February 19, 2021
Dear SMU Staff Members,
I hope you and your families have safely weathered this unusual winter blast. We have heard from many of you about days without heat or internet access, as well as frozen or ruptured water lines, boil water orders, dangerous roads and other weather-related problems. It’s been a long, tough week. If your family continues to be in need of critical services or supplies, please call 211 for assistance from the state of Texas, or reach out to Human Resources if we can help.
SMU has been coordinating efforts to support our students during this unusual cold snap and its resulting damages to buildings, including relocations of students living on campus. The University is fortunate to have dedicated essential workers who reported to campus daily and worked into the night to keep us going through this emergency. Many have stayed in nearby hotels and grabbed food wherever possible to be here for troubleshooting and repair of facilities and technology issues. A big thank you to them as they continue that round-the-clock triage and response for at least the next week.
As you read in this morning’s SMU Aware email, we are resuming operations with virtual-only classes on Monday. A decision will also be made that day on which academic instruction modes will be used the rest of the week. With campus reopening, all staff should plan to return to work as usual on Monday. Some buildings sustained damage related to the weather so if you work in one of those buildings, you will be notified by your building manager. They’ll explain what to do. If you don’t hear from your building manager, your workspace was not impacted and is ready to be occupied on Monday.
We are grateful to be returning to campus, but recognize that it will take a while to recover from this unprecedented winter weather so please be flexible and patient as we deal with the lingering aftermath. You can check SMU Aware for the latest information and continue to monitor SMU Aware email, Twitter and Facebook for updates.
Stay warm, safe and Mustang Strong,
Sheri Starkey
Associate Vice President & Chief Human Resource Officer