Mary Rees: Good afternoon and welcome to the Moorpark Campus
Update. We'll give a minute or two while we have
people that are still checking in. So we'll be right with you.
Good afternoon and welcome to Moorpark Campus
Update. We're coming to you from the district
office. We've been at the district office for a
retreat today. So welcome from the district office.
We're going to be excited to welcome Julius back.
And I hope everyone is doing well. Just a reminder
that our update is being recorded and
after being captioned, will be on the President's
website. Also, it is closed captioned. If you'd
like to see the closed captioning, please just
click the "CC" at the bottom of your screen.
And welcome, Julius, and welcome to you all. [Julius Sokenu]: Hi,
everyone. It's nice to be back and it's great to
be back to a California that is reopened. So thank
you so much, Mary. Thank you Amanuel and
Jennifer for keeping the college going while I
sort of took a little bit of a break, which is
much needed and much appreciated. So and I know
many of you are going to be doing that over the
course of the summer. Please be careful and take
care of yourselves. We all need to make sure that
we are rejuvenated and really sort of energized
for the months to come. As you know,
there's so much that has happened in the past 10
days. You know, we've gone from thinking really
about the fall semester, as we have always done,
mitigating risk and keeping people safe. And we're
still thinking about mitigating
risk and keeping people safe, and making sure they
continue with their plan of study. And
we're able to work in an environment that is
a healthy and safe one. We have a state that's
been reopened based on the data that we've been
getting from our Department of Public Health, both
at the state and the county level. Ventura County
is at a point now where 60.7%
of the residents of 12 and over have been fully
vaccinated. That's great. I mean, what that
does is it sets the context for us to really bring
more people back on campus. We also see low
infection rates. Yes, we do know that there's the
Delta strain of the virus that is beginning to
proliferate. We also know that vaccination is the
way that saves and protects people against that
virus and that strain of the virus. So we're
encouraging our campus community, our local community for
folks to get vaccinated. Our staff, our students and
our faculty, as well as our managers. We also know
that the CDC has made some changes to guidelines
for institutions of higher education. Now having
said that, we're an institution of higher
education, and it's incredibly important that we
not only follow protocols, which is that if people
are vaccinated, yes, they can be vaccinated and be
unmasked, but if they are unvaccinated,
that they are wearing that masks when they are
indoors, in closed spaces. If we do not follow that
and we're not following that judiciously, we can be
fined. There are consequences for that. So we are
all responsible for the individual, for the safety
of our campus community. And so I ask that you, as
you go coming back to campus and again,
the emphasis is really coming back to campus for
everyone. So as of this week, we are asking that
folks no longer need to have permission from their
supervisors to come on campus. Please come on
campus. There's so much that's happening. We want
you to be here and experience that. And if you've
been vaccinated and you got proof of that,
while we're not really checking that right now,
but that you've been vaccinated, please show up on
campus. Come visit us. This is those of us that
are already on campus and if you
are unvaccinated, you can still come on campus,
just make sure that you wear your mask. Okay. And
also bear in mind that we have the VCCCD app, which
we're using for screening. And so making sure that
you complete that app at home, prior to your coming
onto campus. And that will allow you to have this
smooth sailing through our screening process. So
just to give you some very clear sort of timelines
and schedules that we're following through, July 1,
which is Thursday, July 1, we expect all our
managers and supervisors to return to on site work
on a full time basis. And really the goal here is
that we know that there's a whole lot of work that
needs to be done. There's a lot of collaborating
that needs to happen. And we want the managers and
the supervisors to be here to begin to
help us do that work. There's so much that happens
until we test the protocols that we have in place
we can't validate them. So that's why we have managers to coming back here in
helping us think through these processes and...
So that the month of July really is a transition
month. July 1 to July 31, is an opportunity
to bring people back incrementally and making sure
that when people are back as safe as possible.
July 1 of July 31, all classified staff
and faculty who are in either in instruction or
non-instructional context or in the summer will
transition back to full time on site
work. And again, this is an opportunity for us to
continue that transition to back to campus.
It's a month of flexibility to allow people to
sort of ease back, that come August 1, that we are
back to as close to normal as we can, we have had
in the past. What you will see is on the screen is
a summary of the revised Covid-19 health and
safety protocols that will be effective as of July
1. And you see that it is defined based on
vaccination status, whether it is verified, and
you can verify your vaccination status by
uploading it to the VCCCD app. And if you go to the very
the rightmost tabs, it
says "vaccinations". And you can click on that to
report your vaccinations. And it's very
straightforward. Just update the upload a
screenshot of your vaccination card and that's all
you need. The college district is working on
making sure that we update that whole process so
that once you have uploaded
your vaccination card, we'll actually be able to
see a blue pass sign and they're working on
that. And within the next couple of weeks that
that will be completed so that everybody who's
been vaccinated can just show that blue pass sign.
You complete your screening at home and then you
show your blue pass sign. But anyway, so going
through this table right here, whether physical
distance, is outdoors or indoors, whether you're
verified or your unverified, that is not
required. So physical distancing indoors or outdoors,
not required. Face covering outdoors, not required.
