The Sunrise and the Maroon & Gold plans are underway at the University of Minnesota. These plans are meant to provide guidelines and protocols to ensure for a safe return to campus for staff, faculty and students. However, since staff have begun returning to work earlier this summer, we have seen Sunrise Plan guidelines and protocols broken in our workplaces. We have yet to see a centralized way of enforcing and reporting these mandates without concern for retaliation. Guidelines and protocols are merely suggestions if they are not actually being enforced. We demand a centralized, departmentally-detached and anonymous reporting mechanism for staff, students and faculty to report violations in their worksites.

Further, as folks are being asked to return to the workplace, they are not being told if they have been potentially exposed or if they are at risk for exposure to COVID-19 while at their worksite. While the CDC guidelines indicate being in contact with someone for at least 15 minutes within 6-feet, we believe that the University can do better. Currently, Human Resources has left reporting to potentially affected individuals in the workplace up to Supervisors, citing HIPAA violations and privacy concerns. While we can appreciate the concern for individual privacy, we also appreciate our co-workers' right to know. This could be shared without disclosing the individual's information. We demand that the University disclose to all workers if someone in their geographic work location has been exposed, has been asked to quarantine, or has tested positive for COVID-19. This could be done without disclosing the individuals information. We deserve clear and adequate tracking of the virus in our workplace.  

We, the undersigned, stand with our coworkers and demand that University of Minnesota leadership keep all students, faculty and staff safe! We deserve transparency so we can make informed decisions for our personal safety. It is our safety, our university, and we must not be kept in the dark any longer.