Return to Campus Letter #4 Revising our Campus Reentry Plan and Expanding the Reentry Review Board
Return to Campus Letter #4
April 21, 2021
Dear Brooklyn College Community,
This Return to Campus Letter is the fourth in a series designed to help you understand our preparations for the fall and highlight our attention to health and safety in that work.
In my last letter, I discussed the importance of ventilation in enclosed spaces on campus. In this letter, I will discuss the work we are engaged in to revise the Brooklyn College Campus Reentry Plan, formally approved by CUNY last August. As we approach a gradual return to campus next fall, we are reassessing and amending the Plan to reflect the knowledge and experience we have gained over the past year, as well as changed circumstances on the ground.
Our Reentry Review Board (RRB) is the key team working to assess and revise the Brooklyn College Campus Reentry Plan. The RRB includes two delegates from the Professional Staff Congress: Assistant Director of Admissions Larry Bosket and Technology Manager of the Film Department Kelly Spivey. In alphabetical order, it also includes our Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Alan Gilbert, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Anne Lopes, former Chair of the Faculty Council Campus Planning Committee Professor Ryan Murelli, Director of Environmental Health and Safety Carrie Sadovnik, Chief Legal Counsel Tony Thomas, and Dean of the School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences Peter Tolias. We convene the RRB weekly and I chair its meetings.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic moved the campus mostly to remote teaching and working, the RRB has been hard at work. It helped develop our original Campus Reentry Plan; devised rules and procedures for essential workers on campus; projected PPE usage across campus; devised protocols for entering the campus safely; evaluated multiple requests to enter campus; developed research safety plan templates for laboratory re-openings; developed weighted metrics for assessing the priority of research laboratories; prioritized research return; assessed safety plans for research laboratories; assessed safety plans for hybrid art, theater, film, and music classes; and assessed safety plans for the distribution of equipment, library books, food, and other resources on or directly adjacent to campus.
The RRB is now focused on our gradual return to campus that begins in the fall. Among many other tasks, the RRB is monitoring the work in Facilities and Environmental Health and Safety to assess classrooms and other interior spaces across campus for capacity, ventilation, and safety; developing plans to enhance the transparency of that work; helping prioritize academic and staff spaces; reviewing and developing rules for field work, internships, recitals, and human subject research; and assessing the variety of options for hybrid courses. As it has since the beginning of the pandemic, the RRB also continues to monitor COVID-19 infection rates in the surrounding areas and across the borough to protect the safety of the campus.
The RRB is also adding two new members to the team to enhance Faculty Council input: Professor of Communication Arts, Sciences and Disorders Dorothy Neave-DiToro is a member of the Campus Planning Committee, and Professor of History Gunja SenGupta is a member of the Master Planning Committee. We look forward to adding a student representative as well. The RRB is the Central body that manages the process for our return to campus. If you have ideas, questions or suggestions for our safe return, please note them here.
Don’t forget: Thursday, April 22, the Faculty Council Campus Planning Committee is hosting a “Return to Campus Community Consultation” for staff and faculty from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Register in advance.
I will issue a Return to Campus Letter #5 next week. Please remember: All New Yorkers (and non-New Yorkers who work or study in the State) age 16 and older are eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccination is free, and you can schedule an appointment here.
Yours sincerely,
Michelle J. Anderson
President, Brooklyn College