Face covering indoors, it is not required for
verified folks. It is required for folks who are
unverified. And I think the important message we
want to communicate here is that folks who have
not been vaccinated need to be protected because
those of us who have been
vaccinated, we are already protected by the
vaccine to a great degree, right? And so we want
to make sure that we are also looking at for the
well-being of those individuals who have not been
vaccinated for a variety of reasons. So just to
bear that in mind. Also, I think it's important
for us to bear in mind that Covid-19 testing is
not required for those who've been
verified under the vaccination status and for
those who are unverified, there's a requirement by the
CDC that monthly Covid-19 tests happen and that
individuals are able to document that testing on
the through the app and also testing if people are
symptomatic. Monthly testing for those individuals
who are unverified is required by the CDC. So
please let's make sure that we're
conscious of that. And that app is the way by
which we will be able to verify and monitor that.
MyVCCCD pre-screening app is required. We
are still screening. We will move away from the
temperature checking, but we are still screening.
And so please, please, please make sure that every
day before you come on campus, that you do that pre-
screening at home, daily. Onsite screening. Yes,
we're verifying apps through the app information. We're
obtaining information and getting masks and masks are
voluntary. So even if you've been vaccinated, if
you feel better wearing a mask, feel free
to do so. We respect that. For those individuals who are
unverified, yes, you do need to verify through the
app information, in terms of the screening process and
then you wear a mask as required. Contact tracing.
Yes, we're still doing contact tracing when needed.
Remember, our emphasis is on your safety and the
security of this campus community. So for
those who have been verified in terms of their
vaccination status, as well as those who have been
unverified as a result of their status,
we're still contact tracing. So that is
key for us to know to do. Please bear in mind that
we're doing our best and that things will be
modified and will change adjustments about to
happen. And so we all need to be patient and
respectful of one another. The board is discussing
mandatory vaccinations for staff and
students. January 10, the board will be reading
the first draft of a broad policy. July. I'm
sorry, I said January, July. July 10 the board
will be reading that. And then in August at the
August board meeting a second reading and a
decision would be made at that point
in time. Again, that would be for mandatory
vaccinations for students and staff and
administrators. We are following
the regulations and doing what's expected of us.
So you will hear from our facilities folks
and our VP of Business around what we're doing to
make sure that the campus is a safe place to
return for those of us that have been
off campus and for those who are currently on
campus. Important thing here is that our goal is
to make sure that we are supporting people as
they're on our campus and the campus is a safe
place to work and a safe place to learn. I am
going to pass this on to Allison, who will then
give you an update from the Student Health Center.
Thanks, Allison. [Allison Case Barton]: Thanks, Julius. So I always like
to show you where we are on our campus as far as
our Covid cases and you see lots of zeros, it's
great. We don't have any active positive cases or
anybody currently in quarantine. And everybody who
has had Covid has recovered from it, that we're
aware of. And so this is based on just people
who have checked in. And take a look at that
bottom row there. We have 576
people who have uploaded their vaccine status
on the MyVCCCD app. And that's great. Thank you so much.
So just a little bit about the process of that.
Once we know that somebody has uploaded their
vaccine card, one of the three people that
are able and allowed to do that in the Student
Health Center that are covered by HIPAA
regulations. So very confidential, just like any
other medical records. We check those to make sure
that they really are a card. We had some
interesting uploads that aren't a card, and then
we had to contact those people to see if they
actually got vaccinated. We need to make sure that
it's two weeks past the last necessary dose.
If you have Johnson and Johnson, it's two weeks
passed Johnson and Johnson. If you had Pfizer or Moderna
that's two weeks past your second dose. And then
once the vaccine is verified, then you
say that and then as soon as we have the blue
pass that Julius was referring to earlier, you'll
have a blue pass. And so you'll have this kind of
magic, like a visual that shows that
you've done it. Right now it's not very satisfying
when you upload it because there's no visual
representation of that, but there will be soon. So
that's great. If you've gotten vaccinated and you
haven't uploaded your vaccine card yet, we really
appreciate you doing that as soon as you can. And
I'm going to show you a little visual in a couple
of slides to show you how to do that. Julius
described it perfectly, but you'll see a visual in
a second. Alright next slide, please. So another
exciting thing is we get to have another pop up
vaccine clinic. We're going to be doing it at EATM
in the lower level patio from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m.
on two days, Tuesday, September 20 and Wednesday,
the 21st. And they'll be offering both the
Pfizer and the Johnson and Johnson vaccines. Yes,
we know that the Pfizer is a two
shot vaccine, and if enough people get that one,
they'll do a follow up clinic here on campus in
three weeks. So it just depends on how many people
choose that one and how many people we have at the
clinic. Otherwise, they're going to give everybody
information about all the different places where
you could get the second one. Maybe there's one
even closer to where you live or whatever. You
will not need an appointment. You do need to bring
an ID, though, and it can be like a student ID even.
I mean, it doesn't have to be like your passport
or a driver's license or anything like that. This
is for Ventura County students, residents, or
workers.
