The following message from Acting Provost DiPaola was sent to faculty on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. 

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you will consider joining me for another Partnership with the Provost conversation on Oct. 19 at 11:30 a.m. on Zoom.

I hope you found our most recent discussion engaging and instructive. I enjoyed the new question and answer format, and I plan to use this same format for future conversations. You can now view the Sept. 29 discussion and provide additional feedback.

View Sept. 29 Partnership with Provost

As always, you may submit questions via the Qualtrics link below, and I will review them and respond to the recurring themes that emerge. I look forward to reviewing your feedback from the last discussion.

Submit Questions and Provide Feedback Anonymously

Add Oct. 19 Partnership with Provost to Your Calendar

I am truly grateful for the questions you submit and the feedback you provide. I look forward to our next discussion.

Robert S. DiPaola, M.D.

Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Katie Cardarelli as Senior Associate Provost for Administration and Academic Affairs.

Dr. Cardarelli’s appointment takes effect October 11, 2021.

I am appointing Dr. Cardarelli to this critical post after a thorough national search process, which included work of a search committee chaired by Jennifer Greer and George Wright. I thank the committee for their vital contributions to this search process.

Dr. Cardarelli has been a University of Kentucky faculty member since 2013. She has served in numerous administrative leadership roles during this time period, including Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs in the College of Public Health and Interim Chair of the Department of Health, Behavior and Society. Dr. Cardarelli continues to teach and conduct research, which is focused on chronic disease prevention in vulnerable populations in underserved areas. Her work focusing on community-based approaches to reducing health inequities has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition, she has been a crucial member of the Office for Faculty Advancement, serving as Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs from 2017 to 2019 and Senior Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs from 2019 to the present. Prior to her time at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Cardarelli was a faculty member at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and the Director of the Center for Community Health at the Texas Prevention Institute.

I greatly appreciate Dr. Cardarelli’s willingness to serve as Senior Associate Provost for Administration and Academic Affairs. Please join me in congratulating her and thanking her.

Robert S. DiPaola, MD

Acting Provost

The following message from Acting Provost DiPaola was sent to all faculty on Monday, September 20, 2021. 

Dear Colleagues,

As in my recent Board of Trustees presentation, I emphasized the importance of our people, emphasized the importance of our people. In that regard, our appointment and promotions processes are critically important. To help, the Office of the Provost has issued annual memorandums which provide academic leadership and all faculty at large with helpful information, policies and procedures. These memorandums cover the following topics:

• Appointment, reappointment, promotion and tenure procedures for 2021-2022
• 2021-2022 faculty performance review: Second year of biennium
• Information to share with new faculty
• Consulting and employment outside the university
• Minimum salaries for research title series faculty appointments for calendar year 2022

Each memorandum is accessible via the Office of Faculty Advancement website.

Should you have any specific questions regarding the content of these documents, please contact facultyadv@uky.edu.

Robert S. DiPaola, M.D.

Acting Provost

The following message was sent to all faculty on Wednesday, September 15, 2021. 

Dear Colleagues,

UK Health Corps asked me to pass along the following information to you. Please take note of the following reminders.

Robert S. DiPaola, M.D. 

Dear Faculty, 

Thank you for the role you play in facilitating a robust in-person experience in the safest way possible. We believe that face-to-face interaction with faculty and engagement with our broader community is a key part of what makes a University of Kentucky education. UK Health Corps is committed to supporting you as you conduct this important work.

We have received several questions from faculty members on our campus over the past month. We hope that these reminders serve to answer many of those questions.

Please note the following: 

• Please direct all COVID-19-related questions to UK Health Corps by calling 859-218-SAFE (7233) or emailing healthcorps@uky.edu.
• Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), vaccinated individuals will not be required to quarantine or participate in contact tracing unless they test positive for COVID-19 or develop symptoms. However, all contact tracing protocols will remain in place for individuals who are not vaccinated.  
• If an employee needs to isolate or self-quarantine, they should work with their supervisor to think creatively and determine if remote work is possible. HR Employee Relations can be reached at 859-257-8758 to help identify remote work or leave options. Any employee who is sick and unable to work, regardless of whether it is related to COVID-19, should use sick leave (TDL).
• Remember what you can and cannot do/ask, in accordance with privacy protections:
  
  • Do not ask an individual their vaccination status.
  • Do not ask for documentation of COVID-19 illness for an excused absence beyond what the student provides from UK Health Corps.
  • Do not notify your class when someone tests positive. Health Corps will notify high exposure contacts during the contact tracing process.
  • Do call or email UK Health Corps if you have questions about a specific excuse.
  • Do enforce compliance with the campus mask policy in your classrooms.
  • Do report any student violations of university policy to the Office of Student Conduct.
  • Do feel empowered to ask a student to leave the classroom if they refuse to wear a mask.
  • Do contact Mary Vosevich to request personal protective equipment in specific spaces at mary.vosevich@uky.edu.
  • Do treat all individuals with respect, regardless of vaccination status.
• Please view our Fall 2021 Guidebook for a more in-depth information on our COVID-19 policies, including how we manage isolation and quarantine orders.

