Opening your campus requires a comprehensive plan. Are you prepared?
When it comes to preparing your campus spaces for re-entry—including lecture halls and classrooms, dorms, cafeterias, libraries, arenas, offices, and more—having a comprehensive cleaning and disinfection plan in place is only the first step, albeit a significant one.
Higher education has unique needs when it comes to bringing students, faculty and staff back into spaces that have been closed for several months. You’ll need a plan that encompasses a range of strategies so your institution is acting in a way that’s proactive instead of reactive. Here’s what to consider:
- Ongoing, multi-level cleaning program: Whether you’re using in-house or outsourced janitorial services, your disinfection program will be very different than it was in the pre-pandemic world. It is no longer about emptying wastebaskets, vacuuming, and wiping high-touch point surfaces down whenever possible. You’ll be making a considerable investment in cleanliness, and you need to ensure that funding is allocated intelligently.
- Technology and equipment upgrades: Before re-opening, it’s worth doing an audit of your entire HVAC system as well as operations and maintenance equipment. Whether you bring in outside contractors or use your in-house team, the audit should focus on upgrades that can keep your campus safer and healthier, as well as opportunities for increased efficiency, saving you money in the long run.
- Resource allocation: Few campuses have all the expertise and labor they need in-house to operate at the highest possible level just before and after re-entry. Any plan that looks at the next year needs to include estimates, responsibilities, and benefits of outsourced resources for maximum operational impact.
- Student responsibilities: Will your students wear masks on campus, including resident halls and cafeterias? Will they be spaced at least 6 feet apart in lecture halls? Will study groups be required to sit outside whenever possible? Establishing and communicating expectations as they relate to student responsibilities and interactions will be a major part of your re-entry plan. Decide in advance what you expect them to do, so you can begin communicating before they return to campus. You’ll also need to display informational materials like posters that remind them of their role in maintaining health and safety.
In addition to these elements of your reopening plan, it’s crucial to have the type of insight and knowledge that comes from an experienced partner. Even though we’re living in a time of great uncertainty about what’s ahead, there are fundamentals that will always be key, no matter what the future brings: proactive strategy, experienced professionals, knowledge of specific systems, and experience in meeting operational challenges. Partnering with UG2 can give you all these benefits, and help you prepare for whatever the future brings.
Expanding Your Knowledge
For more insight, check out our last post, Why Colleges and Universities Have Unique Needs for Reopening and in upcoming posts, where we will continue to do a deeper dive into the specific phases of reopening, cleaning protocols, and engineering.
Be sure to connect with us on social media so you don’t miss our new blog posts. Don’t hesitate to contact UG2 to discuss your specific needs. If you are a higher education professional, now is the time to build capability and resources for re-opening. We are here to help. We apply deep experience and insights that have proven valuable to a range of higher education clients.
Our new UG2 ReNewSM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4Health programs are designed to ensure you have what you need, well before anyone returns to campus—and long after they’re back, too.