If you are under, or the person is under
18, you need to have a signed consent for that.
And I think I can put in the Q&A. Maybe I can't. Shoot.
Well, if you go to the, our Covid update website
and you go to vaccines, there is a
vaccine consent at that link. So that's a good way
to do it. If you know of a student or somebody
that's eligible, but not 18 yet, they'll do the
vaccine with the consent form signed by a parent.
And next slide, please?
All right, so this is what I said, it's very easy
to upload your vaccine information. You just click
on the little syringe icon. You have
to scroll over to the right a little bit and then
complete the form when you're done with your
vaccine series to say which one you've had. And
then you add the photo in the photos in the app.
You don't have to like digging around in your
photos for that. So it's important to understand
too, as Julius mentioned it earlier, that we are
an institution of higher learning and we have a
lot of college age students, of course, right? And
because of that, we're a special and unique
location. And so we have to have a little bit
different strategies to keep people safe and
healthy than the general population. We're
not as mixed as, say, Moorpark or Ventura County
proper is. And that's why we have to do all these
extra things to just keep everybody healthy and
safe. So that's it for me. And I'm going to hand
it back to you, Julius.
Julius: Hi, Allison, thank you so much for that information.
I know there's been lots of questions coming up
and so we'll start answering those questions and
we'll move to Jennifer our Vice President of Business so she
can start answering some of these questions. [Jennifer]: Maybe one
or two that I can definitely hit. Hey, everybody
excited to be here. I'm in the same room as Julius
and Mary for the first time. It was so exciting, so
exciting. I was in the room with many of my
colleagues today. So very, very cool. Anyway, we
have a lot to cover. A lot of the items that I'm
going to be covering as a lot of the items that
Julius covered previously, a lot of
this will be in the chancellor's email that we're
expecting to come today. So you'll have a lot of
this in writing anyway. So but anyway. I did want
to reiterate what Julius mentioned and that we get
questioned every day, all day at the screening
stations. Anybody of authority asks is like, "Hey in the
world, out in California, I go shopping. You know,
I'm not wearing a mask anymore. You know, I'm
not having my temperature taken. Why are we still
doing this at Moorpark?" That the messaging
is different. And again, as Julius mentioned, we
we are an institution of
higher education. So we have a different standard
by which we have to comply. I'm not
going to go into the reasons why and the rationale,
but there are many, many reasons. And this is just
what we have to do. So your health, all of your
help in sort of explaining that to people as
they come on campus and that we are basically,
we're in compliance with those
guidelines for us as an institution of
higher education. So I did want to just mention we
are again, we are still going to have the campus
check ins. There will be more of them in the fall,
probably a week or two before the fall semester
begins. We will open up an additional three at the
top of the campus where all the new solar arrays
are in those parking lots. We will have three
additional stations there. So we will have seven
altogether. So we are expecting that we will not
have queues of any length at all. It will be a
quick process because we're really gearing up to
have additional people on campus. We also know
that we will be phasing out the temperatures. So
as soon as the ready education app is available to
be, because it has to be reprogrammed so that
doesn't ask for a temperature to be taken. So it
will be happening probably within the next week or
so. We're not sure exactly what date, but very
shortly that temperature taking is going to be
screened out. So that is going to speed up the
process. Just by that alone. We are going to
have everybody still is going to have to, as
Julius mentioned, at home, preferably before you
get onto campus, you're still going to have that
questionnaire that you have to answer. Those
health questions, whether you are have uploaded
your vaccination or not, you will either get a
blue pass. Again, not yet, but in the in the future
shortly, probably within the next couple of weeks
or so we're guessing, you'll get a blue pass if
you have a verified vaccination in the system or
you will get a different color. I think it'll be
yellow, but I'm not quite sure on the color yet.
But you'll have a different color if you are
unverified. You still have to answer the health
questions. You still have to check in. Right?
We're all checking in
at the campus check in stations.
We will be getting a wristband. We will continue
to get a wristband because it's important to know
for contact tracing purposes that we've all
checked in. Right? We think that there are going
to be a couple of different colors so people will
be able to tell with a color of a wristband what
color, whether you are verified or
unverified. So we haven't worked out the details
that, but it will be very clear who the unverified
people are versus the verified people. So if
someone wanted to see, it would be very easy to
see their wristband. Again, to ensure that as
Julius mentioned, we are under obligation to do
everything we can possible to keep everybody safe,
to make sure that we are following the guidelines,
because, again, we want to keep everybody safe as
safe as possible, but we also we don't want to be
fined. We don't want to face sanctions if we are
found not to be in compliance with the guidelines
and doing our very best to maintain ourselves in
compliance with them. So I did want to also
mention that QR codes are, of course, going to be
very, very important because contact tracing is
still going to be important. So after you check in
the campus, we're going to keep reminding
everybody that when you go to your office, when
you go to your class, when you go to your building,
you're going to be checking in with that QR code.
