Pilots Prevent
September 14, 2021
The COVID pandemic has been anything but predictable since it upended our lives in early 2020. Keeping track of the latest studies, data, recommendations, and mandates is like tracking a moving target. That’s why UP created a COVID-19 Steering Committee way back in March of that year, and it still meets for at least 90 minutes every single week a year and a half later.
Clearly, their efforts are making a difference. After shifting to remote learning when the pandemic first hit, UP students, staff, and faculty are finally back together again on campus for the Fall 2021 semester. This is thanks in large part to the steering committee’s careful evaluation, planning, and implementation of COVID-safety protocols, including vaccine and mask requirements, as well as the compliance of the UP community. The vaccination rate for students is currently 96.4% percent; 96.6% percent among University faculty and staff.
UP Provost and Acting President Herbert Medina says, “We have a multi-layered health and safety approach to our back-to-campus plan this fall. In addition to requiring vaccinations, we have been vigilant about adopting all necessary masking and other safety criteria as mandated/recommended by federal, state, and county levels. With our continued vigilance, I am confident that we are ‘doing it right’ at UP this fall semester, and that we will have a full, successful, in-person fall 2021 semester on our campus.”
It’s a lot of work to navigate UP through the pandemic. We asked committee member Joe Kaleel, director of events, to give us an insider’s view of what it’s like to serve on the steering committee.
Q: Who attends the COVID-19 Steering Committee meetings?
A: Covid affects everything, so we feel like it’s important to have a broad representation. The co-chairs are Associate Provost Elise Moentmann, Vice President for Student Affairs Father John Donato, and Vice President for University Operations Jim Ravelli. Other members on the committee represent different aspects of campus — academics, residence life, Health and Counseling Center, student affairs, information services, events, athletics, the academic resource center, human resources, environmental health and safety, campus safety, communications, admissions. Last year the former ASUP president Sage Taylor represented the student body as a full member of the committee. This year we have ASUP president Emma Fuller and School of Education Senator Daniel Mesquiti. We also have special guests like resident epidemiologist Andrew LaFrenz, or Casey Shillam, the dean of the school of nursing to further inform our decision-making.
Q: Is there really that much to talk about every week?
A: Definitely. These people are committed. We thought we’d have an hour-long meeting, but 60 minutes grew to 90 minutes and sometimes more. We recognize how important this is. We’ll be wrapping it up and people will say, ‘Hold on, one more thing.’
Q: What are the goals of the meetings?
A: One promise we made was that we would be giving our best counsel. Don’t be impeded by what someone else might want to hear, or what your boss wants you to say. It’s ok to be the voice of dissent.
Ensuring the safety of students, faculty, and staff on campus is an obvious goal. We realize there's a mental health component to getting back to real relationships in person, so we want to make sure we can keep this going.
We’re also dedicated to making thoughtful but prompt decisions. Our group will go around the horn and say, ‘Ok we’re at a decision point, are we going to require this or not? Is there any dissent? If there is any dissent, say it now. It’s ok to be the one person. We encourage it. But do it now, so we can vet it together and come to a decision.’
Q: What happens next?
A: Those decisions, where appropriate, would get elevated to the PLC (President’s Leadership Cabinet). They assess our recommendations and either approve them or send them back for further review. We also create sub-committees that can drive things forward between our weekly meetings.
Q: What are some topics that have come up recently?
A: One is, what are the levers we can use through the term so we don’t have to hyper-react if positive cases rise significantly on campus? Now all these months later we have more knowledge about which levers have more impact — masks, distancing, etc. We can loosen or tighten the restrictions depending on how things go. If we needed to, we could enforce surgical masks. If we had to, we might de-densify dining at The Commons or Pilot House. We don’t have to do that now, but that might be one of the first levers we can pull.
We’re creating a matrix of all the tools at our disposal to assist with the University's response to COVID as we progress through the semester and beyond.
Q: What do you wish people knew about UP’s approach to COVID-safety?
A: Know that there are intelligent, compassionate professionals who continuously evaluate our options. The power of that thoughtful decision-making is that UP will continue to make informed choices to best serve our community.
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