We are grateful to our Pitt Law faculty and staff for their tremendous dedication, flexibility and patience throughout these difficult and uncertain times. From engaging and supporting our students remotely to conducting scholarly work and keeping our building safe and clean, the people of Pitt Law continue to show resilience. In fact, the greater University has adopted the Resilience Framework, which was developed to coordinate our planning and decision making, is built with flexibility. Working together we will be able to navigate working on campus in this new and changing environment.
Doing the Work
Whenever possible, faculty and staff should continue working remotely for the duration of the pandemic. This allows us to bring back our students, while reducing our total population on campus. When faculty and staff must be on campus to teach classes, support our educational mission, our students and our operations, precautionary measures like staggered shifts will be taken, along with ongoing health and safety measures.
Mandatory Training
All faculty who are working on campus are required to complete COVID-19 response training, even if you were part of a research restart and have already completed some training. All employees returning to campus must take employee training, which can be found on coronavirus.pitt.edu. Supervisors have an additional training which is available on the OHR Partners SharePoint site. You must complete this training before your first day back on campus.
Pitt Community Compact
Student leaders from the Pittsburgh campus have created the Pitt Community Compact and have asked students, faculty, and staff on all campuses to take this pledge to emphasize our culture of adhering to behaviors to protect the community. The compact focuses on your individual health and wellbeing, your impact on others, and your accountability. At the end of the training, you will have the opportunity to review and take the pledge online.
Face Coverings
You must wear a face covering at all times on campus, unless you are in a private space or eating. The University will provide you with two Pitt face coverings (disposable face coverings are to be available at building entrances if you forget yours). We will make the masks available to you at the times below next week. If no one greets you, please call Karen at 412-624-1605 when you arrive at the Forbes Avenue doors. If you would also like to pick things up from your office while you are here, please contact LuAnn at lmdris@pitt.edu.
During in-person lecturing in the front of the classroom, the instructor may use a face shield that fully covers the face in lieu of a cloth face covering if they have a medical or academic reason to do so. The instructor should also maintain a physical distance of six feet from the closest student. A face shield, while allowed under this circumstance, is not the best option for infection control as its open sides offer less protection to both the wearer and others. In general, a face shield should not be substituted for a cloth face covering. If the instructor needs/wants to walk around the classroom to observe students’ work, give feedback or engage in one-to-one discussion, both the instructor and the student should wear cloth face coverings and attempt to maintain as much physical distance as feasible.