The following information pertains to procedures for preventing virus transmission in classrooms during Fall 2020. We ask you to follow these procedures and to inform and remind your students of them. Please contact the Academic Operations Team at aot@carleton.edu if you have any questions.
Custodial services experienced delays in receipt of the type of hand sanitizer that is compatible with the hands-free stands that they ordered and received. As a result, we do not have stands with hand sanitizer at building entrances. The Return to Campus Team is striving to provide large pump bottles of hand sanitizer on the three-bin trash receptacles on each floor of academic buildings before Monday morning. Students can also use these to refill their own individual hand sanitizer. There is hand sanitizer inside every classroom at the entrance/exit to the room.
All Classrooms
As is standard practice, faculty are responsible for bringing their own whiteboard markers to class. Chalk and erasers are provided. If faculty do not want to use shared chalk and erasers, they should bring their own chalk and erasers to class. We believe that, with regular use of hand sanitizer in the classroom, shared use of chalk and erasers is not a significant concern.
Sanitizing in and Sanitizing out
Hand sanitizer in a 16-oz pump bottle, a bucket of Virex sanitizing wipes, and a package of alcohol wipes has been delivered to all classrooms and laboratories. In classrooms, the hand sanitizer and Virex wipes are located near the entrances. The alcohol wipes are located at the teaching stations, for sanitizing the computer keyboard and touchscreen panel. Classrooms that have two or three doors will have hand sanitizer at each door. In laboratories, there will be 2-3 bottles of hand sanitizer per laboratory.
As per our Enhanced Cleaning and Disinfecting Protocol, everyone is asked to disinfect their hands as they enter and leave teaching spaces. In addition to sanitizer located in the spaces, students are getting small individual sanitation supplies and they could be reminded to use them as they sit at their desk. Reminding the students that they have this hand sanitizer might help with choke points at classroom entrances.
Custodial Services will check fluid levels in the sanitation supplies daily. However, faculty should also assume responsibility for ensuring that sanitation supplies are available to students. If sanitizers are low or missing, please call (507) 222-5834 during business hours and Security (507) 222-4444 after business hours.
Classroom Seating and Capacities
All classroom seat locations are labeled with a circular decal and number: on the floor, under the seat (auditorium seating), or at the table. (These numbers also correspond to the classroom seating maps on the PEPS website.) This is the number to use for providing seating charts to the contact tracers. We will ask you to have your students complete a form that will assign each student to a spot in your classroom. These seating charts will be shared with the Contact Tracing Team. The process for creating seating charts is described below under “Seating Chart.” Seats that are movable (i.e. tablet armchairs) have decals on the floor indicating where the center of that seat should be placed to maintain six-foot distancing in the classroom. If furniture is moved during your class period, please ask students to return their desks to their corresponding label on the floor of the classroom before leaving.
Many classrooms have been equipped with an extra seat, near the front of the room. Others, such as Olin 149, Weitz Cinema, Kracum auditorium, and the Music and Drama Tent have capacities beyond the 30-student course maximum. These additional seats should not be used to increase in-person course capacities. They can be used by a course prefect or occasional observer.
Seating Chart
Faculty who teach in a physical classroom will see a new survey in their Moodle course called Report Seat Number. This survey is designed to allow students to report their seat. This survey can be used multiple times and for multiple locations if the seat number changes. Faculty are asked to encourage students to take this short survey in class every time there is a change in seating. Students will be asked to confirm time slot and location, with the option to add a different location, and to enter the seat number.
- Note that the Moodle tool used is called Database, so faculty will see this survey in a very visible way.
- Further information about how the seating assignments are transferred to the Contact Tracing Team will be forthcoming.
Opening windows
Opening of classroom windows is encouraged, during mild weather. Buildings with operable windows have HVAC systems that can accommodate that. We ask that, if you teach the last class of the day, you ensure that the windows are closed so that the HVAC system can work to filter the air during the overnight hours. This will also prevent soaking from overnight storms or the possible freezing of pipes if the temperature should suddenly drop.
Egress plan for classrooms
The faculty member or other person leading a meeting in a classroom space should engage participants in a conversation about how to exit in an orderly fashion at the end of the class. The guiding principles for orderly egress are pace and distance, which can be accomplished using an “airplane deplaning model”–occupants exit row by row starting with the seat closest to the exit and ending with the seat farthest from the exit. Occupants should leave at a pace that leaves at least six feet of distance between people. The faculty or meeting leader should be the last person out of the room.
Portable HEPA filtration units
The following classrooms are outfitted with a portable HEPA filtration unit, for additional air filtration in these spaces.
- CMC 306: Honeywell HPA200
- LDC 104: Honeywell HPA200
- Leigh 236: Airmega
- Leigh 426: Airmega
- Olin 141: Honeywell HPA200
- Olin 149: Honeywell HPA200
- Willis 114: Honeywell HPA200
- Willis 204: Airmega
Instructions for use:
Airmega manual; simple Operating Instructions