So, again, if we have an issue, if we have an
outbreak, if we have an exposure, we can help
our Student Health Center identify who those folks
are that need to possibly be called, asked,
etc., be notified, etc.. I did want to also
talk about what we are doing in terms of our to
kind of shift gears a little bit, still safety,
but the Cal OSHA standards and
ventilation specifically. So I did want to say to
everyone, clearly, clearly, as of today, Moorpark
College, every single building on our campus is
Cal OSHA compliant. Period. Now, what are we doing
above and beyond that? We're doing a lot above and
beyond that. So Cal OSHA requires us to maximize
outside air flushing, which we are doing,
minimum two hours per day before the buildings
even open those the ventilation systems are all
open and the fresh air is being flushed
throughout the buildings. We have maximized the
air exchanges so that we have six an hour. So
every 10 minutes a full exchange of air happens.
We have a couple of buildings that, in terms of
their filter, are above and beyond. They have a
HEPA filter. They have Merv15 filter. In our other
buildings we are able to meet that threshold of
Merv13. We have to do it wherever
possible. By Cal OSHA they want us to put those
Merv13 filters everywhere we possibly can.
Moorpark College, every building has the
capability of putting in the Merv13. So we are
in the process of doing that. We've ordered them.
They are in short supply from the suppliers. So we
are expecting we're hoping we're going to get them
in the month of July, but we will be keeping the
campus updated as to where they are on that. But
please understand that, that is above and beyond
the Cal OSHA standard. We are compliant now today.
In addition, we're, of course, doing the UVC
project where we're going to have the UVC light
inside the ventilation system, that as we have
those maximum air exchanges through the
ventilation system, that, that UVC light is going
to be zapping those little particles. So basically
mitigating the things that are alive
in the system. Of course, it's a mitigation, right?
It's doesn't, can't guarantee it kills
absolutely everything, but it is a mitigation a
purpose or strategy. We also are duct cleaning. We
have been going through every single ventilation
system, every single ducting in every single
building of our campus. In fact, we are most of
the way through the college. We have
done most every building on campus. There are a
very small handful of buildings that are left. But
every single, they are absolutely immaculate.
They have been flushed out. They've been vacuumed
out, cleaned out, and then they've also been
sealed. So if there's anything still loose in
there, it's been sealed. So it's like brand
spanking new. There's nothing old in those in
that ducting whatsoever. And we are updating
the campus on a regular basis the people in it
sort of which buildings we've done, which
buildings we have yet to do. But again, we're
probably a good 80% through the campus
already. So certainly by the end of the month,
we're going to be done. Let's see.
I did also want to talk about cleaning very,
very briefly. We're still working on cleaning
schedules, but please know that we are emphasizing
the high touch, high traffic, high volume areas.
So Fountain Hall, division offices, places where
lots of people go, lots of students go, we're
expecting more traffic. Those areas are going to
be hit multiple times during the day. I also want
to say that restrooms are another area that's
going to be hit more than once a day. I would say
even the low volume restrooms at least a couple of
times a day. The higher volume restrooms are going
to be hit more often than that. So again, and
we'll have hand sanitizing stations
and wipes throughout the campus, in every
classroom and in all the work areas, sort of
clumps of offices or where it makes sense to have
those. And we will be communicating with the
division staff so that everybody knows
sort of where those locations are. But I think
it'll be fairly obvious. Let's see. I did want to
mention that as far as the N95 masks,
we are upon request, if we have an employee,
particularly if we have an unverified employee,
that requests an N95 mask, those will be
provided for those unverified employees.
Absolutely, absolutely. We have ordered
many thousand, but again, they're not coming in as
quickly as we would want. So
we have a supply but we don't have enough
for everybody. So we're kind of prioritizing.
Definitely the unverified, we'll have them. All of
us that are verified we have we can bring in our
own mask, cloth masks. We have surgical masks. We
have surgical masks forever. And we can supply
everyone with surgical masks. That's not a problem
at all. If people are more comfortable with that
we can supply, that's not a problem. So please
know that. And then the last thing I wanted to
just reiterate is that we will be phasing out July
1. So this week you do not need to have any pre-
authorization at all to come onto campus to work
in your area. Right? So I just want to
clarify that a little bit. If you're coming
on the campus and you want to go into a room or a
classroom or something that is that you're not
normally scheduled to be in, you need to still go
through the normal process through your dean with
Lynda Dobson. Those rooms do need to be requested
because they do need to be scheduled. But if
you're just coming in to work in your work area,
in your office, in the classroom that you would
normally be in, you don't need any kind of pre-
authorization to do that. It's only in the areas
as normal. This is pre-Covid. This is a pre-
Covid request or rule that you for any area that's
not yours, that's not a normal area for you to
work in, those who still do need to have
permission ahead of time. So were there are
questions maybe that I can answer, Mary? It's hard
to do this with one computer right, Mary can't
see the questions as I'm talking. [Mary]: Thank you.
We'll try to do the questions, I think, at
the end. But like, okay need to I'll just take a
big breath right now, right? So many exciting,
new dynamic, impactful things happening. Scary? A
little bit. Exciting? Yes. So Julius and Jennifer
have gone over a large number of things and with
Allison and we're going to be going over the
Chancellor's going to be sending an email
out. We're going to have more emails coming. We'll
continue to have the updates. We'll have our
operational meeting where we work with people from
on campus and the community to help with planning.
