COVID-19 - For employees

It has been shown through numerous studies and in previous epidemics that one of the most effective ways to slow the rate of the spread of contagious disease is through social distancing. Due to Pennsylvania’s need to do everything possible to reduce the spread of COVID-19 so as to not overwhelm the health care system, the College has implemented processes and practices that will allow us to support social distancing practices for our employees while continuing to support our graduate and undergraduate students.

There are a very limited number of students residing on campus (primarily our international students). We will correspondingly have a limited amount of employees who will be on campus during this time whose primary role is to care for our remaining residential students and for critical campus infrastructure.

At this point, unless you are specifically scheduled to be on campus by your supervisor, all campus employees are to be working from home and are not to come to campus until further notice.

General Offices – Administrative and Staff Employees

Your division executive and/or your supervisor will identify which positions may telecommute and which must be on campus. If you are working from home, the expectation is that you will be available by phone and responding to emails throughout the work day in addition to completing projects. The College has provided directions for accessing a remote work platform here: Working Remotely (101)

The phones in nearly all offices will still need to be answered by an employee during regular business hours. Per our ITS department, College phones can forwarded to your home phone or cell phone. Directions for doing this can be found here: Call Forwarding Instructions.

Additionally, you may set up your office phone to send your voicemails directly to your work email. For directions how to do that visit this ITS Blog post: Sending Voicemails to Email.

Residence Life and College Operations

Because we continue to have students living on campus, we have certain positions that must continue to report to work on campus. In order to make social distancing possible, employees in the areas listed below will be working reduced and/or staggered schedules. The division executive and/or supervisor will communicate what to expect in terms of scheduling.

a.       The Director of Residence Life, The Director of Housing & Resident Directors

b.       The Engle Center

c.       Dining   

d.       Facilities Services  - Administrative and Staff Employees

e.       Campus Safety

f.        Post Office

As of March 20, under the governor’s mandate, USPS is still operational, however, employees (unless in an approved group) are not permitted on campus. Please identify one person to be scheduled to pick up the mail in the ECC post office. The following outlines the way mail will be handled until persons are permitted to return to campus on a regular basis.

1. Mail is received Monday-Friday.
2. Mail for critical areas will  be sorted and made available:  
   1. Accounts Payable (3012)
   2. Admissions (3005)
   3. Business Office (3010)
   4. Development Office (3013)
   5. Falcon Exchange  (3011/4516)
   6. Financial Aid (3006)
   7. Human Resources (3015)
   8. President’s Office (3000)
   9. Registrar (3007)
3. One person from each critical area can pick up their mail in ECC.  Please determine the person and provide them with the following instructions:
   1. This pick up is to occur on Wednesdays.
   2. The person can come between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. when the building is open.
   3. The employee would report to dispatch, where they will pick up a key to a package locker.  Items for the office will be stored there. 
   4. For offices that receive checks that need immediate deposit need to contact Falcon Exchange by 3 p.m. Thursdays to schedule a time on selected Wednesdays to drop off deposit. You can email them at falconexchange@messiah.edu. The staff will respond with a set time so that only a limited number of persons will be on site at a time.

4. There will be no walk up services at the post office.

5. Deans and Vice Presidents have communicated to their various departments a schedule for a one time pick up of mail in late May.

6. All employees ordering packages must have them delivered to their home. The college has no way to manage and get them to employees.
    
7. Mail for students permitted to stay on campus will have mail in their boxes on Tuesdays and Thursdays after 12 noon.

 

8. Students that have left campus will have first class mail forwarded to them.  No other mail will be held.

 

9. This protocol is subject to change if mandates from local, state or federal government require more restrictive movement.

On April 15, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf issued new safety guidelines for organizations like Messiah College who are able to remain open to provide "life-sustaining" services. Please read the most recent safety guidelines and public health requirements that all Messiah College employees are required to follow. 

If you used your College issued Purchasing Card to pay for conference registration, hotel, rental car or airfare, you must contact each entity to cancel your reservations and request a refund to your Purchasing Card. 

Registration fee - If a conference is cancelled by the organizers, you can typically expect a refund for the registration fee.  Refunds are usually made to the original form of payment.

Hotel and Rental Car – Some hotel and rental car reservation are refundable, others are not.  Whether you will receive a refund or not will depend on the type of reservation you made.  As the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) situation evolves, many hotel and rental car companies are updating their cancellation and refund policies.  It is important that you contact each company to inquire about a refund, even if the reservation states it is nonrefundable.

Airfare – Typically, airlines will issue a credit in your name for a future flight, which should be used for future business travel.  Please be aware that credits usually have an expiration date.   As the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) situation evolves, the airlines are updating their policies frequently, sometimes daily.  It is important that you contact each airline to inquire about a refund.

If credit vouchers are issued, please remember that employees are responsible for ensuring they are used for future College travel purposes.

If you paid for travel arrangements with your College issued Purchasing Card, credits must be allocated to the same org/acct to which the original charge was allocated.  Contact Purchasing Card Administration at extension 2211 if you need assistance.

If you paid with personal funds, please contact Procurement Services at extension 6010 for guidance. 

Should I have purchased travel insurance when making my reservations?

No.  Please refer to Messiah College’s Expenditure Policy 6.1.8 – Trip cancelation insurance will not be paid for or reimbursed by the College.   We have consulted with our travel agent and standard trip cancelation insurance does not cover cancelations due to the COVID-19 virus. 

 

If a conference or other event you paid for using faculty development funds has been cancelled, faculty should seek reimbursement and the reimbursement be returned to the org from which the funds were dispersed.