Memo from the S.J. Quinney College of Law Career Development Office, 2020-06-16 : COVID-19, the 2020 Recession, the Legal Job Market, and SJQ

Memo produced by James Holbrook from the S.J. Quinney College of Law Career Development Office "for the Dean of the College of Law about Covid disease, coronavirus vaccines, the economy and employment."

COVID-19, the 2020 Recession, the Legal Job Market, and SJQ To: Dean Elizabeth Kronk Warner Date: June 6, 2020 From: S.J. Quinney College of Law Career Development Office Table of Contents (new material highlighted in yellow) Executive Summary .................................................................................................2 1. The 2020 Recession and COVID-19 Transmission and Deaths ........................3 2. Problems with Coronavirus Testing in General .................................................4 3. Problems with Some Coronavirus Testing in Utah............................................5 4. Risks of Some Disinfecting Chemicals and Methods ........................................7 5. Legal Issues Involved in Managing Demonstrations and Protests on Campus .8 6. Recommended T/P/M Resources about Managing Civil Disobedience ............9 7. COVID-19 Effects on SJQ Operations ............................................................10 8. Electronic COVID-19 Contact Tracing on Campus ........................................10 9. CDO COVID-19 /Recession-Related Activities ..............................................11 Executive Summary COVID-19 is a potentially fatal respiratory pandemic. The physical distancing measures taken to slow the spread of the disease have caused the greatest U.S. and worldwide recession since the Great Depression. The disease and the recession together have affected our law school’s operations, Bar admission in Utah, and law firm programs and hiring. As of today, COVID-19 cases in the U.S. surpass 2.1 million and the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. is nearing 120,000. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle estimates the death toll in the U.S. will exceed 137,000 by August 4., 2020. At present, there is no vaccine for the coronavirus and no cure for COVID-19 disease. On June 15, 2020, the FDA revoked its emergency authorization to use hydroxychloroquine because the drug was not effective to treat COVID-19 and because of its known and potential risks. Stock markets lost a third of their value in March but rose sharply last Friday on news that the U.S. economy added 2.5 million jobs in May. More than 42 million people have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March, and more than 30 million Americans are still jobless. Many economists believe the nation is headed into a deep prolonged recession, in which many now-closed companies will not reopen, leaving millions of these unemployed Americans out of work for a long time. And the unemployed are disproportionally black and brown workers, especially women, previously employed in the service sectors of our economy. The IHME just announced that it is now going to track and examine the differential impacts of the COVID-19 disease by race and ethnicity. Because of the huge hit to the U.S. economy, large law firms nationally are cutting salaries to partners and associates (“lawyers”) and staff, delaying bonuses to lawyers, furloughing lawyers, buying out lawyer-partners, laying off lawyers and staff, freezing new hiring, and canceling summer associate programs. Law firms in Utah have been affected but not yet to the same extent as Big Law has been nationally. Our law school, like most other law schools, went online and had credit/no-credit grading for Spring Semester and has postponed Summer OCIs to January or February 2021. The Utah Supreme Court has waived the Bar exam for this year’s law graduates and adopted a diplomaprivilege Bar admission rule requiring 360 hours of supervised practice for admission. Most of Utah is in the “yellow” COVID-19 low-risk category, with the exception of Salt Lake City (including the University), Bluff and Mexican Hat which remain in the “orange” COVID-19 moderate-risk category. The University and SJQ are moving to in-person operations for Fall Semester 2020 beginning on August 24. In-person operations will comply with well-planned physical distancing and personal and workplace hygiene requirements. Utah is reopening its economy while coronavirus infections and COVID-19 cases are increasing here, coronavirus testing is decreasing, and physical distancing guidelines are being more widely ignored (e.g., during the George Floyd-murder mass protests). These protests started two weeks ago in Utah. The incubation period — the time between coronavirus infection and manifestation of COVID-19 