Tag: COVID-19

Dear Clemson Family:

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed much about our way of life over the last several months, and Clemson is no exception. What hasn’t changed is the University’s commitment to getting back on campus. A return to on-campus instruction and in-person activities at all our locations, in a manner safeguarding the health and well-being of our entire University community, remains our singular focus.

Clemson’s faculty, staff and administrative leadership have worked daily for months to reimagine how we can continue to provide the world-class education, research and service that our students and state expect from us, even in the face of this unprecedented public health challenge.

The University’s approach is built on four foundational pillars that have guided our efforts to get back on campus. They are designed to inform the greater Clemson community and shape the behavior of our community’s members. They are:

• A steadfast commitment to the health and safety of all members of the Clemson University community.
• A return strategy built on the concept of stacking preventative measures to create the greatest possible protection against COVID-19 exposure and to limit its spread across the community.
• The creation of a return plan both comprehensive and flexible, allowing the University to anticipate potential future challenges and providing the ability to adjust course quickly as circumstances dictate.
• Awareness that the entire Clemson Family has a critical role to play in our successful return to on-campus and in-person activities. In order to take care of the Clemson community, our actions must be guided by concern for others. We must be “United as Tigers.”

I want to take the opportunity to update the Clemson community on some of the most important pieces of our return plan. Specifically, we have made critical decisions around face-coverings, testing and our academic plan that will provide our students, employees and communities with important safeguards against the spread of COVID-19.

In addition, I can’t stress enough how important it is for every member of our community to do their part to mitigate the spread of this disease, especially among those most vulnerable. Much of our work over the next several months will be focused on enforcing this social compact, or agreement, among members of the Clemson Family.

Face coverings to be mandatory in many instances

Cloth face coverings have been shown to be effective in preventing the spread of the virus, both from person to person and through contamination of contact surfaces, and as such the University is going to require all students and employees to wear face coverings in a number of circumstances while on University property.

Cloth face coverings are required:
• While in University buildings, including housing and dining facilities.
• During all University programs held in non-University buildings.
• In outdoor spaces on campus where appropriate physical distancing cannot be guaranteed.
• In all University vehicles and while using University transportation/mass transit.

Face coverings are not required:
• When alone in private offices.
• When alone in on-campus housing rooms.
• When not in close contact with another person, such as walking alone outside.

The University has purchased 70,000 reusable cloth face coverings, and each student, faculty and staff member will receive two coverings upon return to campus or other University locations.

Testing to be instituted to monitor spread of COVID-19

In an effort to provide initial data on positive cases in our population, and to minimize exposure on campus by identifying and isolating individuals prior to their arrival on campus, the University will require all students and employees to be tested for COVID-19 virus and, where possible, receive serologic testing for disease antibodies, prior to their arrival on campus in the fall.

Anyone who works for, lives at or is enrolled in a Clemson University program or facility must secure a negative COVID-19 test result within five days of returning to campus or other University location for the Fall semester. Those who test positive will be required to self-isolate for 10 days before returning to a Clemson location. Details on testing locations and how to report tests will be provided in the near future.

Once the academic year begins, the University will conduct voluntary random-sample testing of students and employees on a regular basis to track prevalence and spread of the disease in the University community.

No changes to academic calendar; classroom modifications underway

As of now, no changes have been made to the published Fall academic calendar, but all instructors have been asked to prepare to pivot to entirely online learning should the circumstances dictate.

In particular, we will closely monitor the progression of COVID-19 to determine whether a move to online instruction and final exams is necessary following the Thanksgiving holiday.

We are preparing to offer mainly in-class learning this year with accommodations being made for proper physical distancing. Online delivery options will be available for most every class. Details include:

• The University’s goal is for at least 75 percent of all courses to have some class periods dedicated to in-person interactions among instructors and students.
• All classes with in-person components will also be blended with online components.
• Cameras and microphones will be installed in more than 400 classrooms to allow for live video streaming and recorded delivery of instruction.
• Classroom layouts are being adjusted to allow a minimum of 6 feet of physical distancing between individuals.

Our success starts with each of us

Collective action will determine the success of the University’s plan for in-person instruction and a genuine Clemson experience for the Fall semester. Success requires each of us as members of the Clemson Family to act as responsible individuals and invested partners.

