At this time, the university is focusing on the health and safety of the campus community. Decisions about future policies or processes will be made at a later date.

Department admins should track any expenditures incurred as a result of UTSA’s effort to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Download the weekly report form and instructions. See your financial area lead for more information.

Members who pay on a monthly basis will have their membership extended for the period of time the university is closed. Locker rentals will be extended in the same way.

Direct deposit (ACH) payments are processed Monday through Friday with a two-business day turnaround for transactions. Check runs now occur on Tuesdays and Fridays. Student and vendor checks will be mailed through the U.S. Postal Service. Ensure you have a current address on file. No check pick-ups are available.

No. Based on the recommendation of the UTSA Chief Medical Officer, the Child Development Center is now closed to protect the health and safety of children and their families and the university community.

Staff and faculty are asked to thoughtfully consider purchases and reduce spending on materials and supplies wherever possible. Numerous technology resources are available to support paperless processes. The university will carefully monitor purchase order requests and Procard reports during this time. When purchases are necessary, please note that the university does not allow home delivery of items. Deliveries will continue to route through Central Receiving to facilitate required inventory, asset and purchasing policies. Learn more about current Central Receiving operations.

Central Receiving and Mail Services will continue to operate Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until otherwise notified.

Central Receiving will not make deliveries. Instead, recipients will receive an email when merchandise is received and will then schedule a pick-up time. The Main Campus Central Receiving pick-up location is CRW 1.01.02 (call 210-458-4591). The Downtown Campus pick-up location is DB 0.104 (call 210-458-2781). Pick-up hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Mail Services will not deliver mail to offices. Departments that need to pick up or drop off mail must do so within the posted business hours. The Main Campus mailroom is located in MS 1.01.22 (call 210-458-5948), and the Downtown Campus mailroom is located in DB 0.104 (call 210-458-2781).

Faculty who used personal funds to book travel for research, academic or professional activities that have been cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19 can still be reimbursed from their UTSA funds. They must complete an Expense Report with only the amounts that were paid, documenting cancellation for COVID19 reasons, and including any relevant receipts. If the travel was booked using sponsored project funds, they should check with their Research Service Center or visit REDKE’s COVID-19 Federal Guidance to ensure that reimbursement is allowable on these funds. 

In response to many inquiries about how to offer support to current students, UTSA has created a Coronavirus Relief site with ways people can offer assistance to students who may be struggling.

The health and well-being of our Roadrunner community and the academic progress of our students are our top concerns, and we recognize that financial stability is an important element of student success.

With UTSA’s transition to a temporary remote workforce, we want to provide our student workers as much flexibility as possible to continue working. To that end, both student employees and supervisors should follow these guidelines: 

• Supervisors should enable student workers to work remotely, exercising their full ability to flexibly identify activities, tasks and mechanisms that allow student workers to work remotely.
  
  
• Check out these resources to consider and develop various alternatives that are suitable for work assignments during the remote working period:
  
  
  • Job Ideas for Students Working Remotely
  • Tips for Managing Remote Student Employees
  • Tips for Student Employees Working Remotely
    
    
• Enable your student employee to submit electronic timesheets and continue to adhere to UTSA’s timekeeping process and schedule.

Please communicate regularly with your student employee(s) regarding their work assignment.

Yes. When working remotely, the student must have a signed telecommuting agreement on file with their supervisor. The signed agreement must be on file before submitting timesheets for the week of March 16-22 and all following weeks.

If a student chooses not to work remotely, the student cannot be paid.

If a student is unable to work remotely because they don’t have access to a device or internet, please work with them to find a solution since this problem will also affect their ability to complete their courses. Free internet access is being offered by several companies. Visit the Tech Resources page to learn more or contact UTS at techcafe@utsa.edu or 210-458-5555.

No. All additional student worker hiring has been suspended during the temporary telecommuting period. If you have unmet needs, please let your supervisor know as some areas with a large student workforce (e.g. Campus Rec, Student Union, etc.) may be looking for meaningful work to give their student employees.

