In May, Indiana University released a report on how to safely reopen. The report was the work of IU’s “restart committee,” headed by IU Med School Dean Jay Hess.
“It had the principle that we needed to maintain the safety and security of all campus personnel above any other consideration," said Kirk White, IU's assistant vice president for strategic partnership.
White is also on the university's emergency committee. He said recommendations vary depending on the role, but all workers must adhere to a variety of safety protocols if they’re on campus.
Those include "providing everybody with masks and personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer, and asking your employees if they have underlying medical conditions, then we try to find alternate ways for them to be able to continue working," White said.
Housekeeping staff at the university’s Biddle Hotel used to encounter people from all over the world.
But since the pandemic began, the university is only allowing people affiliated with IU to stay overnight — meaning all its guests are screened for COVID-19, at least indirectly. And most aren’t arriving from out of town.
Michael Campbell is associate director for operations at the IMU. He said housekeeping already had a pretty robust system for cleaning rooms before students moved in.
“Now we're doing student resident housing for the fall semester," he said. "And again for the spring. The order in which we clean some things has changed, which I think is interesting. And in looking at it, we want to make sure that we're going in and disinfecting first.”
Campbell said housekeepers are changing gloves each time they switch to a different room, and there are more items in their hotel carts such as hand sanitizer.
“But really, I guess the process has just been a little bit better refined," he said. "We’re doing some of that disinfecting up front, rather than what we were doing at the end.”
Campbell said the hotel is also taking guidance from larger chains such as Marriott in addition to complying with IU's new requirements.
Linda Gales is a union leader for the local chapter of Communications Workers of America, which represents around 1,500 support staff on IU campuses. Her union is separate from the one representing most hotel staff. But Gales keeps a close eye on working conditions at residence halls, and said she hasn’t heard many complaints.
“IU has been wonderful, since the very beginning of all of this, in how the university is handling it as far as employees are concerned," she said. "I mean, there were some bumps in the road at the beginning as the semester was getting started. But by and large, they've been pretty careful.”
Gales said workers following guidelines are not just protecting their health. They’re also protecting their income. She said the university has even made it clear that there is consequence for failing to adhere to health protocols.
“They're very strict about it," Gales said. "And if you're reported, and if found to be true, you get three chances, and you can actually be terminated. So it's working very well.”
Amid soaring unemployment off campus, IU workers have more than one reason to follow safety protocols.
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