Introduction
COVID-19 Control plan
Academic Affairs
Student Affairs
Community Standards
Health, Wellness and COVID-19
Page last updated September 16, 2020
A GUIDE TO REOPENING SAFELY
September 10, 2020
Dear Students:
These are very trying times. I have felt enormously challenged in making the right decision around opening campus for Fall 2020 as I have wanted to prioritize both your success in the classroom and our social justice mission. In wrestling with this decision, I believed opening our residence halls for you was the right thing to do on all fronts. With that said, given the continuing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health disparities within Black and Brown communities, especially related to COVID-19, I have decided that Pine Manor College will remain fully remote for the Fall semester.
To ensure the safety of you, your families, and your communities Pine Manor College will offer remote classes only and no on-campus housing for students.
I am saddened by this decision, because I believe the best learning happens when we can be together. However, the best learning can only happen when we, as a community, are confident of our safety and well-being and our ability to sustain that. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we are not there at this time.
Given that the entire PMC community, inclusive of Student Success Coaches, Financial Aid Advisors, and Faculty, have just learned about this decision today – it will take a couple days to reach out to each of you regarding changes to schedules, housing plans, financial aid, etc. Please be patient. These are extraordinary times. The Student Affairs and Academic Affairs teams will work with you to ensure your continued academic and student success regardless of our on-line format. We will respond to your e-mails, calls, and text messages.
On-line does not mean out of touch. You will continue to have the opportunity for classroom discussions, out-of-classroom engagement, and for office hours and pop-in visits with your professors, advisors, and student success coaches. We remain committed to you and your success.
Being a leader through times of crisis comes with great uncertainty and challenge. I know some people will be pleased with this decision and some will feel upset and unheard. Please know that every care was taken in making this decision. Ultimately, it was made based on concern for the community’s health and wellness.
I am proud of each of you for your continued persistence during these difficult times.
Sincerely,
Tom
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PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AS THE PLAN CHANGED TO REFLECT THE
SEPTEMBER 10TH DECISION TO OFFER REMOTE CLASSES ONLY FOR FALL 2020
COVID-19 CONTROL PLAN
Below you will find Pine Manor College’s COVID-19 reopening plans.
If students have questions about the Pine Manor College 2.0: Covid-19 Control Plan, please reach out to your Student Success Coach.
If families have questions, please reach out to Lisa Rodrigues, Dean of Student Affairs, at lrodrigues@pmc.edu.
If employees have questions, please reach out to your supervisor or Shelley Dropkin, Director of Human Resources, at sdropkin@pmc.edu.
Academic Affairs
Academic Calendar
Classes will run fully remotely from September 22, 2020, to December 18, 2020 with exams December 21-23, 2020.
Starting classes on September 22, 2020, allows time for Pine Manor College’s faculty and staff to prepare for remote learning.
All faculty will add 12 contact hours over the course of the semester in addition to their scheduled class times in the manner that makes the most sense for their instructional design to ensure required class hours are fulfilled. Faculty will communicate more about the additional class hours with their students in the syllabus at the start of the semester.
Pine Manor College will decide whether to conduct Spring courses on-line or in-person during the Fall semester.
Pedagogy
All advising meetings and faculty office hours will be conducted virtually.
Faculty will offer on-line classes both synchronously (when classes meet at a designated time over Collaborate and asynchronously (when students can learn and move through the class material at their own pace and classes do not have a specified meeting time each week) depending on student enrollment for individual classes. For synchronous sessions, the day and time listed for the course is the time planned for use as a virtual class session. If there are students from different time zones or with varying work schedules in the same class, the class will also be taught asynchronously, meaning not everyone will log-onto the class at the same time and students will access course materials and recorded lectures over Blackboard to complete the course. Students in synchronous learning classes should let their course instructor know at the start of the semester whether synchronous or asynchronous learning is best for them, knowing their situations may change over the semester.
Faculty will be encouraged to explore different technical solutions for building community in the classroom by hosting group chats (i.e., GroupMe), hosting panels and programming on-line, and calling on the Student Success and Director of Restorative Practices to assist with engagement, as needed.
Students who have questions about fall classes should reach out to their Faculty Advisor.
