COVID-19 vaccination mandate followup

Jan 24, 2022 | Intercom

Hello all,

NMC’s leadership team continues to monitor the federal government’s efforts to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing for employees with 100 or more employees. We have been advised that this mandate will likely continue to be blocked by legal challenges. We are not planning to take additional steps toward implementing such a mandate at this time.

We will continue to pay close attention to these developments. Our priorities continue to be on safety and legal compliance, while limiting disruption to learning.

Mark

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Mark Liebling
AVP of Human Resources
1701 East Front Street, Traverse City, MI 49686
(231) 995-1342

COVID-19 protocols for instructors

Jan 20, 2022 | Intercom

Dear Instructors,

With Spring semester underway and the prevalence of the omicron variant in our region, we’re experiencing an increase in reported COVID-19 cases in our campus community. In an effort to maintain a safe learning environment and improve the efficiency of contact tracing, we’d like to review our current protocols for what to do when a student or instructor tests positive:

If a student tests positive for COVID-19

• Report all positive (student) cases through NMC’s Red Flag incident reporting system:
  • Check “Health Concerns” in the questions section. 
  • Please include:
    • The best contact information for the student (cell and/or email)
    • The room number of your class
    • The time class met
    • Any other information related to unusually close or lengthy contact with additional students (i.e. lab partner)
• Please ask the student to contact NMC Health Services to expedite reporting and follow-up.
• To maintain student privacy, we strongly discourage notifying an entire classroom if a student in your classroom tests positive. 
• Health Services is responsible for contact tracing, focusing on close contacts since they are most at risk. Should the instructor choose to notify an entire class of a case in their classroom, it’s very important not to identify the student who tested positive. Exclude their name and other personally identifiable information.
• If Health Services is made aware of or discovers a student case before an instructor, they will notify the instructor as soon as possible. 
• If Health Services identifies multiple classroom cases, they will notify the instructor and arrange a meeting to assess the need to pivot to virtual instruction or cancel for a period of time.
• Instructors should contact Health Services immediately (via the Red Flag process outlined above) if multiple student cases are discovered by the faculty member first.
• Instructors should then follow guidelines for “Multiple Classroom Cases” in determining whether to temporarily shift the course online.

If an instructor tests positive for COVID-19

• The instructor should notify their supervisor and Human Resources (include Hollie DeWalt and Mark Liebling).
• Coursework may be temporarily cancelled, adjusted or shifted online at the discretion of the instructor during quarantine (generally 5 days unless symptoms persist).

Rapid testing resources

• Health Services provides free rapid testing services for all students. 
• Health Services also provides testing services to faculty and staff who experience on-the-job exposures. Due to limited resources, testing services are not available for employees who are exposed elsewhere in the community. 
• Free COVID-19 rapid-testing sites near you can be found here and are also available through COVIDtests.gov

Please also note the dates and locations of potential campus exposures are posted to NMC’s COVID-19 dashboard by 4 p.m. weekdays.

Thank you,

Troy Kierczynski
Vice President of Finance & Administration
Administrative Services
(231) 995-1147 | www.nmc.edu

COVID testing for NMC employees

Jan 17, 2022 | Intercom