Thanks everyone for joining this afternoon. I'm Charlie Reardon, vice president for research scholarship and an innovation menos always joined by a couple of folks, in particular. Tracy Bryant, who is the Senior Director for Research Communications at UD. And as always, Tracy will be monitoring the chat. And when we get to the end of the formal presentation, will leave ample time to address your question. Certainly to the best of our ability. Tracy, just let me know before we started that this is the 25th research Town Hall we've had since since the events began really in March. So thanks to everyone for joining and continuing to work together to to ensure that UD research enterprise remains healthy and strong and quite honestly, a growing. So couple of agenda topics we have today. So I'll start as is typical Y one announcement of an upcoming event, but then turn quickly to updates on uncoded both in the state and on campus. A few updates to share as it relates to research which remains in phase three. But we do have some new information as it pertains to research-based travel. And also hosting visitors to research facilities for the purposes of either research collaboration or are having vendors and to serve as equipment. So some clarity and additional updates. They're certainly we'll spend a fair bit of time on UD personnel actions, latest information, of course, of which came out in a message from the president, provost, an EVP last week. And what I'll really focus on is updated guidance and clarity as it pertains to the reduction in time or what's more commonly referred to as furloughs for individuals on sponsored funds. Because again, we have updated guidance relative to the way we talked about that that topic a couple of weeks ago before the across-the-board reductions in Time came out. And again, use the chat function for questions through the balance, balance of the hour. So the announcement, that quick announcement The later this month, mutex at Udi event is scheduled for 04:00 PM on the 27th. And so the registration link is available on this slide. The topic is connectivity, a very timely topic in the context of all the social distancing or at least the physical distancing we've been asked to do. And you can see on the bottom left of this slide a great lineup of speakers and will also be a panel discussion. Those speakers include university of delaware students, University of Deller, alumni, faculty, and a faculty member or colleague from Villanova University. So encourage you that the TEDx, TEDx talks are always great to great fund. And this topic really. Encapsulate a lot, a lot of what we've all been dealing with over the now 700, almost eight months of the pandemic. Turning to local, that is a state of Delaware in terms of how cold it is progressing within state. Well, unfortunately, the new daily cases remain elevated. And very sadly both deaths and hospitalizations are starting to increase. These are trends that we're seeing in the state of Delaware and certainly seen nationally. And I'm sorry, if you've been watching the news at all, you see that those numbers are are ticking up nationally. Taking a little bit of a, a deeper dive into the cases. So in the left hand side of the slide you can see relatively flat in terms of new positive cases within the state of Delaware over 14 day period. Although it's flat at a relatively high level and on a level that certainly the, the governor state government and all Delaware and wanted to see that those numbers decrease. On the right hand side, you see a slight decrease over the 14 day average in terms of percent positive for individuals who've taken test. And I'll just pause here for a moment to make two observations. One is that, that percent positivity continues to be too high for any of our liking. So it's above 5%. As you can see, it has been that way consistently over the past 14 day period. But the state now as of today and I don't have today's data posted. It was just posted on the website URL at the bottom of the slide in the last few minutes. But those the state had indicated last week they are changing or augmenting the way that they're displaying the data in terms of percentage of positive, better align with how those positivity rates are represented nationally and other states across the country. So I'll put up until this point just to make it a little bit more clear. Up to this point, the percent it's been percentage of persons who have taken the test. So in other words, not total number of tests administered. Meaning that if one individual had taken a test multiple times, it was only one of their test results that were showing up in the data. Now you can go to the website for the Delaware state data and see that data presented both in terms of percentage of persons tested positive and percentage of tests positive. So there is a difference there. Importantly, in terms of hospitalization, hospitalization capacity, you see two datasets here with trendsetting in opposite directions. So the current hospitalizations over the past 14 days continue upward. And for the first time and in several months, the number of hospitalizations and misstate has exceeded a 100. And so that's a point that the governor has noted. And obviously something we all need to work together through all the mitigation strategy for well of word or aware of to, to bend that curve downward. You will note though on the right hand side that new hospital admissions has been decreasing or have been decreasing over the