Message from VP/CIO Jeff Hollingsworth, March 11, 2020

Dear DIT Staff,

We have been notified late this evening that an individual who works in the MNK building has been tested for COVID-19. This individual is a non-UMD employee, and the test results are pending. As a reminder, MNK is a building located on UMD’s campus, approximately two and a half miles from McKeldin Library. Out of an abundance of caution, we are asking the following to all DIT staff:

If you are currently in the MNK building you should leave immediately.

All DIT employees that currently work in MNK to work remotely tomorrow (Thursday, March 12th).

All DIT employees that have been in the MNK building in the past 24 hours, to work remotely tomorrow (Thursday, March 12th).

If you do not have computer equipment to work remotely, please notify Meredith Lee by email (mprice2@umd.edu) ASAP.

Please understand that we have taken immediate precautionary measures to temporarily suspend access to the building. DIT staff are currently unable to access the DIT areas in the building. This decision was made in case our staff report to work without seeing this email. Thank you for understanding. We acknowledge that this can be distressing news, and I remind all to continue practicing the prevention behaviors posted on umd.edu/virusinfo. Additional information will follow in the next hours.

UMD leaders are informed. We are in constant contact with the MNK building landlord and state and county health departments, and the university will notify the community immediately if we learn of any confirmed case.

Jeff Hollingsworth

Vice President & CIO

Follow-up: March 12, 2020

Dear DIT Staff,

We wanted to provide some additional information to follow up on the email below.

The individual being tested works for one of the building tenants, not for DIT. Although we cannot confirm 100%, we do not believe that this individual has access to any of the DIT areas. They were last in the building on Tuesday and are currently not experiencing any symptoms.

We will not be returning to the MNK building until we have confirmation of the individual’s test results and can assess whether any additional steps need to be taken before returning to the building.

If you do not have your work computer with you at home, we ask you to use your personal computer if at all possible. Keepworking.umd.edu can connect you with information about setting up phone forwarding and other resources. Also, a new “DIT Desktop” Microsoft Windows virtual desktop is available in the Virtual Workspace service at http://vw.umd.edu (see the March 6 Weekly Email to DIT for details).

If you do not have access to a personal computer, please use this time for professional development. We will follow up with additional information about access to computer equipment if the need to remain out of MNK lasts beyond this week.

I know that this can be stressful. We appreciate your patience and will continue to provide updates as we have information to share.

Meredith

Meredith P. Lee

Director, Business Support Services

Division of Information Technology

University of Maryland, College Park

Follow-up: March 14, 2020

Dear DIT Staff,

We just received news that the test results came back NEGATIVE for the individual who had been tested for COVID-19. The MNK building is currently still locked down as we will need to work with campus building security to reactivate access.

As Jeff mentioned in his e-mail Friday evening, additional information will be forthcoming regarding teleworking. We will also provide information about MNK access at that point.

I want to thank everyone for remaining patient while also pivoting and working remotely with no notice during the past several days.

Enjoy the wonderful weather this afternoon!

Meredith

Meredith P. Lee

Director, Business Support Services

Division of Information Technology

University of Maryland, College Park