Campus operations update regarding COVID-19

This order applies to all public and private schools, including higher education institutions. Only those personnel who are essential to critical functions such as basic maintenance and security, and necessary for serving our students who cannot leave the dorms will be allowed on the La Sierra University campus property beginning this Monday, March 16. On this date, academic instruction and exams will be delivered remotely as previously announced in the university update on March 11.

March 11 Update

Toward maintaining the health and safety of our campus and regional community, and in keeping with widespread efforts to reduce potential exposure and spread of COVID-19, La Sierra University has made a number of operational decisions in its ongoing response.

Our state and federal governments as well as our regional accreditor have given us a green light to begin classes from afar. As such, and even though at this time there are no known COVID-19 cases on campus and no students are quarantined, the following measures have been taken which will provide the university the best possible ability to continue the educational progress of our students while simultaneously helping to mitigate the current public health crisis. 

The following represent the consensus of the Emergency Management Team that has been meeting regularly to assess and implement La Sierra’s response to this readily changing situation. A campus message delineating these measures and reasons for them was issued to students, faculty and staff on March 11: 

• Academic instruction and exams will be delivered remotely as of March 16, 2020.

• If faculty determine that final exams for winter quarter are necessary in their courses, they will be delivered online.

• Students will begin spring quarter on March 30, 2020 by registering for and starting their courses online.

• Faculty will communicate with their students about starting their spring courses using university email accounts and other online resources such as Blackboard and Zoom.

• Anyone needing assistance with Blackboard should contact the online learning helpdesk at https://lasierra.atlassian.net/servicedesk.

• Anyone needing IT assistance call 951-785-2900 (IT Helpdesk)

• While the university will remain open, staff presence on campus will be limited.

• Staff will work with supervisors to define who, if anyone, from their department will need to be physically present on campus over the break and into spring quarter.

• Department heads should work with their Vice Presidents to make appropriate departmental decisions.

• Some departments will need to work on campus to provide support for any students unable to return home.

• IT will work to provide necessary support for staff who might need to work from home.

• All employees, including faculty, staff and students will be paid. If an employee has scheduled a vacation, they should use their vacation hours for that. Otherwise, employees working from home should be available during business hours online or by phone. Student employees will be paid for their regularly scheduled shifts as long as they were working those shifts as of the Feb. 29, 2020 pay period.

• For questions concerning residence halls or food service, please contact the Office of Student Life at 951-785-2100.

• For all other questions, please contact the Office of the Provost at 951-785-2320.

Travel: Staff, faculty and students should be aware that the university has already suspended university-sponsored travel outside the country and is now limiting domestic travel to include only that travel essential for work as deemed by our Executive Committee. Any travel outside the country will require a fourteen-day off-campus period.

Food: The cafeteria will be serving at regular hours but using takeout containers beginning today, Wednesday, March 11, 2020. The dining seating area will be closed. The Eagle’s Nest will also serve food at their regular times but the dining seating area will be closed.  

The health and safety of our campus and surrounding community is of the utmost importance and the university aims to take whatever measures are necessary toward maintaining wellbeing. University administration will continue to closely monitor information about COVID-19 through communication with county health officials, with other Seventh-day Adventist schools and regional higher education institutions, and by gathering information from news media reports and federal advisories. 

Click to view a March 5 statement on La Sierra University's response to COVID-19.

• Riverside County Department of Public Health news can be accessed here: https://www.rivcoph.org

• San Bernardino County Department of Public Health news can be accessed here: http://wp.sbcounty.gov/dph/

• California Department of Public Health news can be accessed here: https://www.cdph.ca.gov

• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention news can be accessed here: https://www.cdc.gov