past 14 days. So what this of course suggests is that the length of stay of those individuals that are being hospitalized by COBIT is increasing, which suggests, of course, that the severity of those illnesses for those that are hospitalized or increasing haven't had to share with you PP, personal protective equipment inventory at the state level for quite some time, simply because all of those inventories had been in the green level, which indicated at least two weeks worth of supplies. That's changed recently in one category, as you can see here, gloves. So the state level, the states indicating that their supply chains for gloves only has visibility into one or two weeks left, given what they project, there needs to be. Thankfully, here at the University of Delaware, we have folks like Mike later who oversees environmental health and safety, has been really keeping his finger on the pulse of PP. And so Mike and environmental health and safety proactively ordered additional gloves last week. So the inventory at UD is strong. I also know that Student Health Services and Dr. Tim Dowling, I'm didn't have any trouble ordering gloves last week for their care needs, so I'm not quite sure what's going on at the state level, but I do know that thanks to the good work of a number of people at Udi, we continue to be in good stead. So order and access PP through campus says you always have been and we should be in good shape for the weeks ahead. At UD. Just as a reminder, we're doing a significant amount of testing. And so the dashboard is up and available for you. On the left hand side, I show the number of positive cases by day over the past week. You'll notice if you take a quick count there, six days listed, the seventh day in that week which would have been at the top. October the tenth, will be posted later this afternoon. But I can give you a sneak preview that on October the tenth we got 0 positive cases. So I'm this past week the trend has been quite good. So clearly the interventions and all the behaviors that we've been talking about are having impact. And on the right hand side is the surveillance testing that we're doing on campus. So if you add all those numbers together, since we started surveillance testing in early September, we've now administered over 5 thousand tests. The positivity rate for all 5 thousand is just below 2%. And you can see, generally speaking, some, some diversity in the data, if you will. But generally speaking, we're below 1% consistently. And we want to, of course keep to those numbers. I'll just mentioned that because of the storm, the remnants of the hurricane that have come through the area earlier today. We did send an announcement out last night canceling today's testing. That testing, as many know, takes place under tense outside. And so the combination of the heavy rain and the higher wind suggested those prudent thing to cancel today's testing, but we won't be testing on Wednesday. And they're active plans and discussions to be able to increase the number of tests as we get into the winter season. Just as a reminder, lots of questions come up about testing. Screening and contact tracing. And so there are resources available on the UD site. The left-hand side here just remind folks that if if you do have a positive case, you can report directly through the portals that are available, either contacting student health services or HR, the latter for employees. And then if you have questions in terms of what how you should proceed. If you've been potentially exposed to someone who's tested positive. We do have a guide document, a flow chart on the right hand side, which is hyperlinked Australia and available to download as a PDF. Obviously, your health care providers are great sources information as well. But between the time you hear of a potential interaction with a positive individual and follow up with your health care provider. You can certainly follow up with this with this good guidance. In regard to contact tracing, just want to mention that the state continues to advertise and encourage folks take advantage of the COBIT alert DI app. As of this morning, there were more than 45 thousand downloads. So members of the Delaware State of Delaware Community that are using that app. And we have heard as recently as late last week that the state division of public health is finding that the app is providing some great help. Terms of being able to contact trace more expeditiously. And therefore get people who are potential exposures into current into quarantine and unsafe for themselves and safe for the broader state of Delaware community. So I encourage you to continue to download that over, download the app if you haven't, and certainly continue to, to use it and keep it on when you're out and about. Quick reminder, we remain in phase three here of a research or reactivation status we've been in since August tenth. Things are going quite well, continue to go quite well in regard to phase three. So I really want to thank everyone for your efforts. It really is the entire community. We've talked about this and in the past, but our colleagues and facilities and sodium and university services continue to do really remarkable work to keep these facilities operational and safe. And it's great to see high levels of adherence to the best practices that we know about with respect to doing the daily health screening, checks on on you typically on your on your phone app. Mask wearing, physical distancing. We've had precious