It's all still a process as we're moving forward,
but we do have a lot of changes just because of
the more recent Cal OSHA. We had the Governor's
changes new recommendations, Cal OSHA. We met
with Ventura County Public Health. Met with
Channel Islands, Cal
Lutheran, so that we can make sure that we align.
The board has given us a lot of information and we
spent the day here at the district to make sure
that the three campuses in the district can all be
aligned. So we're trying to run as fast in a
calm, focused manner as we can. So do help us
all and just thank you all if we sputter a speck
help us, because your input is going to
be so hugely important on that. Just a first at a
thank you. You guys have just made us through all
of these incredible changes. And I would love to
say we're done now, but I'm afraid that the fall
is going to be even a more interesting time. We
have moving from, I mean, it was clear we had to
move to online. We had to move to remote, and we
did it beautifully and we did it with helping each
other and all of that. Now we're trying to return
to campus and try to retain the best of what we
learned in the process, as well as trying to
adjust to this with the number one thing our
students. And we've got safety and focusing on our
students are our two key things here at Moorpark,
as you well know, students first. And we
want to do it in a safe manner. Our students have
been hurting. You know, our enrollment is way
down, not way down that's an exaggeration. We're
down about 9% for the year and our
enrollment for fall is about 15% down. So
for more Moorpark, that's a lot for us.
And we all know that enrollment is important
because each of the students that aren't there is
a student that is missing an opportunity to
improve their life, to improve helping them reach
their educational goals. So our students, it's
complicated, right? So why aren't our students
here? Some of them for financial reasons, they
don't have the money. In that case we have got to
get them their HEERF funds, we have funds for them.
We need to reach out and help them get that. Some
of our students are taking on more jobs. There are
a lot of employment right now. And so they as you
know, when there's a lot of employment
opportunities, the number of students going to
college goes down. So we have financial need. We
have employment pressure. We have the online. It
didn't work for some students and even those that
were okay with online, it's not clear that their
success rates and the retention was as good as
they could have been in other opportunities. So we
need to work on that. We also have students who
are frozen. Who are going through the shock of
their world being rocked around and they don't
know what they want to do and where they should go.
And we need to be there for them. So I know we're
focused right now a little bit on all of these
little details as operational and they're not
little. I don't mean to downplay that. It's really
huge. Just being around people without mask is a
little bit of a shock to my system. We
have changes and change is hard. So we need to
help each other with with all of these transitions,
and we need to realize why we're here for the
students and to try to help them on all of that.
Jennifer, Allison, and Julius talked over our
process. You know, we've gone through that related
to instruction, we're going to be having a lot of
different options for students. We have
synchronous online. We have asynchronous online.
If your course was scheduled for synchronous or
asynchronous online courses and if it fills to
a reasonable level, it'll be the same, we're not
changing that. We have a commitment to the faculty
and the staff and the students, and we have every
intention of following that. Clearly, if there's
only two students or no students have signed up
for it, we'll find out where the student need is
and readjust on that. But if we've got classes
that are meeting student needs, we're going to
move forward with that. Julius' comment about
returning to campus. If you're teaching online,
you still have opportunities. We have,
you are going to be following the contract and
you know you've got office hours or instead of
office hours, review times or I think we need to
have some really heavy conversations on how we
redo office hours. So they're meaningful in a post
Covid world. And we have all of our
participatory governance. And I know we're going
to be hearing more and more about that. But I do
not believe, at least right now, that the state
chancellor is going to allow them to occur in a
distance manner. So following the Brown Act after
September, I believe they'll have to be in person.
So we're going to be needing to be on campus to do
our governance work and our committee work and
but your offices will be available and so we'll
still be working through all of that. So the
classes, if you were scheduled for outdoors,
classroom, talk to your dean, if your classroom is
desiring to move indoors. I know that Music, I was
absolutely if you haven't heard their performances
in the parking structure, you need to. It will
bring tears to your eyes seeing these students
spread out in the parking structure. The beauty of
the music that was produced. But I am sure that
they're eager to come indoors. And with the heat
that we have at Moorpark in the fall, we will work
with that. We absolutely. So, yes, you did hear
there's no social distancing. That doesn't mean in
the classes that we're like the FLRs that
are big and spread out that we're going to, like,
put four times as many students in there. We
committed and you all said you were going to come
into those environments, assuming that you're
going to be spread out. We have set this
relationship up with you and the students, and
that's our intent is to. That's not saying if
we've got so many people on the wait list and you
want to take six rather than five, we'll work
through that kind of thing. But we're looking
to continue with what we have set up. But we are
looking to do additional on ground registrations
and really. But in an exciting new September and
October, in addition to our August. We're looking
that we can do a whole new dimension of September
and October courses that could be completely on
ground. And I think that those will be some really
exciting new opportunities as we coax everyone
back out into the whirling new world
that's out for us to embrace. So we'll go
through the questions after Amanuel. But Amanuel,
do you have some comments for us as well? [Amanuel Gebru]: Thank
you, Mary. Hello, everyone. Good to see many of
you. Hope you're enjoying your summer. Just want
to reiterate all the information that Mary,
Jennifer and Julius shared as we are transitioning
back on campus. We also want to make sure we
provide adequate support services, anywhere from
Counseling, Admissions and Records and all the
areas. So we'll be working with our deans, our
supervisors and our staff to ensure that we
provide all the adequate support. Once you get the
email from Greg. But Mary, I have just kind of
updates. We can jump into the questions so that we
can kind of really start addressing those. Maybe I
can help, ask those questions if you
would like or you don't want to jump in and start
asking the questions that are on the chat? So
Mary I can pass it back to you. [Mary]: Thank you Amanuel,
that sounds great. I'll start with the questions
that I've seen and then I'll go through that
list and then if you want to take over after, you
know, start at the bottom and kind of look at
moving up something like that? [Amanuel]: Yes. Go ahead and
get started, and I'll fill in. [Mary]: Okay, the first and probably most
important question is, "When is Peter coming back?" I
appreciate the loyalty that, that
question represents. Peter will be back here in
the fall. So he will be and we will have
additional food trucks that will be in our solar
village. Out in our solar shaded main parking lot.
