As we enjoy the remaining days of summer, I hope you have had the opportunity to unplug, relax, and spend time with family and friends. We acknowledge the stress and challenges of the last academic year but we also celebrate our successes, including the great achievement of graduating 4,000 students in June. Once again I share our gratitude and appreciation for all that you have done for our community over the last year-and-a-half.
We hope that this memo will provide some guidance as we look forward to reopening the campus for Fall 2021. We are pleased to report that CUNY Central has approved our Fall 2021 Reopening Plan which is available on our website. In creating this plan, we built on the careful and successful initiatives which allowed targeted research and classes to return to campus in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. We met with faculty, staff, student leaders, CUNY officials, public health experts, and Hunter’s Focus on Fall Committee to develop this plan, and we will continue to consult with the community as the semester progresses. Following the directive of the Chancellor, an estimated 30% of Hunter’s classes will be in-person, 35% hybrid, and 35% online.
This memo addresses key elements of the plan that will help support your return to campus. In the days ahead we will be sending further updates and posting an FAQ on our website. In addition, we are pleased to invite you to a Faculty/Staff Town Hall, on-site, on Wednesday, September 1, at 1 pm. Please save the date and we will send additional details.
Vaccination Policy for Faculty and Staff
Beginning Monday, August 16, anyone entering a Hunter building for any reason or length of time will be required to demonstrate proof of vaccination or results of weekly, valid, negative COVID-19 tests. There will be no exceptions to this policy. It is imperative that you upload your vaccination information to CUNYfirst or make an appointment to get tested at a CUNY testing center to be able to return to work. Please see the instructions below for more details.
Instructions for Vaccination Verification
Faculty and staff who are vaccinated should upload proof of vaccination to CUNYfirst as soon as possible. Once your information is processed and confirmed, you will receive a green token on your Everbridge app. (Information on downloading the Everbridge app can be found here.) Your status will also be updated to your OneCard which will enable you to swipe into any of the college’s entrances. To upload your vaccination information please log in to CUNYfirst and select Vaccination Verification. For further help in uploading your documentation, please see here. This verification will replace the current symptom checking procedure. You will no longer need to complete the Everbridge App Symptom Checker for entry to campus.
Any faculty and staff member who is not vaccinated will be required to participate weekly in CUNY’s on-site testing program and show proof of a valid, negative COVID-19 test to enter the campus. You will receive an email from CLEARED4, a health verification system retained by CUNY to enroll in the CUNY testing program. Only a test administered at a CUNY site will be acceptable. Hunter will operate a testing site in the North building at 69th Street entrance, or you can select a CUNY testing site closer to your home. We will post more information about the Hunter testing site in the next few days. Testing will be done by appointment, with walk-ins accommodated when possible. Staff will be allowed 30 minutes of paid time weekly to get a test. You will be responsible for scheduling a test date that allows you to show a negative test result that aligns with your remote work agreement. Please see the CUNY testing FAQ for more information.
We continue to urge all of you to get vaccinated. Here is a link for vaccination sites.
All visitors must comply with CUNY policy requiring either a negative, weekly test or proof of vaccination. If you have visitors coming to campus, you will need to notify Public Safety 48 hours in advance.
Again, please note, confidentiality policy prohibits questions about vaccination status.
Contact Tracing and Quarantine
Hunter College follows a rigorous program of contact tracing in accordance with the protocols, training, and tools provided through the New York City Department of Health Contact Tracing Program. Employees who test positive should contact the Campus COVID liaison, Galia Galansky.
We remind you to be aware of current rules about returning to campus following international travel. CUNY still follows the requirement that a 10-day quarantine must follow international travel. Please contact Galia Galansky if you have any questions regarding the impact of your travel itinerary.
Returning to Campus
As the Chancellor noted in his July 26th memo, all staff should plan to return to campus the week of August 16, 2021 unless an alternative plan has been approved by a supervisor. All Hunter staff should have completed a remote work agreement in consultation with their supervisors. These agreements will be in effect through the end of September.
Faculty who are teaching on-site classes this fall will be expected to return to campus on or after August 25th when the fall semester begins. All faculty are welcome to schedule in-person office hours and to participate in on-site program, departmental, and other academic meetings and activities.
