(Sept. 28, 2009) Nearly 600 UC Denver faculty, staff and students cued up last week to get the seasonal flu vaccine at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora and the Lawrence Street Center, downtown. The vaccines were offered at our UC Denver locations as part of the overall work of the Chancellor's Flu Task Force headed by Provost Rod Nairn.
Vaccines for students were still available this week at the Auraria Student Health Center, and will be available on Sept. 30 for students-only at the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Last week, our Human Resources team initiated formal monitoring of faculty and staff absences that may be related to the seasonal or H1N1 flu. Departments are being asked to provide daily reports during the flu season so that leadership can be alerted to potential difficulties for maintaining normal operations.
A 'sampling' process in larger classes is being developed for tracking student absences both at the Downtown Denver Campus and Anschutz Medical Campus schools and colleges. Our Office of International Education also has plans, if needed, for assisting students studying abroad and international students studying here on our campuses. At Campus Village, activities to increase flu awareness among student residents have been in place since the fall term began in August.
Additional hand-sanitizer stations soon will be available throughout UC Denver facilities. Individual departments are also encouraged to consider providing dispensers for hand-sanitizer solutions.
Next steps for the Task Force include monitoring the information about the availability of H1N1 flu vaccine and continuing to pursue actions that support an informed and aware student, faculty and staff population.