And he will be here for the start of classes. So
and he is as excited to see us as we are excited
to see him. The solar village is a good place to
mention. It will be one of multiple outdoor
locations for students, faculty, and staff to eat
and to study in and socialize in. Because we don't
have social distancing and because there aren't
masks required outdoors doesn't mean that everyone
will feel comfortable being in close proximity
with each other. So we really want to have
opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to
be outdoors. And the solar village will be able to
provide that. One of the
questions was, "When you go through the check in,
how long does it last?" It lasts for the day. So
every day you do the screening and you do get a
wristband and the wristband will last you for the
whole day. So we're good on that. We do not have
social distancing from in-line classes for on
ground classes or for the plays, for anything,
unless we have large amounts. I believe it was
over 5,000 or 10,000. 10,000. Thank you,
Jennifer. So we should be good. I don't think
we're planning on any of that, although there's the
teaser. We do have something very exciting coming
this fall onto campus. So we'll have more
information on that as we go along. There was a
question about who will have
your vaccine, the picture of your
vaccination. Allison, are you still here on that?
Can you address who will have that vaccine access
to that information?
Allison: Yes, I answered it, I typed the answer for one of
the many times it was asked, but so it's on the
Ready Campus application. But just understand that
only three people at this point in time on our
campus have it. They're all health care
professionals bound by HIPAA. We have to keep that
stuff confidential. It's part of who we are and
what we do. We don't share that information at all,
but it's the most efficient way of kind of keeping
that information safe and also having it have the
functionality that it needs to have with the app.
Mary: Thank you. And I also believe that HR will
have copies. Is that correct? [Allison]: So they'll have,
they will have access to the employee ones
and we do too. A trained person at HR who
has assumed that requirement, that's right. [Mary]: Good.
Thank you. If somebody has health issues for
religious or health issues, who would they go to
for an accommodation, Allison? [Allison]: I do not know they... [Mary]: Okay,
they will go to HR. If anyone does have a religious or
health concern related to vaccination, they need
to reach out to HR and Laura Barroso and they
will work through them with how to get that
kind of appropriate accommodation on that.
Regarding the monthly testing, if you are not
verified, vaccinated. Yes, that would be during
work hours, that you would be able to get that
testing done during work hours. Am I
correct Jennifer? [Jennifer]: Yeah, yeah, they will be paid. [Mary]: Oka, so they'll pay
for the test and for while you're getting that
testing. Thank you. A question for you, Allison. If
someone is exposed on campus, how will they be
notified? [Allison]: Health Center staff that do the
contact tracing will contact them. We
usually do that via phone. So you'll have a phone
number set up on your app, and that's how
we contact you. [Mary]: Thank you. Hopefully you will not
have to do that at all. [Allison]: I am hoping
that we get enough vaccinated people, that
the risk of that just dwindles by day. [Mary]: And
speaking on that again. So, Allison, I know you did
talk about that, we're going to have multiple
vaccination clinics on campus? [Allison]: Yeah. So the very
next ones are in July 20 and 21. So Tuesday
and Wednesday at from 3:00 to 7:00
in the afternoon at the lower patio at
EATM. And I put in the chat earlier, actually,
Michael put in the chat earlier, that if you are
under 18 or if you have somebody that's under 18 that
you want to get vaccinated, you can fill out a
consent form and have that person get vaccinated.
Otherwise, everybody just needs an ID.