symptoms — is between two to 14 days, with a median of 5.7 days. So, Utah is likely to see a protest-related increase in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks. In fact, Utah contact tracers recently identified one person they believe was infected with coronavirus while attending one of the protests in Salt Lake City. 2 1. The 2020 Recession and COVID-19 Transmission and Deaths The 2020 Recession To slow the spread of COVID-19, the federal government issued physical distancing guidelines, and state and local governments imposed stay-at-home restrictions and closed non-essential businesses. This caused millions of Americans to become unemployed, which had an immediate adverse effect on the American economy, which in turn has had a significant adverse effect on legal business, law firms, and legal hiring, especially at Big Law. Many law firms have implemented measures to preserve cash, anticipating a recession will reduce their revenue through the year. Their cash-saving measures include pay cuts, furloughs and layoffs, citing prolonged economic uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, work-from-home orders during the pandemic have left many law offices empty, leading many firms to seek to abate rent for office space they are unable to use. A typical lease force majeure provision does not excuse payment of rent because of viruses, but law firms are citing provisions of their leases dealing with the landlord’s obligations about the condition or utility of the premises. The U.S. economy added 2.5 million jobs in May and the unemployment rate declined to 13.3%, not counting people who are being paid but are not working. If those unemployed workers are added, the adjusted unemployment rate for May is 16.3%, down from 19.7% in April. A significant number of businesses were beginning to rehire workers as the economy reopened, including employers doing so to meet the terms of loans received under the federal Payroll Protection Program which has loaned $666 billion in federal aid to small and medium-sized businesses. Economists estimate that the U.S. still needs an infusion of $3 trillion more, which Congressional Democrats in the House have approved, but Republicans in the Senate have not. On June 10, the Federal Reserve predicted a slow recovery of the U.S. economy, unemployment falling to only 9.3% by the end of 2020 and to 6.5% by the end of 2021. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said there will be millions of Americans “who don’t get to go back to their old job … and there may not be a job in [their] industry for them for some time.” To revive the economy from the deepest recession since the Great Depression, the Fed pledged to keep interest rates at zero, most likely through 2022. Low interest rates have spurred stock market gains which deepened wealth inequality, because most of the market assets are owned by rich white people. Mortgage rates are at an all-time low, causing a surge in home-buying, even during the pandemic. However, Americans need to have substantial savings or a significant income to be able to invest in the financial markets or purchase homes. Economist Paul Krugman states that, while there is immense economic hardship, it’s not nearly as severe as might have been expected given Depression-level unemployment, because the employment slump in contact-intensive sectors (e.g., restaurants, lodging, tourism) has not yet spilled over into a crash of the economy as a whole. The federal financial aid pumped into the economy in late March allowed the unemployed to maintain their spending and enabled many businesses to maintain their payrolls. Unfortunately, that safety net will go away by August. Enhanced unemployment benefits will expire July 31, and the Payroll Protection Program has stopped disbursing funds. And Congress has yet to provide major relief to state and local governments, which are facing a huge fiscal crisis and have already laid off 1.5 million workers, with many more layoffs to come unless federal aid comes soon. 3 COVID-19 Transmission and Deaths There appears to be contagious-variability among people infected with COVID-19, as well as susceptibility-variability among people exposed to the disease. Some infected persons are socalled “super spreaders” because they spread the virus more rapidly and therefore more widely than the average person who is infected. Super spreaders shed far more virus, for a longer period of time, than others. They breathe out many more virus particles than others when they talk. This can explain how COVID-19 clusters occur where a large group of people are packed densely together indoors for a long time together (as in a meatpacking plant). If one member of the group is a super spreader, many more