Workplace Conditions and Practices
All communal areas have been thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed. To respect privacy, we have not cleaned personal desk tops, but cleaning materials will be available in all offices. Please contact the facilities help desk at 212-772-4422 to replenish cleaning products.
For vaccinated individuals, per CDC guidelines, we no longer require six-feet distancing. However, all unvaccinated individuals must maintain six-feet distancing. If you don’t have sufficient space or a suitable layout in your work space to socially distance, speak with your immediate supervisor.
Given the time we’ve been away from our offices, we recommend that you test your computer and assess your technology needs. If you need any help, please contact the Help Desk.
Eating will be permitted at desks. There will also be designated lounges and outdoor spaces for meals. Unvaccinated individuals may briefly remove their face coverings during meals while maintaining proper physical distancing and may remain at their desks or go to a designated dining space. Shared food and beverages are prohibited. We anticipate having some casual food service on campus later in the fall.
All buildings on the various Hunter campuses have been inspected to ensure proper ventilation. Only spaces that meet industry standards will be in use. Any space that has not met these standards will be locked with signage indicating it is not in use. The appropriate ventilation for all spaces is provided by either the building air system or open windows. For rooms with mechanical ventilation, filtration is provided by either a MERV-13 filter or a portable filtration device. Each space will have signage to indicate the ventilation system.
Temporary New Mask Mandate
For the time being, everyone, regardless of vaccination status, must:
- Wear a face mask inside all CUNY campuses and office buildings. This includes while working in a non-enclosed space such as a cubicle or other open seating, regardless of physical distance from others.
- Wear a mask outdoors on campus when unable to maintain physical distance from others.
The only exceptions to wearing a mask inside are:
- If a fully vaccinated person is alone in an enclosed space such as an office, conference room, or dorm room.
- In a classroom, if a vaccinated professor is teaching a class and is able to keep social distance from everyone else in the class, he or she may choose not to wear a mask.
- Briefly while eating or drinking, provided social distancing is maintained.
To be clear, anyone who is not fully vaccinated must wear a mask indoors and outdoors at all times while on campus, including in enclosed spaces, except briefly when eating or drinking (in which case they must maintain strict social distancing from other individuals). When classes begin, students who are not vaccinated will be further required to maintain social distancing between themselves and all others in a classroom.
We continue to work closely with State and City health officials to monitor the impact of the Delta and other variants on COVID-19 transmission rates and will modify this temporary mask mandate and other guidance as needed.
Student Vaccination Policy and Issues
Students taking on-site classes must be vaccinated by September 14, 2021. Until then, students must show proof of vaccination status or weekly negative test results to enter campus. Students have been notified about procedures to upload their vaccination status to CUNYfirst and CUNY testing policies.
Unvaccinated students must remain socially distant and remain masked at all times. If an instructor finds that it is difficult to maintain this six-foot distancing requirement in a classroom, please contact your chairperson.
Please note students may request medical or religious exemptions from vaccination. These requests must be filed through the Office of Student Affairs via the CUNYfirst portal. Only designated staff are authorized to grant these exemptions. Students who are registered for an in-person or hybrid class are expected to come to campus for those sessions. If you receive requests from students to participate remotely when enrolled in an in-person or hybrid class or questions about how to seek an exemption to the vaccination policy, please refer them to Leslie Ader.
For updated information about CUNY student vaccination policies, please click here.
Student Services and Activities
Starting in the Fall semester, all of our Student Affairs offices will have in-person hours for students. This will include, among others, our Advising, Mental Health, Financial Aid, and Bursar offices. Building on the successful experiences we have had with online student services during the pandemic, we will continue to have a mix of services available online to ensure students have as many options as possible for support. We will open additional spaces in the library and on campus for students to study and take online classes. Certain extracurricular, non-credit bearing, activities will be open only to vaccinated students. If you would like to organize an on or offsite extracurricular activity, please consult with Miesha Smith about appropriate procedures.
The pandemic has disrupted all of our lives, and we fully appreciate how difficult the past year has been. We continue to be extremely proud of and grateful for how our Hunter community has risen to the many challenges. While we expect there will be challenges ahead, we are very excited to return to our cherished campus. I look forward to greeting many of you in person in the next few weeks.
Thank you again for your commitment to Hunter College and all you have done for our community.
Jennifer J. Raab