They're supposed to be a resident of Ventura
County, have a job in Ventura County or be a
student in Ventura County. So we're wide open,
ready, happy. And they really, the more people show
up for this shot clinic, whether it be part of our
campus community or not, the more of them we can
have on campus. So that's an important
thing. So come one come all if you need
to, if you haven't been vaccinated yet. And just
so you know, both the Johnson and Johnson, which
is one shot, or the Pfizer, which is two shots,
those are both going to be available at both of
those clinics. [Mary]: Thank you. There was a question
about if we had people from the surrounding
community that walked their dog around campus. Is
there a concern with that? So according to
Julius' chart, if they're outdoors, either
verified or non verified, vaccinated, they do not
have to wear a mask. So we should be good with
people just walking through the campus
environment. [Allison]: And they do check in. I mean, I'm sure
some sneak by, but they check in on them at the
table. I've seen them. [Mary]: Very good. Thank you,
Allison. Great. Concern about Julius. If the board
mandates a vaccine and the employee does not feel
comfortable getting the vaccine due to family
health contraindications, will that person be put
in a position to get the shot or have to quit?
Julius: At this point, excuse me. At this point in time,
there is no, there hasn't been a conversation about
forcing people to get vaccinated. The conversation
has been around making sure we're protecting
individuals, both the individual who is
unvaccinated, as well as those individuals that
come into contact with. So the emphasis at this
point is making sure that those individuals wear
the masks where they're on campus. That is an
expectation that if somebody is unvaccinated and
it hasn't been verified that they were their mask.
That's the emphasis right now as we speak. The
board of trustees will do two readings of that
of that policy. And until that is resolved, we do
not know how the board of trustees or how the
district will operationalize that. [Mary]: And there are
religious and medical accommodations? [Julius]: There are
certainly religious and medical accommodations.
If there's someone who has a religious objection,
they can go through HR. HR can document that.
If you have a medical reason for which you cannot
do that, you can certainly do that as well.
The goal is to make sure that people are safe. The
goal is to make sure that we respect all of those
individuals who are on our campus and in our
community. And the ways in which we do that is to
ensure that we create exceptions when there needs
to be and that we follow guidelines that are CDC
and OSHA request. [Mary]: Thank you. Sorry you all. We
won't do this again from the district office. I
promise. You all are so patient with us. I haven't
had any questions that say, "Could you quit moving
around?"
Oh, drinking fountains. Maybe that's a question
for John Sinutko. John, we're thirsty. What's up?
John Sinutko: We are going to open drinking fountains. Currently,
we are in consultation with the county of Ventura
who will advise us on what exactly we need to do
before we start putting water back. You have to
realize that it's been more than a year, 15 months
that these have been off. And we
have stagnant water in pipes and we're probably
going to involve flushing. Definitely changing all
the filters in them and if necessary, even
chlorinate. But we will make sure that before we
turn them on, which we are just waiting for the
communication to come through from the county of
Ventura, we'll begin that operation. [Mary]: Thank you, John,
and a huge thank you to the staff and particularly
the M&O staff who have been extremely flexible and
hard working through all of this, getting us
through as well as wait till you guys come back
and see all the new exciting things. I mean, we've
got some really. The campus looks different. You
probably have seen some of your friends and you
think they look different from, you know, new hair,
new whatever. But the campus is looking different.
So do come on campus and see all of the new things
that we have, it's really a few good things
from Covid. For new people, I
want to get your ID and credentials. If you're a
new hire, please speak with your dean or your
supervisor or they'll help you get all of the
paperwork that you need.
Need to get started here.
"Can a committee member attend virtually if all courses
are online?"
We're going to be following the contract. The
contract specifies that people need to be on
ground of what I think the four days a week is
like i don't know how to do that. But we're going to try
our best to follow the contract. And the contract
requires office hours,
three hours of the five or something like that on
ground. So we're our
intent is to follow the contract. And that's where
we're going to be at on that. So.
Let's see, oh, Child Development Center. Yes, it's
coming back. You read the link for all CDC required Covid
testing. So the Child Development Center will be
back open for students. And I know they are
so excited to be back having that. Question about
whether you can eat indoors. Yes, the cafeteria
will be open and break rooms will be open because
there's not social distancing.
If you are, I don't know if your implied
question is what about people that are non
verified vaccinated and that? You know, there is
always the option for people to be more safe. So
if you have any concerns, you can wear a
mask, even if you are vaccinated and you can
spread out yourself and all of that. So I think
when we work through a few things, people are
going to have to kind of assume responsibility for
being as comfortable as they can be. I mean, we do
have guidelines. There's a lot of groups that are
out there trying to help us with guidelines. In
fact, that's why we're trying to between the state
and the Governor and CDC and Public Health and Cal
OSHA and the district and board. You know, so
we are trying. But you have to, you can always
be more careful on your own. And if you feel not
comfortable eating indoors and you wanna eat
outdoors we'll provide opportunities for you. If
you're comfortable indoors, we will provide
opportunities for you. That's kind of our motto
for the fall, you know, we're
trying to provide opportunities for everyone to be
moving forward on their educational in a safe
way as possible.
Oh, thank you, convocation day, Julius, I will let
you answer this one.
Let me see if there's...
"Will we be able to convert some existing online
synchronous classes to on ground?" Talk with your
deans on that. I worry that we have a
commitment to students that have already signed up
for that and might not be able to get here and all
of that. But if you personally are interested in
teaching an on ground class work with your
dean, because maybe there's some flexibility where
there's somebody else who's dying to do the
opposite, you know, and but I think we want to try
to be as close to following our commitments to
our students as we can. So we'll work on
that.
