Bowling Green State University President Rodney Rogers has provided further guidance about how campus could function if students returned to campus in August.
In a letter to the university community Thursday, Rogers stated: “We are reinventing a new normal, which will necessitate adapting course delivery, classroom management and configuration, curriculum offerings, residence hall safeguards, student life programming and many operations and functions across the University.”
The university administration is continuing to work on “a multi-phase plan” for faculty, staff, and students to return to campus.
The protocols spelled out include a process for employees to use if they are at risk of “severe illness from COVID-19.” The university will use the Center for Disease Control’s definition in those cases. The process for applying will be announced in early June.
Faculty Senate approved a resolution in April that called on the administration to allow faculty members deemed at risk, or who have family members at risk, to continue to teach online until a vaccine is developed.
The protocol also states the university will work with the Wood County Department of Health to “conduct health monitoring, contact tracing, testing surveillance, and … to assist with quarantine and isolation protocols.”
All employees will be required to wear face coverings in shared and public indoor settings and outdoors when physical distancing is not possible. They are required to practice physical distancing “in classrooms, common spaces and outdoors.”
The protocols also call for employees to undergo CDC training and to monitor their own health. “Anyone who has a diagnosis or symptoms relating to COVID-19 must notify the University and not physically report to our campuses.”
Facilities on campus will be assessed, deep cleaned, retrofitted or reconfigured as needed.
In a letter to its members, the BGSU-Faculty Association called on the administration to plan for the return with complete transparency “to prevent confusion and distress among the faculty, who must be fully included in the decision-making processes that will directly impact them in terms of their health, livelihoods, and professional contributions.”
This extends to the university’s response to the financial crisis.
The letter states the university should use the expertise of faculty to address these issues, and find alternative actions if necessary.
“We challenge the BGSU administration to promote a climate of transparency and collaboration by sharing budgetary and public health planning information with all BGSU faculty so that we can better understand the rationale behind administrative, financial, and campus safety decisions and suggest alternative approaches when they are feasible and appropriate.”
On Friday morning, BGSU-FA President David Jackson wrote in a text message: “The faculty look forward to working with the University to solve the problems caused by the pandemic. Union leadership and the administration have a good working relationship and we want to keep it that way.”
– David Dupont, BG Independent News
