On October 29, the Tampa Bay Chapter heard from leaders at the University of Tampa on how they have faced challenges from COVID-19 head on, discussing UT’s health safety initiative and how this plan allowed students to safely return to campus for the academic year. These leaders included:
One of the main focuses of the presentation was
the Spartan Shield Health and Safety Plan, UT’s health safety initiative that offers guidance to all members and guests of the University community during the COVID-19 era. All UT community members are expected to invoke the Spartan Code when it comes to following health recommendations and policies.
The work of the University’s COVID task force was divided into four main groups:
Screening, Testing and Containment
This part of the plan particularly emphasized the ‘containment’ aspect. Using the advice of a virologist on their faculty and medical advisors from Tampa General, the task force invested in a private firm to perform contact tracing in the event of an exposure or diagnosis within the campus community. Any person who tests positive will isolate for 10 days and until symptoms have resolved. Those who were in close contact will be notified and required to quarantine for 14 days.
Sanitization, Personal Hygiene and Personal Protection Equipment
The UT leaders started communicating with employees early on to figure out what kind of PPE they needed in their areas, starting with those essential services like campus safety and residence life. Facilities Management make every effort to sanitize classrooms at the start of each class day and conduct regular rounds throughout the facilities. The task force also spent time evaluating the air quality of their buildings and specific campus signage.
Physical/Social Distancing
Rather than saying social distancing, the term physical distancing encourages students to still connect socially, while physically creating that distance between each other. While this is enforced in indoor and outdoor settings on UT’s campus, faculty and staff continue to use video conferencing technology whenever possible.
Instructional Continuity
Classes had to be prepared in a hybrid fashion. Some classes meet where classroom sizes and enrollment allow for physical distancing, while others employ alternative methods that facilitate physical distancing while maintaining engagement. UT leaders knew that certain students would need additional accommodations, due to higher risk of illness or being internationally located, so those were taken into account as well.
Something the UT leaders did not anticipate was the anxiety that staff and faculty members had about returning. However, as the weeks have gone by, there is a greater sense of comfort with the protections in place. So, if you are considering bringing your workforce back into the office after operating remotely, the leaders said to expect similar challenges.
Other challenges this group addressed included budgetary changes, having to make decisions without all of the information at the time and communicating the same information to different groups of people, such as addressing a parent versus a community member.
Wanting to be transparent, these UT leaders stressed that it hasn’t been easy, and it continues to not be easy. However, they are persevering, and through their contact tracing they’re learning that they are not having exposures in the classroom environment, during campus events or in offices. This means that the areas where they have put this plan in place are quite successful.
If you are interested in the details of this plan or UT’s current case numbers, please visit
ut.edu/fall2020.