[Teaching-Faculty] Answering questions about Fall 2021 Classroom teaching

[Office of the Provost/VPAA]

Colleagues,

I have been fielding a number of private emails from faculty teaching f2f
this fall, and I thought it might be helpful to send out a note that shares
information more widely than the individual responses I have sent.  Moving
forward, please send any questions you may have to
provost-office at plattsburgh.edu, and I will answer them as quickly and
accurately as I can.

Here are some questions that have come to me privately:

1.) Should there be content added to my syllabus related to COVID safety
requirements this fall?

I would recommend that anyone teaching in-person classes add language that
confirms our COVID19 fall 2021 restart policies (posted on our homepage,
tab at the top) with specific focus on the classroom expectations:

https://www.plattsburgh.edu/covid-19/index.html  From my perspective,
including this language on the syllabus and reminding students of the
college's and your expectations for compliance would be valuable
reinforcement from teaching faculty.

2.) Are faculty members responsible for enforcing social distancing within
the classroom?

Since vaccination status (or exemption status) is protected information,
employees (and faculty members) cannot ask whether an individual is
vaccinated or not.  Faculty will not have the information they would need
to take any such responsibility in the classroom, and so the answer is
"no."  Faculty are not responsible for enforcing social distancing in the
classroom.

We are all required to mask *indoors* beginning on Monday, 8/23/21 and will
continue to do so through the first two weeks of the classes (per an
earlier announcement).  We have the ability to dial back on masking for
vaccinated individuals if our local infection rate is low.  The infection
rate has been rising locally (and yet it is still quite low), and with so
many individuals returning to campus from many corners of NY (and outside
of NY), the decision was made to begin the semester with maximum caution
around masking.

If you have students who are not masking properly during class, University
Police can be contacted at Ext. 5555.  This would also be the case about
anyone whom you encounter inside buildings on campus.

3.) Can I safely keep an office hour appointment with one student in my
office?

If your office will not accommodate 6 feet of social distancing, and the
student has not voluntarily shared their status, you should only meet in
your office if 6 feet of social distancing can be managed and both student
and faculty member remain masked.  If there is a large conference room
available that faculty can reserve for office hours, this could be an
option because of the additional space.  Additionally, we have Zoom access
once again.

4.) What about department meetings?  Can the department faculty meet
together in our conference room?

Only if you could assure the availability of 6 feet of social distancing
for any faculty member who may be present who needs to socially distance.
As with last year, we have access to Zoom for meetings when we cannot be
confident about meeting college safety policies.

5.) Do we know what percentage of students are currently vaccinated?

Students must be vaccinated to reside on campus.  We have good data on this
population of students: 72% of them have provided documentation of being
vaccinated and another 12% are "in process."  Our Housing office is
reaching out constantly to those who have not responded to earlier requests
for their status, and most definitely, as students arrive on campus, they
will not be able to access housing without evidence of vaccination.

6.) Why were the classroom enrollments set with 3 feet of social distancing?

We had to make a decision about the classroom enrollment caps in early
spring--long before recent guidance from the CDC or SUNY.  At that time,
the only guidance in place was for K-12 settings, where one would not
expect as much personal responsibility for sitting in a particular space
during classes because the students are not adults.  While we have returned
all of the seats that were in storage to our classrooms, the classroom
enrollments were retained for 3 feet of social distancing.  In terms of my
provost colleagues at other Comprehensives, they have reported that all of
their classes are set up for full capacity--no restrictions at all in
number.  I am glad that we planned for the 3 feet and lower caps because
with the high vaccination percentages we expect, there should not be
challenges in our classrooms for social distancing, when needed.

7.)  Point of information that may be helpful: Last year, there was only a
single infection transmission that we are aware of in a class, where
students were working on a project with a faculty member, close-up and
un-masked.  The classroom was not a place of transmission.  Transmission
took place in sorority activities, fraternity activities, athletes, living
spaces, and socializing.

Some other information that is relevant to our fall start-up:  SUNY has
just this week released a Vaccination Management Tool that will gather
vaccination status for every enrolled student in the SUNY system.  Up to
this point this summer, our Health Center has been gathering information,
but this was by voluntary submission.  The SUNY tool will now enable our
campus to communicate with every enrolled student here at Plattsburgh, and
current information will be uploaded and cross-checked with NY State Health
vaccination data.  This management system will help us access updated
vaccination data on students who will not be living on campus.

Our campus has also planned 4 vaccination clinics for students who did not
get vaccinated before they arrive: 8/20, 8/26, 8/27, and 9/1.  These
clinics are planned for various times of the days to maximize access to
students who want to take advantage of the clinics.

Per the posted policy online, anyone who is unvaccinated (students,
faculty, staff) must be tested weekly here on campus.

I hope this information is helpful to you all.  We are in new territory,
once again, just like last fall, where we have to make decisions that we
have not made before with information that is not always full or clear
enough.  Please know that I and the entire leadership team are doing our
best to take care of everyone on our campus this fall while still providing
an excellent learning and campus experience for our students.

Sincerely,

Anne
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