few cases within our research facilities and we certainly want that to, that to continue. Given the, those positive developments within Phase three, want to alert you to a couple of opportunities with respect, as I mentioned at the outset, to visitors accessing our facility. These and also research-based travel. So for some time now on the way that we've approached visitors in a specifically now referring to your research collaborators and vendors coming in to support equipment, install, equipment, maintenance, et cetera. If that work is it's time sensitive. On the way we're approaching it, is we're asking a specific faculty member or staff member, a university employee, more broadly to serve as the host for that visitor or those visitors. And that in advance of the visit, which could be a one day visit, or in some cases it may be multiple, multiple de visits. They complete the return to campus form that we're all familiar with at this point. And as hyperlinked, I'm here on the second paragraph and completing that form, indicating by name and email dress the visitors that you will be hosting. We expect each visitor in advance of coming to campus to complete the COBIT 19 specific training. So that's the one time training, which is a short deck of PowerPoint slides as well as a brief questionnaire. Certainly, they need to access and complete the daily health screen. And we asked that each host to the faculty member or staff member who serving at the host, check with the visitor each day to make sure they've completed the help screen and that they can present green check. And then obviously, you know, following the additional health protocols, wearing a mask, maintaining six feet of distance, et cetera. If it turns out they they have a red X on the day they're coming to campus than just simply rescheduled to a time when, when their health allows them to, to come to campus. In terms of research travel, we understand effectively, not effectively. In practice. University sponsored travel was suspended in early March when the pandemic, I'm really hit and we, we had to shut down many aspects of of activity on campus rather quickly. And that suspension of UD sponsored travel has remained in effect. We do know that there are needs though for research, base travel and we're in a position now that we have established a process and we'll consider those requests on a case-by-case basis. This is really designed for employees and students that need to go out to sites for research-based activities. This does not include travel to conferences. We still believe it's in the best interest of our campus community. And quite honestly, most, most conferences continue to be in virtual form. So the question of course comes up is how are we defining travel? Because a fair number of folks are taking day trips up and around the state or in the mid-Atlantic region to do field based research, for example. So generally speaking, we are defining travel in this context as pertaining to UD employees and students, as I said, Who or need to take shared or public transportation. And that may also include overnight accommodations. So in other words, if you're taking a day trip with your own vehicle, that wouldn't be subject to these applications. So folks are asked to apply through the application form which is linked here. It will follow the basic review process that we have in place for other research access. So we'll include expeditious review by department chairs, deans and the provost's office and the research office. And we will be adding review and approval by by risk management because they need to take a look at the travel, in particular, the location to where individuals traveling so we know that it's safe and consistent either with state guidance or State Department guidance that travel is safe and will be providing those that are taking these kinds of trips with additional information and guidance as it relates to. The recommended PP, their health and safety guides. So for example, for air travel while masks are required by, I think most, if not all, commercial airlines at this point are additional recommendation for employees and students traveling by airline is that is that they wear eye protection as well because i's are one way in which the virus can be transmitted. So there'll be additional guidance offered for those taking these trips. And I want to turn in the last few minutes before turning it over to the balance of the time for for questions to spend some time talking about the personnel actions at the university has. The next couple of slides are relatively broad and I do want to drill down a little bit and focus on sponsored funded employees. But let me first start by providing an update, much of which was delivered in the message that came out late last week to the University of Delaware Community. So at the bottom of this slide is a hyperlink to that message from President Assad AS provost Morgan and EBP John Wong. And then there's also a link on this slide and others as, as these actions certainly generate a lot of quite honestly very important and very complex HR questions. I know that HR human resources here at UT has updated their website, have FAQs available, and also are providing responses through their email address or their HR help email address. So first the voluntary programs and updated. So you recall that some time ago earlier in the fall, the University announced a voluntary retirement program to n-bit individuals who were already eligible and that is