibrated to increase outside air flow. 
• The team is currently investigating an advanced air purification process, bipolar ionization, to provide better air quality in ventilated buildings. A test implementation will take place over the summer to determine if the process is worthy of investment.  

Curricular Group

• Thanks to David Berk, a new web page is available that provides information on instructional spaces and models to accommodate CDC-recommended social distancing guidance. This remains a work in progress—measurements for all of our instructional spaces are ongoing, and we plan to include spaces in our fall room inventory that are not typically used for instruction. 
• Briggs 420 is currently set up as a socially distanced classroom, and faculty and staff are encouraged to visit the room as a preview for the fall. 
• We are adding technology to several classrooms so that we can ensure that in-person and distance learning modes are available. 
• We are exploring the expansion of hours of instruction to accommodate classes that may need multiple sections or a constraint on classroom availability. 
• We are considering a schedule in which the two midterm reading days would be distributed throughout the term as single days without instruction, to provide breaks in the calendar for faculty, staff, and students. A decision on this option will be made soon. 

Co-curricular Group

• We are adding rooms to residence halls across campus by converting lounges and other gathering areas into living spaces.  
• Small Exec (813 E. John Street) and multiple houses north of the Conservatory are being reserved for potential student isolation  needs.  
• We are exploring ways to integrate new health protocols into the daily lives of Lawrentians and our overall campus culture. 
• We are exploring what move-in and Welcome Week look like in Full, Flex, and Distance mode. 

Outside-In Group

• A university “Guest” will be defined as anyone who is not currently enrolled, employed by, or contractually affiliated with Lawrence University or the Lawrence Community Music School. 
• We are currently in the process of finalizing a guest registration form and creating a protocol for its administration. 

Employee & Legal Aspects

• On June 15, we welcomed a about a quarter of our administrators and staff back to campus as we institute the first of a multi-phase process to return more employees to on-campus work. Phase one is outlined in the Return to On-Campus Work for Non-Essential Staff.  
• Additional guidelines on the next return-to-work phases will be forthcoming in preparation for the fall term.  
• We are crafting guidelines to assist employees in their decision-making on returning to on-campus work. 
• Frameworks are being developed for equitable access to flexible work arrangements to help employees manage work, health, family, and other responsibilities. 
• We are working to understand and manage institutional legal responsibilities and potential liability associated with both on-campus and distance work. 

If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback regarding the information shared above or other insights, please refer them to your supervisor or a member of the LPPT or contact coronainfo@lawrence.edu. Please also be sure to read the weekly LU Insider and visit the COVID-19 news blog for ongoing information and updates. 

Thank you for your ongoing patience, cooperation, and work as we all learn to adapt and live with COVID-19.

Sincerely, 

The LPPT 

“There’s no end in sight . . . no hope.  I get sick to the very soul of me when I look upon the faces of our young people.  They’ve been dispossessed—cheated out of their chance.”  Thus starts The National Youth Administration:  A Radio Drama by Herb Meadow.  Written in 1937, this is a series of vignettes embodying the effects of the Great Depression on youth (roughly 15-25 yrs. old), and the various interventions of the National Youth Administration (part of the Works Progress Administration):  Story mixed with History in ways that seem eerily current. 

We hope you’ll join us for a live recording, this Friday, May 15^th at 8:00 pm CST.  To obtain your “ticket” (the Zoom Meeting link and password), simply email Kathy Privatt at kathy.privatt@lawrence.edu.

Help us bring together the community virtually by participating in the “In 30 Seconds” challenge. Every other week, we are asking Lawrentians to respond to a Lawrence-related prompt to keep the spirit of Lawrence strong, even as we are spread around the world. 

This week, submit a video clip (or photo, drawing, or other creative display) telling us what you love most about Lawrence… in 30 seconds or less.

Submit your clip here (sign in with your shortened email – last name + first initial + @lawrence.edu – and LU password) and we’ll post our favorites on our Instagram Story!

Email huberm@lawrence.edu with any questions.

Print Services will be closed until July 7.

If you have print or copy projects that do not require design services, such as letters or manuals, please submit the job as normal through the print services form. If you have any questions about your job, contact the Helpdesk at Helpdesk@lawrence.edu. 

If you need design or other assistance from the Office of Communications, please continue to submit your request through the project initiation form. Please also allow for at least an additional three days of turn-around time on projects due to potential changes in the printing process.

Thank you for your assistance and patience. 

Lawrence University is donating the use of Trever Hall to the City of Appleton for the next four months to help in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.

Trever is being made available to the city from now until the end of August. It will not be used as a medical facility and will not house COVID-19 patients, but rather will be a space the city can utilize for its personnel as needed.

“All of us are in this fight together,” said Christyn Abaray, assistant to the Lawrence president.

“Providing Trever Hall to our city is a natural step we at Lawrence could take to support our community in this effort.”

No Lawrence students or staff will be in the building. The university has cleaned and prepped the hall and made key-access available to city personnel. The city will provide its own bedding and will be responsible for the ongoing cleaning of the facility. City personnel staying in the hall will have access to the kitchen and laundry facilities, and free wi-fi is being provided.

Trever is well removed from where students on campus during spring term are being housed.

“We purposefully chose a residence hall where there would be limited interaction with our own campus community,” Abaray said.