DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY – COVID-19 FAQ
PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND FAQs RELATED TO COVID-19 CAMPUS OPERATIONS:
Community Protective Equipment
CPE (Community Protective Equipment) primarily includes disposable non-surgical 3-layer face masks, hand sanitizer, and ethanol/alcohol wipes. The University will no longer provide this equipment to faculty, research labs, graduate students, and employees. Every employee should have received one cloth face mask. If you did not receive this, please contact Lori Shamblin.
Once our inventory of CPE is gone, everyone will be responsible for their own supplies. If you are a research lab and need to order masks, ethanol wipes, hand sanitzer, etc., please contact Trish Brittenham to place an order.
Community Standards, Testing & Reporting
To stay up to date on the latest community standard, testing, vaccines, reporting and campus operations, please visit the Carolina Together website. The information provided on that site will be much more up to date than this FAQ page.
Buildings and Wayfinding
BUILDING ACCESS:
Academic buildings are unlocked from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Our non-academic research buildings/areas will remain inaccessible to students and the general public. This includes Fordham Hall, and floors 2-4 of Genome Sciences Building. The Biology Department is not responsible for decisions regarding building accesses – these decisions were made at the university level by Facilities and University Police.
If you have any questions or if you need access to these spaces, please contact Lori Shamblin who can route the request through the appropriate channels.
WAYFINDING:
University Facilities, in cooperation with Environment, Health and Safety, have installed wayfinding signs in all academic buildings. This is to allow for safe building access and travel through hallways as students come and go from face-to-face classes.
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANY WAYFINDING SIGNS FROM ANY LOCATION.
You are not REQUIRED to follow the directions indicated on these signs when traveling between buildings or interior spaces outside of class change times. During normal non-class change hours, you can travel between buildings and interior spaces as you like. Please be considerate and responsible when doing so.
If you have any questions about sign placement, or need to request a change to sign location(s), please contact Lori Shamblin who can route the request through the appropriate channels.
If You Get Sick
University guidance pertaining to symptom reporting can be found under the Health and Wellness section of Carolina Together.
NOTED GUIDANCE:
There is a COVID-19 Wellness Self-Check that all faculty, staff, researchers and student employees can take before coming into work or the lab. It is encouraged that you send this link out to everyone in your individual units.
If anyone reports experiencing symptoms, they must immediately contact their health care provider. Any decisions about returning to work timelines will be discussed in concert with the provider and supervisor, and dependent upon any testing and results.
Please visit Carolina Together for more information on testing and tracing
EHS/UEOHC does provide return to work guidance for positives by phone or via the COVID-19 Wellness Self-Report web application.
Wellness Resources During COVID-19
Please visit the Work Life & Wellness Programs section of the UNC-Chapel Hill HR website for valuable COVID-19 related wellness resources.
University Travel Guidelines
Please visit Carolina Together: Travel Guidelines for up to date university guidelines specific to faculty research, graduate student research, and guest speaker travel.
Space/Facilities Issues/Work Orders
If you have any urgent issues or concerns you can email Jason.
Faculty Meetings
As of now, we are planning to return to in-person faculty meetings beginning Fall 2021, with a hybrid component for those who would feel more comfortable attending virtually.
Thesis Committee Meetings/Exams
Please contact Kenlyn Merritt for updates to meetings and exams in 2021-2022.
Parking
Current parking permits and reduced parking costs for those working remotely 3 days or less will be extended by one month and reissued in August, with the expectation that the reduced telework permit will continue.Please check the Parking & Transportation website daily for updates. As a department we are not able to provide any temporary parking at this time. If you have any questions that are not addressed on the Parking & Transportation website, please contact our departmental parking coordinators Trish Brittenham and Tosha Furphy.
US Mail & Shipping/Receiving
SHIPPING & RECEIVING: FedEx and UPS have resumed their normal delivery schedules. Regular FedEx pick-ups have also resumed. Please drop off items for pick-up outside of Trish Brittenham’s office (203C) by 2:30 p.m.. If you require assistance in preparing a waybill for FedEx, requests must be made to Trish Brittenham NO LATER THAN 1:00 P.M. FedEx shipping supplies can be found on the rear side of the center mailboxes near the window in our mailroom (Coker 208A).
US MAIL: University mail services have resumed normal operations.
Once our inventory of CPE is gone, everyone will be responsible for their own supplies. If you are a research lab and need to order masks, ethanol wipes, hand sanitzer, etc., please contact Trish Brittenham to place an order.
-
Academic buildings are unlocked from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Our non-academic research buildings/areas will remain inaccessible to students and the general public. This includes Fordham Hall, and floors 2-4 of Genome Sciences Building. The Biology Department is not responsible for decisions regarding building accesses – these decisions were made at the university level by Facilities and University Police.
If you have any questions or if you need access to these spaces, please contact Lori Shamblin who can route the request through the appropriate channels.
WAYFINDING:
-
University Facilities, in cooperation with Environment, Health and Safety, have installed wayfinding signs in all academic buildings. This is to allow for safe building access and travel through hallways as students come and go from face-to-face classes.
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANY WAYFINDING SIGNS FROM ANY LOCATION.
You are not REQUIRED to follow the directions indicated on these signs when traveling between buildings or interior spaces outside of class change times. During normal non-class change hours, you can travel between buildings and interior spaces as you like. Please be considerate and responsible when doing so.
If you have any questions about sign placement, or need to request a change to sign location(s), please contact Lori Shamblin who can route the request through the appropriate channels.
NOTED GUIDANCE:
-
There is a COVID-19 Wellness Self-Check that all faculty, staff, researchers and student employees can take before coming into work or the lab. It is encouraged that you send this link out to everyone in your individual units.
If anyone reports experiencing symptoms, they must immediately contact their health care provider. Any decisions about returning to work timelines will be discussed in concert with the provider and supervisor, and dependent upon any testing and results.
Please visit Carolina Together for more information on testing and tracing
EHS/UEOHC does provide return to work guidance for positives by phone or via the COVID-19 Wellness Self-Report web application.
US MAIL: University mail services have resumed normal operations.