met the retirement requirements that turned out to be as indicated here, 359 eligible employees as of the deadline, which was a week ago today, a 138. So 38% of those eligible have taken that voluntary retirement program saw, as indicated in the message that came out. I mean, these are employees who've who've really given remarkable and long-term service to two UD certainly hope many of them will remain in our community. One of the things that one of the many challenges we have with with Cove it is we're not in a position at least right now to be able to celebrate all of their career accomplishments here at UT, at least in a face-to-face setting side, I know that individual departments and units are, are working actively to think about the best ways to gather distinctly and to celebrate. Our colleagues. A number of employees took advantage of the voluntary reduction in time. I don't have specific data here, but those are also obviously very challenging and personal decisions that individuals have taken. So as announced with more specificity in the message, last week, the university has instituted campus what's called reductions in time. So campus wide reduction in time. Again, there are some technical differences between reductions in time and in furlough. But furloughs certainly a, a term that, that number of people are more familiar with. So as it stands currently and indicated in that message, all non-unionized employees are being asked to take a 5% reduction in time. And regardless of funding source, and I'll come back to that. That reduction in time commences November first and goes through the end of the fiscal year, which will be June 30th. So in that eight month period of time, individual, that 5% reduction in time will take nine furlough days. So approximately one furlough day a month on average between now and the end of June 30th. However, and is indicated in the message. Intent where possible is that for most employees, those days will be gathered. So three days will be the first three days of the week of November 23rd, which is Thanksgiving week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And then also three days would be the three days preceding the end of year university holiday, specifically December 21st through 23rd. And so employees taking those six days than would have if what the 5% reduction in time would have three additional days to take and those should be coordinated with their supervisor. Unfortunately, and is indicated in the message. Some units, a number of units to meet a variety of commitments, including cost reduction goals. Some strategic planning and others need to take deeper cuts than the 5% 9 furlough days. And so for example, a unit that of course I know very well the research office, employees in the research office will be taking 7.5% reduction in time, which equates to 13 days. And again, those 13 days beginning November first through June 30th. So certainly want to recognize the significant financial impact. This is all of our employees, those taking 5% than those taking greater than 5%. In the research office in particular is I've shared with my team our objective in these deeper reductions in time, not only to meet the budget targets that we've been asked to meet, but doing so in this way, I'm optimistic, although one can not guarantee, but I'm optimistic that these reductions in time will stave off any reductions in force or layoffs that would be required in the research office. So that brings us to some additional comments about the personnel action. So the next phase underway in terms of conversations within individual units and an HR would be reduction in effort, which are equivalent to layoffs. And then with regard to these reductions in time, going back to those activities, it's important to note that there are a number of categories of individuals at UD who are not subject to those reductions in time. Generally speaking, those are individuals who and Judy's HR taxonomy are not considered employees. So undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are not considered. Employees, they are not subject to the reduction in time, so they will not see a 5% reduction in pay, nor will they be expected to take nine days in reduction in time, remind furlough days. This also applies to certain visa holders, in particular employees who were H1B visa holders because worthy to take a reduction in time that would negatively impact their visa status and something that we don't want to to do. And then just for clarification, because I know questions have come up, postdoctoral researchers at the University of Delaware are considered employees and therefore they are subject to the reduction in time, the 5% across the campus. So as indicated, I want to make clear and really update guidance because when we talked about this preliminarily and there were some questions couple of couple of weeks ago. We hadn't had all the guidance sorted out in the direction, so now the direction is clear. And so I want to state that unequivocally in the next couple of slides and hopefully address some of the standard ball an outstanding questions folks have. So again, regardless of funding source, includes all funding sources, whether they're university-based, whether their federal base, state-based foundations, ANY funding source and includes all vehicles, whether it be a grant, a contract, a cooperative agreement are the typical types of vehicles. Now there are a lot of questions have come up as to why we're applying