COVID-19 Dashboard

Over the past several weeks, we’ve received questions related to the data published on the COVID-19 dashboard. We appreciate the feedback and want to offer some insight into our processes in gathering data.

The last day to add a class for the fall 2021 semester has now passed, meaning that student schedules have stabilized with respect to modality. Additionally, employees were encouraged to submit remote work requests over the past several months if they qualified for remote work. As such, (and consistent with past semesters) numbers associated with the “UK community total” on our dashboard reflect information specific to individuals who are physically coming to the UK Lexington campus. These data also are deduplicated across faculty, staff and students.

We have begun limiting the breakdowns in a similar manner, meaning that numbers describing subpopulations, similar to the total UK population, do not include individuals not coming to campus.

You can learn more about how these populations are defined and how data are deduplicated on the COVID dashboard. 

Mandatory Weekly Testing: Unvaccinated Students

The university recently announced a weekly testing policy applicable to all unvaccinated students. We are communicating with them regularly regarding their requirements and compliance. We encourage you to reinforce this information, broadly, to your students as well. This is another way we are committed to keeping our campus as safe as possible. 

Mandatory Weekly Testing: Unvaccinated Employees

The university also announced a mandatory weekly testing policy for all unvaccinated employees. Employees can find more information abouttesting requirements, locations and hours of operation here . We will also be communicating with employees a vaccine incentive program soon. Prizes will include an extra week of vacation; free parking and meal plans; and monetary incentives among others. If you have any questions, please call us at 859-218-SAFE (7233) or email us at healthcorps@uky.edu.

As a general reminder, our self-report tool is available to anyone needing to upload proof of vaccines or test results. After individuals are fully vaccinated (14 days after completing vaccination regimen), they will no longer be required to complete ongoing COVID-19 testing.

Finally, we want to stress that Health Corps is here to support all members of the UK community, regardless of vaccination status. Our hours of operations are as follows:

Monday - Friday: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.


Saturday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Thank you for doing your part in keeping our community healthy and safe.

UK Health Corps

healthcorps@uky.edu

859-218-SAFE (7233)

The following message from Acting Provost DiPaola was sent to all UK faculty on Monday, August 9, 2021. 

Dear Colleagues,

As I communicated with you last month, teamwork, shared governance, communication, collaboration and attention to our people will continue to foster our shared success.

I am grateful for your commitment to our mission and our progress.

As we continue our work together, I would like to initiate a series of opportunities for me to share important updates with you and also get your feedback and input.

The first of these meetings will occur via Zoom webinar on Wednesday, August 11 at 8:30 a.m.

https://uky.zoom.us/s/85880497011

I will provide an update on our campus COVID-19 response and preparation, with particular emphasis on President Capilouto's recent announcement regarding indoor mask policies. Additionally, I would like to inform you about the diligent work occurring to develop our next strategic plan.

As part of that process, I invite you to submit questions ahead of time, which I will look forward to beginning to answer when we come together. You can anonymously submit questions here . This format worked well during my time in the College of Medicine. We used it on a regular basis, and I hope to do so again in the Office of the Provost. I hope you will find this format and way of connecting helpful and instructive as well.

Thank you, and I look forward to engaging with you soon.

Robert S. DiPaola, M.D.

The following message from the provost was sent to UK employees on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. 

Colleagues, 
 
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Martha Peterson as Acting Associate Provost of Graduate and Professional Education and Acting Dean of The Graduate School. 
 
Dr. Peterson’s appointment takes effect July 6, 2021.
 
I am appointing Dr. Peterson to this critical post after receiving recommendations from the graduate faculty and a recommendations committee, as outlined in Governing Regulation VIII. 
 
Throughout an exemplary faculty career at UK of more than 30 years and in several administrative and research roles, Dr. Peterson has frequently worked closely with The Graduate School. She most recently served as the Senior Associate Vice President for Research (VPR), a role in which she advises the VPR on policy and program offerings, oversees several multidisciplinary research support programs that cross department and college boundaries, and facilitates the work of the Office of Research Communications and the Proposal Development Office. Dr. Peterson has stepped down from this role in the VPR office to assume her new responsibilities.  
 
