I&S Employee Newsletter - May 2020 | Infrastructure and Resilience

I&S Employee Newsletter - May 2020

VC's corner

Dear Infrastructure and Sustainability team,

I hope this note finds you well. I want you to know that your dedication over the past two months has been inspiring, and I’m so appreciative in the way our team has served the campus amid the COVID-19 challenges we’re all facing.

Chancellor DiStefano wrote the campus on Friday about the continued planning for fall, and I want to touch on a couple of the points in terms of what they might mean for Infrastructure and Sustainability.��

One of those themes the chancellor noted was providing a campus experience that addresses COVID-19 risk mitigation. This will mean different things to different units in our broad and diverse Infrastructure and Sustainability team. For some of us, it will mean new duties to help keep the campus safe, such as the enhanced cleaning protocols we put in place early on during this pandemic. For many, it may mean wearing a mask to work, which would be a new situation for nearly all of us. As we know, there will likely be a phased approach in terms of when employees return to campus. Many of our team members may continue to work remotely for some time to help minimize the number of people interacting on campus. As a general rule, for now, all employees who can work from home will continue to work remotely.

The chancellor also wrote about providing flexibility for students, faculty and staff to participate equitably, whether in person or remotely. We will all have different needs in the coming months, both personally and professionally. Our Infrastructure and Sustainability leadership team and I will do our best to ensure that flexibility so that each of you is set up for success regardless of your specific circumstances and needs.

Finally, our campus leadership has also talked about the budget planning that has begun. Our I&S team, like all units on campus, is working on various budget scenarios to submit to campus so that we are prepared as we learn more about the state budget and our fall enrollment. Depending on the situation, these scenarios could have impacts on things like deferred maintenance, how we do master planning, and the integration of new software, as well as the potential for furloughs and layoffs. Care for our people is the top priority of myself and our I&S leadership team, and we will always make these difficult decisions from that basic premise.��

Thank you again for your flexibility and positive approach to supporting the campus mission. I know these qualities are what will get our campus through this difficult time and strengthen our university going forward.

With gratitude,

David Kang, vice chancellor for infrastructure and sustainability

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News and notes

Thank you to our essential/critical staff

“We appreciate our essential employees who are keeping our campus operations running smoothly and our CU �� community safe. Thank you, we couldn't do this without you!”��

Watch a from campus community members to our staff working on campus.

Open Enrollment ends May 8 at 5 p.m.

This is your chance to keep, waive, enroll or change your selections for the University of Colorado’s medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, as well as savings plans. Take a little time to determine if your coverage is just what the doctor ordered or if you need to make a few adjustments. Visit the .

Sustainability Award winner: Janet Walker, Individual Achievement

Janet Walker, who works in Planning, Design and Construction, was recently awarded a Campus Sustainability Award for her commitment to achieving zero waste in the RL2 building. This award recognizes her many efforts to improve recycling infrastructure and awareness and to minimize waste generation by designing a system that allows people in her building to practice zero waste. Janet has further helped to advance sustainability on campus by educating a broad array of constituents about the merits of zero waste. Her actions have inspired others, both in the building and across campus.

Sustainability Award Winner: Facilities Management Campus Building Services, Special Recognition for Departmental Achievement

Facilities Management (FM) Campus Building Services was recognized for their work to expand campus compost collections. The background and budget work were led by FM Campus Building Services, and the expansion and service support was a team effort between FM Campus Building Services and the Environmental Center Recycling Outreach Program. By internalizing collections, campus compost expansion was able to increase rapidly with 30 locations during the 2020 fiscal year.

CU Green Labs Award: EH&S Radiation Safety Office

By establishing reduction protocols and by working closely with campus labs to set-up clearly marked, simple-to-use collections and train users, the Radiation Safety Office in Environmental Health & Safety is reducing the volume of research-related solid radioactive waste going to low-level radiation landfills. Overall, the efforts of the Radiation Safety Office have reduced university costs to ship and landfill the radioactive waste by 91%, which has saved the university over $4 million dollars since these efforts began in 1998. Read more about the 2020 CU Green Labs Award Recipients.

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