Student Affairs
Orientation
The Student Affairs team will host New Student Orientation (NSO) virtually during the week of August 24, 2020. Individual advising and registration meetings and small group welcome activities will take place over Zoom. Student Success Coaches will reach out directly to new students to schedule times for these meetings.
Residential Life
Pine Manor College will not offer on-campus housing during Fall 2020. Students who have housing insecurities should connect with their student success coach to discuss options to ensure their safety and well-being.
Decisions about Spring housing will be made later in the Fall semester.
Student Health and Wellness
Student counseling will continue through Brookline Center via telehealth.
Community Standards
Updates to community standards will reflect Covid-19 rules and restrictions. Students should refer to the Pine Manor College Student Handbook.
Student Success
In line with PMC’s student success model, before classes begin, every student will hear from their Student Success Coach to discuss and secure access to:
- Food and shelter
- Broadband internet
- Private computer access with a writing program such as Google Drive or Microsoft Word.
- Class materials
- Students’ work schedules
- Students’ class schedules
- Traveling to campus
Students will continue to work with their Student Success Coaches through virtual platforms and text-messaging/phone.
Students should reach out to their Student Success Coach throughout the semester if/when:
- Feeling ill
- Falling behind in classes
- Personal obstacles prohibit student success
- Access to quiet space, technology, wifi is compromised/unavailable
- They want to talk, need advice, want to hear about Perry or Cowboy.
- If students test positive for Covid-19
Students should expect to hear from their Student Success Coach weekly for a check-in.
Student Success will continue programming and small group meetings through virtual platforms.
Athletics and Recreation
Fall semester athletics will be suspended.
Decisions about men’s and women’s basketball and baseball participation in the spring semester will be made by the first week in December.
The fitness center and gym spaces will remain closed.
Student Services
Dining services and the PMC shuttle bus will continue to remain off-line until campus re-opens.
Financial Aid and Student Accounts
The Offices of Financial Aid and Student Accounts will recalculate residential students’ accounts and financial aid packages to reflect changes in room and board for Fall 2020. The changes will show all students as commuters (not receiving room or board).
Students who had planned to reside on PMC’s campus in Fall 2020 will receive new expense planners. Students can reach out to their financial aid advisor if they have additional questions or if they need assistance understand the changing.
Physical Distancing and Safety
While campus will remain closed and at limited capacity for employees, when community members are on campus, they should always remain 6 feet apart from each other.
Community members should use the respective marked doors for entering/exiting buildings and always stay to the right side on staircases and sidewalks.
All doors that can be propped, should remain propped to avoid touching doorknobs.
Windows should be opened as weather permits to enhance ventilation.
Building entrances will have hand sanitizer stations.
Only one person should be in the Student Center elevator at any given time.
Meetings, Conference Rooms, Office Hours, and Social Spaces
People should always remain 6 feet apart during meetings, office hours, and gatherings.
There will be no College sponsored events on campus; all programming will occur virtually.
Guests on campus are limited to those coming to campus for Special Events or official college business (e.g., mail delivery, emergency responders, contractors).
PMC students may not work PMC special events.
Meetings
Ideally, all meetings should take place over a virtual platform. If meetings must be held in-person, meetings of 4 or more people should occur outside, in the President’s Dining Room, Founder’s Room, or Meditation Room to allow for optimal physical distancing.
There must be at least 1,000 square feet of space for 8 people and no more than 25 attendees for an in-person event (per mass.gov).
All room reservations should be made through Special Events’ Events Scheduler who will work with Jim Piermarini and housekeeping to ensure public spaces are cleaned between usages.
Meetings must all be scheduled through the Event Scheduler 5 business days in advance and cannot be scheduled last minute or be held spontaneously as housekeeping may not be available for cleaning.
During meetings, no food or beverages should be served or consumed to ensure mask usage throughout the meeting.
Anyone hosting a physical meeting is encouraged to ask all employees to start the meeting by having attendees share their green screen from the daily health monitoring app.
All PMC meetings with external partners should take place virtually.
Offices and Office Hours
Ideally, all office hours will occur over a virtual platform.
Department supervisors/teams should promote virtual office hours and clearly publicize how people can make appointments with their teams.
