New UA tracking and response policy

April 6, 2020

Tori Tragis

— by Dan White, chancellor

As we continue to adapt to COVID-19 and the public health mandates that have come with it, the UA system office is working through what policies we currently have in place and what revised or new policies are needed.

President Johnsen has enacted a new policy for implementation of health tracking, including use of the UA Banner COVID-19 tracking tool for collection of employee and student COVID-19 related health information. The new policy says that Universities “must systematically collect information regarding the presence in UA facilities of persons with COVID-19 or under investigation for COVID-19, regardless of source, inquire of employees and students who are or recently were present in UA facilities regarding COVID-19 symptoms/investigation/confirmation, take CDC recommended action such as cleaning facilities and warning affected students/employees, track the action taken, and, where significant numbers of people are affected, transmit that information to Public Health.”  

UAF’s Incident Management Team, led by Fire Chief Doug Schrage, is working through a strategy to implement the policy. The UA system office is working with UAHR to develop webinars and FAQs on use of the new statewide employee tracking system. The new policy was sent to Chancellors yesterday afternoon so we are now in the process of getting clarification on the policy and how it adds to the practice UAF put in place for self-reporting COVID status.

I will continue to provide additional details as this policy and others are developed around COVID-19. 

Thank you and be well.