group members are going to get infected. This also means that members of smaller groups that meet outdoors and practice physical distancing are much less likely to become infected. And there are “superspreading events” like a Mount Vernon, Washington church choir practice in which 61 people met for choir practice for two and a half hours. One member had been suffering for three days from what felt like a cold. In the following weeks 53 choir members got sick with COVID-19, three were hospitalized, and two died. Scientists use a value called the dispersion factor “k” which describes how much a disease will cluster, as among the Mount Vernon church choir members. The lower k is, the more transmission comes from a small number of people. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimate the k factor for the COVID-19 coronavirus is 0.1, so a small proportion of infected people are responsible for a large proportion of infections. One LSHTM researcher said, “Probably about 10% of cases lead to 80% of the spread.” As more states push to open their economies, there is more relaxation of physical distancing and face-covering guidelines, despite the fact that COVID-19 is not under control. There are clear indications that the pandemic is spiking as these states reopen (e.g., Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida). Dr. Anthony Fauci called the COVID-19 pandemic his “worst nightmare” and said, “it isn’t over yet.” The World Health Organization similarly has warned of a second peak of COVID-19 globally and cautioned against scaling back protective restrictions too quickly. Both the CDC Director and the Utah State Epidemiologist have warned there will be a second wave of coronavirus infections in the U.S. and in Utah this fall and winter at the same time as the annual flu season arrives. As states relax restrictions, public health experts say wide-scale contact tracing is the price that must be paid to reopen safely without reverting to the blanket shutdowns which caused the recession that put nearly 40 million Americans out of work. In Utah, the average age of those who have died from COVID-19 is 73.9 years: • • • 72.7% of these deaths have been from those who were 65 years old or older. 82% of the dead had at least one preexisting condition. 54% of the Utah COVID-19 deaths were male, 46% were female. 2. Problems with Coronavirus Testing in General Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, no one really knows how well many of the coronavirus screening tests work. When the new virus began spreading, the Food and Drug Administration 4 used its emergency powers to approve scores of quickly devised tests, based mainly on a small number of lab studies showing they could successfully detect the virus. Makers of these tests needed only to show that a test “may be effective” instead of the usual requirement to demonstrate “safety and effectiveness.” In addition, most COVID-19 testing companies in the U.S. don’t make public their data on their performance, including how often the tests falsely clear patients of infection or falsely detect the virus. That information is lacking for all but a few of the roughly 80 commercial screening tests available. A preliminary report by New York University found Abbott Laboratories’ rapid ID Now test missed between a third to one-half of coronavirus infections detected by a rival test in patients screened for the virus. Abbott’s test is used to screen President Trump, his staff and visitors to the White House. Abbott rejected the NYU findings, saying the researchers did not follow the instructions for using its test. The company pointed to other studies, including its own, that found the test successfully detects between 91% and 95% or more of coronavirus cases. However, that means – if the test were 95% accurate at detecting the coronavirus and is used on 1 million people – 50,000 people would be incorrectly told that they don’t have the virus and they would continue exposing uninfected people. 3. Problems with Some Coronavirus Testing in Utah TestUtah has a no-bid contract from the state of Utah to do some of the coronavirus testing for the state. An article in the June 13, 2020 issue of The New Yorker discusses problems in TestUtah’s testing: 1 • • • • The consortium of tech companies that created TestUtah had never done any prior testing (“none of us knew anything about lab testing” at the start of the effort). Some members of a Utah Department of Health coronavirus testing task force were concerned that TestUtah’s tests might be missing a significant number of people who were sick with COVID-19. The test kits came from Co-Diagnostics which before the Covid-19 pandemic had never done clinical diagnostic tests in the United States. TestUtah’s online assessment initially asked users whether they were allergic to hydroxychloroquine – a malaria and lupus drug – that President Trump praised as “like a miracle,” which has no demonstrated effects on COVID-19. 