Updated August 2, 2021:
GTU Face Mask Policy
According to the City of Berkeley’s health order, all employees, students, and guests at the GTU will be required to wear well-fitting masks in any indoor public setting, regardless of vaccination status. This order goes into effect at 12:01 am on Tuesday, August 3, and applies to everyone over the age of two. All other operational policies will remain the same for now.
Updated July 7, 2020:
COVID-19 Symptom Self-Screening Questions
Per the GTU’s COVID-19 Site Specific Protection Plan (SPP) personnel are required to self-screen for COVID-19 symptoms any day they plan to work on campus. Asking about symptoms and exposure to COVID-19 DOES NOT replace other measures such as frequent handwashing, wearing face coverings, and staying 6 feet apart.
Please ask yourself these COVID-19 symptom screening questions PRIOR TO COMING ON THE GTU CAMPUS TO WORK. IF THE ANSWER TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS IS YES, YOU SHOULD NOT COME TO CAMPUS.
Screening Questions:
- Within the last 10 days have you been diagnosed with COVID-19 or had a test confirming you have the virus?
- Do you live in the same household with, or have you had close contact with someone who in the past 14 days has been in isolation for COVID-19 or had a test confirming they have the virus?
- Have you had any one or more of these symptoms today or within the past 24 hours, which is new or not explained by another reason?
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html
Prior to coming on campus to work you are required to EMAIL THE FLOOR MONITOR (listed below) for your GTU building/floor whether “I’m OK to come to work on campus today.” OR “I’m NOT OK to come to work on campus today and am staying home.” Please do not list yes or no for the actual screening questions. Just write one of the two sentences listed in red above.
GTU FLOOR MONITORS ARE:
North Building on Le Conte St./3rd Floor – John Seal jseal@gtu.edu
North Building on Le Conte St./ 1st and 2nd Floor – Chai Motupalli cmotupalli@gtu.edu
North Building on Le Conte St./Basement – Osborne cosborne@gtu.edu
Library/3rd Floor and Annex Building – Melissa Moritz mmoritz@gtu.edu
Library/Main – Clay-Edward Dixon cedixon@gtu.edu
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Daily Exposure Assessment for On-Campus Workers
While the GTU continues to strongly recommend that all employees work remotely, for those whose work requires that they come to campus, in accordance with CDC guidelines we recommend that daily each morning, employees should use the above simple self-screening process to determine if it safe to go to the GTU campus to work. This critical step is essential to lessen the GTU community spread of COVID-19. - All staff who are over 65, or have medical conditions that could lead to COVID complications, are strongly discouraged from coming to campus except to fulfill essential business.
- Staff who are able to work remotely are welcome to continue to do so, though may also arrange to come to campus as needed. If you do come to campus, take care to stagger your timing with colleagues to ensure social distancing is practiced, and continue to hold meetings using remote modalities (Zoom, tele-conference, etc.) Any essential on-campus meetings should observe social distancing guidelines, held in an area that is well ventilated and should include the wearing of masks. Otherwise, all manner of congregating is prohibited.
- All meetings conducted in person may not involve food, though drinks are permitted. In general, we encourage you to conduct most meetings via telephone or Zoom. If you need to arrange for a Zoom account, please reach out to Diandra Erickson, Director of Digital Learning, at derickson@gtu.edu.
- GTU employees working from home during this period should follow the revised guidelines for employees seeking to work remotely, approved in January 2020.
- Questions about work-from-home arrangments can be directed to hr@gtu.edu.
- See the attached letter from GTU Director of Human Resources Debi Walker (March 31, 2020) for additional infomation about GTU work policies during the shelter in place.
- See the attached notice from the US Department of Labor on paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave based on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).
- Re: visitors (e.g. vendors) to the GTU campus. Every employee is responsible that anyone they are inviting to campus is emailed a copy of our Site Specific Protection Plan (SPP) and responds to them with an email confirming they have reviewed and understood it. Employees are responsible for keeping track of the acknowledgement from those they invite to campus. Any guests will also need to be given the self-scan checklist and should perform the self-scan prior to coming to campus.
Air Filtration and Safety Protocols
As part of the GTU commitment to keep everyone safe and healthy, the air is filtered with a double filtration system in the library. In this extensive and thorough process, air is twice filtered for two hours before the building is opened and two hours after the building is closed. The air filtration system uses both MERV 11 and 14 filters which filter out particles as small as 1 micron (such as bacteria, most smoke, sneeze nuclei, insecticide dust, copier toner, and face powder). The filters are replaced every 6-8 months or as needed.