Office of the Provost

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel and entry restrictions have substantially disrupted and in some instances prohibited the admission of our UConn faculty, staff and scholars to the U.S. for the Fall semester. The University is striving to be as compassionate as we can to our UConn community as we navigate the current realities facing the global marketplace. At the same time, a complicating factor for permitting remote work by our faculty and staff abroad is that local employment, labor, and tax obligations apply to work being done in the country in which the employee is sitting, even on behalf of an employer like UConn located in the U.S. UConn is not set up to meet every local employment regulation that applies to remote work abroad. In some cases, accepting a paycheck from an employer abroad may even expose the individual to personal liability in addition to any liability facing the employer under the laws of the local jurisdiction.

To strike the necessary balance between maintaining the University’s operations, acknowledging the risk of remote work abroad, and ensuring that our employees have salaries to provide for themselves and their families, the following guidelines are in place:

• Faculty and staff should make every effort to return to the U.S. Faculty and staff on payroll are not permitted to work outside of the U.S. merely as a matter of convenience and/or preference.
• For those cases in which UConn is in the midst of a multi-year and/or continuing contractual arrangement with a faculty or staff member, and that employee cannot return to the U.S. for reasons beyond their control, UConn will permit remote work from their current location on a temporary basis.
• New hires who are not already on UConn’s payroll should defer their start date until they are able to enter the U.S.
  • The Provost Office will consider limited exceptions on a case-by-case basis depending upon the regulations of the country of the remote work and the needs of the hiring department. Any exceptions will not be considered precedent-setting upon the University at large.
• Any remote research work must also and separately receive approval from the Office of the Vice President for Research to ensure that the research work is permissible while abroad under the terms of grant restrictions and/or export controls.
• The hosting of new unpaid visiting research scholars traveling from overseas, or “gratis” sponsorships of scholars from overseas, by academic departments is suspended for the Fall 2020 semester and/or until other State of Connecticut COVID-related travel and gathering restrictions are lifted. Visiting scholars currently at UConn’s campus may continue, assuming that they meet all of UConn’s mandated safety measures.

If you have any questions about these policies, you can contact either the Provost’s office or the Office of Global Affairs.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey S. Shoulson

Vice Provost for Academic Operations

Professor of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages and Professor of English