1 Robert P. Baird, How Utah’s Tech Industry Tried to Disrupt Coronavirus Testing, THE NEW YORKER (June 13, 2020), https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/how-utahs-tech-industry-tried-to-disrupt-coronavirustesting?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_061320&utm_campaign=auddev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6748024c17c104800e094&cndid=33662121&hasha=3e1f4cd5a32c9212a892a f4c3dafb0aa&hashb=fb105350be2e66458d9f2e17268f199b97c5beba&hashc=5fdbe0ff0c905693caf69efdecc32a95 ec567034697c1b1d50adcaf6845ddba2&esrc=bounceX&utm_term=TNY_Daily. 5 • • • • • • • The head of TestUtah sat on the board of Meds in Motion which had purchased 1800 pounds of hydroxychloroquine, some of which was sold to the state of Utah at elevated prices. TestUtah had difficulty obtaining essential testing materials, like swabs. Some of the TestUtah test samples apparently were mishandled in the field and therefore could not be tested by other labs in Utah doing coronavirus testing. TestUtah did not know it needed RNA extraction kits and reagents – which were not included in the Co-Diagnostic test kits – that were necessary to prepare specimens to be analyzed. The RNA extractor which TestUtah is using was designed for agricultural, not clinical use: it was designed to extract plant DNA, not viral RNA from human samples. In a 27-page report, federal regulators identified 19 separate deficiencies at the testing lab used by TestUtah. The director of the Utah Department of Health lab refused to send some of its test samples to the TestUtah lab, which she considered to be not properly validated. Shortly after her refusal, she was fired as the lab director and reassigned within the Health Department to a position for which she was unqualified. Nevertheless, Utah state officials have renewed the contract with TestUtah and specifically agreed that these federal violations will be a reason to terminate the contract only if the lab ends up losing its certification altogether. TestUtah, which has billed the state more than $7.6 million for testing and web services through May, will be paid at least another $2.6 million on a no-bid contract extension to run its testing through mid-July. Effective coronavirus testing has high levels of sensitivity, high levels of specificity, and low limits of detection. Sensitivity measures how well a test picks up true positive results. Specificity measures how well a test measures true negative results. Limits of detection measure the concentration of the coronavirus that must be present for a test to consistently show a positive result. A test with a high limit of detection can detect infected people who are extremely ill and are carrying a high viral load, but the test may not identify people who are at the beginning or end of their infection, when their viral load is lower, and therefore the test shows a false negative: these people are infected with coronavirus, but the test does not detect the virus, because the limit of detection is too high to detect the small concentration. Also, a coronavirus diagnostic test is not a momentary procedure: it is a process. A patient must be swabbed, the swab must be transported to a lab, a sample must be extracted and isolated from the swab, and the sample must be run through many cycles of a polymerase chain reaction to determine if the coronavirus is present in the sample. TestUtah’s tests have lower positive results for coronavirus that other labs in Utah doing coronavirus testing. This can be affected by who is being tested, how the samples are being collected in the field, how the samples are handled in the lab, and what kind of machine is doing the test. • If a cohort being tested has more healthy people than another cohort which has more infected people (as Test Utah claims), the first cohort will have lower positive results. 6 • • • If the collection tubes – in which the swabs are transported to the lab -- are not sealed correctly, there may be too little volume of fluid in a test to detect coronavirus and show a positive result. The samples in the TestUtah lab were being stored at room temperature despite CoDiagnostic’s recommendation that they be frozen until they are tested. The RNA extractor which TestUtah is using has a higher limit of detection than other extractors used by other labs, which may mean it fails to detect smaller concentrations of the coronavirus in a sample. 