RSVP: Higher Ed Town Hall
August 2, 2020
REGISTER NOW TOWN HALL AUGUST 4
You’re Invited to Tuesday’s Higher Ed Town Hall about Campus Reopening
August 4th
5:30p.m. - 6:30p.m.
Tuesday
Sign our petition (LINK to petition KEEP OUR CAMPUSES SAFE )
Dear CFAC member,
Your higher education unions are hosting a virtual town hall on Tuesday to discuss health and safety issues related to returning to our colleges and universities during a pandemic. We will have a panel of experts give brief presentations on areas of concern, and then take questions from members on the call. We encourage you to invite your upcoming students, previous students, parents, staff, grad students and ALL faculty to join us.
The town hall will help answer questions, provide science based data and help understand what type of questions you need to ask and what you need to know to evaluate your safety.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2020 AT 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
VIRTUAL TOWN HALL Back to Campus Safely and Equitably!
You must register to participate in the virtual town hall. Space is limited, so register here RSVP soon. We will also share the town hall to Facebook for members, students, and families to view it there as well. It will be shared to the following Facebook pages:
· University Professionals of Illinois
· CFAC Resources – Columbia College Chicago Faculty Union
· Illinois Federation of Teachers
Follow us on Facebook and share our Facebook Event Invite
Please review the data-based best practices document IN FULL and a SUMMARY best practices for an eventual safe reopening of campuses and the joint statement signed by the coalition of universities and colleges.
I you wish to send in any questions prior to the event you can send them through the zoom link when you register or to info@pfac.org
TAKE ACTION TODAY!
The statement signed by higher ed is now a petition for faculty, students, parents, staff to sign. Sign our petition (LINK to petition KEEP OUR CAMPUSES SAFE ) to hold universities accountable and demand a remote start to the semester.
At Columbia College Chicago none of the HVAC filters recently installed are HEPA grade and therefore do not protect against Covid-19. Find out what can be done to provide protection in the classrooms we teach especially where there are no windows.
VIRTUAL TOWN HALL
Guest Panelists
Dr. Shweta Bansal, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology at Georgetown University. Her work focuses on the network modeling of host contact patterns and pathogen dynamics for infectious disease ecology, epidemiology and public/animal health problems. Dr. Bansal will outline and explain the safety concerns of reopening our college campus in the time of Covid-19.
Dr. William J. Mills, Associate Professor, College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Northern Illinois University. His work focuses on Building Environmental, Health, Safety and Sustainability and he is one of the three authors of Best Practices.
Dr. Sheila Simons, Professor & Graduate Coordinator, Eastern Illinois University. An expert in the field of epidemiology and human diseases, Dr. Simons’ research interest involves infectious diseases and their respective preventive methods, surveillance and distribution. She is one of the authors of the best practices.
Dr. Gabriel E. Guzman, Ph.D. Professor of Microbiology and Chairperson, Science Department, Triton College. He currently teaches Principles of Microbiology and Cell & Tissue Culture (for the biotechnology program). He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry, M.S. in Clinical Microbiology, and a Ph.D. in Infectious Disease Control from Karolinska Institute (Sweden) and has been teaching Microbiology for 13 years. Prior to dedicating his life to teaching, his research involved immunoparasitology of tropical diseases.
Last week, a statewide coalition of higher education unions representing thousands of faculty, staff, and graduate workers held a press conference.
You can view the press conference recording with Andrea J.Dymond as one of the speakers, andDiana Vallera, answering questions.
The health and safety of all our faculty, staff, students and CCC community and those we serve, is our priority. Our decisions will be driven by science and not by economic pressure or optics. We know how committed our faculty and staff are to our students and their learning. In order to succeed, we must move to remote learning with a focus on providing a safe environment for those courses that must have an in-person component. This goal is one that can be achieved. It is manageable. Ultimately, the decision of faculty to return to in person is one that we believe should be theirs. To accomplish this level of safety we will need your help and those of all our students, staff, parents and community supporters.
In solidarity,
Diana Vallera, CFAC President, Photography
Andrea J. Dymond, CFAC Vice President, Theatre
Lisa Formosa-Parmigiano, CFAC Secretary, CTVA
Susan Van Veen, CFAC Treasurer, Business
Michael E.Towns, Publicity Chair
Magica Bottari, Membership Chair
Deb Doetzer, Negotiations Chair