Essential Research Activities on Campus

Dear Members of the Research Community,

As you saw in earlier messages this morning, there are significant ongoing protest activities on the Morningside campus, with campus closed to all but essential personnel. This means that research continues but we are implementing a short-term reduction in on-campus researcher presence on the Morningside campus. Only researchers needed to ensure all laboratory equipment and materials are secure or to preserve key research assets should be physically present on Morningside campus. If you can work remotely now, you do not need to read the rest of this email.

“Essential” research activities are those that:

• preserve ongoing projects (tissue preservation, animal care, etc.),
• protect instrumentation and other key research assets (climate control, supervised shut-downs)
• receive and process pending arrivals of critical research assets

Public Safety has already locked Columbia buildings. If you think your laboratory or research assets require your attention to ensure safety or preservation, please reach out to:

• SEAS – Garud Iyengar, Senior Vice Dean for Research and Academic Affairs
• Natural Sciences – Robert Mawhinney, Dean of Science
• Other – your dean

The relevant deans for research for affected schools are providing requests to restore access to Public Safety.  They will let you know if your request is granted and when access has been restored. 

Thank you for your cooperation with this evolving situation and we will be in touch with any relevant updates for the research community.

Jeannette M. Wing

Executive Vice President for Research