4. Risks of Some Disinfecting Chemicals and Methods 2 Businesses across the U.S. have begun intensive COVID-19 disinfection regimens, exposing those returning to disinfected buildings to chemicals that are largely untested for human health. Cleaning companies are selecting disinfectants from hundreds on List N, the compendium of products approved by the Environmental Protection Agency to kill the coronavirus, but this does not mean they are considered safe with regard to human health. Limited studies have raised concerns that some chemicals on the EPA list might increase the risk of neurological and dermatological problems, as well as respiratory ailments like asthma or have notable reproductive effects. And these risks increase with the increase in exposure to these chemicals. Some disinfection methods may also pose risks. Cleaning companies sometimes use electrostatic sprayers – machines which positively charge and aerosolize small droplets of cleaning solution. Spraying is fast, and the positive charge allows the solution to stick to surfaces. But very few chemicals on the EPA list are approved for aerosolizing or misting or fogging, because the EPA is still researching whether sprayers and foggers are effective against Covid-19. Enclosed areas with poor ventilation increase exposure to disinfectants which, for a small percentage of people, poses a serious risk. Up to 10% of people – including asthmatics, migraine sufferers, those with allergies or immune disorders or suppressed immune systems – may experience symptoms such as memory loss, trouble concentrating, mood swings, irritability, headaches, seizures, nausea and vomiting. 2 Rust to Disinfect U.S. Offices Has Some Health Experts Worried, BLOOMBERG LAW (June 15, 2020), https://www.bloomberglaw.com/exp/eyJjdHh0IjoiSU5OVyIsImlkIjoiMDAwMDAxNzItYjc2Yy1kYWM4LWE3Zjc tYmY3ZmRiZDUwMDAwIiwic2lnIjoiQ0FSaE96Vzc5TkpOcENlTm5PdUlKOUwzT3dVPSIsInRpbWUiOiIxNTk yMjQ0MzAyIiwidXVpZCI6InBaSHFMTXpiZGtVY0tGWFFieWswUlE9PUxXbC9QYTYyY3hFWkZUNjZreGFw b1E9PSIsInYiOiIxIn0=?usertype=External&bwid=00000172-b76c-dac8-a7f7bf7fdbd50000&qid=6924757&cti=LSCH&uc=1320028559&et=SINGLE_ARTICLE&emc=bcvnw_cn%3A6&bna_ news_filter=true. 7 5. Legal Issues Involved in Managing Demonstrations and Protests on Campus 3 There have been numerous marches, demonstrations and protests in Salt Lake City and elsewhere around the state, nation and world, including one on the steps and in front of the Park Building on the University of Utah campus. It is foreseeable that such an event could occur at SJQ, which raises legal issues of how to manage such an event which implicates freedom of speech and lawful assembly. Questions related to freedom of speech and lawful assembly on college and university campuses are difficult. The First Amendment and its principles support free speech and assembly. Students, faculty, and administrators may express their views on controversial issues. And on most campuses, outside speakers are likewise welcome to share their views on provocative issues. At the same time, some members of a campus community may object to speech they find offensive or threatening. They assert, for example, a right to be free from exposure to hate speech on a campus that values inclusion and civility. Managing this tension – between individual freedom of expression and the expectation of civility and personal safety – can be a difficult balance. Colleges and universities have long relied on institutional policies to help administrators manage foreseeable issues related to public spaces, facility use, registration, demonstrations, crowd capacity, safety, scheduling conflicts, and security. In the time of the COVID19 pandemic, oncampus assembly policies also may mandate face coverings and physical distancing. In a public demonstration, protestors – who are exercising their free speech and assembly rights – must comply with the order of a police officer or else risk arrest. An officer has the right to order a protestor to move on, as well as the right to arrest a protestor who, even non-violently, refuses to comply. A protester is not entitled to argue with an officer about whether the officer has lawful authority to order the protestor to do a particular thing. The place and time to challenge the officer’s command, and whether that command was lawful, is in a courtroom after the demonstration. Types of Time/Place/Manner (“T/P/M”) restrictions on the First Amendment’s rights of free speech/free press and assembly/petition include: • • • • • • • Permit requirements for outside speakers Notice time periods Time limits for each speaker or group Excluded periods (e.g., during mid-term or final exams) Student sponsorship required for outside speakers Sharing the cost for security, but not based on the message content Face coverings and physical distancing required for protecting against health risks There are four types of spaces on campus which have differing types of T/P/M restrictions: • 3 Traditional public forum, where reasonable T/P/M restrictions are subject to strict judicial scrutiny See, e.g., Ballard Spahr, COVID-19 and the Education Industry, Part III (June 10, 2020). 