We have launched the Healthy Clemson: United as Tigers awareness campaign, to guide and inform key personal responsibility initiatives as they apply to a wide range of personal activities for students, faculty and staff, including:

• Frequent handwashing.
• Physical distancing.
• Responsible management of living spaces.
• Limiting group sizes.
• Participating in self-assessments.
• Early self-referral to Redfern and Sullivan Center.
• Recommended participation in contact tracing.

Family takes care of family, and we need all of our students, faculty and staff to embrace the principle of being “All In” this together. That means recognizing that actions and behaviors taken by individuals will have an impact on the larger community.

Commencement update for May and August 2020 graduates

I pledged to the Class of 2020 that we would hold in-person commencement ceremonies on campus once it was safe to do so in order to celebrate the achievements of our students in a manner they deserve.

While we still don’t have every detail finalized, I am pleased to provide an update today on our plans to celebrate both our May and August 2020 graduating classes.

First, I want to share that we have made the decision to postpone our traditional August graduation ceremony so that we can focus our energies on a safe on-time start to the fall semester.

Moving our August commencement to later in the year also gives us additional time to create a special experience for this very special group of graduates.

Given that change, we are now planning to hold on-campus commencement ceremonies for our May and August 2020 graduates the weekend of October 9-11.

We have received many suggestions on how to make commencement memorable for the Class of 2020, and we’re hard at work to do just that. More details about the October commencement exercises will be provided in the coming weeks. For now, please consider this to be your “save the date” invitation and know that we are very excited to welcome our newest graduates back to campus in October.

As you can see, the situation around future University operations remains extremely fluid. Be assured, however, that our staff and faculty remain committed to providing a great, and safe, experience for our students in the upcoming academic year.

Being United as Tigers when it comes to battling the pandemic gives us the best possible chance of enjoying a successful and safe academic year. I am confident that the Clemson Family will rise to the occasion and look forward to sharing more details of our return plan with you very soon.

In the meantime, stay safe – and Go Tigers!

Jim Clements
President

Dear Clemson Faculty and Staff,

Today is the third installment of weekly fall 2020 semester updates.  Please continue to check the University COVID-19 page for updates – including health, wellness and stress management resources.

Also, see the latest communication from President Clements here, which provided an overview of our preparations for the fall.

Purpose of this communication:

• One of the goals of these weekly emails is to answer the call from Faculty asking for more communication on topics related to Fall Planning.  Please note these communications presented in these weekly updates are the result of meetings that are occurring throughout the week with focused discussions on testing and tracking, course planning, teaching support, academic calendar, residence halls, and non-pharmaceutical intervention plans.
• Members of the faculty senate including John Whitcomb, Betty Baldwin, Brian Powell, Thompson Mefford, and Mary Beth Kurz are attending these meetings to represent the faculty. This form of communication is a way to bring it all together and ensure the information is correct and faculty concerns are heard and or addressed. While there are still many unanswered questions additional details will be provided as soon as they are available.
• Since staff are critical to successfully opening campus in fall, another goal of these updates is to ramp up the frequency of communicating with Clemson staff so that they too are aware of ongoing fall planning.  This broadening of the message recognizes the importance of working together and reflects the wishes of the Staff Senate and the central administration.
• Finally, these communications reflect and align with those from President Clements that he sends to the larger Clemson community within and beyond the walls of our campuses.

Planning Progress 

This past Wednesday, senior leadership received a third briefing from our medical advisory team led by Dr. Chris Colenda.  We have continued to refine evidence-based risk mitigation strategies and we are now preparing to share plans with the Board of Trustees this week.  Below we update last week’s message.  In future weeks, we will reduce the length of this communication to focus on just new developments.

Testing and Tracking

• The self-assessment screening tool programmed by CCIT to catch potential cases is now live and will become a critical part of our overall testing and tracking strategies.
• This week we studied whether to test all or just a sample of employees and students just before fall semester starts.  There are pros and cons for either approach.  We will ultimately choose the one that best manages risks of infection.  Once people have arrived on campus, periodic statistically valid testing of random samples (not the whole population) will be used.  These will be critically important data.
• We have made some progress on choosing the kinds of tests to use  (e.g., nasal swaps, saliva samples, blood samples, genetic, antibody, antigen, etc.) but our strategy may change through time as new testing technologies come on line.
• Another set of wastewater samples to estimate the prevalence of viral particles on the main Clemson campus has been taken and we now have the first sample from the City of Clemson.  Campus levels were still essentially clear of COVID-19 particles; while the test of the City of Clemson’s wastewater revealed a prevalence of the virus.

