Published: July 2, 2020


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Announced at the end of May, the CU Boulder community is making preparations for a COVID-19-ready campus for the fall semester, with classes beginning on Aug. 24. Three groups were established to assist in the implementation of the听Road Map to Fall 2020:

  • COVID-19-Ready Campus Team
  • Academic Instruction Team
  • Resource Alignment Team

See other Road Map Updates

June 25

June 18

These teams are hard at work building the infrastructure and procedures that will be necessary to mitigate risk and facilitate research and teaching this fall. As part of this iterative process, the teams are committed to sharing regular updates on their progress.

News from the COVID-19-Ready Campus Team

Housing

Research

  • The Office of Research and Innovation is preparing for a transition to the expanded phase of its Return to Research plan by mid-July. The expanded phase (phase 2) will mainly entail an increase in the hours and activities that researchers approved to come to campus will be able to spend in their buildings. The return to campus and fieldwork PDF document has been updated to outline the criteria for the expanded phase and is on the RIO site.

Libraries

  • The University Libraries are tentatively planning to begin contactless pickups on July 15, with more detailed information to come soon.

Facilities/Infrastructure

  • One thousand portable HEPA filtration units have arrived.听Facilities will be tagging them and begin installation soon.听Protocols for operation and maintenance of these units are concurrently being developed.听MERV 13 air filters are due to arrive in early August.听
  • The facilities task force (FTF) is examining risks associated with water fountains/water bottle filling stations, as well as with hand dryers. Recommendations are forthcoming.
  • The social distancing subgroup has identified the gap needed to be filled for classroom spaces. The facilities task force is conducting baby直播app analyses of several options to meet the classroom need including commercially available spaces adjacent to campus, climate-controlled tents and investments/modifications to existing CU spaces.听The subgroup is also working on building circulation and signage.
  • The outdoor/transportation demand management group has been working closely with the Environmental Center, Parking Services and city of Boulder to create safer pedestrian and bike pathways within and between our campuses. They have also identified designated pick-up/drop-off/loading zones in anticipation of increased demand for delivery services and ridesharing.听Several outdoor sites have also been identified for open-air tents that can be used for study, dining, or meeting space.
  • The FTF is working on addressing the unique needs of some academic programs such as environmental design studios, dance, music and theater classes.
  • The Recreation Center has spaced out equipment to meet CDC social distancing standards.

Public Health Awareness and Accountability

  • Campuswide operational facilities signage templates are under development. The next priority is a webpage to easily share campaign assets with the campus community and lead communicators.

News from the Academic Instruction Team

  • The Office of the Registrar, in partnership with the Facilities Task Force, is completing room assignments for in-person and hybrid in-person classes for fall 2020. These assignments will reflect the room capacity limitations of physical distancing requirements.听
  • The FTF is assisting academic scheduling by expanding the numbers of classrooms by听 the temporary conversion of campus spaces for classroom use.
  • The Provost accepted the joint recommendation of the Office of Advancement and the Division of Continuing Education that the听Senior Auditors Program and the听 be suspended for fall 2020.
  • The Office of Information Technology completed its survey of deans, department heads and program directors regarding audiovisual and hardware needs and published听.
  • OIT has received one-time funds to provide Dell laptops to CU Boulder instructors and lecturers identified as having unmet personal technology needs and will be working with academic units to identify eligible recipients.
  • OIT is expanding resources for remote teaching and learning for the fall semester by significantly increasing the number of remote-capable classrooms; acquiring a tool, My Mediasite Personal Capture, that will allow instructors to record, edit and share their own content from any location; and expanding remote access to software that students would typically access in an on-campus computer lab.
  • A new edition of guidance was sent to deans, chairs and directors on June 29 on the above topics and on Zoom best practices, expanded teaching support resources from the Center for Teaching and Learning, provisions in progress for COVID-19-ready classrooms and new FAQs from faculties.

News from the Resource Alignment Team

听Note: Several resource alignment updates are also highlighted among the academic instruction updates.

  • Acquisition of technology has been underway to make more than 350 classrooms ready for remote/hybrid learning in fall 2020.
  • OIT reached out to chairs, deans and directors the week of June 29 to confirm the list of instructors and lecturers with unmet personal technology needs in order to match them with available Dell laptops that are being ordered for the fall.
  • Results were gathered from a recent IT needs survey sent to deans and chairs and finalized on June 26. Survey respondents expressed an urgency for audiovisual and hardware needs, in-classroom tech support and software access.
  • Under review is an expansion of Proctorio exam-proctoring software.
  • Accessing MediaSite for at-home recording is under development with a target launch date in mid-July.
  • The team is developing a prioritization matrix that weights health and safety measures necessary to limit the transmission of COVID-19 and continuity of mission-centered activities for fall 2020 as the top two measures.听
  • Ongoing discussions include a CU System request for proposals for a remote collaboration tool.

Do you have a question or comment about implementation team work on the Road Map to Fall 2020? Submit a question or comment.

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