In more than 14 years of administrative leadership roles at UK, Dr. Peterson has frequently interacted with The Graduate School and advocated for their interests, concerns, and needs, recognizing that success and growth in research requires success and growth of graduate and professional programs. Dr. Peterson is a professor of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics, where she continues to teach graduate courses, serves on graduate advisory committees, and has a long record of NSF-funded research and graduate student training.
 
Dr. Peterson will serve as acting dean and acting associate provost until June 30, 2022 or until the position is filled on a permanent basis. 
 
I greatly appreciate Dr. Peterson’s willingness to serve. Please join me in congratulating her and thanking her. Dr. DiPaola looks forward to working with her to begin the transformation of graduate and professional education at the University of Kentucky.
 
Dr. Brian Jackson has served tirelessly and selflessly as Interim Dean of the Graduate School since 2016. Please join me in thanking him and wishing him well as he returns to his full-time faculty role.
 
David W. Blackwell
Provost

Colleagues,

This email serves as a reminder of the changes that were made to the spring 2021 academic
calendar. All changes were vetted and approved by the UK Senate Council.

These changes include:

• • March 26: academic holiday (instead of a spring break week)
• • “Dead Week” (the week prior to final examinations):
  • May 3-5 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday): classes will meet
  • May 6-7 (Thursday, Friday): classes will not meet (these are designated as reading days, a time for students to prepare for final exams)

A full overview of the spring 2021 academic calendar was recently published on UKNow.

Should you have any questions, please contact the Office of the Registrar.

Regards,
David W. Blackwell

Dear Colleagues,

We are in the midst of what is likely the most turbulent time in the recent history of higher education. The COVID-19 disease is challenging all of us on a number of fronts. I wish to sincerely thank all of you for your selfless service toward our missions of education, research and creative activity, patient care, and service to the Commonwealth under these challenging circumstances.

I write to reinforce elements of President Capilouto’s decision for the University of Kentucky to temporarily transition course delivery from face-to-face to online or other appropriate alternatives during the period of March 23 through April 3, with the goal of returning to normal
delivery on April 6. I emphasize that other than the transition from traditional to online course delivery, we intend and expect usual campus operations to continue.

The campus will remain open and functioning for our faculty, staff, students, and patients. While we will work toward providing remote services to our students who choose not to return to campus during this period, we will continue to offer services face-to-face to
students who remain on campus. Thus it is important that faculty and staff plan to work on campus according to our existing policies, with an understanding that those with compromising health issues may require accommodation.

Only the President can determine changes in our business hours or the opening or closing of our facilities. Deans, Associate Provosts, and other academic leaders were briefed on Wednesday about the specifics and I expect them to lead calmly, compassionately, and with
common sense. A robust flow of information across the institution is key to our success. This is an unprecedented and fluid situation and we can expect the need to be flexible.

The University’s Emergency Operation Center (EOC) is active and supporting the transition. There are teams in the EOC composed of faculty, staff, and administrative leaders working on 17 work streams that address every facet of implementation of our move to online delivery, including planning for delivery of services to students remaining off campus. As the work of these teams evolves, questions emerge. Below I clarify some key issues:

• Your health. In these circumstances, everyone should make the best decisions for their health. If you feel sick or begin to exhibit symptoms of flu or COVID-19 infection, it is in everyone’s best interest for you to remain home and to be evaluated by your health care provider. Remember that frequent hand washing and covering your mouth when you cough are effective measures to prevent infection.

If you believe you require alternative work arrangements because of a compromising health issue, those requests can be handled with your direct supervisor or department chair under existing policies for such arrangements.

For example, temporary remote work may be appropriate for many units or positions. We are strongly encouraging College and division leaders to be flexible with employees, understanding that the work of the institution must still be done, but that we must protect the health, safety and well-being of everyone who works in our special community.

To that end, supervisors must submit any temporary remote work requests for approval to Deans, Associate Provosts and Vice Presidents. The requests must be considered and approved prior to communicating any decision with employees. Our expectation is that a college and unit
will seek to maximize flexibility for employees who have real needs in terms of child care and other issues that make remote work options desirable on a temporary basis during this challenging period.

• Course delivery. Associate Provost Kathi Kern is leading the Academic Course Delivery work stream in the EOC. All courses need to be prepared for the initiation of online or alternative delivery by Monday, March 23. Among the most important reasons for announcing the transition on Wednesday was to provide faculty as much time as possible to work on transitioning their courses. While we are planning to resume traditional course delivery on April 6, we should be prepared to continue to deliver courses online after that date should circumstances change. We will keep you informed.
• Student support services. Yesterday we sent out a survey to all students to determine how many of them plan to be in Lexington post-Spring break and how many plan to return home. Having an estimate of the number of students residing in Lexington (onand off-campus) will help us determine how to allocate resources between in-person and online student support services (e.g., academic advising; career advising; dining; housing; student organizations and activities).

