Fall 2023 Covid Plan printable PDF
Vaccinations - Not Required
Effective Summer 2023, SUNY Policy no longer requires vaccinations for COVID-19.
All students are strongly recommended to stay up to date on their vaccinations as defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including obtaining any booster authorized by the FDA and recommended by the CDC for their age group. While not required at this time, SUNY System Administration reserves the authority to impose a requirement for any vaccination or booster at any time because of changes in local conditions or requirements imposed by Federal, State, or local authorities.
All SUNY faculty and staff are also strongly recommended to get vaccinated.
Certain employees, students, and volunteers at healthcare facilities, including SUNY healthcare facilities and hospitals, or any external location, may be subject to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination pursuant to relevant regulations and policies.
Masks and Social Distancing
Mask use is not required.
Alfred State will continue to monitor CDC and New York State Department of Health guidance on mask use moving forward.
Testing
No testing is currently required at Alfred State.
If conditions warrant, Alfred State may implement a surveillance testing program.
Alfred State will maintain a supply of COVID-19 self-testing kits to support those seeking a test.
Quarantine and Isolation
Students with COVID-19 may follow protocols similar to those for the flu, strep throat, and other contagious respiratory illnesses. To prevent the spread of illnesses to the greatest extent possible, students should engage in protective measures per CDC recommendations. This includes mask use, minimizing time in communal spaces, and additional emphasis on hand hygiene.
SUNY continues to strongly recommend that individuals stay home if they feel unwell and follow CDC guidelines for respiratory illnesses. More information on Respiratory Virus Guidance can be found on the CDC website.
Questions regarding student health and wellness should be directed to: healthandwellness@alfredstate.edu or 607-587-4210.
Academic Program Planning
Alfred State will continue to monitor local conditions regarding course delivery.
By SUNY policy, Alfred State must obtain approval from SUNY System Administration to change to a virtual or remote format for academic instruction, delay the start of the semester, modify spring break, or delay or change the format of commencement activities.
Substantive and Regular Interaction: instruction will provide for the opportunity for substantive interactions with the student on a predictable and regular basis commensurate with both the length of time, and the amount of content, in the course or competency, must monitor the student’s academic engagement and success, and must make clear that the instructors are responsible for promptly and proactively engaging in substantive interaction with the student when needed on the basis of such monitoring, or upon request by the student.
Questions regarding academic planning may be directed to the Provost’s Office at: GardneL@AlfredState.edu or at ext. 3913.
Residential & Student Life
Housing accommodations for vulnerable populations will be met through established accommodative housing processes. For students, this process is organized by the Office of Accessibility Services (OAS). For employees, the process is organized by the Office of Human Resources. Guest policies will be adapted as conditions change.
Questions about activities for students can be sent to Sr. Director Matthew Ryan at: RyanMJ@alfredstate.edu.
ACES (Dining, Transportation)
Dining Services:
Dining staff will follow New York State Department of Health regulations. Hand sanitizers are available for customer use. Any health requirements and protocols have been communicated to all food/vendor delivery drivers.
Transportation:
Hand sanitizer is available on all buses. Hours of operation will be extended or staggered as needed to meet DOT driver regulations.
Training has been completed for all transportation personnel/drivers.
Questions about dining and transportation may be sent to Jonna Anne, Executive Director of Auxiliary Campus Enterprise Services (ACES), at: AnneJM@alfredstate.edu.
Facilities (Cleaning & Sanitation)
The campus will provide hand hygiene stations or supplies within workplaces for individuals to use; specifically, hand washing, such as soap, running water and disposable towels or hand sanitizing, such as alcohol-based sanitizer where hand washing may not be available or practical.
Inventories will be maintained for all cleaning products. We maintain an adequate inventory of supplies in case a supply chain disruption occurs.
The college filtration (MERV) level on all air handling units is a minimum of MERV-13, or in the case where the unit cannot accept the higher MERV-13 filter is equipped with the highest level the unit will accept.
Personal Protective Equipment includes masks (N95, KN95, surgical, general/dust), cloth face coverings, plastic face shields, gloves, and gowns. The PPE inventory is housed at the facilities building. All PPE requests can go to the director of Facilities for distribution; this central storage allows us to monitor usage rates and keep our inventory easily accessible for reporting and reordering.
For questions related to PPE, please contact Rachel Brandow at BrandoRE@alfredstate.edu or Jon Nickerson at: NickerJD@AlfredState.edu or at ext. 4750.
Health & Wellness
All medical appointments will take place in person, by appointment. Counseling services will be offered in-person or virtually, depending on the preference of the student.
Services include:
- Alfred State Counseling Services
- Promote existing on-campus and community-based mental health treatment and resources, including:
- Provide individual counseling and/or group therapy.
- Advertise the availability of crisis services, including Crisis Text Line, including NYS OMH Crisis Text Line: Text GOT5 to 741741
- Publicize the availability of free online QPR suicide prevention training for students, faculty, and staff at https://qprinstitute.com/.
If you have questions regarding medical and/or mental health services, please contact Health and Wellness Services at healthandwellness@alfredstate.edu.
Athletics
Athletics will follow NCAA, SUNY, or conference requirements. Currently, there are NO restrictions or directives that exceed local decisions.
The athletic department will continue to broadcast events via streaming services. Links to each broadcast can be found on our team schedules or calendar at www.AlfredStateAthletics.com.
Questions on Athletics can be sent to Jason Doviak, Director of Athletics at: DoviakJM@alfreddstate.edu.
Compliance
It is the responsibility of all members of the college community to not only observe all COVID-19 regulations, but to also promote safety and appropriately address non-compliance.
COVID-19 Alert Levels & Returning to Remote Learning
System Administration retains the authority to pause our campus activities in cases of increased community transmission. Alfred State will use a series of variables in considering any amendment of campus operations or a request to shift to the temporary use of remote operations.
Internal variables include the severity of cases and transmission among the campus population.
External variables include the issuance of an order to close from NYS / SUNY; this is measured by region with specific metrics for hospital bed availability and infection rate.
Graduated Responses to Changing Conditions
The evolving dominant strains, changing transmissibility, severity, vaccine efficacy, and more all represent variables that will be factored into changes. Alfred State will use a flexible framework to guide decision-making, including:
Green – Normal Operations
Yellow – Modified Operations where cases are straining capacity
- Campus reduces scale or ceases student activities (programs, events)
- Athletics and Greek Life activity restricted
- Expansion of testing rates
- Restrictions on guests in residence halls
- Campus visitation reduced or suspended
- Limited seating in dining operations or at events
Red – Disrupted Operation - hospitals at/above 100%
- Grab-and-go only food service (no in-person dining)
- Select non-essential staff directed to telecommute
- Switch to remote learning (with potential exceptions)
SUNY’s COVID Dashboard Link: