Dear TCU Faculty and Staff,
The City of Fort Worth has issued a “stay home, work safe” order for residents, effective 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, March 24, 2020 – April 3, 2020. This means that people may leave their residences for essential activities only. This includes getting supplies for themselves and their families, performing tasks essential to their health and safety and that of others, or to operate essential businesses.
TCU is an essential business
As a higher education institution, Texas Christian University is an essential business, which means TCU employees may conduct essential functions on campus during this period. Your safety and health, as well as that of our students, remain our top priority.
Please review the following information for TCU essential functions, for which employees will be permitted to come to campus.* This is a dynamic document and is subject to updates as we learn more about COVID-19 and how it will continue to affect our business operations.
Essential functions
TCU essential functions/services during this period are defined as those related to: 1) health and safety; 2) the presence of a residential student community; and 3) the continuity of delivering quality education/learning to our students.
We recognize that most, if not all, employees are engaged in some way with the continuity of education, and the majority of the functions in this category are already being conducted remotely. Employees who can work remotely should continue to work remotely, stay home and not come to campus.
There are, however, essential services that must be conducted on campus. TCU employees may conduct work on campus for the purposes outlined below:
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Emergency Services. All first responders, emergency management personnel, emergency dispatchers, and law enforcement personnel, and others who need to perform emergency services are exempt from this order.
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Healthcare. Employees who support healthcare operations may travel to TCU to perform these duties on site - this includes working at the Brown-Lupton Health Center.
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Educational Operations. This includes the University’s operations that facilitate and support distance learning. This permits faculty, teaching assistants and staff to come to campus as needed to engage in all activity necessary to facilitate remote teaching and learning, such as preparing materials and using video facilities to record or broadcast lectures. In addition, employees may come to campus to perform other “essential functions” of the University. For example: 1) Student Affairs, Academic Affairs and Intercollegiate Athletics employees and others in student-facing roles may come to campus to provide services for students residing on campus, and 2) faculty or staff that must attend to responsibilities related to ongoing educational research projects.
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Food Services. Sodexo employees may come to campus to prepare and provide food; however, food must be to-go only. Individuals may not eat on the site where provided or in other gathering areas. This allows Dining Services and other food service providers to continue on campus under these restrictions.
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Residence Halls. Individuals who provide needed services for occupants in the residence halls.
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Essential Services Providers. Those who provide services that are necessary to maintain the safety, cleanliness, utilities, and essential operation of areas where work continues on campus.
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Professional Services such as compliance-related offices necessary to assist in compliance with legally required activities. Examples would be the Human Resources, Financial Services, Legal Office, Risk Management and research compliance functions.
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Other Key Services includes operations related to essential infrastructure support such as Information Technology, maintenance workers, waste removal, building construction, the post office, and those services that provide the support or supplies necessary to operate.
Reminder for staff-only
All staff employees (excludes faculty) working remotely (from home) must register and complete the Short-Term Remote/Telework Agreement. To complete this agreement, log on to my.tcu.edu, select My Employee Center, select Short-term Telecommute Agrmt, and complete the form and submit. Resources are available on the TCU Keep Working website for getting started, staying connected, and staying informed while working remotely.
*For those coming to campus:
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Please remember that if you have a fever of 99.5 degrees or greater, have other COVID-19 symptoms and/or have been exposed to someone who is positive for COVID-19, you are not permitted on campus. If you are engaging in a 14-day self-observation period, please fill out the 14-day Self-observation Form. Thank you for helping us to contain the spread of COVID-19 and keeping our community healthy.
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When traveling to and from campus, you must have your TCU ID.
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TCU Shuttle operations are currently suspended. Parking is currently on a first-come, first-serve basis.
If you have any questions about whether or not you should come to campus, please contact your supervisor or email Human Resources at askhr@tcu.edu. I pray that you and your families are doing well during this challenging time. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to TCU. I’m inspired by how our Horned Frog community is growing even stronger through this, even though we are apart. Please do not hesitate to reach out to HR if we may be of assistance to you.
Take care of yourselves and each other,
Yohna