Offices should hold no more than 3 people at any time, and only hold 3 people if proper social distancing can be enforced.
All offices should have hand sanitizer.
Employees should position their office desk to allow 6 feet of space between the employee sitting at their desk and a visitor who may enter their office.
Employees who are in offices with 6 feet of space should put a chair or sticker on the ground to mark off 6 feet of space from the employee’s desk. (This is the employee’s individual responsibility to mark off their office space; employees can get stickers to mark off their standing/sitting space from Shelley Dropkin or Jim Piermarini).
Employees who are in offices that do not have 6 feet of space should put a note on their door indicating that all appointments should be scheduled and/or conducted virtually given physical space limitations within the office.
Employees are responsible for wiping down their offices with disinfectant. Offices and departments should publish their physical office hours on their office doors, on the web, and in the signature of their emails to enhance communication.
Conference Rooms
Conference rooms should never exceed more than 25 people at a given time and not exceed 50% of the room’s capacity based on fire code.
All tables and chairs should be kept as is and not moved around. Stickers on the ground or on the backs of the chairs (depending on the room configuration) indicate seating arrangements to ensure proper physical distancing.
Hygiene and Cleaning
C&W Housekeeping will regularly clean and disinfect the campus’s public areas using cleaning products approved by the CDC; the closed buildings/rooms on campus will not be regularly cleaned.
C&W Housekeeping will disinfect rooms between usages.
Community members should wash their hands frequently, especially when coming in from outside, if they touch someone else, or if they touch shared objects (e.g., doorknobs, pens).
Employees should keep anti-bacterial hand sanitizer in their offices and classrooms. Please email Director of Operations, Jim Piermarini, at jpiermarini@pmc.edu for additional hand sanitizer.
Employees should wipe down meeting tables, chairs, and shared office supplies (e.g., photocopier) after use with sanitizing wipes/products. Please email Director of Operations, Jim Piermarini, at jpiermarini@pmc.edufor additional cleaning products.
If someone on campus tests positive for COVID-19, all areas the person frequented in the past 48 hours will receive a deep cleaning. This cleaning may require buildings close until the cleaning occurs.
Health, Wellness, and COVID-19
Mental and Physical Wellness
Student counseling will continue through Brookline Center via telehealth.
Students can receive an unlimited number of therapy/counseling sessions as a Pine Manor College student. If students leave PMC or graduate, they can contact the Brookline Center to learn more about continuing therapy with the Brookline Center or elsewhere.
All community members are required to get their annual flu vaccination to help prevent additional illness.
During Coronavirus, Pine Manor College’s Human Resources encourages all employees to begin or continue yearly appointments with their primary care physicians and mental health counselors.
To locate a mental health counselor or doctor, visit www. harvardpilgrim.org or Pine Manor College’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – New Directions – 800-624-5544 or visit ndbh.com.
Mask Requirements
If on campus, community members must always wear masks.
Masks must cover a person’s nose, mouth, and chin in its entirety.
Masks should reflect the recommendation of public health professionals. See https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/the-right-mask-for-the-task.html for appropriate types of masks to include paper masks, reusable cloths masks, and face shields. Neck gaiters are not recommended and should not be worn in place of a recommended mask.
All employees who return to campus will receive paper masks and should bring their own reusable masks to campus and wash them after each wear.
Since all community members must wear masks in public, community members may no longer smoke on-campus.
It is expected that people wear masks except:
- While eating/drinking
- In your own room or office when in there alone
- Engaged in solo activities (e.g., going on a walk)
Community members should wear their masks in all restrooms on campus. If physical distancing in the restroom is not possible, employees should wait outside physical distancing is possible.
Isolation and Quarantine
Boston College has leased 74 rooms at Hotel Boston to provide isolation care for BC students who test positive. Hotel Boston will be the primary location for BC students requiring isolation. If needed, Boston College will use Pine Manor College’s East Village as additional isolation housing (Boston College also has other locations identified for additional isolation housing in Dover and Cohasset).
All Boston College students in isolation will receive the following services and be subjected to the following policies and protocol
- Isolation residents will not be permitted to leave isolation housing.
- Boston College will have on-site team members from Student Affairs and Residential Life and a campus safety officer present 24 hours/day.
