March 19, 2020
Dear Members of Our Campus Community,
Tonight, Governor Gavin Newsom and the California State Public Health Officer and Director of the California Department of Public Health issued an order directing all residents of California to stay at home or their place of residence effective immediately and until further notice. According to the order, essential services (gas, grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, etc.) and state and local government functions, including the higher education sector, will remain open.
As an institution of higher education, our campus will remain open to provide essential services, but in order to comply with the order, we will need to further minimize the number of people on campus as much as possible while still maintaining the critical functions of the University, including offering remote instruction for the spring quarter.
• At this time, only those employees who must be on campus to maintain critical operations and functions should come to the campus. Those individuals who cannot work from home and are not designated as essential service providers by their managers or supervisors are eligible for paid administrative leave described in the recent executive order by UC President Janet Napolitano.
• Any remaining in-person finals scheduled for Friday are canceled, and alternative arrangements for those finals will be made at a later date.
• Our campus housing and dining services will continue operations as planned in order to support those students who need to remain in campus housing.
• Student Health Services will continue to provide service to our students who remain in the area.
Our campus has already taken a number of proactive actions to help protect the health and well-being of our community that are consistent with the new order, including:
• Ending in-person instruction for the spring quarter;
• Minimizing the number of people on campus through remote work arrangements;
• Closing the UC Santa Barbara Library, UCen, RecCen, and the SRB;
• Ending non-essential business-related travel.
We are in the process of evaluating additional actions that may be required as a result of this statewide order, and will write again with additional updates as soon as possible. The health and well-being of our community is our top priority, and will continue to guide the steps we take to address these extraordinary circumstances.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor