August 11 Fall Plan Updates

Campus leaders have provided several new updates about Grand Valley's plan to return to campus for Fall 2020. 

• A newly named Virus Action Team (VAT) will be replacing the daily work done by the Incident Management Team. The wide-ranging group of faculty and staff members will work daily on monitoring the health and safety of the Grand Valley community as well as the surrounding region, and will report to the Senior Leadership Team. Health monitoring questions and concerns should be sent to virusactionteam@gvsu.edu.
• The university has developed a partnership with Spectrum Health to assist with monitoring and managing the virus. Grand Valley will have infectious disease specialist Babiba Hassouna, M.D., serve as a consultant. Beginning on August 17, Spectrum Health will operate a 24/7 COVID call center for GVSU. The phone number will be updated on that date. This partnership will provide follow-up on self-assessments, including testing for individuals. It will also increase our testing capacity with results in one to two days.
• In order to safeguard ourselves and others, all community members will be required to complete the daily COVID-19 risk self-assessment seven days a week, whether you are coming to campus or not, to more completely track the virus. Compliance will be monitored. The self-assessment should be completed each day before noon, starting on August 17.
• The university is encouraging everyone to be tested for COVID-19 before returning to campus. Testing can be arranged through your healthcare provider, or you can use the State of Michigan testing site finder with a "no-cost" filter. Students who have symptoms or have been exposed to someone who tests positive can be tested at to university sites: Allendale, GVSU Campus Health Center, 42nd Avenue and Pierce Street; or Grand Rapids, GVSU Family Health Center, 72 Sheldon Blvd. SE.
• To facilitate ongoing testing, Grand Valley is partnering with Spectrum Health and is working to finalize an agreement with another lab for additional testing capabilities. The university will be able to provide quick turnarounds for thousands of tests to help track the virus. Details will be announced soon.
• Randomized testing of 1,500 people on campus will begin two weeks after the start of classes and continue throughout the semester. Students, faculty and staff will be selected at random to be tested. This will help identify "hot spots" and inform decisions regarding campus operations. Cost for randomized testing will be covered by the university. 
• All positive tests are reported to county health departments. GVSU is working with Kent and Ottawa county health departments and will support tracking and tracing efforts. Spectrum Health will assist in providing follow-up with all students who are in quarantine (exposed to someone positive) or in isolation following a positive test.
• Plans are in place to care for students who are quarantined or in isolation. Detailed information from Housing and Residence Life and the Dean of Students will be provided by August 17.
• Planning is taking place under the current Phase 4 designation by the State of Michigan, meaning we can be on campus with heavy restrictions. We will continue to follow state and federal regulations.
• Faculty have been making plans for resilient teaching to be able to shift courses quickly to remote if the need arises. Our health experts are devising a dashboard to monitor data and to identify triggers that would indicate we should move to remote education. The dashboard will be vital in our decision making and will be made public when it is operational.

Self-Assessment

A web-based self-assessment (accessed by phone, tablet or computer) is now available for faculty, staff and students. Employees and students will be expected to complete the web-based self-assessment every day.

This is required seven days a week whether you are coming to campus or not to more completely track the virus, and your compliance will be monitored. The self-assessment should be completed each day before noon. Just as with face coverings, we will start with care and reminders, move to educate, then look for a remedy, which could include a failure to comply report to Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution or Human Resources. Not completing the self-assessment would be considered a violation of university policy and would be actionable.

Learn how to create an easy-to-use bookmark for the self-assessment on your smartphone.

Self-Assessment

Lakers Together Handbook

Grand Valley has developed a handbook, “Lakers Together Protecting Each Other.” This handbook contains all the decisions we have made to date, and we will update the information as decisions are made and requirements change.

Lakers Together Handbook

Faculty and Staff Required Training

Faculty and staff returning to campus as part of Grand Valley's ramp-up to Fall 2020 are required to complete training prior to returning to the workplace.

Required Training for all Faculty and Staff

Grand Valley State University has prepared for a Fall semester geared to exceptional educational opportunities delivered in an environment that follows all public health guidance and state and federal regulations. Campus offices are open in preparation for the start of classes August 31, 2020.

This website includes information critical to the success of the academic year and the health and safety of campus. There are sections on cleaning and sanitization, move-in, dining and mental health, policies on face coverings and travel, and a section on course delivery methods.

The following principles guided GVSU’s Fall 2020 plan:

• Creating a safe environment is a shared responsibility among all who come to GVSU.
• The university is encouraging personal responsibility by providing education and the supplies and resources necessary to assist individuals in following public health guidance and university policy.
• Individuals are expected to practice healthy hygiene habits, including frequent hand washing, wearing a face covering in common areas and around other people. They should practice social distancing, avoid large gatherings, use the daily self-assessment tool every day and keep work areas clean.
• Current health guidance dictates we must reduce the number of people on campus at any given time to decrease overall density on campus. The university will only host and serve visitors engaged in critical areas of university life, such as prospective students and their families.
• The university will not schedule large-scale events, reducing campus use by those who are not students, faculty or staff.

Students need your help more now than ever. Please consider a gift to the Student Support Fund.