Restart Plan Updates Shared

**Please note that since this plan update was first released, changes have been made to the move-in process. Please see What’s New on the restart site for the most up-to-date information on housing.

Interim President Marcia J. White shared the following update with Saint Rose students today regarding the restart plan.

For all the details of the plan, check out the What’s New page on the restart website.

Dear Students,

In less than a month, we will begin an academic year like no other. There is a lot to look forward to, yet it is important that we accept now that the way we live and learn this fall will not be what it was in the past. Campus life will be different, and for the health and wellness of each other and the community that surrounds our campus, it must be. We will make the best of our Saint Rose campus life this Fall while being smart and intentional in how we interact. We will learn from this experience, as we take actions every day for the protection of each other, for the common good of our campus, and our surrounding neighborhood. One of these is that we will end fall in-person instruction at Thanksgiving to limit the potential of the virus spreading after everyone returns from celebrating with family and friends. The remaining instruction will be conducted remotely. Students need to plan to leave on November 24, and return to campus for the start of the spring semester in January. We are working on reducing the fall bills for resident students to account for the two weeks you will not be living on campus.

It is more important now than ever that we take our mission to serve the dear neighbor to heart. That goes for all of us—students and employees. Our ability to continue to operate on campus this fall is only as strong as our commitment to practices that science has shown will reduce the spread of COVID-19. The most critical of these steps is to wear a face covering at all times unless you are in your room or car. Every time, all the time. If you do not have a mask when you enter a campus building or a classroom, you will be asked to leave until you can return with a face covering. We all must also practice social distancing which means being six feet away from each other, wash our hands frequently, and use hand sanitizer at one of the hundreds of stations located throughout the campus.

We have many new restart plan details to share, but I will only cover the major items in this message. Please see our restart plan website, where we have updated all of our plans – from environmental safety to academics to housing and dining. For quick reference, you can find all of the most recent updates for every area under “What’s New.”

Additional details will be emailed today by Residence Life (including housing assignments) and Academic Affairs.

Here are some of the major points:

• The Fall 2020 undergraduate and graduate course listings have been updated to reflect whether a course is being delivered online (asynchronous or synchronous) or in a hybrid format. Each course description indicates more details on how the classes will be delivered, and each course has been designed to maximize the learning experience for students. I thank each of the academic teams, and all of the faculty who have been involved in this incredibly complex work. This new schedule will enable the academic buildings to have fewer classes at any one time, and to de-densify the campus overall. Given the strong response from our students for at least some in-person instruction, nearly all students will be able to have that experience in some of their courses. If you want to make changes to your course schedule based on a desired delivery format, the online course listings are searchable by type of delivery. You then have until the add/drop deadline of August 28 at 4:30 p.m. to make changes to your schedule, though it is best to complete these changes earlier than that. Your advisors will work with you to keep you on track with your degree programs, so reach out to them for guidance.

• As we view those living in our residence halls as family units, we will be requiring proof of a negative COVID-19 test when students move into the residence halls. The test must have been conducted within one week of a student’s assigned move-in date. We will not require testing for the rest of our community population, unless someone presents as symptomatic or is flagged through the daily health screening questionnaire. Testing will be available on campus at the College’s Health Services office or at one of several Albany locations.

• New York State has a travel advisory list of states for which there are travel restrictions due to the continued spread of the coronavirus. Under New York State law, those arriving at Saint Rose from the listed states (the list is updated regularly), as well as students coming from outside the United States, must quarantine for 14 days. Meals will be arranged for residential students who wish to quarantine on campus. Details about the process will be provided to you in a housing assignment email today and are available on the restart website.

• Requirements for face coverings, social distancing, and not participating in gatherings of more than 49 people fall under the Community Responsibility Policy of the Student Responsibility and Social Conduct Code. There will be reminders on your course syllabi and a place to sign off on this acknowledgment on the daily health questionnaire, which will be administered via the Navigate app for undergraduate students and via a daily email for graduate students. Failure to comply with the wearing of face coverings in designated spaces and social distancing will result in a referral to the Office of Student Conduct. Consequences can range from a warning to an educational sanction to potential removal from classes or the residence halls.

• Undergraduate students will need to download the Navigate Student app before coming to campus so they are prepared to complete the daily health questionnaire. Students can download the app here. If you have trouble with this, please contact student development at studentdevelopment@strose.edu.

• Testing will be available at the College’s Health Services office for students who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and quarantine protocols are outlined in the restart plan. Students who must quarantine will be able to work with their faculty to continue their coursework.

• Visitors to campus will be required to fill out a health screening BEFORE they arrive, and will be required to wear a face covering. If visitors do not have a face covering, they will be provided one or will be asked to leave the campus.

• All campus buildings will now only be accessible by card access at all times. You must use your Saint Rose ID to enter any campus building. This is to limit public access to our buildings. Students and employees will all be able to access academic/classroom buildings, as well as the EAC, Saint Joseph Hall, etc., with their ID cards. New students, be sure you’ve uploaded your photo at: https://myphoto.strose.edu/, so your ID will be ready for you when you arrive.

• Aside from helpers on move-in day, the only people allowed in each residence hall during the semester will be the residents of that hall. This is to keep the population limited in each residence environment in case contact tracing is ever necessary.

• We are taking many steps to reduce density in common spaces, including the removal of excess furniture in classrooms, lounges, and other gathering areas, and taking offline every other computer in the labs and every other sink in the large residence hall bathrooms. Whether standing at a sink, studying in the library, or working in a lab, you must stand at least six feet away from the nearest person.

• Classrooms and other high traffic spaces will be cleaned thoroughly twice a day, and commonly touched items such as door handles and faucets, will be sanitized multiple times a day.  During the custodial staff’s night shift, the high-traffic buildings and all classrooms will be cleaned using a new sanitizing machine by a specially trained custodian wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). The new sanitizing machines use electrostatic technology to sanitize hard-to-reach surfaces, including the backs and undersides of chairs, desks and teaching stations, and any soft surfaces removing bacteria and viruses in 2 minutes or fewer. The sanitizing machines are also being used to clean all residence halls before students move-in.

• Classrooms will be continuously stocked with paper towels and disinfectants. Much like supermarkets provide cleaning supplies so customers can wipe down their shopping carts before use, we are asking our community to do the same before they use their desks, etc.

• Knowing that community is vital to life at Saint Rose, we are looking at safe ways to hold some in-person student events and will work with students on those efforts.

Please take a moment to review all of the updates on the website. We will hold a meeting with students and their families to answer questions about the restart plan tomorrow, Tuesday, July 28, at 7 p.m. via Zoom at this link: https://strose.zoom.us/j/96643425734.

I look forward to seeing you this fall. Look for me around campus. I’ll be the redhead wearing a Saint Rose mask, and as the new interim president, I can’t wait to meet each of you. Have a healthy, happy, and blessed summer until then. We will have an exceptional Saint Rose experience this fall if we all remember to care for each other.

Sincerely,

Marcia