Yes, yes, field trips will be an option
for on ground. Field trips back, you know, back to
the old way. So long ago, two years ago, right?
Okay, Julius.
Okay, I'll ask you, Julius, if you want to read the
last one, as well as tell people about convocation,
if you don't mind?
People don't want others to know their status.
What do we do about that? [Julius]: Okay, so let me start off
with the convocation. I think
that's a pretty easy and straightforward
one. Convocation will be on ground for the most
part. We're going to try our very best to be
hybrid. So for those of you who feel
more comfortable engaging in convocation online,
that will be available to you. But our invitation is
that the bulk of folks come on campus and
experience convocation the way we've done it in
the past that celebrates our community. And
it would be another opportunity for us to recommit
ourselves to one another in person in August. So
convocation definitely happening on ground. The
other question is, if somebody does not want their
vaccination status communicated, should they be
made aware to wear a wristband? "What will be done
to address this that may not want to wear a
wristband that denotes medical status?" Okay, so
really, again, emphasizing the importance of being
respectful of the needs of everyone and
respecting the fact that there is a
mandate from
Ventura County Public Health, as well as the CDC
that we're able to differentiate those who have
been verified from those who are not. And that is
key. And we're required to be able
to do that so that we can report that to the
state. And that when the state comes in, if is
an opportunity for someone to report us for not
following guidelines, that we're able to document
that. So really, first and foremost, I think it's
important for us to know that the way in which we
will be able to monitor and track vaccine
verification status is really through the app.
That's the most important thing. So I think
it's important for us not to think of
the college district or the institution trying to
shame anybody or punish anyone. That's not the
intention. The intention is to make sure that we
are following the guidelines set forth by the CDC
as well as by the Ventura County Public Health.
The question I'm hearing is the fact that folks
don't want others to know of their vaccination
status and that the wristband might be a
way of signifying that. The reality of it is that
we are as a public entity and we are
as an institution that is responsible to
Ventura County Public Health, we have to document
this. My recommendation to you is that if you
have a medical reason or health reason
for not getting vaccinated, that, that
is legitimate. And we ask that everybody respects
individuals who are not vaccinated. Our goal is
not to put anybody on the spot. Our goal is to
make sure that we are following that commitment with which we
made to the college, to our students and to
our college community that would be as safe as it
omits opportunity to work as much as possible. [Mary]: And
Julius, just because someone doesn't or if someone has
a mask on, it doesn't mean that they are not
vaccinated, correct? [Julius]: That is very true. I mean,
folks who are vaccinated welcomed to wear masks.
So please don't see masks wearing as
an indication of non vaccination. Just as, to be
quite honest, folks who are not wearing mask may
be unvaccinated. So I don't think we should assume
that one denotes a category or status. We need to
be as respectful of one another as possible. Just
one last question before we go for today. So we'll
have another update in two weeks. [Julius]: Yes. [Mary]: And if
somebody can't remember all of the things you told
them, we will get emails out. We will document. We
will have this on the President's website and that?
[Julius]: Yes, we will. [Mary]: And a person did ask if can people
continue to work remotely in the future if they
don't want to come to campus? [Julius]: No. [Mary]: Can you
elaborate?
Julius: So I think it's very important for us to
understand that our goal and our focus is always
our students. Students are demanding that we
provide opportunities for them to engage in person.
We've seen that if you look at our enrollment,
the classes that are online are clearly
filling, but also the ones that are on ground in
certain disciplines are filling. So students are
telling us that they are a variety of ways in
which they want to engage with us. We cannot
create an opportunity, create a situation where
students don't have access to instruction. They
don't have access to the services that we provide.
So it is not an option not to come back to campus.
It is not an option. I think we want to make sure
that that is very clear. We will work within this
month of July with folks that whatever needs may
be preventing their ability to come back to campus
to be able to be address that, but we are an
institution that is open, that is on ground, and
we will continue to be that institution. [Mary]: Well, we
have a committee that will look at what we've
learned and whether some position might be
appropriate to do remote. [Julius]: Yes, yes. And one of the things we
know is that there have been some economies of
scale that have come from being online and working
remotely. We know that there are some positions
that could probably benefit from more remote work,
because the environment
that happens and in which the work functions is
best suited to those categories of of those jobs.
We will have a district wide committee that
will look at that. And I think we've already asked
some of you to think about participating in that.
And what we'll then do is have an informed decision
that is made as to which positions could be done
more remotely and which ones to do require being
on ground. But we don't want to rush into that. We want
it to be thoughtful. We want it to be engaged and we
want to make sure that it allows us to meet our
mission to students. We are an open entry
institution, and organization, and we're committed
to making that way. [Julius]: Do you have any last comments?
And then we'll see everyone in two weeks.
Julius: We will see everyone in two weeks. That's always our
focus on making sure that our students, our faculty, our staff
and our administrators are safe and that we as an
institution are available and open to as many
people as possible. Have a good rest of the week.
Bye.