Dear colleagues,
The Thanksgiving holiday is coming at a difficult time for our city, state, and region given exceptionally high rates of COVID-19 transmission throughout our state and region. Planning ahead with intentionality will help us reduce risk of COVID-19 transmission in the SMPH community.
Please review campus guidance about Thanksgiving travel here. In particular, those who choose to travel over the holiday are urged to strictly limit interactions with others on campus for 14 days upon return.
Supervisors
Supervisors should carefully consider on-site staffing needs during the 14 days after Thanksgiving. It is always important to mitigate COVID-19 risk by continuously evaluating the necessity of on-site work. This is important to keep in mind beyond just this holiday. Employees should be coming to campus only when necessary to complete their duties.
Employees
Employees who choose to travel over the holiday are urged to strictly limit interactions with others on campus for 14 days upon return.
We strongly recommend receiving a test for COVID-19 before returning to on-site work duties. Information about on-campus testing options can be found at https://www.uhs.wisc.edu/medical/testing/.
Student employees
As previously announced by campus, all undergraduate in-person group instruction, including final exams, will be fully remote after Thanksgiving.
Undergraduate student hourly employees who are working on-site in SMPH and student undergrad researchers may continue to work once undergraduate instruction becomes remote if they have the permission of the lab’s Principal Investigator or instructor. We highly recommend that students also strictly limit interactions or, if necessary, pause on-site work for 14 days after Thanksgiving travel. Supervisors and mentors should encourage regular testing and adherence to public health guidelines in both personal and professional capacities.
Please direct questions to smphcovid19@med.wisc.edu.
Thank you for your help in keeping our school community safe and healthy.
Hope Broadus, JD
Associate Dean for Human Resources
School of Medicine and Public Health
University of Wisconsin–Madison