Skip to main content

COVID-19 Resources and Campus Updates

COVID-19 precautions

As the fall semester begins, NC State is working to provide faculty, staff and students with the resources they need for a safe and successful academic year. The university has implemented comprehensive safety practices and guidance for reactivating campus, including what you can do to help. The resources we share below cover teaching, research, campus life and more.

Welcome Back to Campus

Campus Operations Changes

Here’s the campus operations information you need to know regarding changes to classrooms, facilities and transportation to help make the fall semester as safe as possible for everyone on campus.

NC State has put together some videos to give faculty, staff and students a glimpse into what to expect upon returning to campus:

The Facilities Division has also been making numerous preparations for the start of the academic year. Read more about those here.

COVID-19 Operations Line

The university has recently established a COVID-19 Operations Line where faculty, staff, students and visitors can report any non-emergency concerns, complaints and suggestions or make comments on issues related to COVID-19.

Special Circumstances Requests

While the university is reactivating campus, special circumstances related to students, employees/employment, disability accommodations, and safety may arise that require additional review and guidance, such as:

  • Workplace Safety reasons related to COVID-19: use of face coverings, cleaning practices, modifications to workspace, vehicle use.
  • Student/Employee/Employment reasons related to COVID-19: remote work, childcare, eldercare, increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19, in quarantine, ADA eligibility and accommodations.

Representatives from Environmental Health and Public Safety, University Human Resources, Disability Resource Office, and the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity can review and assist with resolving individual requests. Special circumstances request submissions may be made from the form on this page – go.ncsu.edu/reviewrequested

Should you have general questions or inquiries regarding the submission process, please contact: 

  • University Human Resources at 919-515-2135
  • Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity at 919-515-3148
  • Disability Resource Office at 919-515-7653
  • Environmental Health and Public Safety at 919-515-7915

Capital Construction Projects

Faculty, staff and students will see some changes around campus when returning for the start of the fall semester. Here are some updates on capital construction projects on campus.

Wicked Wolfpack

A new online course — “Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions” — gives incoming first-year students an extraordinary opportunity to learn and connect. Learn more about the course.

For Working Parents

Children on Campus

For the safety of students, staff and faculty, children are not permitted on campus or in the workplace. It’s imperative that activity in the workplace is limited to protect the NC State community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Resources

A list of resources to assist our working parents and caregivers during this trying time is provided below. For more information about our child care program, visit our child care website. The university is also working to obtain additional resources for parents and caregivers.

FASAP Child Care Referrals

Our Faculty and Staff Assistance Program can help connect NC State families with local child care providers. To contact FASAP, call 866-467-0467.

Triangle-Area Child Care Providers

NC State has partnerships with Bright Horizons and the Goddard School on Ridge Road in Raleigh to provide discounted child care and priority access to eligible NC State staff and faculty. In addition, the university has developed partnerships with more than 30 other area child care facilities. Those centers are providing eligible NC State employees with discounts or preferred slots. Spaces at these partner child care facilities are subject to availability. Employees should inquire directly with those providers regarding enrollment options.

Doing Your Part to Protect the Pack

We all play a part in keeping the NC State community safe. Every member of the Wolfpack has a responsibility to know and act in accordance with all university policies and guidelines, including those that have been developed specifically for the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes following national, state and local health guidelines and requirements, and adhering to local, state and university limitations on group and gathering size.

Being a part of the Pack means we are accountable together; we take responsibility for our own health and the protection of others; and we collectively work to help keep the NC State community safe from the spread of COVID-19.

Helping Ensure Health and Safety for the NC State Community

During this unprecedented time for our university and the world, your continued flexibility, cooperation and commitment are vital to our ability to return to campus and to continue protecting the Pack. To this end, and in keeping with our core values, NC State has developed community standards and practices for our students, faculty, staff and visitors for use throughout the COVID-19. Students are required to acknowledge the community standards in the MyPack Portal.

As the pandemic and the response to it continue to evolve, NC State may modify its community standards in accordance with guidance from federal, state and local agencies as well as the UNC System. All campus community members must do their part to limit the spread of COVID-19 by making health and safety for all a top priority.

Community Standards

  1. Wear a face covering. All students, faculty, staff and visitors are required to wear face coverings when in university buildings, classrooms and anywhere else on campus, indoors or outdoors, when they cannot maintain appropriate physical distancing (6 feet) from another person. For more information on this requirement, see RUL 04.21.01 (Personal Safety Requirements Related to COVID-19).
  2. Practice good hand hygiene. Wash hands frequently, for 20 seconds at a time. If soap and water are not readily available, use alcohol-based sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol.
  3. Maintain an appropriate physical distance from others. Everyone on campus is expected to maintain at least 6 feet of physical distance from others whenever possible. People are expected to follow signage directing traffic flow through building entrances, exits, elevators and other common areas to minimize density. Individual activities and facilities may have more specific requirements based upon the unique risks presented.
  4. When sick, stay home from work or class. Before coming to work or class, self-assess your health daily for symptoms identified by the CDC. If you have symptoms, do not attend work or class, and contact your medical provider. Notify your professors and/or supervisor if you need to miss class or work.
  5. Follow all directions given by university officials and public health authorities, including those related to contact tracing, monitoring and adhering to self-quarantining requirements if you have possible COVID-19 symptoms and/or have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

For additional information and resources, please visit the Protect the Pack site. Thank you for your commitment to NC State and to protecting our Pack. 

