HANOVER – Dartmouth College is asking its employees to work from home if they can to avoid possible transmission of the new coronavirus.
“Working from home wherever feasible is one way to facilitate social distancing, and so, beginning Monday, March 16, we are asking all employees whose jobs enable them to work from home, and who have the necessary technology to do so, to begin working remotely,” Dartmouth Provost Joseph Helble said in a campuswide email Friday evening.
“As with all of these decisions, we will continue to evaluate this on a regular basis and will provide further guidance prior to the start of spring term.”
Helble’s email said supervisors were “reaching out to employees whose jobs cannot be performed remotely to provide specific information regarding their work on campus and related social-distancing protocols and protections.”
Dartmouth is also modifying its telecommuting policy to allow employees to take care of children and other relatives while working remotely, the email said.
The college has more than 900 faculty and about 3,000 staff employees.
Dartmouth has just started its two-week spring break and on Thursday told its 4,400 undergraduates not to return to campus housing until at least May 1, with spring classes to be offered remotely via online offerings.