this across all employees regardless of funding source at this time. And the reason there are multiple reasons. Primarily, it's a matter of of equity and fairness to the extent that we can treat all employees in enlight circumstances. As you'll recall back in the spring, this was a significant topic when we were understanding how to continue to pay employees and students during the reduction in work, particularly with federal awards. And so it's critically important that we treat funding sources federal and non-federal, like asthma and life circumstances as much as possible. There also compliance considerations that lead us to conclude that this is the appropriate approach for Udi and some of those compliance issues have to do with with effort certification. So this is not the only solution to be clear, there are other approaches, but this is a solution that the university administration really believes is in the best interests of of UD at this time. I'll also make the comment at this point that we do appreciate. Maybe I'll go to the next slide. There are some challenges with any of these policies. And so a question that often comes up is, you know, I have deliverables and timelines with respect to my funded project and the sponsor needs to see these deliverables in the time that we agreed upon. And furthermore, um, where we have to change those deliverables would not be in violation of the signed agreement. Those are all very they're great questions are important questions. And so individual eyes guidance may be required in some instances. I can tell you that generally. We've talked about this over a number of these town halls, certainly in the spring and early summer, is that sponsors are providing flexibility in general and adding additional guidance to really highlight that flexibility as it relates to things like deadlines, deliverables, the ability to carry over funding and no cost extensions. So the first place I would ask a PI to look would be to consult with your sponsors, published guidance, and or consult with your program manager. In most cases, flexibility will be provided that's consistent with this reduction in time that's occurring at the University of Delaware and is occurring in many universities across the country. We have to be open, of course, to the fact that there may be instances where no flexibility afforded. If that's the case, then certainly can't consult with your contact and grants specialist in the research office will work with you and we will be issuing guidance so that it's clear how *** can request an exception to this process as policy when sponsor doesn't allow for that level of flexibility. So in the next slide, I give you just one example of flexibility that's been afforded. This is an example from the, from the US Department of Energy and the Office of Science and particular. So they issued guidance to all of their awardees in the Office of Science at the end of September. Some of which is replicated here on the slide that indicated that they're committed to maximum flexibility administering the wards and that they recognize potential delays and research. So we need to understand what what those words really mean. Of course, and I appreciate that. So having conversations with your program managers will be important. They state explicitly that investigators will not be penalized for delays. They also state explicitly that they understand and they intend to read progress reports in the light of the real disruptions that the pandemic has created for all of us. And they also make the comment that they're going to note this in merit review for subsequent proposals, understanding that productivity has been impacted in real ways in terms of the work that's been done. So this is just one example. There are many other funding agencies of course, and you can check for that, for that guidance. Couple of so we have a number of FAQs and we'll continue to add to these. But I know this is generating some, some questions. So here are some of the more common questions we've received thus far, right? Can I read budget the funds that are not expended? Absolutely. And in case given that it's 5% of a of a salary for eight months over the year. And the vast majority of our sponsors, The amount that needs to be read budgeted will not require sponsor approval. So you'll have the authority as the PI to read budget, but certainly check with your assigned contracted grant specialist if you're unsure if you have that authority, I want to make it very clear that that money remains and the award and it's for the principal investigator or the co-principal investigators to determine how best to to read budget. Again, those those nine days over the eight months. Also, as a matter of equity and consistency. The salary reductions do apply to new employees hired in the balance of the year, although those reductions will be prorated. So that is to say the reduction in time, which would be 5% for the balance of the year. We'll mathematically equate to a different number of reduction in time days or furlough days depending upon when that employee starts. So in other words, the the nine days which equates to 5% reduction in time you're getting November is biggest November first. So if they were to start November, January first, for example, that would be fewer than nine days. So with that, I will just remind folks of the of the resources that continue to be available across campus to support everyone. And I will turn it over to Tracy who's been monitoring