February 25, 2021

Dear UM Family,

As we approach a full year of a COVID-influenced reality, I remain steadfast in my gratitude to you, UM’s hard-working employees, for the tremendous feats we have collectively accomplished. We succeeded in welcoming students back to campus to live – and more importantly, learn – in a safe and effective manner, and we did this despite numerous unprecedented challenges.

While there is much to recognize as successful, I also know that this year has tested our shared resilience while simultaneously requiring constant adaptation, flexibility and hard work.

In recognition of all of this, we will hold Employee Wellness Days on March 4, March 16 and April 2. With no regularly scheduled courses for these days, my goal is that these UM Employee Wellness Days will be restorative, educational and, hopefully, fun.

Each day will be organized around a theme – wellness, gratitude and connection to our beautiful surroundings, respectively – and include a wide range of offerings. I encourage you to look at the schedule and work with your manager to determine those offerings in which you’d like to participate. These are University-sponsored activities for the benefit of our employees, so the use of any type of leave is not required to participate.  

The current UM Employee Wellness Day schedule is online. Events and details will continue to be added, so please check back regularly. It is important to note that many offerings have a limited number of openings to ensure the safety of UM employees. As we know that opportunities to connect with colleagues in-person have been limited this year, we will offer firepit reservations on all three days.

Thank you for your efforts and for all you continue to do to serve Montana's future leaders. I am grateful.

Seth