From University Human Resources

To help prepare employees for a return to on-site work, University Human Resources has developed a series of video modules. A diverse array of campus collaborators contributed to the production of the videos.

The series of minimodules will address some of the most pressing questions about returning to work on-site during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees can access the series of videos and a robust list of resources from the UHR Pandemic and Communicable Disease website. We strongly encourage employees to view the videos to help reacclimate to working on-site and become familiar with the changes across campus and at other NC State facilities. 

UHR is here to support you through these challenging and changing times. If you have HR-related questions about returning to work, please reach out to UHR at 919-515-2135 or contact your college, division or unit HR liaison. 

Paid Administrative Leave Changes

The University of North Carolina System has revised the guidelines for the COVID-19 paid administrative leave. The new guidelines will go into effect August 1, 2020, and remain in effect until revised or rescinded. When the new guidelines take effect, one important change to note is that paid administrative leave won’t be available for employees who cannot telework because their duties cannot be performed remotely and alternative remote work is not feasible. Employees who cannot telework for the reasons above can use their available accrued leave time. To help you navigate the other changes to the leave program, University Human Resources has updated this reference chart

Special COVID-19 Voluntary Shared Leave Bank

Chancellor Randy Woodson has approved the establishment of a special COVID-19 voluntary shared leave program at NC State, beginning August 1, 2020, and ending December 31, 2020. The COVID-19 Voluntary Shared Leave Bank will allow NC State employees to voluntarily donate their leave time to other leave-earning NC State employees who have exhausted their accrued leave (both current and future) due to the following COVID-19-related qualifying events:

  • The employee is needed to provide child care due to a child care facility being closed or unavailable due to COVID-19 or the employee’s child attends a school that is providing a combination of online and in-person instruction or is only providing online instruction.
  • The employee is needed to provide elder care due to an elder care facility being closed or being unavailable due to COVID-19.
  • The employee is unable to telework due to the nature of the employee’s job duties.

Please note that COVID-19 voluntary shared leave is only available for the reasons listed above.

The COVID-19 Voluntary Shared Leave Bank is currently accepting shared leave donations, which are needed on a regular basis to ensure that leave is available for employees who request it.  Leave-earning employees may donate sick, annual or regular bonus leave to the leave bank. Forms to donate and request leave are available on the COVID-19 Voluntary Shared Leave Bank page.

Expansion of Community Service Leave

The UNC System has expanded the COVID-19 community service leave program for permanent SHRA and EHRA employees. Eligible employees may use up to 80 hours of community service leave hours to work with nonprofit organizations on COVID-19-related volunteer related activities until the program is revised or rescinded. These hours will be accounted for separately from employees’ regular community service leave allotment. UHR plans to add a drop-down menu in Wolftime for the purpose of tracking COVID-19 community service leave and will notify campus when it is available.

If you have questions related to paid administrative leave or the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, please contact the leave team at ffcra-questions@nscu.edu. For more COVID-19 guidelines or resources, please visit UHR’s pandemic website and NC State’s coronavirus site.

Safety Escort Service Changes

COVID-19 has necessitated changes to the way services are offered across campus, and as a result, the NC State University Police Department and University Housing have modified the Safety Escort Service to enable proper social distancing. Effective August 10, 2020, the following operational parameters will be in effect for the service.

  • ALL safety escort requests will be walking escorts, fulfilled by either Staff-1 Security or by the University Police Department.
  • Staff-1 will provide safety escort service from 7:30 p.m. – 2:45 a.m. daily. Safety escort service can be provided by the NC State Police Department from 2:45 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. daily.
  • Safety escorts will walk requesters to the nearest Wolfline bus stop and will wait for the bus with the requestor OR safety escorts will walk requesters to a parking deck if within a reasonable distance from the point of origin. For example, a person can be walked from DH Hill Library to Dan Allen Deck or a person can be walked from Talley Student Center to Coliseum Deck.

We encourage the campus community to use the Wolfline bus service as the primary resource for transportation while at NC State, especially at night and on weekends. The service runs regular routes all across NC State property. GoRaleigh buses service outlying areas near campus.

To help speed up the process of the Safety Escort Service, we encourage you to check the bus routes that you would be utilizing for Fall 2020 by visiting the NC State Transportation website. Additionally, we encourage you to download the TransLoc app on your phone so you can see where your bus is en route. This will help greatly with travel planning and hopefully reduce waiting times at bus stops. All Wolfline buses have implemented safety measures in response to COVID-19; these are outlined on the Wolfline site.

The health and safety of the entire NC State community is paramount. We hope that you will take into consideration the changes that have been implemented for your safety when planning your travels to, from and around campus. To request the Safety Escort Service, please call the University Police at 919-515-3000.

Leave a Response

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.