As we began to re-open, we are following the guideline set forth by the office of Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Our priority is to maintain a healthy and safe teaching, learning, and work environment for our students, faculty, and staff. The reopening committee number one priority is to ensure that all safety protocols are received and implemented to stop the spread of COVID 19. The efforts include two primary dimensions: academic planning and operations:

ACADEMIC PLANNING

Task: Prepare BAU’s academic enterprises for a return to in-person operations for the fall semester and propose plans for necessary adjustments to teaching and learning and student support. Additionally, prepare for contingencies in the academics should it not be safe to return, in part or in full, to on-campus operations in the fall semester.

Team Leader: Dr. Billur Cohen, Dean of Academics

OPERATIONS

Task: Prepare BAU’s campus operations for a return to in-person instruction and a residential academic experience for the fall semester, focusing specifically on health and well-being, support services, campus events and activities, and campus spaces. Additionally, prepare for contingencies in operations should it not be safe to return, in part or in full, to on-campus operations in the fall semester.

Team Leader: Angela Myers, HR Director

Bay Atlantic University will re-open in two phases:

First phase: July 15th, Administration and executive offices will return to the building

Second phase: August 25th, Bay Atlantic University will welcome all students, faculty, executive offices, and aids.

Physical distancing will be enforced by modifying staff and class schedules, following the classrooms’ capacity limits, removing seating from computer labs, library, posting signs to follow distancing rules, and proper hygiene throughout the building.

BAU plans to begin in-person instruction on Aug. 31. However, we are planning to offer a few courses online. These would be the courses that we expect to have more than 15 enrollments. The Academic Dean is now working with the Program Chairs to identify such courses. We anticipate a modified fall semester that would end on-campus instruction at Thanksgiving break and include two weeks of remote instruction afterward to reduce the risk to the community from students traveling during Thanksgiving break and then returning to campus. We also plan to hold classes on Labor Day to encourage students to remain on campus and all staff and students to avoid travel during the extended weekend.

In addition to the modifications in the academic calendar, before students return to campus, BAU is taking many steps to ensure that academic spaces are safe and expectations about social distancing and appropriate behavior are clear. BAU will require everyone on campus to wear a cloth mask when in public areas or in the presence of others, practice social distancing, and follow CDC recommendations for hand washing and coughing/sneezing hygiene. Protocols and procedures will be regularly assessed to ensure agreement with current policies set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the D.C. Department of Health. The necessary information will be shared with all BAU members via emailing, website announcements, and visible informative posters.

Students, faculty, and staff will be expected to pledge that they will adhere to required health and safety guidelines established by the university and the District of Columbia. This public health pledge will reinforce personal and community responsibility to create a safe and healthy environment.

The university will carefully monitor its capacity for quarantining and isolating students, for doing on-campus COVID-19 campus case contact investigations, and for providing students and employees health surveillance.  BAU will take action to move to increase online instruction and telework if there is a large resurgence on campus.

BAU will be prepared at any time for virtual instruction and will, of course, be prepared at any time to comply with any and all D.C. requirements that may shift as the pandemic evolves.

The details of the preventive measures and the response actions are explained in the relevant sections of the Reopening Plan.