Do not close any office or modify hours of operation for your student support services. At this point, we remain fully operational, including our service and building hours. If your office has a compelling reason to modify service hours please notify your Dean or Associate Provost, who
will in turn submit the proposal to the Provost for consideration and discussion with the UK leadership team.

Of course, we must also serve students who will not be in Lexington. We have a Student Success work stream in the EOC, led by our Dean of Students Nick Kehrwald. This team is addressing nonacademic student services (led by Grace Hahn) and academic-based student
services (led by Marianne Young). If you have questions about College-based advising offices or providing advising services remotely, please contact Nick and Marianne (nkehrwald@uky.edu and m.young@uky.edu). We are planning to coordinate the way in which all academic advising offices offer their services. Nick and Marianne will be working with the Associate Deans’ Council to ensure consistency of advising delivery across the campus.

• Your ideas. We face a collective challenge that requires innovative approaches to the continuation of our missions. We welcome your ideas on how we best approach our work in the coming weeks. We want to share best practices and consider all good ideas. Please channel any suggestions through your supervisor to your Dean or Associate Provost, who will share them with me for consideration in the appropriate EOC work stream.

Other than changing to online course delivery, we strive to continue all operations, but we will also prepare for providing support services for our students who choose to remain off-campus through April 3. Office hours, student services, advising appointments, among other usual
business operations, should be offered in face-to-face and distance formats.

I expect all leaders in the Provost area to ensure that their units adhere to this guidance and I expect full cooperation from all faculty and staff. Only through focused, coordinated effort and strong communications will we come out on the other side of this challenge an even stronger
University of, for, and with Kentucky. Thanks again for your support and productive work.

Sincerely,

David W. Blackwell
Provost

Dear EM Colleagues,

I am excited to announce that Christine Harper has accepted our offer to become the next Associate Provost for Enrollment Management at the University of Kentucky. Christine will formally assume the new role on Monday, June 18.

Christine has nearly 20 years of higher education experience in different areas of student affairs and enrollment management, including direct experience with all areas of EM—registrar, financial aid, and admissions. She also has experience in athletics financial aid.

From 2001 to 2010, she progressed through a series of leadership roles of increasing responsibility in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and First-year Experience at The Ohio State University, where she ultimately served as the Senior Assistant Director of the office. She served during a period of unprecedented enrollment growth and increases in quality, retention, and diversity for Ohio State.

From 2011 to 2017, she served as Assistant Dean of Academic and Student Affairs in UK’s College of Dentistry. Her team’s portfolio included admissions, financial aid, registrar, and student success. She also served as the college’s diversity and inclusion officer. She holds an adjunct faculty position in the College of Dentistry.

Since fall 2017, Christine has served UK on special assignment to the Office of the Provost, assisting the Associate Provost of Academic Excellence Operations with various initiatives on enrollment management and retention. Christine is passionate about removing barriers to student success and opening the doors of access and equity. She also strongly believes in providing her team with opportunities to develop and grow professionally.

During the period of interim leadership, Nimmi Wiggins, Scott McDonald, Kim Taylor, and all of you have risen to the occasion. I greatly appreciate their leadership as well as your work in supporting student success at UK.

I also thank the members of the search committee – chaired by Associate Provost Greg Heileman – for their leadership in the search process.

Please join me in congratulating Christine and welcoming her to this new role.

Regards,

David W. Blackwell

Provost

Dear Colleagues,

I am very pleased to announce that Simon J. Sheather has accepted my offer to become the next dean of the Gatton College of Business and Economics.

Subject to approval by the Board of Trustees, Simon plans to begin his work with us July 1.

Simon currently is professor and interim director of Texas A&M University’s Institute of Data Science, as well as academic director of MS (Analytics) and Online Programs in the Department of Statistics. The news release, which is being distributed more widely tomorrow, provides more detail about his outstanding career.

As many of you know who interacted with Simon during his visits to campus, he is an accomplished scholar, teacher and academic leader. He has won numerous awards during a long career as a teacher and scholar. And during his nearly 15 years at Texas A&M, he has created new programs and continued important work with industry and government developing practical predictive models using “big data.”

I want to thank Interim Dean Skinner for his outstanding leadership during the past several months as well as the search committee, whose collective efforts have yielded such a positive result.

Simon is currently traveling abroad, but I know he is excited about joining such an outstanding academic home as the one at Gatton. I know you join me in welcoming him to our community and, like me, look forward to the incredible opportunities ahead for both Gatton and the University of Kentucky.

Thank you for all you do for Gatton and UK.

Regards,

David W. Blackwell

Provost