Non-pharmaceutical Prevention

• New data came out this past week reinforcing the importance of face coverings and social distancing to mitigate risks.  This has strengthened our view that both will be important for our success, particularly inside buildings.  Face coverings are going to be important wherever people are unable to practice social distancing, even outdoors.
• The plan for 6-foot distancing between students in classrooms is now our guiding assumption in classroom planning, and will be factored into the number of students allowed in a given classroom.  We are now developing strategies to remove or mark seats in classrooms to facilitate spacing during class.
• Cleaning strategies – another critical prevention strategy – are still under development.
• A substantial communication plan is being developed for launch once we have briefed the Board of Trustees and the President has rendered key final decisions.  Advocating for a strong sense of shared responsibility among our entire community related to health-protecting practices (on campus and beyond) will be a key to success.
• Strategies to trace contacts in a way that helps uncover infections, and yet protects privacy, have developed further and will be ready to launch once final decisions on several aspects of the plan are approved.  Work flows are being developed to handle actions following the discovery of a positive case or potential exposure to an infected person.

Residence Halls and Quarantine 

• At this point, we remain focused on normal or close to normal densities in residence halls so long as appropriate cleaning strategies (especially for bathrooms) can be worked out.
• Quarantine spaces on campus for students who are infected are being identified.

Academic Calendar

• We will ask all instructors to be able to pivot to entirely online learning at any moment of the semester – especially from Nov. 24 through the end of the semester – just in case infections spike upward later in the fall.
• We are looking carefully at campus events that involve large numbers of people and finding ways to delay or de-densify as appropriate. We are contemplating a delay in August commencement to allow us to focus on student move-in. A decision will be announced shortly.

Teaching Support 

• As of yesterday, new cameras and microphones have been installed in, or already existed in 215 university classrooms.  We are on track to have all classrooms completed and tested before fall semester starts.
• IMPORTANT: For those of you who have not yet engaged with OTEI or Clemson Online to prepare for blended course delivery, we strongly urge you to contact Taimi Olsen (taimio@clemson.edu) and/or Anne Marie Rogers (anner@clemson.edu) to explore training options for instructional design and course delivery.  Opportunities to engage with CO and OTEI are posted at https://www.clemson.edu/online/events.html.

Planning Courses

• This week we providing chairs and directors with surveys to start planning teaching modalities for the courses taught within their department or school.  Simultaneously, we  started some theoretical allocations of classes to rooms.  These exercises aim to fulfill our goal of in-person experiences for as many classes as possible while observing social distancing requirements.  All classes with in-person components will also be blended with online components.
• Once again, we emphasize that this planning is fluid with opportunities to discuss and change teaching modalities and classroom assignments over the summer.

Finally, we continue to monitor fall enrollments and the number of students that are participating in new-student orientation. Both remain on track at this time, giving us hope that we will meet our enrollment target for the upcoming year.

Thanks, as always, for all the work each of you continues to do in support of our students. These are challenging times, but we are making good progress on plans for the fall semester.

Respectfully,

John Whitcomb
President, Faculty Senate

Sue Whorton
President, Staff Senate

Tony Wagner
Executive Vice President for Finance and Operations

Bob Jones
Executive Vice President and Provost

CLEMSON – The City of Clemson and Clemson University announced Sunday increased detection of COVID-19 throughout the Clemson community. In the last week alone, the State of South Carolina has seen more than 6,000 new infections of COVID-19 – more than 26 percent of the total cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

City and University officials have begun testing wastewater coming into the Cochran Road Wastewater Treatment Plant, and initial results indicate the presence of elevated COVID-19 levels in the community.

This week, South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) has reported an increase in the number of cases in individuals under 30 years of age. As a result, both State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell and DHEC physician consultant Brannon Traxler reiterated the importance of individual behaviors and actions being taken, and maintained, to help stop the spread of the disease.