the questions. And then just a reminder, we are continuing the town halls every other week for the balance of the fall semester. And from this point on, we are those those meetings are scheduled for 02:00 PM. So just a quick reminder there. So with that, I'll turn it over to you, Tracy. Okay. Thank you, Charlie. And good afternoon. Everyone. Said we'll start into some budget and personnel questions. Charlie, is does the furlough policy apply to unionize staff at this time? At this time, it does not applied. My understanding it does not apply to unionize staff. That was what was indicated in President Santos's message. So I would refer folks to a details in that message with regard to any ongoing conversations or desire stabbing, ongoing conversations with the various unions at the university. Okay. There's a question here to asking, will the research office eight units with contracts from the state to communicate and renew, renegotiate their terms, particularly for delegated authority awards. While with delegated authority, that, that authority, by definition resides out in the units. But certainly if you have questions about communicating with the state that the research office is available to assist. Obviously, we would prefer and we will help facilitate this. We have broad-based conversations with the state, but the state, of course, as we all know, is not monolithic. They have various agencies, various funding comes from different agencies. And so there is diversity within the state agencies that we need to respect and understand in terms of how to best negotiate. So again, as I've said repeatedly, I think that the, the, the one single overriding message to give folks is is one of communication. So if you have a state Contractor's State agreement, I think it's important that you communicate with the sponsor early to understand. What their expectations are in light of this once in a century pandemic. Okay. There are a couple of questions relating to this when Charlie, can you please explain why soft funded postdocs and staff are subject to the reduction in pay. This actually reduces revenue to UG by reducing overhead. It also inhibits our ability to do the research required by the funding agencies in a time when we're already facing challenges in research productivity? Yeah, that's a, that's a great, great question. Very fair question. So the fact in terms of reduction in money to the university, I would say that it's not going to result in an overall reduction of money coming to the university. It may well impact the timescale in which that money comes to the university. So consider it this way. If there's a 5% reduction for an employee who's on a sponsored project on that money. Those sponsor direct dollars remain with the PI and remain with the award and can be read budgeted for other categories. Or it can be read budgeted to extend the work of that individual by candidly, by, by nine days. Because that's the order of magnitude or the scale of the, of the reduction in time. So I want to be very clear. This is not, it should be cost neutral, but it's certainly not being done. As I've heard the question asked to to take money away from the from the sponsored funds and use him to pay expenses for the university. That's not the intention at all. And then in terms of managing the the time, yeah, absolutely. It's going to require additional planning and a really difficult time. People have been away from their facilities, away from their laboratories or site-based research. And now what we're asking individuals to do for, for the benefit of all, is to, to have a 5% reduction in time. And again, effectively, the equivalent of one for a little bit more than one furlough day per month. Now, having said that and I should emphasize this point, twos came out, the days, three days in the first three days of Thanksgiving week, in the days before the end of the year. Holiday are designed to be university. Why? But they may not work for all employees. They may not work for all units. And so there's flexibility in those dates. And I know, for example, in a number of the core research facilities, I spoke with the core facility directors last week and I've asked them to talk among themselves and to speak to their researchers who use those facilities to come up with plans that make the best sense to really mitigate any further impact in the downtime of those facilities. So if you have thoughts as a researcher on how to mitigate those impacts, I think you can certainly reach out to the core facility directors. That's the underlying rationale. Again, it's a it's a decision that's driven by an effort to be to be equitable, equitable, and to be readily and compliance. Thank you, Charlie. There are a couple of questions about the new rules regarding H1B visa. This first it says I'd like to understand the impact on hiring new post stocks or extending post-docs, working on research grants? Yeah, that's a that's a very important question. So there is new guidance coming from the federal government with respect to v. So in particular, but not exclusively, H1B, SAS, H1B. So this'll, this'll impact postdocs. There's, I think the question was it will also, if enacted, will impact on students as well. And so the university is aware of this guidance. The guidance currently at the federal level is, is open for comment. So we're working at the university with other higher ed, other higher ed institutions and organizations to combine forces to make clear our grave concerns