Dear Colleagues:

Last week, I communicated with the campus that a new search process was beginning for the Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for Graduate and Professional Education.

I received feedback in follow up to that message regarding the internal scope of the search. I appreciate that feedback and am now adjusting the scope of the search. This will be a national search, open to both internal and external applicants.

Given this change, search committee nominations will now be accepted through November 11 at 5 p.m. Please submit any nominations by email to Anna Chalfant (anna.chalfant@uky.edu).

Again, thank you very much for participating in this important process.

Robert S. DiPaola, MD

Acting Provost

The following message from Acting Provost DiPaola was sent to UK faculty on Friday, November 5, 2021. 

Dear Colleagues:

As you know, nominations for membership of the search committee for the associate provost for faculty advancement were solicited in October. Based on those nominations, the committee has been formed.

The committee co-chairs are Katie Cardarelli, senior associate provost for administration and academic affairs, and Mark Shanda, dean, College of Fine Arts. 

Please see below for the remainder of the committee roster:

• Jennifer Bird-Pollan, Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, J. David Rosenberg College of Law
• Jennifer Haynes, Faculty Advancement Coordinator, Office for Faculty Advancement
• Cliff Iler, Deputy General Counsel, Faculty, Students and Research Group
• Derek Lane, Professor, College of Communication and Information
• Brian Lee, Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Resources, Planning and Assessment, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment
• Sue Nokes, Professor, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Facilities, College of Engineering
• Anne Olson, Associate Professor and Chair of Communication Sciences and Disorders, College of Health Sciences
• Treshani Perera, Librarian III and Music and Fine Arts Cataloging Librarian, UK Libraries
• Lisa Tannock, Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Development, College of Medicine

I met today with the search committee to issue their charge and discuss the search process.

Please, feel free to contact Anna Chalfant with any questions.

Robert S. DiPaola, MD

Acting Provost

Dear Colleagues:

In follow up to the president’s communication to the campus earlier this year, I am beginning a new search process for the dean of the Graduate School and the associate provost for graduate and professional education. This will be an internal search process. The first step is a request for nominations for members of the search committee.

If you would like to nominate an individual to serve on the search committee, please send their name, contact information and a brief justification by email to Anna Chalfant (anna.chalfant@uky.edu). Please submit your nominations by Nov. 9 at 5 p.m.

Thank you very much for participating in this important process.

Robert S. DiPaola, MD
Acting Provost

The following message from Acting Provost DiPaola was sent to faculty on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2021. 

Dear Colleagues,

As a reminder, the next Partnership with the Provost conversation will take place on Oct. 19 at 11:30 a.m. on Zoom. I hope you will consider taking the time to engage with me as we discuss important updates in our campus community.

I plan to use the same question and answer format that I used in our most recent discussion, which you can now view at the link below.

View Sept. 9 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.

The following message from Acting Provost DiPaola was sent to faculty on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. 

Dear Colleagues:

G.T. Lineberry has announced that he will step down from the role of Associate Provost for Faculty Advancement at the end of 2021 to begin his long-deserved plan to assume non-administrative responsibilities. During his time serving in this critical role, Dr. Lineberry has made invaluable contributions to the University of Kentucky. I hope you will join me in thanking him for his over nine years of service to our faculty, faculty administrators, and others within the University community.

We are planning to commence a search process for the next Associate Provost for Faculty Advancement. This will be an internal search process. The first step is a request for nominations for members of the search committee.

If you would like to nominate an individual to serve on the search committee, please send their name, contact information, and a brief justification by email to Anna Chalfant (anna.chalfant@uky.edu). Please submit your nominations by October 13 at 5 p.m.

Thank you very much for participating in this important process.

Robert S. DiPaola, MD

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.