- All Boston College students must adhere to Boston College’s Conditions for Residency and Boston College’s residential life and campus safety staff will enforce those requirements. Inclusive in the rules, students may not have parties or any form of gatherings in or near the residential buildings.
- Students may travel from Boston College to Pine Manor College via the shuttle bus provided by Boston College.
- Students must wear masks in all residence hall common spaces and whenever they are outside their personal room. In addition, students must wear a mask when they answer their room door and are transported to and from Boston College to Pine Manor College. All staff will also be required to wear a mask on Pine Manor College’s campus.
- Professional housekeeping staff will clean isolation rooms before and after students occupy them. In addition, the housekeeping staff will clean the bathrooms several times a day.
- Linens will be laundered by professional housekeeping staff.
- Boston College will provide dining for students in isolation; no outside dining services will be allowed on campus or to make deliveries to minimize contact between COVID-19 positive students and vendors.
- These residences will remain drug, smoke, and alcohol-free regardless of students’ age. Violations to this policy can result in students being held accountable through the University’s Code of Student Conduct and Office of Residential Life’s Conditions for Residency.
- Students in isolation are required to stay in their room. Students may leave their room (not the building) to pick up their meals (provided by BC Dining). Violations to this policy can result in students being held accountable through the University’s Code of Student Conduct and Office of Residential Life’s Conditions for Residency.
Testing
Students will not need to undergo testing, since all living and learning will remain on-line.
Employees looking to come back to campus, will need to get COVD-19 testing before returning to work and throughout the semester to ensure the community’s health and safety.
Antibody and antigen testing, as well as other tests, do not exempt PMC community members from obtaining a COVID-19 through BC before returning to campus.
The Broad Institute will notify community members who test negative. The Broad will also inform the Massachusetts Board of Health and the director of University Health Services at Boston College, who serves as the physician of record for tests, about any positive tests; and he or a designee will then communicate directly with those who test positive or whose test is indeterminate. Please note that an indeterminate result is not a positive result, but will necessitate retesting.
Boston College will work with state and local departments of health and conduct extensive contact tracing of anyone who tests positive for COVID-19, particularly to obtain information about activities within six feet of others for longer than 15 minutes during the previous 48 hours without appropriate mask or face covering.
Any testing exceptions for employees must receive the approval from the Director of Human Resources (for personnel). Exceptions will only be made if there are complications with using BC’s University Health Services and the Broad Institute; otherwise, all testing must go through BC and Broad.
Daily COVID-19 Self Screening
Pine Manor College community members who will be on campus must use a daily health monitoring website, bc.edu/check, to ensure the health and wellness of the community.
Through the daily health monitoringwebsite, bc.edu/check, community members can complete a daily checklist to ensure they do not have any COVID-19 symptoms and receive notifications and updates regarding their COVID-19 tests.
All PMC community members must go through the following checklist on the daily health monitoring website before leaving their home or residence hall room every day. If you answer “yes” to any of the questions below within the past 24 hours. Employees should stay home, call their primary care physician, and inform their supervisor.
- Do you have a fever (temperature over 100.4°F) without having taken any fever reducing medications?
- Do you have new loss of taste or smell?
- Do you have a sore throat?
- Do you have a cough?
- Do you have a headache?
- Do you feel more tired than usual?
- Have you had any of these symptoms in the past 24 hours not related to allergies such as a runny nose or congestion?
- Have you experienced any GI symptoms such as nausea/ vomiting, diarrhea, or loss of appetite?
- Have you, or anyone you have been in close contact with (within 6 feet for 15 or more minutes) been diagnosed with COVID-19 or been placed on quarantine for possible contact with COVID-19?
- Has a medical professional or local public health official asked you to self-isolate or quarantine?
Accessing the daily health check website:
- To access the daily health website, go to: bc.edu/check
- Login in with your Agora Portal username (your last name and some additional letters provided by Wadner) and password (the 8-digit number provided by Wadner). If this does not work, change your password at login.bc.edu
- Carefully review and complete the six questions of the Self-Assessment.
- You will be presented with a Cleared or Not Cleared response, and related instructions on how to proceed.
Community members who are symptom-free will receive a green screen on the daily health monitoring app. All community members will need to show this screen when entering campus.