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Guidance on in-person instruction

Categories: Academics, Campus, Health & safety

In late September, Santa Clara County’s Public Health Department updated its guidance for institutions of higher education including addressing opportunities to shift classes currently being taught outdoors to indoor spaces on campus.

Stanford has since developed policies and procedures to guide this process, found in the In Person Instructional Recovery Plan. The ability to shift to indoor spaces only applies to classes currently being held in person outdoors. All courses with a current remote component will continue to be available remotely throughout the fall quarter.

The recovery plan documents Stanford’s anticipated actions in response to changes in the county risk level. With respect to these guidelines, instruction and instruction-related activities include classes, class labs, workshops, studios, office hours, review sessions, mentoring and advising.

Even though indoor instructional activities are allowed at this time in accordance with the recovery plan, organizers should still apply the following guidelines when possible:

• If the activity can be done remotely, meet remotely.
• If there is a compelling reason to meet in person, meet outdoors with physical distancing when possible.
• Only if there is a specific requirement to meet indoors should the meeting occur indoors with physical distancing.

The following apply to all stages and all settings.

• Face coverings must be worn at all times, unless granted an OAE accommodation.
• At minimum, continue to adhere to all state and county restrictions and guidelines.
• Frequent hand hygiene is strongly encouraged. Soap and water or hand sanitizer must be available for each in-person interaction.
• Disinfect shared workspaces and equipment between use.
• Only mechanically ventilated spaces can be used for instruction at this time.
• There must be a 30-minute break between scheduled events.
• Health Check completion is required prior to participating in any instructional activity.

Faculty and departments with questions regarding specific spaces should contact their appropriate school facility director for more information. Any requests for an exception for an instruction-related event must have prior registration, review and explicit approval by EH&S via Cardinal Recovery. (Find the event guidance here.)

Canopies will continue to be used for instruction and instructional related activities, but the use will be expanded for other essential activities as availability allows. General reservation requests may be submitted through 25Live. Full instructions can be found here: How to Submit a 25Live Request. For questions about the canopies at the Graduate School of Business, Law School, and School of Medicine please contact the appropriate office.

For more information, please see https://cardinalrecovery.stanford.edu/instructional-activities/.