Weekly Update from Chancellor Jones (April 20 – April 24)

During this challenging time, the Illinois family continues to step up in extraordinary ways. Thank you for all you have done to ensure the continuity of our university missions. 

We are developing technologies to improve patient care.

A team from The Grainger College of Engineering has released the designs for RapidAlarm, an alarm and sensor package for emergency pressure-cycled ventilators.

We are encouraging our university community members to help the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District make and collect cloth face masks for essential businesses.

The masks will be collected for cleaning and distributed to essential businesses in our community.

We are encouraging you to be aware of COVID-19 text messaging scams.

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District does not use text messaging to contact people as part of contact tracing. 

We are providing resources to people in need.

University staff helped create a map of publicly available drive-up Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the state of Illinois.

We are working with Carle Health and the state of Illinois to increase COVID-19 testing.

Campuswide efforts are mobilizing to provide COVID-19 testing supplies for thousands of tests across the state.

We are assessing the financial impacts of COVID-19.

We sent a massmail discussing the COVID-19 financial impacts on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

I am grateful for your continued patience as we navigate this pandemic. To view past updates, please visit the Weekly Update archive. Please feel free to direct questions to covid-19@illinois.edu.

Robert J. Jones

Chancellor

Weekly Update from Chancellor Jones (April 13 – April 17)

As the semester progresses, I am thankful for your innovation as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The Illinois family continues to step up in exemplary ways that allow us to move forward on delivering our missions.

We are allocating funds for students facing financial challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Illinois Cares: COVID-19 Support Program will help financially impacted undergraduate and graduate students continue their studies.

We are taking efforts to protect healthcare workers.

An Illinois team launched an effort to provide gowns, masks, face shields and N95 respirators to protect healthcare workers on the front-line.

We are supporting families in need.

The Child Development Laboratory is finding ways to creatively connect with children and families at home using Zoom, while also offering childcare to essential and critical workers.

We are providing COVID-19 resources, education and outreach to Illinois residents.

Illinois Extension is assisting families and communities from every county in the state of Illinois.

Thank you for your continued patience as we navigate this pandemic. To view past updates, please visit the Weekly Update archive. Please feel free to direct questions to covid-19@illinois.edu.

Robert J. Jones

Chancellor

Weekly update from Chancellor Jones (April 6 – April 10)

As the semester progresses, we will continue to keep you informed of new information as we learn of it. And we will continue to do all we can to keep our students, faculty, staff and community members as safe as possible.

We have made the decision to cancel all university summer camps through at least July 10 and all events through May 18.

We will follow state guidance on events after the end of the state-at-home directive.

We are using Illinois expertise to help fight COVID-19.

Illinois veterinary experts helped identify SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans, as the cause of a respiratory illness in a Bronx Zoo tiger.

We continue to offer health resources to our students.

Students can access McKinley Health Center services whether they are back home or in the local community.

We are sharing important information about online proctoring.

There are resources available for instructors and students who are planning to use Proctorio™ for online assessments.

We are making immediate downward adjustments to University Housing, University Dining, student service and campus transportation fees.

These adjustments will be applied to student accounts.

Thank you for your continued patience and kindness as we navigate this pandemic. Please feel free to direct questions to covid-19@illinois.edu.

Robert J. Jones

Chancellor