University Technology Solutions has compiled a list of Internet Service Providers on its Tech Resources page. We encourage you to review this list and choose the service that is right for you.

The Drop Deadline and Withdraw Deadlines have been adjusted. Please see the Spring 2020 Academic Calendar for the new dates.

UTSA Student Disability Services has proactively reached out to students who are blind or have low vision and those who are deaf or hard of hearing as well as to their instructors to assist with the transition to online learning. A disability-related FAQ is also posted online to help students and faculty respond to the COVID-19 situation. Instructors who need to discuss other scenarios should contact disability.services@utsa.edu or call 210-458-4157 and the student’s assigned Disability Specialist will help provide recommendations and/or appropriate referrals.

Additionally, faculty and staff are encouraged to review Academic Innovation’s Digital Accommodation Resources page. It provides answers to many common questions, including instructions for extending time on tests, assignments and assessments, and how to close caption videos using Medial. If more assistance is needed to make your course accessible (e.g.: Blackboard accessibility, adding captioning, etc.), please consult with the Academic Innovation Accessibility Team.

The Office of Academic Innovation is offering guidance, resources and support for faculty and academic units on how to quickly utilize our digital tools to enable remote, virtual instruction.

• Visit the Rapid Remote Teaching Resources site to learn how to quickly shift your courses online and for support staff contact info.
  
  
• Email Academic Innovation to schedule a virtual 1-on-1 consultation on using the digital learning tools available to you (including Blackboard), or on online teaching strategies.

Academic Affairs is developing guidance to address faculty concerns about coronavirus-related disruption to teaching and research activities that are included in evaluations such as promotion/tenure, Annual Reviews, CPE and 3rd year reviews, etc. Watch your inbox for details in the coming weeks.

UTSA is aware that faculty members are concerned about how COVID-19-related disruptions in teaching and research activities might impact their future evaluations. These concerns extend to include promotion and tenure, comprehensive periodic review, teaching/learning ratings, etc.

The university is working on mitigation plans that will explicitly recognize the anticipated impact. Watch for more detailed information in the next few weeks about any changes to timelines, peer observations, etc.

Not at this time; faculty are encouraged to use WebEx Meetings or Blackboard Collaborate for synchronous teaching. (Please note that students do not have access to Microsoft Teams.)

Several tools are available to create virtual meeting spaces and collaborative environments.

WebEx Meetings, a video conferencing and screensharing solution, is available to all UTSA employees. Visit utsa.webex.com and sign in with your UTSA credentials in the upper-right corner. Employees will use firstname.lastname@utsa.edu to log in. Additionally, Microsoft Teams, an application used for collaboration in Office 365, integrates people, content and tools to promote engagement.

In accordance with the UT System Board of Regents’ Rules and Regulations and upon recommendation by the UTSA Faculty Senate and the UTSA Academic Council, UTSA will adopt an optional Credit/No Credit (“pass/fail”) grading system for undergraduate and graduate courses for the Spring 2020 semester. This same temporary adjustment is being implemented at many other universities across the country that, like UTSA, have had to transition to online instruction in response to the pandemic. Other UT System institutions also are adopting similar temporary grading adjustments.   

Each instructor will determine if his or her course is suitable for a credit/noncredit grade (i.e., “pass/fail”). Students should be notified the week of April 6–10 whether their course has been designated as eligible for this grading option. For those designated courses, the student will decide whether she or he wants to receive a letter grade or credit/noncredit for the course; the tentative deadline is May 8, the last day of classes. If the student does not respond, the default will be the traditional grading scale. More details on this process is forthcoming.

The Drop Deadline and Withdraw Deadlines have been adjusted. Please see the Spring 2020 Academic Calendar for the new dates.

Essential and critical research operations will continue, and designated research facilities will remain accessible. Researchers may contact Associate Vice President for Research Integrity Michelle Stevenson at 210-668-3313 or michelle.stevenson@utsa.edu with any questions. 

All research conducted remotely can continue.

Any face-to-face research with human subject must be temporarily suspended, effective immediately. Where possible, transition in-person interactions for all studies to remote interactions to limit potential exposure. All other studies must cease.

