[Teaching-Faculty] Additional Faculty questions about Fall 2021 Re-start

[Office of the Provost]

Colleagues,
Here are a few questions that have come to me today from faculty:

1.)  Can faculty choose to be periodically tested, even if they are
vaccinated?

I spoke with the President about this this afternoon, and this will need to
come to his Cabinet on Tuesday.  Will update you all when I have a firm
answer.  My perspective is that we should support this when the employee
(this might include others in addition to faculty) is engaged in
student-facing work.  I am aware that we need to keep an eye on costs, and
so we cannot open this up to every employee, independent of how much
student-contact they have.  It would not make sense, for example, for back
office employees who work in  purchase processing, or faculty teaching
fully remote, to have access to this testing option.  My hope is that we
work out something that does support this request.

2.) If/when masks become optional, can a faculty member require masks and
social distancing in their own office space?

>From my perspective, this would be fine.  It is your personal working
space--not a public classroom where college-wide policies will guide
practices for all students and faculty.

On this same topic, a faculty member asked if they can require masks, even
if the masking requirement is lifted for the classrooms.  The current
answer to this question is "no," and I can confirm that this position is
the case across all of the comprehensives.  If a decision is made based on
current health and safety guidance from SUNY, the CDC, and our local county
health department that masks are no longer required to meet health and
safety standards, we will be expected to comply with the decision.

To be honest, I don't see unmasking happening quickly on our campus.  There
is too much oversight of student status that will need to take place in the
first few weeks that must guide all decisions.

One plan you may be interested in that was just decided today: All
students, unvaccinated and vaccinated, will be required to test in the
first week of classes.  This will give us an important baseline to work
from in further decision making.  One of the things I have been thinking
about is our incoming class of first year students.  They had a full 1 1/2
years of their high schools profoundly impacted by COVID, masking, and
toggling with some frequency between in-person teaching and remote
instruction.  None of this is ideal for teaching or learning.  We all yearn
for more normalcy in the classroom.  I want so much for those incoming 1st
years to enjoy this academic year, even though it is hardly going to be
"normal."

I empathize with the anxiety many among our campus are feeling about the
return to a much more populated campus and greatly increased face to face
teaching.  Let's keep the conversations going.

All for today  . . .
Anne



ANNE HERZOG, PhD
(She, Her, Hers)
Provost
Vice President for Academic Affairs
802 Kehoe
101 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
(o) 518-564-5402
plattsburgh.edu

<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
Virus-free.
www.avg.com
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ls.plattsburgh.edu/pipermail/teaching-faculty/attachments/20210819/3f33090e/attachment.htm>