8 • • • Designated public forum (e.g., a “free speech zone”), where reasonable T/P/M restrictions are subject to strict judicial scrutiny (same as for a traditional public forum) Limited public forum (available only to a subset of the public), where reasonable T/P/M restrictions are subject to intermediate judicial scrutiny, and where non-student outside speakers may be restricted or excluded, if the restrictions or exclusions are “reasonable” and not based on the content of the message Non-public forum, where speech may be prohibited to preserve the functional purpose of the non-public space Based on case law, the following places on campus are considered a traditional public forum: • • • • • Street or sidewalk Public square or park Student Union and related plaza U.S. Post Office Army ROTC Office T/P/M restrictions are justifiable if: they are content-neutral (i.e., not based on the speaker’s message); there is a significant government interest (e.g., maintaining public safety); they are narrowly tailored; and there are ample alternative means of communicating the speaker’s message to the target audience. The government bears the burden of justifying the T/P/M restrictions that are imposed. Best practices about imposing T/P/M restrictions include: • • • • • • Have updated campus-use and demonstration policies Educate students about these policies Apply all such policies even-handedly and neutrally Engage students in the decision-making process about imposing T/P/M restrictions Coordinate in advance with on-campus and off-campus law enforcement agencies Consistently apply policies, and not in reaction to the speaker’s message content 6. Recommended T/P/M Resources about Managing Civil Disobedience: Steven D. Zansberg, Protests/Demonstrations on Campus, BALLARD SPAHR (June 10, 2020), https://response.ballardspahr.com/661/6141/uploads/part-iii-covid-19-and-the-educationindustry.pdf and https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/console/EventConsoleApollo.jsp?&eventid=2388528& sessionid=1&username=&partnerref=&format=fhaudio&mobile=&flashsupportedmobiledevice= &helpcenter=&key=93C0C9090111198136EE9321BA945287&newConsole=false&nxChe=true &text_language_id=en&playerwidth=748&playerheight=526&eventuserid=311105932&content type=A&mediametricsessionid=267332941&mediametricid=3378630&usercd=311105932&mo de=launch. Hannah Ross & Justin Kavalir, Key Considerations in Safely Managing Campus Events in 2018, NACUA Notes, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY ATTORNEYS (June 13, 9 2018), https://www.smu.edu/-/media/Site/LegalAffairs/OLA-Briefing-Papers/KeyConsiderations-in-Safely-Managing-Campus-Events-in-2018.pdf?la=en NACUA February 2018 CLE Workshop Thinking Ahead: Anticipating and Planning for Disruptive Speech and Demonstrations, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY ATTORNEYS FREEDOM OF SPEECH ON CAMPUS: GUIDELINES FOR GOVERNING BOARDS AND INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS (AGB Press, 2017), https://agb.org/sites/default/files/u27335/report_2017_free_speech.pdf 7. COVID-19 Effects on SJQ Operations The University of Utah and SJQ are actively planning for in-person operations for Fall semester beginning August 24, 2020. In the meantime, SJQ’s summer courses are being taught remotely. The University remains in the Orange Phase of campus operations in which onsite research is restricted to limited research activities. The University’s face covering policy is in effect now and applies to everyone who comes on campus: https://returntocampus.utah.edu/#face-coverings. In order to return to campus safely, the University has developed specific trainings for students as well as staff and faculty to complete. Safety training will be required for all members of the University community before they return to campus. The training includes information on proper sanitation, hygiene and social distancing practices. After the training is completed University community members must sign an attestation stating they will adhere to all safety protocols. The faculty and staff training can be found at: https://utah.bridgeapp.com/learner/courses/ff2bed4e/enroll. The student training is still in development. The Return to Campus Safely attestation includes an agreement that a person’s temperature may be checked daily upon returning to campus and if temperature is at or above 100.4, the person will not be allowed to work on campus. SJQ is authorized by the University to create guidelines to check temperature daily on campus, or to require law building occupants to take their temperature daily at home prior to coming on campus. NALP conducted a survey of the summer plans of law firms and law schools. 