Complete the Modification Application (HRP-203) prior to implementing any changes to your protocol, including this methodological change.

You should especially consider altering methods to continue to support trainees and students whose academic credit and progress is dependent upon carrying out research activities. As the current situation returns to safe status, the Office of Research Integrity will work with you to make sure that your protocols are ready for re-activation.

Specific options for conducting your study remotely include:

• Study interactions such as interviews or simple study follow-up visits may be completed by phone or video.
• If your study requires signed informed consent, consider whether you can modify study procedures by requesting a waiver of documentation of consent so that consent may be obtained without requiring a signature. To be approved to waive documentation of consent, the study must present no more than minimal risk of harm to participants and involve no procedures for which written consent is normally required outside the research context. Contact irb@utsa.edu to ask about this potential modification.
• If you have a multi-site study, contact study sponsors to ask about procedures for modifying protocol schedules. Be sure all changes are implemented consistently across all sites.

Any planned modifications to study procedures, such as a shift from in-person to remote interactions, should be submitted to the IRB using the Modification Application (HRP-203), unless the study is approved as exempt. Indicate on the modification form that the change is being implemented as a COVID-19 safety precaution to help the IRB prioritize the submission.

• Any changes to study procedures made to eliminate apparent immediate hazards to research participants, including those to reduce potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2, or to continue to provide medically necessary study care to participants who have been placed in isolation do not need prior approval by the IRB. All such changes should be reported to the IRB using the Promptly Reportable Information (HRP-204) within 5 days as an unanticipated event involving risk to subjects or others.
• If you need to change your consent procedures to waive the requirement for a signature so that consent can be done remotely, submit a study Modification Application (HRP-203) requesting to waive documentation of consent if your study is: (1) no greater than minimal risk and (2) meets the criteria for qualifying for a waiver of documentation of consent. Guidance can be found here.

Questions? Email irb@utsa.edu.
Contacts: Marcia Isaacs 210-458-6179 or Tammy Lopez 210-458-6473

Consider the following measures to minimize exposure if you must gather in person to access equipment, analyses, etc.

• Ensure that hand sanitizer and hand washing facilities are readily available and encouraged.
• Implement research team member screening to minimize exposure risk. See below for possible screening questions.
• Establish rigorous disinfecting protocols for any equipment, manipulatives, or other study equipment that were used with participants. Contact the Lab Safety Division if you need guidance on appropriate disinfection.

All team members should be vigilant in self-monitoring of potential exposure and symptoms. Implement extra precautions or only meet remotely especially if any team members fall into a high-risk category:

• Underlying health conditions including heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes
• Weakened immune system
• Pregnant
• Over 60 years of age

Team member screening questions might include the following:

1. Have you had any of the following symptoms in the past 2 weeks, even if they were mild?

• Fever
• Cough
• Shortness of breath
• Sore throat

2.Have you had close contact with a person who is under investigation for possible COVID-19?

Close contact is defined by the CDC as:
(a) being within approximately 6 feet of a COVID-19 case for a prolonged period of time. Close contact can occur while caring for, living with, visiting, or sharing a health care waiting area or room or being close in an enclosed area with a COVID-10 case or

(b) having direct contact with infectious secretions of a COVID-19 case (e.g., being coughed or sneezed on).

3. In the past 3 weeks, have you visited a country with sustained (ongoing) occurrence of COVID-19, such as:

• China
• Iran
• Europe
• Japan
• South Korea

Our Lab Safety team has prepared a set of resource documents to provide general guidance on running and preparing a lab should there be any future interruption based on illness or overall university closure.

In the event of a closure, the door signage template should be used to indicate to Public Safety how the lab has been left, who the lab point of contact is, and which ongoing checks will be done to maintain research activities, if any.

