Falcon Forward Update: COVID-19 Basic Safety & Awareness Module and Falcon Healthcheck

Dear faculty and staff colleagues,

As we prepare to return to campus to begin the fall semester, we all face challenges unlike we have ever seen before due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will take a coordinated effort from all of us to ensure the UM campus remains healthy and safe for everyone in the coming months. The importance of all of us doing our part cannot be overstated.

To help you better understand the University guidelines that will be in place on campus this fall, we have developed a basic safety and awareness course in Canvas for you to complete. The course covers many of the basic safeguards to keep you, your colleagues and our community safe and healthy this semester. After reviewing the course presentation, you will be asked to complete a brief assessment to demonstrate understanding of the topics covered. All UM employees are expected to complete the basic safety and awareness course. Staff should have completed the course by Aug. 7, and faculty must complete the course by 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28.

To access the Canvas course, click here and sign in with your UM credentials.

This fall, all UM faculty and staff will be asked to regularly visit the Falcon Healthcheck website, which is a COVID-19 assessment tool serving as a daily reminder to monitor your health and understand how your health can impact those around you. Through the site, you will be able to report symptoms and log potential COVID-19 exposure each day. Healthcheck is part of the Falcon Healthcheck platform, powered by UAB.

You may access Falcon Healthcheck at this link: montevallo.edu/healthcheck

These measures are the most recent steps the University has taken this summer to ensure a healthy and safe return to campus for all UM employees and students. Over the past month, UM held an administrative training session via Zoom with all directors and department chairs, and has tasked them with sharing the information with their employees. The University has also developed and distributed its Falcon Forward: Culture of Safety plan for the fall semester and has shared several educational messages on best practices to maintain a healthy campus via email and UM official social media channels.

Maintaining a healthy campus is a partnership between all of us, and it’s a responsibility we all must take seriously.

I appreciate very much the positive spirit the campus community has demonstrated during this extremely difficult time in our institution’s history.

JWS