March 15, 2020

To Students, Faculty, and Staff at SUNY Poly’s Utica Campus,

We wanted to let you know that SUNY Poly is implementing and encouraging non-essential employees to take liberal leave on Monday, March 16, 2020. We want to be as proactive as possible to reduce employee population density on campus, in addition to helping employees respond to childcare issues as a result of area school closures. While liberal leave is for Monday only, we are awaiting further guidance and will share it as soon as we receive it.

Liberal leave means that an employee, with supervisory approval, who is performing non-immediate, non-essential functions, may leave early, and/or take time off, whereby the employee will use his or her vacation, holiday, or personal paid time off accruals. Liberal leave is implemented at the discretion of management for exceptional circumstances such as inclement weather or emergencies and only in cases where it is feasible for the employee to take liberal leave based on duties (essential versus non-essential duties). Some employee functions are deemed essential (i.e. security, certain facilities and operational units, maintenance, etc.); therefore, staffing in some areas will be maintained as determined by management. For more information, please see the Essential Employee Policy located at: sunypoly.edu/contact/offices/human-resources/human-resources/policies-procedures. Please note that if management determines that you are essential, even if your title is not listed on the policy, then you must talk with your supervisor as new titles have been added in recent days to include residential life, IT, and health and wellness.  

If an employee does not have vacation, holiday, or personal paid time off accruals, management will consult with SUNY Poly Human Resources and make a determination on a case-by-case basis. If a non-essential employee has approval to work from home and has the capability to do so, your supervisor may approve that option on a case by case basis. Essential employees are to discuss individual status and the need to report to work on–site with their supervisor. The supervisor, per the essential employee policy, will determine what level of staffing is needed in any department or operational unit. Essential employees and anyone who remains on campus are once again encouraged to use social distancing and take common sense precautions, as we have previously shared: sunypoly.edu/covid19/prevention.

Please look for continuous updates from SUNY Poly, as is warranted, which are available at our dedicated webpage: sunypoly.edu/covid19. Thank you for your attention to this communication, and for understanding that these decisions are, once again, being made to out of an abundance of caution and to be as helpful as possible as we keep in mind our community’s health.

Sincerely,

Dr. Grace Wang
Interim President
SUNY Polytechnic Institute


Please also see the previous campus message re: SUNY Poly's Albany campus from March 13, 2020