Provost Communication

November 20, 2020

Dear colleagues,

As we near the Thanksgiving break and the end of face-to-face instruction for the semester, we want to collectively thank you-our incredible faculty and staff-for the tremendous work you have done on behalf of our UNF community over the past nine months. It is clear that you have consistently done everything within your power to meet our students' needs and to keep our university running safely and effectively during these challenging times. We know that you have had to make radical adjustments in how you conduct your work and that this has resulted in some significant sacrifices; it is clear that your workload has been far harder than it would have been under normal circumstances. You have taken on this additional burden with grace, poise, and a sense of perseverance. The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed been hard on all of us; yet your efforts have made a positive and lasting difference in the lives of our thousands of students and their families. Feedback from students last spring, over the summer, and throughout this semester has been unequivocal in its praise for your dedication to their learning, for your availability to meet their needs, and for your flexibility in dealing with ever-shifting contexts. Like our students, we are very thankful to you and we are proud to be your colleagues!

During the well-deserved Thanksgiving break, we hope that you will have the opportunity to rest, relax, and recharge and do so while remaining safe and healthy. As families come together for the holidays (albeit at significantly reduced rates than normal), we hope that you will remain vigilant in protecting yourselves and your family members from possible infection. UNF is itself a family and we want you-the heart of this family-to remain healthy and strong.

Finally, we want to remind everyone in the UNF community that essential services will continue to operate over the Thanksgiving break and throughout December. We will, for instance, be offering free COVID-19 testing on Monday of next week (9:00-2:00), November 30^th-December 2^nd from 9:00-12:00, December 7^th from 1:00-4:00, and December 8^th and 9^th from 9:00-12:00. You may also schedule other appointments as needed. For more information related to testing or campus safety, you can contact Bob Greenlaw (r.greenlaw@unf.edu) with any questions or concerns.

Thanks for all that you do and best wishes for the holidays!