Dear UCU Members,
We hope that everyone is doing well and staying safe as COVID cases are on the rise. We have some updates that we would like to share as well as some answers to questions that were asked in the General Membership Meeting. If you were unable to attend the meeting, the PowerPoint slides are available on the website.
Procedures for Thanksgiving and Winter Breaks
If you plan to spend the Thanksgiving weekend or extended Winter Break outside of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, you will be required to quarantine for fourteen (14) days OR follow the below guidelines for your return:
- Must obtain a Covid test within three (3) days of departure, prior to arrival in New York.
- The traveler must, upon arrival in New York, quarantine for three (3) days.
- On day four (4) of their quarantine, the traveler must obtain another Covid test. If both tests come back negative, the traveler may exit quarantine early upon receipt of the second negative diagnostic test.
Monthly Testing
Anyone who wishes to return to campus for the month of December must acquire their monthly test at an independent testing location and send the results to covidreporthr@cooper.edu. For the month of December, the testing window was extended due to Thanksgiving Day falling later in the month. Tests should be performed between November 30th and December 5th. No one will be allowed on campus starting December 7th if they have not submitted their test results at least 24 hours prior to that date. The administration will continue following the current requirements for testing through the rest of the semester. If circumstances change or this is adjusted, you will be notified.
Testing on Campus
The College is in the process of acquiring rapid tests and a healthcare professional to administer tests on campus. Once the administration releases more details, we will share them with the membership.
Health & Safety Committee
We are happy to announce that with much effort, the administration has finally decided to allow UCU to meet with the H&S Committee at the start of the Spring 2021 semester. The agreement was made due to the valuable information UCU has provided to the administration. We’ve continuously expressed that the decisions coming from these meetings highly affect staff, and we ask that you continue to share your health and safety concerns with us so we can work to resolve them with the administration.
30 Cooper Square
30 Cooper Square is cleaned each night, and no one other than essential personnel is allowed entry. The administration will discuss air quality monitoring and other concerns with us before any additional staff are allowed to return to work in the building.
Part-Time Appointments
We will continue to push for appointments to be issued in a timely manner for the Spring 2021 semester. The administration has said that they would like for these to be sent sooner rather than later, and we intend to hold them to that commitment.
Extended Holiday Schedule
As mentioned in the campus-wide email that went out on November 16th, the staff winter break holiday has been extended to January 10th. This means no staff member should be performing any type of work from December 23rd to January 10th. There are a few members that may need to work during this time due to the needs of the college (grades, registrar, admissions, etc.). These specific members will work with their managers to schedule time off to ensure that they receive the holiday time being allotted to all staff. Please note: The only individuals required to work during this period are those deemed essential. Please contact UCU should you have any questions regarding your work schedule during this period.
UCU will continue to work on behalf of our members and will share updates as we receive them. Please reach out to us if you have any questions, concerns about your working conditions, or if we can help in any way. Any unanswered questions not mentioned are still in the process of being addressed by the administration. UCU will be sure to update members as those answers become available. Thank you all for your input and please stay safe!
In solidarity,
UCU Executive Committee