Boulder Faculty Assembly members on Thursday, March 4, received an update from Chief Operating Officer Patrick O鈥橰ourke about the campus鈥檚 vaccine distribution plan as CU Boulder prepares for a continuation of in-person experiences in the fall.
The good news, O鈥橰ourke told BFA members, is that COVID-19 cases have dropped dramatically in Boulder County since Thanksgiving, and he is 鈥渆ncouraged that the number of cases is dropping across all age groups,鈥� including among 18-to-22-year-olds.
The seven-day case average for the county stands at 44 cases per day, down since the fall holiday season. The number of cases among college-age residents in the county dropped by more than 40% last week from the previous week, he said.
Even so, he cautioned that the campus should continue to observe social distancing and practice good mask hygiene to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
In a Feb. 26 memo to the campus community, O鈥橰ourke and Provost Russell Moore announced that Colorado had added student-facing higher education faculty and staff to its newly defined phase 1B.4 that is expected to launch later this month.
The 1B.4 classification includes people who are 50 years old and older, frontline essential workers in a variety of categories and people who are between the ages of 16 and 49 with at least one high-risk health condition.
In the memo, O鈥橰ourke and Moore said the new higher education classification would prioritize instructors鈥攊ncluding professors, graduate part-time instructors, teaching assistants and learning assistants, resident assistants and other staff providing safety and other support services to students. They expect the change in the state鈥檚 vaccine distribution priorities to support the university鈥檚 ability to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to faculty, staff and students as supplies increase and CU receives more doses.
During his presentation before the BFA, O鈥橰ourke said he anticipates the 1B.4 classification phase to extend into mid-May.
鈥淭hen we鈥檒l be in Phase II, which covers the general public and people with no occupational or health reasons to have been vaccinated earlier,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is why we鈥檙e thinking that by fall, we should have been able to vaccinate not just our employee and faculty populations, but large portions of our student population as well.鈥�
Thus far, he added, 265 people on campus have completed their vaccination course, including mostly health care workers and first responders. More than 15,000 members of the campus community had signed up for the vaccine via the CU Boulder 听, he said.
鈥淚f we continue to have people sign up as the doses become available, I鈥檓 hopeful we鈥檒l have really good vaccine penetration by the fall, and that will help us to return to a much more normal campus experience,鈥� O鈥橰ourke said.
In response to a question from a faculty member, he said the campus does not have a tracking mechanism to determine if members of the campus community are getting a vaccination from an off-campus source, adding that he鈥檇 inquire about that issue with the campus鈥檚 Medical Services staff.
When asked about the process for authorizing academic gatherings during the summer term, O鈥橰ourke said anything connected to the academic mission would be prioritized, and as long as the county remains within the state鈥檚 COVID-19 dial, the university would remain subject to public health requirements.
鈥淲e have to measure against those [requirements] to give approvals,鈥� he said.
In other business, the BFA also received an update from Katherine Eggert, senior vice provost and associate vice chancellor for academic planning and assessment, about a return to in-person teaching in the fall and the postponement of the fall 2021 class registration process by about three weeks. The postponement is in place to help prepare students for a more comprehensive on-campus experience, thanks largely to the expectation that more people will have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
Eggert said the postponement would give 鈥渟chools, colleges and departments time to make these shifts and determine the instruction mode of classes.鈥� Facilities management staff have been working with CU Boulder鈥檚 scientists to determine classroom capacity, and based on immunity projections, she said, the campus will likely be able to reduce social distancing from 8 feet to 3 feet in classrooms with moveable seating.
鈥淭hese calculations assume continued mask wearing as we have been doing. We鈥檙e going to be in this weird semester where it looks a lot better, but it is still going to be a COVID term,鈥� Eggert said.
The BFA also received an update about the First Year Experience from Ann Schmiesing, executive vice provost of academic resource management, and Mary Kraus, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education.
BFA Chair Bob Ferry and Kathryn Pieplow from the writing and rhetoric program, who chairs a revision ad-hoc committee, also led a discussion about next steps in finalizing a draft of the Professional Rights and Responsibilities Document.
The BFA is expected to vote on finalizing the document this spring after receiving additional input from faculty. More resources about the document, its history and its intent can be found online. According to Pieplow, CU Boulder is unique with regard to establishing a PRR document of this kind within the CU system and among Pac-12 universities.
Finally, assembly members received an update about the spring 2021 elections from BFA secretary and applied mathematics Senior Instructor Adam Norris. The election for an at-large BFA representative will close on March 8, he noted.
Meanwhile, the window for nominating BFA officers, including the chair, will open March 15 and end on April 15. Members will elect new officers on April 29; to vote, members will need to attend the virtual meeting, Norris said.
