Tony Liss
Three days ago I wrote to you about a five-stage research reopening plan. A lot changes in three days and I am writing to update you on a much more rapid plan. On Monday the State included Higher Education Research as part of Phase 1, which began on Monday. The State’s guidelines can be found here. This significantly advances the timeline with which we are working.
We are currently finalizing a draft plan that details how we will satisfy each of the State’s mandatory requirements for opening research labs. These requirements include physical distancing, protective equipment, cleaning and disinfecting, communication and screening. We plan to submit this plan to CUNY by the end of this week, and once it has been approved, we will be ready to open. The opening will still be on a limited basis, but the occupancy limits will be somewhat higher than we had originally planned for the early stages.
The procedure for reopening your lab, are the same as what I sent in the memo on Monday: All relevant documentation can be found from the Research Reopening link under the Research tab on the College homepage. We are asking researchers who want to restart their laboratory operations to submit a research reopening plan according to the Research Reopening Plan Template. If you have already submitted a plan, you do not need to submit another one. The plan will be reviewed by the Research Reopening Review Board (RRRB) which will be Chaired by Rose Wesson and include the following additional people
- Valerio de Angelis (GSOE)
- Richard Belgrave (EHS)
- Ronnie Ghose (Science)
- Maria Lima (CSOM
- Susan Perkins (Science)
- David Robinson (Facilities)
- Gonzalo Torres (CSOM)
Our primary concern is the safety of students, faculty and staff, and I want to stress that students cannot be required to come to campus, and at this time undergraduates are not yet allowed back on campus.