Following governor’s order, Mitchell Hamline closes campus to students March 28-April 10

Below is a message from Dean Knapp to faculty and staff following Gov. Walz’s announcement Wednesday afternoon of a two-week “stay-at-home” order for Minnesota. A similar message was emailed to students.

Good afternoon,

As many of you have undoubtedly heard, this afternoon Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive stay-at-home order, effective Friday, March 27, 11:59 p.m. to April 10.  As a practical matter, over the last several days, Mitchell Hamline has operated in the spirit of that order.  Some of us have work that can only be done here, and we all appreciate that that work has continued.  Almost all of us who can, are working from home.  Those of us who need to be on-site in order to do some of our work have come in, done that work, and returned home.  That needs to continue.

The text of the governor’s order contains some language that provides an exemption for travel to and from work for some, including employees of colleges and universities.  Here’s the key language:

6. Exemptions—Critical Sectors.  All workers who can work from home must do so.  Workers in following Critical Sectors, who are performing work that cannot be done at their home or residence through telework or virtual work and can be done only at a place of work outside of their home or residence, are exempted….

w.  Education.  Educators and other workers supporting public and private schools, as well as higher education (e.g., colleges and universities)….

I encourage all of you who can work from home to do so.  Those of you who have work that you need to do here on campus should be able to continue to do so in compliance with the governor’s order.  We will be working to get additional information from the Minnesota Department of Health to provide to you tomorrow.  Unfortunately, we will have to close the building to students.

I know that many of you will have additional questions.  Right now, we don’t have much additional information, however.  We’ll follow up with additional information just as soon as we have it.

Thank you for your continued patience and support.

Peter

Peter B. Knapp  |  Interim Dean and President

 

Health status reporting

If you learn that you or someone close to you has been diagnosed with COVID-19, or that you or someone close to you has been exposed to a person who has COVID-19 or to a person from an area experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19, please notify a school official. Faculty and staff should notify Human Resources Director Andrea Bien, andrea.bien@mitchellhamline.edu. Students should notify Dean of Students Lynn Lemoine, lynn.lemoine@mitchellhamline.edu. We respect the privacy of our faculty, staff, and students. The information gathered will be used in the event that we have a confirmed case reported by a member of our community. The sharing of information will be limited to those individuals that have a business need to know and would include the Minnesota State Health Department.

More information

For current health-related information, we encourage you to visit the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Minnesota Department of Health websites. We will also update school information on the website.

Contacts for questions

• On-campus students: student.services @mitchellhamline.edu
• Blended-learning students: blendedlearning @mitchellhamline.edu
• Employees should contact their manager or Andrea.Bien @mitchellhamline.edu
• Media: Doug.Belden @mitchellhamline.edu

Additional resources

• Students can find additional information on the Docket, and faculty and staff on the Summit
• Moving your class online for faculty
• Accessibility resources for online learning