COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions

Northeastern has designated the Student Emergency Fund for this effort. Details on donating or applying for assistance are available on the Student Emergency Fund site.

The best defense against the spread of COVID-19 and its variants is vaccination, along with continued hand hygiene, masking and social distancing. Student Health Services (SHS) has created a webpage that addresses illness protection and prevention. SHS is making updates as the situation evolves. Any student, faculty or staff member who has questions or concerns about their risk or condition is welcome to contact Health Services at (773) 442-5800 or health-services@neiu.edu. Early information shows that some people are at higher risk of getting very sick from this illness. Those at higher risk include:

• People over 60 years of age. The risk increases significantly thereafter and escalates with age, with persons over age 80 in the highest risk category.
• People, regardless of age, with underlying health conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, or chronic lung diseases like COPD, as well as those with severely weakened immune systems.

If you are sick, follow your physician’s advice. Employees should inform their supervisors and students should contact their professors.

If you are not sick, you should monitor yourself for fever, shortness of breath or cough for 14 days after the last day you were exposed to someone with COVID-19. Again, if you are sick and show symptoms, you should stay home and away from other people. Contact your physician and follow their orders.

The first step in determining whether a test is advised is to contact your primary care provider (PCP). If you do not have insurance or a PCP, testing is still available. Here are some recommended resources:

• State of Illinois
• City of Chicago
• Swedish Hospital drive-through testing
• Erie Family Health Centers
• Heartland Health Centers
• Community Organized Relief Effort

Rapid testing is available on a fee-for-service basis from Physicians Immediate Care.

A student with a positive test should notify Student Health Services at health-services@neiu.edu. An employee with a diagnosis should notify Human Resources at (773) 442-5200.

The University is in touch with state and local health authorities every day. In the event a member of the Northeastern community tests positive for COVID-19, we work closely with the health authorities to determine next steps.

In order to minimize COVID-19 transmission, Northeastern has kept face-to-face instruction to a minimum and asked most employees to work remotely, among many other precautions. Northeastern is limiting access to all facilities. Disinfection cleaning is taking place. The Nest residence hall also has increased its cleaning practices.

The University is distributing the following fliers in common areas:

• Cover your cough
• Stop the spread of germs
• Social distancing
• Wash your hands

Goldie Bucks will not be affected. Any monies placed on your Get Funds account remains yours to use in the cafeteria and both Cafe Descartes locations when open.

Please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@neiu.edu or (773) 442-4357. University Technology Services has also provided a guide to the Google Suite apps that can enhance your coordination, collaboration and communication.

The Help Desk is available via helpdesk@neiu.edu or (773) 442-4357 during normal hours (9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) remotely by UTS personnel. Please call the Help Desk for assistance with business-critical issues, especially if you believe that more than one person is affected by the problem.

The best way to obtain help for software problems, application issues or service requests is to open a ticket with the Help Desk ticketing system, TeamDynamics. The simplest way to do that is to log in to NEIUport with your netID and password, and click on the Help Desk icon, which will open the TeamDynamics login page. Again, use your netID and password. For password resets, you can also call the Help Desk and request that a ticket be opened for you. A UTS staff member will contact the caller by phone during normal business hours. Alternatively, you may also email the Help Desk at helpdesk@neiu.edu.

Most UTS staff members are working remotely but can come to campus to address critical issues if necessary.

It is possible to access most NEIU resources externally. However, access to financial systems, for example, requires that a secured network connection is used, called Virtual Private Network or VPN. To request VPN access, managers need to open a ticket with the Help Desk, listing the names and netIDs of employees requiring VPN. Please note that the number of simultaneous VPN connections is limited, so please connect to VPN only for those functions that require it (for example, access to Banner financials, Novell shared drives, and so on). Please log off of VPN as soon as you have completed tasks that require it.

It is possible to have your office phone forwarded to a home, cell or other phone number. Managers may request temporary forwarding capability for phones in their department by opening a ticket with the Help Desk that includes the necessary extensions and netIDs. UTS will enable forwarding for those phones. It is up to the individual employee to forward their phone before leaving the office. Please use only local phone numbers when forwarding phones, generally area codes 773, 847, 312, 630, 872, 224, 708, 464 and 331. Consider disabling voicemail on your home phone or personal cell phone if that number is used for forwarding.

There are two ways to do this:

1.  Dial (773) 442-4800. When the greeting starts, press the star (*) key. Enter your ID (phone extension) and PIN when prompted.

2.  Dial your 10-digit desk number.  When the greeting starts, press the star (*) key.  Enter your ID (phone extension) and PIN when prompted.

NEIU employees have access to Nmail Hangouts Meet for online conferencing. This tool is available via Nmail accounts on computers through Chrome and Firefox or via a Google Hangouts Meet app on mobile devices.