On-Campus Activity Suspended Monday, January 22

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Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,

We continue to monitor the weather forecasts actively, as well as the impact the weather has had on our campus. Current predictions call for warmer temperatures tomorrow and the following days. However, several main water line breaks in the city have led to lower water pressure on campus and a citywide boil-water advisory. We are working with MLGW on this issue, and their crews are busy addressing it. This water issue, coupled with other impacts of the sustained below-freezing temperatures, has led to numerous issues and challenges in some of our buildings. Thus, while the weather and travel will likely improve, the impact of a week of sustained and extreme conditions is substantial, and we are working to resolve the lack of, or limited, water and heat in several of our facilities, prompting the need to limit access to those areas.

Due to the impact of the weather, the UT Health Science Center campus in Memphis will suspend on-campus activities on Monday, January 22.

While on-campus activities are suspended:

• Regular online classes continue to meet as usual.
• Face-to-face classes will attempt to continue virtually or be canceled as necessary.
• Faculty will communicate with their students about the status of their classes and are asked to be flexible with attendance.
• All services and offices remain open virtually, and employees who can do so should work remotely, except for employees who work in operations or services that require them to be on campus.
• Those who perform services on campus with no ability to work remotely will work with their department head and the Office of Human Resources to determine leave approval. There will be limited use of unscheduled administrative closure (UAC) only for those positions receiving administrative approval.
• If there is any doubt about your specific work circumstance, please consult your supervisor.

Employees assigned to partner institutions and students on clinical rotations will need to ensure they adhere to related expectations. Please review your respective programs’ policies and procedures governing such activities and be on the lookout for more specific information regarding your program/workspace.

For the latest information, faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to visit the University website at uthsc.edu, and look for messages via UTHSC Alert, our emergency mass messaging system for campus closures and other urgent information.

We appreciate feedback and advice on how we collectively and collaboratively navigate the circumstances we have been dealing with over the course of the past week.

Our colleagues in facilities, police, safety, etc., have been working diligently, around the clock, to address the issues on campus and get us back to normal operations. We are grateful for all their hard work.

Please take appropriate precautions and stay safe.

Raaj Kurapati
Executive Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration,
Chief Operating Officer