Campus News

Rockford University Students, Faculty and Staff:
Governor Pritzker announced today, March 20, 2020, that a Stay At-Home order for the State of Illinois will go into effect beginning at 5 p.m. tomorrow through April 7.

As such:
Students living on campus
Students who are currently living on campus are expected to adhere to the Stay At-Home order and remain on campus except for essential purposes as defined by the State of Illinois. You will still be able to go outside, pick up groceries, gas, food or medicine, but you are expected to stay on campus and leave only for those essential needs.
Visit https://www2.illinois.gov/Pages/news-item.aspx?ReleaseID=21288 for more details on what the Stay At-home order includes.

For students who are not living on campus and would like to retrieve items from their rooms, residence halls will be open from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 21.
Residence halls will close to at 5 p.m. and be accessible only to students who have registered to stay.
Online instruction will begin on Monday, March 23 as planned and is scheduled to continue at least through April 10.

Faculty and staff
Most employees are expected to work from home during this period. Some employees will need to come to campus during the Stay At-Home period (safety and security, residence life, some student life staff, and select others as designated by the Executive Council.) If you are in this category, you will hear from your supervisor.  All employees will be paid through April 7 regardless of your work schedule. More specific details will be communicated next week.

Faculty and staff may retrieve materials from their offices before 5 p.m. tomorrow, March 21. Buildings will remain unlocked from 8 – 5 p.m. for this purpose.
Academic learning spaces will be locked and not available for use by faculty, staff, nor students during the Stay At-Home order.

Dear Faculty & Staff,

As we transition to on-line learning on Monday, currently scheduled to last through April 10, we are also altering the way offices are covered.  Each supervisor, in partnership with his or her vice president, is developing work from home and rotating staff schedules for physical presence to continue student support and business continuity functions.

Should a shelter-in-place order be issued for our area, we will transition as many staff as possible to working remotely. We will ask that only those staff whose physical presence is required in order to fulfill their job duties (essential staff) to report to campus.  Essential staff include police and security, residence life, some student life staff, and select others as determined by the Executive Council.  If you are not sure whether or not you need to report to campus in the event of a shelter-in-place order, please check with your supervisor.

A lot of information has been shared over the course of the past week to communicate important operational and procedure changes. The situation continues to be fluid, and more changes will inevitably come. I urge you to do your best to stay informed. Information is shared via portal announcements as well as posted on the University’s COVID-19 Updates page in the portal – my.rockford.edu. A button taking you to the COVID-19 page is located on the Marketing and Communications or Lang Health Center department pages. Information for the public differs slightly from our internal needs and is available on a separate rockford.edu COVID-19 page.

Thank you for all you are doing to support our students and the University during these unprecedented times. You have done an amazing job this past week to adapt to our new reality and your efforts and dedication are deeply appreciated.

Eric W. Fulcomer, President