TO:   Members of the North Central Michigan College Community

FROM:   Dr. David Roland Finley, President, North Central Michigan College

Thanks for your thorough review and thoughtful feedback regarding the Draft Reopening Plan for College Employees. I’m pleased to share that the Personnel Committee will be recommending to the full Board of Trustees the adoption of this plan at the June 23, 2020 meeting.

Pending board approval, Directors/Supervisors will return to campus on June 29. This date coincides with the in-person Leadership Workshop to held in Conference 1 & 2.

Again, pending board approval, all Staff will return to campus on July 6. Please plan accordingly, so that you are able to resume your job duties on-site per North Central’s summer work schedule.

As we progress through the phases of the Re-opening Plan, we believe it prudent to do so incrementally. As such, we have been slowly, but intentionally, bringing employees back to campus. Many employees who can do their job more efficiently on campus have already returned. At this point, they may be working a few days at the College and a few days at home each week to minimize density on campus. Moving forward, days on campus each week will increase, as we are able to do so safely. The next step will include the return of all Directors/Supervisors, as noted above. Our aim is to get all staff back on campus in early July for regularly-scheduled work hours, so that we can carefully complete this step in the re-opening process before inviting students and faculty back to campus en masse.

In addition to the Provisional Reopening Plan for College Employees (renamed to acknowledge the fluid situation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic), a Return to Work Plan, detailing how to engage safely when on campus, has been developed to guide our re-opening efforts. I extend a special thanks to Student Services and the College Communications Department for teaming to produce this document. This document is under final review, and it will be issued shortly for all to use. In addition to those noted above, thanks is extended to Facilities staff, IT staff, those who participated in the Faculty Forum, those who will participate in Wednesday’s Leadership Workshop via Zoom, and especially the Campus Security Committee (and anyone else I may have inadvertently missed) for your efforts get us through the pandemic and craft the plan forward for a safe return to work.

As a reminder, SafeColleges has assigned mandatory training for all College employees that must be completed online prior to a return to campus. Information about the two Covid-19 training modules has been sent by Lynn Eckerle and these training modules should be completed by all employees as soon as possible.

North Central is continually monitoring and evaluating College operations based on the latest information and recommendations from local, state and national health experts and officials regarding mitigating the spread of Covid-19. To streamline communications, the North Central website remains the vehicle for all Covid-19 updates.  

As always, I thank you for your good work on behalf of the learners at North Central.