COVID-19 Response

Project ECHO: COVID-19

Update and Infection Prevention and Control Methods

Presenter: Paul Carson, M.D.

Login required. Contact Julie Reiten for assistance.

Project ECHO: COVID-19

Provider Well-Being During COVID-19

Presenter: Andrew McLean, M.D.

Login required. Contact Julie Reiten for assistance.

Due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, the Deeded Body Program will be implementing a temporary hold on accepting whole body donors effective March 30 until further notice.

To be clear, the Deeded Body Program remains operational and is still accepting Certificates for Bequeathing Body forms from prospective donors who wish to register for future acceptance.

Donors currently residing in the School of Medicine & Health Sciences Deeded Body Program will continue to be respectfully cared for as integral elements of our program and teaching mission.

We appreciate any disappointment that is experienced by the families of donors who cannot be accepted into the Deeded Body Program during this unprecedented difficult time. We sympathize with them and extend our services to help with any questions in navigating alternative arrangements for their loved ones. We may be contacted at 701.777.2101.

We plan to resume accepting donors in the UND SMHS Deeded Body Program in the future. Thank you for your understanding and patience until we return to normal operation of the UND SMHS Deeded Body Program.

Resources for faculty who are teaching online:

• Going Online in a Hurry (Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Basic Teaching Strategies and Their Online Translations
• Instructional Design
• Teaching & Learning Resource Repository

Contact the UND Teaching, Transformation and Development Academy (TTaDA) for assistance with:

• Blackboard
• Yuja and VoiceThread
• ProctorU

Information Resources has compiled a variety of Remote Access options to help faculty, staff and students during this time. Information Resources can also help with questions regarding Mediasite and Sharepoint.

Library Resources has compiled a research guide with information pertinent to the COVID-19 pandemic. This page includes information about the ways in which librarians can supplement your online courses, as well as links to information made free by a variety of scholarly publishers and information to help keep you healthy as you transition to a new work environment.

Do you have a question? Please Ask a Librarian!

Consistent with University guidance for University staff, Program Directors will inform residents/fellows about their expectations in the event that residents/fellows experience illness including:

1. If residents/fellows feel sick, they should notify their immediate supervisor and Program Director and go home.
2. Residents/Fellows should not try to “tough it out” and continue working if feeling ill.
3. Instead of taking leave, the preference is for residents/fellows to work from home such as studying for an in-service exam or board certification, research, etc.; however, work from home is at the discretion of the Program Director and resident/fellow.

Questions or concerns should be referred to Kim Becker.

Resident and Fellow Away Rotations

Resident travel out of state for away rotations is not allowed at this time. 

If there are strong programmatic reasons why such as rotation is considered essential, we can assess those requests individually. Requests should be sent to the DIO, Kim Becker, who will consult with key leaders. 

For anyone who is interested, Dr. Andrew McLean, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, adapted a presentation called Resilience to address COVID. 

Imaging Core

The Imaging Core is instituting the following new policies designed to minimize person-to-person contact and to maintain a safe environment for users and staff. If you have questions, please contact either Sarah Abrahamson or Bryon Grove.

1. Training of new users is being curtailed until activity on the UND campus returns to normal. As an alternative, those individuals who need microscopy data for their research will be able to submit samples to Sarah Abrahamson and have the core staff collect the images for them. Please contact Sarah Abrahamson or Dr. Grove to make arrangements.
2. For trained users who have straightforward microscopy work to do, we strongly recommend that they also arrange to have core staff collect their microscopy data. Again please contact Sarah Abrahamson or Dr. Grove to make these arrangements.
3. If trained core users have complex microscopy work that requires them to use the equipment, they must contact Sarah Abrahamson or Dr. Grove beforehand so that we can ensure that they are aware of the safety and decontamination procedures we have put in place. Users will be required to wear gloves, provided by the core facility, when handling the microscopy equipment and they must notify core facility staff when they are done so that the equipment can be decontaminated.

Please note that a remote session utilizing Zoom is a viable option for most of our equipment. Users will be able to see both the staff member and the equipment screen, which will allow them to guide the staff member during image collection.

Genomics Core

The Genomics Core facility will remain open for business for new and ongoing projects. However, it is taking steps to minimize person-to-person contact and to maintain a safe environment for users and staff. 

1. Until further notice, it is not allowing any personal sample drop-off to core labs. All samples need to be submitted in the drop-off freezer. In case you are not familiar with the location of the drop-off freezer, feel free to email Core Director Bony DeKumar for directions. 
2. All one-on-one and group meetings to discuss data analysis and project discussion will be scheduled through Zoom.  
3. Please email queries about a letter of support, budget and technical questions for a grant proposal or any other questions to Bony DeKumar.

It is possible that some services may be delayed due to logistics of ordering and shipping reagents and samples. We are making every effort to eliminate any negative impacts of the current situation and we are looking forward to helping everyone maintain their research productivity. 

The building is locked, but current building occupants can access the building with EDA keycards. Each office/department should post a sign noting they are open but staff are working remotely, and include contact information for staff. UND has provided a sample sign.

Coming to the SMHS should be done on an as needed basis only, given the directive to work and learn remotely. Students are permitted to come into the building to clean out their lockers if they do so quickly.