• Download CONTINUITY GUIDANCE FOR RESEARCH FACILITIES
• Download EFFECTIVE HANDWASHING
• Download DOOR SIGNAGE
• Download UTSA Human Subject Research Guidance During COVID-19 (3-17-20)
• Download Coronavirus Emergency Shutdown Checklist (3-12-20)

Contacts: Laboratory Safety: Amanda Haley 210-458-8515 or Dianna Olukotun 210-458-5807

Laboratory Animal Resources Center (LARC) has been preparing to minimize impacts to ongoing research activities if the situation escalates, including closure. LARC has stored additional feed, water, bedding, PPE, disinfectant, chemicals, wipes, spray bottles, and more. LARC staff will stay in communication with researchers throughout this process and, where possible, partner with teams to maintain continuity. Please let us know if you have specific needs and suggestions.

In the event of a closure, LARC will continue to support the health and well-being of the animals.

Contacts: Marcel Perret-Gentil 210-458-6321 or Luis Zorrilla 210-458-6692 | LARC@utsa.edu

Public awareness of the coronavirus has led to a shortage of surgical masks. In the animal facilities, these masks are only required in the BSL-2 rooms. Staff and students are asked to refrain from using them in other areas of the animal facility unless instructed otherwise by LARC staff, based on evolving updates from the OHP nurse.

Contacts: Marcel Perret-Gentil 210-458-6321 or Luis Zorrilla 210-458-6692 | LARC@utsa.edu

The three Research Service Centers and Sponsored Project Administration remain open and fully staffed.

Please reach out to your Research Service Centers with any questions during this time.

Research Service Center for Sciences and Engineering
• Amy Ossola-Phillips 210-458-6472 or Mary Riedel 210-458-8791

Research Service Center for Arts-Business-Education
• Jennifer Silver 210-458-4234 or Jesse Hernandez 210-458-6852

Research Service Center for Downtown
• Theresa Bailey 210-458-4226 or Angelika Rocha 210-458-4118

Sponsored Project Administration Contact: Sandra Garcia 210-458-8250

Contracts and Industry Agreements remain open and fully staffed.

Contacts: Jessica C. Fernandez 210-458-8575 or Joshua Trigo 210-458-6587

Services offered by the Office of Commercialization and Innovation will continue to be available for those working on campus or remotely as follows:

Using your myUTSA ID and Password:

• Technology Disclosure: Electronic disclosure is available via utsa.edu/invent
• Review status of current disclosures via wellspringsoftware.net

Contacts: Christine Burke 210-458-8140 or Neal Guenzel 210-458-4458 | oci@utsa.edu

Grants and Contracts Financial Services will remain in full operation to ensure project set ups, sponsor billing, and financial reporting are completed on schedule.

Contacts: Daniel Anzak 210-458-5905 or Lisa Pettit 210-458-5337

Research Core Facilities will continue to be operational. Any changes will be posted to the individual core and/or iLab website.

Contact: Desiree Porter 210-458-5164

Research Computing and Business Intelligence (REDKE) will remain available to help with all REDKE applications located on the Research Portal, which includes links to the Research Dashboard, CayUse, Academic Analytics, Payroll Certification Reporting and more.

Contact: VPR Help Desk 210-458-7805

Research Support is transferring faculty development trainings and workshops to virtual platforms wherever feasible. Access details will be sent to all registered participants and will be updated on the REDKE events page and other applicable calendars.

Following UTSA guidelines, meetings and external partnership engagements will move to virtual platforms wherever possible or have been cancelled or postponed.

Contacts: Jaclyn Shaw 210-458-6767 or Liana Ryan 210-458-7339 | ors@utsa.edu

All forms of support from the Research Computing Support Group (RCSG), part of University Technology Solutions, are still available with the exception of the VizLab.

The VizLab remains closed until April 13 (to change) or until further guidance is released, with scheduled tours being cancelled for the time being.

Contact: RCSG@utsa.edu

First, follow and adhere to all current UTSA travel guidelines. Second, any face-to-face research with human subjects must be temporarily suspended, effective immediately. Where possible, transition in-person meetings for all studies to remote interactions to limit potential exposure. Studies that cannot transition to remote methods must cease, with notification to the IRB. Follow the IRB Guidance outlined here.

Yes. Also keep track of your teaching and research tasks and accomplishments you were engaged in for you annual and personnel reviews.