The COVID-19 pandemic has infiltrated every aspect of our society. As stewards of the university, we are required to balance our desire to protect jobs for our staff, who are the backbone of our university, with our responsibility to assure financial sustainability for Rutgers. In doing so, we must not only consider our continued commitment to current students, but also our commitment to provide access and a quality education to future students, and this requires that we make difficult decisions.
We understand that difficult decisions have a profound impact on the lives of those affected. We have worked diligently to manage the crisis in a manner that protects jobs through the relaxation of telecommuting and paid leave policies, promoting flexible work schedules, and leveraging work reassignments. However, the cessation of work, budgetary challenges, and operational changes brought about by the pandemic make measures such as layoffs and shared work furlough programs inevitable. It is our hope that majority of layoffs and furloughs will be short term in duration.
In the interim, in order to support you as you work through next steps, we have developed this website with important resources including benefits and unemployment services, and answers to the most immediate questions that you may have.
We hope to provide as much help as possible in assuring that you have the information and resources necessary to access any available benefits as soon as possible. In addition to this website, you may also reach out to OneSource for further support and information at 732-745-SERV (7378).
Sincerely,
Vivian Fernández
Senior Vice President for Human Resources & Organizational Effectiveness