Effective June 9, 2020, the UND Safety Office will deliver packages that are marked as “hazardous” directly to the SMHS department that the package is addressed to. UND Campus Postal Services will deliver the non-hazardous mail and packages, and intercampus mail to each SMHS building, including Columbia Hall and Neuroscience Research.

All mail and packages addressed to the SMHS building at 1301 N Columbia Road will be delivered by Campus Postal Services to the second-floor mail room. This will include packages that are marked as perishable or refrigerated. Daily mail/package delivery generally occurs before noon each day. All departments are encouraged to check the mail room right after noon if you are expecting any critical packages.

SMHS packages delivered to Columbia Hall will be placed outside the first-floor research hallway door. Packages to the Neuroscience Research building will be left in the lobby.

Questions about mail can be directed to Darin Lee at UND Campus Postal Services, 701.777.4832.

Consider reviewing any checks that you receive and ask providers if they can use electronic fund transfers, minimizing our mail in this important area. The Office of Administration & Finance can assist with this if needed.

The door to the second-floor mail room may be closed but not locked (if it does end up locked, your classroom/conference room keys will open this door). Please close the door when you exit the mail room, but do not lock it.

Altru will no longer deliver mail to and from the School while the building is locked. All mail to and from Altru should be routed through the U.S. Postal Service.

From UND Parking:

From May 31 to July 31, an active UND parking permit will no longer be needed to park on campus. However, Parking Services will continue to enforce safety issues with a focus on ADA, reserved, service/maintenance vehicle, and loading/timed spaces.

The Parking office will remain open Monday through Friday, with limited staffing from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Customers are encouraged to call or email with questions, concerns or transactions that they have before coming to the office as all building doors are locked. If needed, we can set up a convenient time to meet.

Parking Services
701.777.3551
parking@UND.edu

Summer Commencement will be conducted virtually. Eligible graduates are invited to participate at a later Commencement. The University also intends to work with students on alternative ways to celebrate their graduation achievements while maintaining social distancing.

This bill had two intents: 1) to target dollars to students who are most at risk financially, so they used the number of Pell grant recipients to determine what dollars went where, and 2) since one of the challenges in many institutions was the shift to online education, they targeted the dollars to the institutions that had to make more of a shift to online. UND was doing more online instruction than NDSU. The percentage according to the federal government was 26% at UND purely online and only 11% at NDSU. Thus NDUS received more CARES funding.

The CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund-IHE/Student Aid provides funding to institutions to provide emergency financial aid grants to students. Furthermore, institutions have the responsibility of determining how grants will be distributed to students and how the amount of each student grant is calculated. As stated above, institutions are responsible for determining awards; UND main campus financial aid awarded emergency grant funding to undergraduate students. Medical (and graduate/law) students were not awarded emergency grants.

UND Financial Aid Federal CARES Act FAQs

UND Alumni Association & Foundation Angel Fund

Absolutely! We’ve focused on virtual care in the past, but we can do more. Dr. Wynne invites all faculty to design curricula for all students that helps better prepare them for these public health threats.

The current date is Aug. 3. Online instruction will continue through the summer semester. Plans are being implemented for the fall semester.

The concern is that, as in the 1918 Influenza pandemic, COVID may return in the fall and winter. Dr. Wynne anticipates recurrent waves where we go from lessening to much more aggressive physical distancing as we are today. This could last for the next year or two. So while there may be more interaction when we return, there may not be handshakes. People will be required to wear masks when interacting with others. Students may sit in classrooms six feet apart, or remain online except some clinical, lab and simulation experiences. Those experiences are tough to develop online alternatives that are as good. So it may be some online and some in person.

Faculty and staff should not return to the office full-time until at least Aug. 3.

This is one of the most difficult questions to answer at this point. The decision up until now has been between Dr. Wynne, on behalf of UND and the School, and the major health systems that we work with. They told us for safety reasons that they didn’t want to have our trainees in their environment at this time.

For medical students, we have also gotten suggestions from the AAMC. They just now extended their suggestion that students stay out of the clinic until the end of April. Because of the shortage of PPE around the country, the institutions are concerned about putting students potentially in harm’s way. Students are usually restricted from care of COVID patients, but even in a hospital environment, the risk of infection is much higher. First, the institutions have to let our students back. Then we’ll have to agree that we’re comfortable with that.

Yes when interacting with others. Please refer to UND's Smart Restart Plan.

UND has implemented a hiring "chill" at this time, meaning hires are not prohibited but must be justified as necessary at this time.

No. The learning objectives, content and credits earned (where applicable) remain the same, and is no cheaper to deliver online.

There are many funding sources being considered for reimbursement of some COVID expenses. The School will report these expenses to the State Board of Higher Education and the state Legislature. While the end result is uncertain at this time, it's easier to keep track now than to have to go back and calculate later.

The State Board of Higher Education has temporarily waived the requirement of standardized test scores (i.e., ACT, SAT) through the summer of 2022.

UND defers to the Canadian Border Services Agency regarding who can cross the border into the U.S. If Canadian students are unable to cross the border this fall, their enrollment may be deferred one semester. Please check with UND Admissions for more information.