In the event of a building or campus shut-down, you may find yourself having to work remotely, away from your regular office for some time. Consider the following recommendations, if you find yourself in this situation.

Take what you can with you

If your work computer is a laptop, take it home with you. If there are specific physical files you will need, bring them with you.

Duplicate where possible

If there are electronic files you will need, consider copying them and sending them to your own email, or placing them in online-accessible storage such as Google Drive.

If you have the drive space, you may wish to mirror your Google Drive files on your home computer using the Backup and Sync app. Note that this only works for personal Drives, not Shared (previously Team) Drives.

Check your home network and computer

It may be possible to access many of your regular files and applications remotely (Google Mail, Drive, Calendar, Bluejeans, Wolverine Access, etc.), provided your home internet connection and home computer can handle the load. If your work requires high-speed computing resources, and the closure is an extended one, it may be wise to see if you can upgrade your internet service for one month. If your home computer does not have enough processing power for your work, and your work computer is not mobile, you may want to consider taking a loan computer home with you. Ensure that you have the necessary applications on whatever computer you will be using.

In any case, think about setting up U-M’s Virtual Private Network on your machine. Many U-M sites are not accessible from off campus unless you are running this VPN.

Set Notifications

To preserve in/outbound telephone lines for critical university business, ITS recommends that individual faculty and staff do not forward their university telephone line to a home or cellular phone. Rather, ITS recommends that faculty and staff update their MCommunity profile to provide temporary home or cellular contact information. This will assist in keeping the University's phone system available for others.

If possible, include when you expect to be available again and/or who else can be contacted in the interim. If your physical office or unit space will be closed, consider putting a sign on the door.

Long Term Equipment Loans/Taking your U-M Computer Home

In the event of a building, campus shut-down or you have been approved to work from home by your department, LSA employees are eligible to take their computer equipment home.

Terms of Agreement:

• Loans are made available to current employees 
• Loan duration is subject to your department’s approval and the need for you to work remotely.
• LSA Technology Services is not responsible for the setup or moving of your equipment off-campus.
• LSA Technology Services will make the best effort to try to support the equipment remotely during normal service hours.
  If damage occurs to the loaned computer while in my possession and is deemed "Not Covered" by Risk Management, I may be held accountable for repair and/or replacement costs.
• Loans longer than 14 days may require a VPN connection to ensure the software remains licensed. 
• The loan recipients agree to abide by the University of Michigan Computing Policies.

Those that would like to take their desktop computer and monitors home, are required to fill out and submit our Loan Agreement Form.

Note: If you have a laptop, you are not required to fill out this form, but are still bound by the terms of the loan agreement.

If you need technical assistance, you can call 734.615.0100, prompt 1.