about this new guidance and how it will be negatively impacting to education and to research all across the country, which while profound educational and economic impacts. Having said that, the word we're hearing is the administration plans to move forward with this guidance which would be problematic. So we'll continue to advocate in terms of the specific to either hiring new postdocs or students or extending the the stays of those already here, I direct you to the office of international students and scholars, ISS. And Ravi, again, the Associate Deputy Provost to overseas that offices is well-versed with this team to be able to address those questions. Ok. Thank you. A question has come in. Individual as our department has proposed stocks that will fall below the annual FSLA minimum amounts if their salary is reduced, what should we do about those employees? You need to follow up with with HR? I may get in trouble here to extend my knowledge of of all the details there. So thinking better of it, I will, I will not even venture those comments and just encourage folks to follow up with HR to determine whether that that is an issue or not. Okay. Thank you. With regards to non-unionized staff furloughs, Is there a concern with the impact this could have on morale if union negotiations don't result in a shared, an equal sacrifice. Where I mean, I'm, I'm deeply, we all are deeply concerned about morale and in a number of dimensions. And so these are enormous sacrifices that we're asking employees at the university to make. And so we're at a real Ed, incredibly difficult times to it when we understand that. And this is really difficult. I would like to give the unions and the administration of the time and the space that they need to have those conversations. And I'll remain optimistic that should those conversations proceed, and in some cases, they are, and in other cases I hope that they will proceed that we'll we'll come up with with outcomes that are really in the best interests for, for Udi broadly. And there'll be shared, shared contributions to what is really a, again, a once in a century pandemic that has really impacted the entire globe. So more to come on that. But we know that these are tremendous sacrifices. Again, as I said, in the context of the research office, certainly one of the reasons we're making these 7.5% reduction in time cuts now when we have tremendous amount of work to do, many people in my office like all across campus, have been working more than a 100% of the time, is really designed to stave off even more serious personnel actions which I think we can avoid and I hope to avoid. Okay. Thank you. Another question. Some universities that have implemented furloughs that's done so in a way that allows employees to apply for unemployment. Do you know if this structure, a beauties plan allows for this? That's another good question for HR. I know that the bin, depending on circumstances of the individual employees, that they may be eligible for unemployment and as a consequence of the reduction in time, aka the furloughs. But they need to need to follow up with HR to determine their individual case. But the HR's aware of that and trying to not trying to who's making decisions to in light of what would be in the best interest of employees. Okay. Thank you. Will the reduction in effort or time apply to Miscellaneous wage employees? I don't know the answer to that question. That's a good one to follow up with with human resources. Ok. I know we spoke to this to some degree and an earlier question, but here's another, does the university, you lose out on an FNA return from federal funding agencies if they reduce the salary of employees funded by federal grants, doesn't that hurt lot help the overall budget. So again, the the those dollars, the salary Reduction Dollars, which are subject to facilities administrative costs. There's the question or ask, remain with the PI, remain in the award and are available to be spent again, whether they're spent 49 additional days of extending the contract of a of a sponsored funded employee or their read budgeted for other categories, then FNA will be will be recovered. I think there is a there is the potential if we get really into the research office and research FNA weeds that if one were to read budget those dollars to a category which does not generate FNA than there would be a modest reduction in FNA generation. Okay, thank you. Follow up to that how our benefits being covered for those folks who are paid by sponsored projects. But taking reduction and pay. This person is especially curious because the benefits can't be charged without commensurate effort, correct? There's there's Correct. Yep. So every so individuals who are subject to the reduction in time retain their benefits. There are good series of FAQs, as we talked about earlier on the HR website. And so I encourage individuals with questions about the benefits to look at that FAQ. In terms of the Sponsored Projects and effort. It turns out that effort is determined or the denominator of effort is termed determined on the total amount of work. So in other words, if someone is fully on a sponsored project, then that's a 100% work that a 100% does not equate to a specific number of hours. So in other words, if they were subject to the reduction in time, the furlough days, they would still be at a 100% from an effort certification perspective. A very good question. Thank you. If employees are presently at 0.8 FTE on a grant, do they need to