3.20.20: Action for Faculty and Staff- Closure of Physical Locations

Most of those working remotely have taken what they need from their workplaces. If there is something critical to your working effectively, you have until midnight tonight, March 20, to go into your workplace and retrieve it.

Dear Faculty and Staff,

As you know, undergraduate education at Lehigh is continuing remotely for our students, and the great majority of our faculty and staff are working remotely. We will now be closing all campus facilities and buildings, with the exception of those housing and supporting the 230 students who must remain on campus. This includes on-campus research operations.

This action complies with Governor Tom Wolf’s order directing all non-life-sustaining businesses in Pennsylvania to close their physical locations.

Only essential operations will continue on campus. This will be a small number of people, and your supervisor will inform you if you fall into this category.

Most of those working remotely have taken what they need from their workplaces. If there is something critical to your working effectively, you have until midnight tonight, March 20, to go into your workplace and retrieve it.

We are aware there are select circumstances where non-essential personnel are unable to perform their job duties remotely. We have made the decision to continue to pay all Lehigh employees for the foreseeable future. We would emphasize that everyone should be making every effort to work remotely as effectively as possible.

The situation with regard to coronavirus is changing by the day and we appreciate your collective efforts and cooperation as we join together as a campus community at this challenging time. We know that many of you are juggling additional personal responsibilities along with your work at Lehigh as you strive to keep yourselves and your families healthy.

Please do all that you must to keep yourselves and your families healthy. Follow the recommendations regarding social distancing and sanitary practices to slow the spread of this virus. As always, we encourage you to visit our COVID-19 information page for all of the latest updates on Lehigh’s efforts to keep our community safe.

We are all in this together, and we will get through it together.

Best regards,

John D. Simon, President

Patrick V. Farrell, Provost

Patricia Johnson, Vice President for Finance & Administration