359 of 391 offices surveyed said they were going to have a summer associate program., but only on average for 5 or 6 weeks, down from 10 weeks last summer. 55% said their programs would be virtual, 40% said theirs would be hybrid programs, and only 5% said theirs were going to be entirely in person. Many firms have not yet decided how many hours a week they would require their summer associates to work. 155 law schools were surveyed by NALP: • About half said they had already moved their traditional summer OCI dates to January or February 2021. 10 • • 25% of 2021 students who had summer opportunities had those opportunities revoked. Many law schools are providing those students with research or pro bono options to help them build practical professional skills this summer. Virtually all career development offices at these law schools will be working from home when their law schools begin in-person operations for the Fall semester. 8. Electronic COVID-19 Contact Tracing on Campus The University’s Return to Campus Safely plan includes contact tracing. Contact tracing is the process by which a person who is infected with COVID-19 or exposed to the coronavirus has the contacts they have made with others traced in order to know who else is at risk and thereby prevent further spread of the disease. Manual contact tracing can be a cumbersome, timeconsuming, and incomplete, e.g., if the infected individual does not know the identity of the persons with whom they have had contact. Utah corporation Blyncsy holds the U.S. patent for Electronic Device Contact Tracing for Contagions (US10,198,779), The founder of Blyncsy, Mark Pittman, is an MBA-JD graduate of the University and SJQ. Blyncsy’s technology uses cell phones as an electronic method of determining who has been exposed to the coronavirus. Using the University’s existing Wi-Fi networks, which are made up of many access points around campus, Blyncsy’s contact tracing system can identify the anonymous addresses generated by cell phones. Through an opt-in provision, users who access the University’s Wi-Fi network can opt-in to be notified if they were potentially exposed by an infected person. This allows the University to identify all of the MAC addresses that were in proximity to the infected user’s cell phone and the approximate length of exposure. Here’s how electronic device contract tracing could work on our campus: • • • • Utilize University routers which are already deployed across campus. Faculty, staff and students who have been tested positive for COVID-19 report their test information and campus whereabouts, as well as opt in to provide the MAC address details from their cell phones. University IT and Blyncsy find other devices of people who were exposed by the person who tested positive and notify those individuals to get tested. This monitors the path of the spread of COVID-19 around campus, through a building or to a campus hotspot. 9. CDO COVID-19/Recession-Related Activities To respond to the effects of COVID-19, the SJQ CDO is engaging in many recession-related activities, including: • • • CDO staff Zoom conferences on MWF at 11:00 am Weekly CDO recession/economic-analysis memoranda to the SJQ Dean Daily coordination with the SJQ executive team 11 • • • • • • • • • • Participation with SJQ in-person operations planning committee and its weekly Zoom meetings Advising students about job postings; FAQs; curricular advice; online interviewing best practices; summer job opportunities; effects on graduation ceremonies, summer school, and the deadlines in the Utah Supreme Court diploma-privilege-admission order Coordination with Andrew Braxton about Supervised Practice opportunities for 2020 Graduates Online student engagement and culture building research Student communications: student surveys; individual student outreach calls Employer communications: employer surveys; employer outreach calls, especially about hiring plans and the benefits of the Utah Supreme Court diploma-admission order In a separate memorandum, the CDO has identified issues to be discussed in determining how in-person operations can be responsibly conducted at our law school The CDO is evaluating how to grow the MLS program; The CDO is evaluating micro-credentialing live and taped courses (and whether these courses can/should be offered as MLS electives) The CDO has completed most individual exit interviews with SJQ 2020 grads to obtain employment information to be reported to the ABA and NALP and to identify any assistance specific grads need in finding a job 12