Returning to Rutgers Guidebook

Note: More recent COVID-19-related communication may supersede specific information in this announcement.

June 19, 2020

Members of the Rutgers Community:

On behalf of the COVID-19 Task Force and with thanks to hundreds of people at Rutgers who have contributed to the effort, I am sharing with you Returning to Rutgers, the June 2020 plan for repopulating Rutgers. (Read the June 2021 version.) Returning to Rutgers is a how-to guide for your use as we begin to repopulate Rutgers spaces.

Nothing is more important than the health and safety of the people who learn and work at Rutgers, and that core principle permeates this plan. Returning to Rutgers outlines how we will prepare to re-engage our academic, research, clinical, and business functions while factoring in a broad range of logistical considerations.

The document is a living plan that will evolve, subject to change, as the world around us changes. It is a framework of ideas and recommendations that incorporates best practices throughout higher education and the broader community. The plan took into consideration the important feedback, input, and comments, from the broader university constituencies that helped craft this holistic approach to returning.

Just as important as preparing our facilities and functions, we also need to prepare ourselves. The plan addresses logistical issues—such as phased ramping-up, staggered reporting times, telecommuting options, and the mandatory use of face coverings—and the important psychological and mental health aspects of a return to Rutgers as the global pandemic continues to run its course.

As you will see, we will be operating differently than we did before the pandemic; Rutgers will be re-imagining itself for a post pandemic era. The coronavirus has not gone away, so we must learn to co-exist with it for the near future.

Let me note that, while we are preparing our institution for repopulation, no final decisions have been made regarding fall instruction; that announcement will come in the first week of July.

We have a shared responsibility to our families, our friends, and our community to act appropriately and to take every precaution and preventative measure we can. Returning to Rutgers is a guide to help us meet that responsibility.

Please stay safe and be well.

Sincerely,

Antonio Calcado
Executive Vice President for Strategic Planning and Operations and Chief Operating Officer