Dear Lehman Colleague:

In this disturbing time, we are seeing amazing resourcefulness everywhere at Lehman College. In every academic area where I have heard updates after reaching out to chairs this weekend, faculty and staff are more than rising to the occasion and rapidly adapting courses for distance delivery.

What we are doing collectively is truly impressive, and I thank everyone for contributing to this prodigious effort. College staff in all areas have been setting up online or remote ways to work with students. In some areas, like the Library, IT Center and enrollment services, we are still developing ways to have in-person interactions while practicing social distancing.

According to public health experts, optimal social distancing means to maintain a distance of six to 10 feet from others whenever possible. By the way, do that everywhere you possibly can. It won't help much if the campus is the only place where social distancing happens. Despite what we are doing on campus, we all must understand that it is not possible now to be both safe and provide optimal student service.

That is why we are undertaking significant measures to enforce social distancing at Lehman starting today.

We have already taken a number of important steps to reduce density on campus. To continue in that vein, we intend to utilize Monday, March 16th to allow staff to finalize plans for telecommuting until further notice with the intention that everyone who can telecommute will begin doing so on Tuesday, March 17th. This applies to anyone who has not already established a telecommuting schedule with their manager.

Of course, any service that can be delivered remotely will be, but we recognize that some offices must maintain a physical presence for now. Continuing those services while ensuring everyone's safety is the goal.

• Campus offices will be open tomorrow from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. From 2 p.m. on, staff in all units will be preparing their workplaces to deliver services either completely remotely or with reduced on-site staffing.
• Our aim is to ensure continuity of in-person student-facing services from Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. beginning Tuesday, March 17 and continuing for as long as possible. Consolidating services and closing unoccupied areas will allow the custodial staff, who now are focused on cleaning the entire campus, to devote more time to these high-traffic areas.
• We understand, however, that over the next two weeks there will be significant changes in public health directives which could cause us to alter these new hours of operation.