IT Virtual Town Hall Recap - March 26

John began the meeting by reflecting on national challenges as well as the precariousness of COVID-19 conditions. While there is a dramatic acceleration of vaccination rollout in the United States, the global response moves much slower.

He then asked for a moment of silence for those in our community, including several team members who are still very sick from the virus. John acknowledged that many people on this call (himself included) struggle to make sense of these circumstances. He thanked the team for the openness, care, compassion, and support they have shown for each other - doing what they can to make this little corner of the world a little brighter and better.

Proudly displaying his “got vaccinated” sticker, John reflected on the efficiency of vaccinations in CT, with individuals over the age of 16 becoming eligible on April 1. He shared that Pfizer is currently conducting vaccine clinical trials for those ages 12 - 16, with another round of trials for those ages 6-12 expected later this summer, bringing an expectation for a return to normalcy.

Next, John spoke of CCI’s organizational efforts, especially working through the past year’s challenges and hosting events like the talk with Eunice Yuen and the team from CHATogether. These efforts bring forward tools and perspectives to benefit the whole team, and John is grateful for that.

Next, Mark Manton shared some by-the-numbers statistics, clarifying he tries to supplement news you see through normal media channels with information that you don’t normally see. This is getting harder because that information has been more pervasive lately. He explained the difference between endemic (the constant presence of a disease within a population and certain geographic areas present for long periods of time without interruption, e.g., the common cold) and outbreak/epidemic. A disease can be considered an endemic in one country, but an outbreak or epidemic in another country (e.g., Malaria is endemic in some areas, but an epidemic if uncontrolled in the United States). 

A recent Nature organization survey of 120 scientists in 23 countries asked how likely they think COVID-19 will become an endemic (60% said very likely) and how likely they think COVID-19 would be eliminated for some region (answers are all over the board). From this perspective, it might be here to stay, and we’ll have to learn to live with it. Living with it might bring new norms after the epidemic is over, including: 

• Mask wearing during cold and flu season (if not beyond)
• Reduction or elimination of hand-shake greetings
• More automated door and bathroom systems
• More prevalent hand sanitizer stations
• Increased number of people getting annual vaccination boosters
• Changes in the way we work, teach, learn, treat patients, travel, and shop
• Changes in the way our society looks at vaccinations

Mark also shared some news from his Health & Safety Leader call:

• Classroom spacing for teaching will be three feet apart, with everyone facing the same way. Teachers six feet apart and everyone wearing masks, excluding dining guidance; students still have to maintain a six-foot distance while eating.
• Yale-sponsored gatherings both on and off grounds are still prohibited.
• Senior leadership is developing a master health and safety plan that will provide a framework for units to develop what works for them and give latitude on certain things that we can update on our own.

Next, John added information about summer programs. This year, these programs will focus exclusively on students who already have existing affiliations with Yale. We typically host students from K-12 and other institutions during the summer, but in the interest of trying to minimize exposure and travel, we curtailed that for this summer. We expect the vast majority of health measures currently in place to continue through the summer programs this year.

More significantly, we project returning to in-person teaching in the fall. Due to a significant number of educational deferrals granted last year, we expect our undergraduate student population to be the largest ever - approximately 500 more students than we have had at our previous peak. We have also seen a much larger applicant pool. Demand for Yale education remains very strong.

We don’t yet have formal clarity on the health guidelines for this fall. John shared that you may have heard Rutgers University was the first educational institution to announce a student vaccine requirement for their fall return. Yale has not yet made a formal determination about this. More broadly, the thinking is that over the next two months, as a more significant portion of the population is vaccinated, Connecticut will loosen the state guidelines. Yale’s own rules will follow suit as public statistics makes that a safe decision. The changes in state guidelines will likely affect density and distance expectations for in-person learning by the fall. John anticipates a very busy summer for IT, helping our colleagues to prepare classrooms and labs, and responding to the changing health measures and control systems previously built last year.

Regarding return to work, John announced that many people responded that they’d like to continue to work remotely, at least part-time. We expect to loosen on-campus access restrictions for June 1, allowing us to hold some in-person meetings. The campus-wide return requires us to prepare for reestablishing those workgroups and a host of different office conditions. Just wandering the halls at 25 Science Park, John shared that observing what equipment is still there versus what isn’t, he expects we will have a lot to work through across the entire university to set groups back in motion on campus. August 1 is the formal return to work date. John expects that there will be some choices for the staff about the degree of onsite time. These discussions are still unfolding with the cabinet and the Vice President’s Council; those groups will set institutional parameters to guide our choices. The IT senior leadership team is working from survey responses and reviewing role-by-role to determine the degree of latitude we think we can make work effectively for each service area. John expects initial return agreements to be time-bound, recognizing that hybrid work will be new for us and will take some experimentation. As an institution, we hope to benefit from some early trials before making permanent decisions that have a long-term impact.