reduce hours? Additionally, I bet we need to follow-up with HR on that. I've I've I've asked that question and we're working on on an answer so soon as we have an answer for that, we can communicate it certainly within the FAQs. And individuals should follow up with their HR liaison or the HR office for clarification. Thank you. Here's a question of a different nature. Charlie person asks our undergrad and grad students allowed to partake in off campus in-person internships and practicums. There have been some of those activities trying to remember where some of those are, are taking place. Certainly I now in some graduate programs where I think of physical therapy in particular, where off-campus internships are critical to their degree progression. Some of those are, are taking place. I would encourage those students to follow up with, with their departments in which their majors reside for, for the details in terms of what's possible and what is available. Okay. Thanks you. I also wanted to ask the question pertaining to visitors. Does the recent update allowing research collaborators and service vendors to campus also apply to prospective graduate students provided the same approval and screening processes followed? Yeah. It's right now. It's limited to to the categories that we just described that you just reiterated, Tracy, but we do now very soon, as in very soon, we need to be able to. Allow prospective students perspective. New hires are obviously very little hiring at the university at this point to come into our facility. So there should be additional guidance on those classes of visitors coming in the next couple of weeks. Okay. Thank you. We have some additional information about that request. For undergraduates, it might be doing internships. There is a form that they're sponsoring faculty member has to fill out for field placements and internships that cylinder provost's website under coded academic continuity. And Karen and newness supplied that information. Thank you care. And as always, I should've just deferred to Karen. Thanks, Karen. Here's another budget related question. Or does the policy to furlough UD staff supported by grants provide any help to you these budget situation? Does it provide any help to you do budget situation? Now I think that as I've said prior to effectively budget neutral. Okay, another question pertaining to postdoctoral researchers. How does that affect those who are funded a 100% from external funds for their salary that cannot be used for other purposes. So that we have to have review that with the with the specific sponsor and understand what flexibility, as I said, is granted by the sponsor. So that's going to be on a case-by-case basis. I think in some instances there will be flexibility that could result in an extension of the term of employment by the by the number of days for a loader reduct reduced in time. Okay. Thank you. I also wanted to share some additional information about testing for Mark Seyferts, where he says that when the state of Delaware, New Castle County offer daily and free credit 19 testing, the State has also made available and new home test kit. Certain individuals. The Delaware division of public health provides testing sites for people without symptoms and you can get that list of testing dates and locations. A coronavirus dot Delaware.gov slash testing. He says In addition, the Hudson state service center at ogle 50 one oval Towne wrote a new arc has testing from Monday through Friday from eight until 430, and you need to call for an appointment from them. Great. Thanks. Tracing. Thank you, Mark. Sure. Charlie, I think we've covered all the questions that have come in and just double checking here. I know a person had asked again about a soft funded a employee's morale plummeting here and how do we best explained to them the fairness issue compared to hard funded employees? Will again that the objective here is to treat employees similarly independent of funding source. And so that doesn't, that's our objective. And that's one of the primary reasons for enacting the reductions in time the way that we have. Now. Well, there's another, there's another edition about testing. There are a lot of drive through testing and school parking lots happening with the return to school. These are available to the public and also have many slots open. It's passing that along. Great. Super. Okay, well, thanks everyone for joining. Thank you for all the good questions. I know there's a lot of follow up that's required in some cases with HR and there'll be additional guidance coming out from both human resources and the research office and in the days and weeks ahead. But certainly I'm continuous. Indicated on the bottom of this slide. If you have additional questions or you feel like the questions weren't sufficiently answered for you to act upon, please feel free to use UD research at u del.edu as an email portal. And we'll be sure to address those questions. So with that, we'll conclude and wish everyone well for the balance of the afternoon and the balance or the weak certainly. And we'll get together again in two weeks.
Town Hall October 12, 2020
From David Barczak October 12, 2020
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A town hall hosted on October 12, 2020, provides important updates for the UD research community, from campus operations to grants administration, and ways you can help our local community at this time.
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