As the State of South Carolina continue to experience rapid community spread, Clemson city and University officials strongly urge all individuals to wear face coverings in public and to maintain social distancing. More information about steps individuals should take if they test positive or have known exposure is available on the University’s website at www.clemson.edu/coronavirus.

Dear Clemson Family:

As we first said a month ago, and as I told our Board of Trustees again yesterday, Clemson University is laser focused on returning to on-campus learning and living this fall. We are excited about the prospect of being back with our students and we are committed to returning to our campuses in a manner prioritizing the health and well-being of our students, employees and communities.

This undertaking is incredibly complex and we are intent on being as thoughtful and data-driven as possible in our approach. The University’s Executive Leadership Team and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) have been working every day for weeks on a methodical, phased plan that we are confident will allow us to welcome students back to campus in August.

Our three-phase process to returning in the fall is scheduled to begin June 1 and establishes guidelines for the University to respond to COVID-19 in coordination with federal and state recommendations and orders. The framework identifies key medical indicators related to the prevalence of COVID-19 in our communities and will provide guidance as we progress from one phase to the next, expanding operations as we go, while allowing flexibility to our employees during this challenging period.

Additional details about the framework will be made available in the near future, but here is an overview of each phase:

• Phase 1 features limited on-campus University operations for those faculty and staff members who cannot complete their work functions adequately while working remotely. We anticipate only a small percentage of employees returning during this phase. Employees should not return to their workspaces unless instructed to do so by their supervisor. Those who return will do so under specific safety guidelines related to social distancing, face coverings and other precautions, which we will share with employees and supervisors in the next week. In alignment with state regulations, only essential business travel will be allowed during this phase and our campuses will remain closed for events and group activities.
• Phase 2 involves bringing back a moderate number of employees to their workplaces under strict safety guidelines and with an emphasis on social distancing regulation and guidance. As in Phase 1, those considered to be medically vulnerable, or who have care responsibilities for a vulnerable individual, will continue to work remotely.
• Phase 3 will result in a return to on-campus instruction and activities, and the return of nearly all employees to their workspaces. Detailed safety protocols will be put into place, and aggressively communicated.

Each phase includes a gradual expansion of available areas across all our locations, increases in limits to sizes of meetings and social gatherings and a consistent emphasis on non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce the risk of spread to individuals and through the community. The University also is exploring a range of options related to testing and contact tracing.

We anticipate spending at least 14 days each in Phases 1 and 2 to assess the COVID-19 trends provided by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. We also will closely monitor conditions on our campuses and surrounding areas, and will be prepared to remain in a given phase for longer than 14 days – or revert to a previous phase – if the health indicators warrant such action. We also expect the University to gain additional information as we work through each phase that will help guide future actions.

Much of the work in Phases 1 and 2 is designed to allow our faculty, staff and researchers to return to their workspaces, including laboratories and research facilities, in a safe manner while we continue to plan for the fall.

Our academic and safety leaders have been working tirelessly on options for instruction and an academic calendar for the fall semester. Provost Jones and his academic leadership team met with faculty and academic staff across all our colleges this week to solicit their feedback to our draft academic plan. We plan to start the academic year as previously scheduled.

Additionally, sign-up for on-campus housing will be completed in the next week. Our intent is to have as many students as is reasonable living on campus, taking into account the necessary modifications to protect vulnerable students and temporarily isolate any students who become ill with COVID-19.

As I have said before, these are uncharted waters for higher education – and many aspects of life. We are keenly aware of the strong desire of our students and other members of the Clemson Family to return to some semblance of normal, and I can assure you that is our goal.

At the same time, we intend to take the time we need to be as thoughtful and comprehensive as possible in our decision-making. The overarching priority of the University is the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and the community. I appreciate your patience as we finalize details to minimize the potential for an outbreak at our campuses and protect the most vulnerable, while driving toward a fully operational fall semester.

I am grateful for our faculty and staff who continue to do outstanding work under very challenging circumstances. And to our new and returning students, we can’t wait to see you later this summer –  as well as our May 2020 graduates whom we will welcome back for commencement when it is feasible to do so.

Stay safe – and Go Tigers!

Jim Clements
President