Lastly, John reminded the team about the performance management cycle deadlines to return completed self-assessments to your managers. We expect a more normal return to a merit pool this year. John wants to ensure that each staff member has the opportunity for the appropriate recognition and support through this process.

The following questions, and John Barden’s answers, were taken from the March 26 virtual IT Town Hall meeting, including questions submitted via the Ask John survey.

Is IT open to partnering with head admins to evaluate software needs and share intellectual capital, such as templates for effort tracking?

We have an IT governance process designed to help collect information from all corners of the university and advise us on priorities. There is still a perception that parts of that process are difficult because it’s a big organization with many diffuse needs. There is a balance that we have to strike as a team for what happens at the central level versus what happens in the decentralized IT environment that we support. There is more exploration to do as we reviewed over the last few years. We have solidified an IT Leadership Council to try to surface ideas from many different forums. Combined with the faculty-led ITS Advisory Committee, these help to advise us on needs. If there are still perceived gaps, we may have some work to do to figure out how to ensure a good connection point there. John said he appreciated the question and will give this some more thought.

Would you consider implementing something like the library’s “go slow” weeks, where each quarter, they have a week with no non-urgent meetings and encourage their team to go light on emails?

There’s a lot of experimentation ahead of us regarding how to best respond to these changing work environments. What the library is doing may fit perfectly for their needs. I don’t know how it fits for each of our teams. I believe it’s more open-ended - we ought to be exploring different ideas for balancing our community’s ongoing expectations and the dependency they have on all of you. We also need to figure out how to make the constant drumbeat of what this experience has been like more manageable over time.

Will vaccines be mandatory for ITS personnel?

Rutgers is the first to do this. I don’t know where Yale will land on this decision; I think there is overwhelming evidence that the benefits far outweigh the risk. I implore you to get vaccinated if you don’t have some other condition that makes it high-risk, and if you have concerns, talk to your physician.

Learn more about Yale’s COVID-19 Vaccine Program. 

Do you know if Yale’s current students on campus will be offered the COVID-19 vaccines since they are current Connecticut residents?

I don’t know how the state is looking at that specific situation.

Do individuals who want to return to campus on June 1 just show up?

I suspect, between now and June, we will have a formal method for acknowledging your desire to return to campus, as we will need to have a sense of the total headcount because the state has not yet released some of the social distance requirements. I do not expect we will have such pressing demand for return on June 1 to have an issue. Still, I will want to collect data from each management team to confirm that that is the case. Many of you have expressed enthusiasm for returning to campus; this is especially true for individuals working at their kitchen table since the beginning of the pandemic. Many leaders feel that the ability to have more informal interactions or some group meetings is lacking right now. June represents an opportunity for us to rethink that.

What is your perspective on balancing return to campus technology needs (current & anticipated) with current staff levels/not a formal service owner model for ongoing support?

There is no doubt that the pandemic has strained IT. You all have done a fantastic job and have supported what has been one of the most dramatic pivots this institution has ever had to do. The pandemic has put a tremendous incremental burden on all of operations and our faculty and students. Our response has involved reducing some IT support, slowing some projects, working harder and smarter, and everything in between…. I see strong evidence that you all continue to be good partners and stewards, working with our colleagues to balance expectations across existing services and new demands. I suspect that will continue into next year, but I also hope that as the situation improves with higher vaccination levels in faculty, staff, and students, we can begin to pull back from some of these new demands. In the interim, please continue to communicate needs so we can redirect incremental support where it is needed most. I would also ask that you continue to support each other the way you have throughout. There is no doubt that pandemic fatigue is real and is causing stress. Hang in there - the overall situation is improving.

Will parking begin charging at that time?

Parking anticipates resuming collection and parking validation activities on September 1. Please continue to monitor Yale’s Parking website for continuing updates.

Can we expect the additional increases based on market value this year to continue?

The university has returned to a more normal merit process and pool this year. Future years will continue to be decided annually as overall economic conditions dictate.

If there is less office overhead, can Yale help cover internet costs?

The university is reviewing several policies and potential entitlement changes as it considers our long-term future ways of working. No final determinations have yet been made regarding underwriting or defraying work from home costs, including internet connectivity. I expect we will see updates on these considerations in the months ahead.

Will there be restrictions in the elevator and restrooms?

Is it anticipated that the return-to-work policy will involve mask-wearing even in the event someone has been vaccinated? We do not yet have formal guidance on return-to-work health policies. We are continuing to monitor CDC and State of CT guidelines, which we expect to ease this summer as more significant percentages of people are vaccinated, and overall conditions improve. Continue to monitor Yale’s COVID-19 Health Guidelines for ongoing updates.

John closed by saying he is proud of all the work we are doing. He reminded us to stay safe and looks forward to seeing everyone soon.

The next IT Virtual Town Hall will be from 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. on Friday, April 23, 2021.