This email was sent to the CalArts community instroducing the new COVID-19 Compliance Co-Officers.
Dear CalArtians,
As we have seen all summer, official health agency guidance regarding COVID-19 is issued from several levels of government: the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); the State of California; and Los Angeles County among them. Ensuring that our internal policies and procedures conform to all agency recommendations is a critical function. Additionally, making certain that our entire campus community has easy access to clear information about our health and safety practices, is and will continue to be a fundamental need this academic year.
One of the requirements from Los Angeles County is that each higher education institution name a COVID-19 Compliance Officer. The responsibilities of this includes:
- Maintaining, updating, and distributing the “CalArts Returns: Guidelines for the Management of the Return to Campus” master document for compliance with federal, state, and county COVID-19 guidance.
- Acting as an internal resource on adapting to COVID-19 safety protocols to departments, schools, and general operations within CalArts.
- Serve as the front-facing spokesperson to faculty, staff, external constituencies (e.g., families and parents) and students on matters related to COVID-19 at CalArts.
- Navigate the resolution of non-compliance situations to COVID-19 safety protocols and practices at CalArts.
- Serve as a front-facing liaison to Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in the event of an outbreak or instances of positive cases on campus, including assisting in contact tracing, etc.
- Chair the CalArts COVID-19 Compliance and Implementation Task Force.
I have asked Maria-Victoria Perez and Jesse Smith to serve as our COVID-19 Compliance Co-Officers. Both Maria-Victoria and Jesse will serve in this capacity in addition to their existing responsibilities; both have been deeply involved in our COVID-19 planning and mitigation efforts to this point; and both have a long history in developing procedures and protocols dealing with infectious disease procedure planning.
This shared assignment provides us with expertise in both the employee and student spheres, and will assure that we remain completely current in official health agency guidance as well as maintaining practices at CalArts that provide the safest possible conditions to protect our students, faculty, and staff. Please join me in thinking Maria-Victoria and Jesse for taking on these important additional leadership responsibilities.
Sincerely,
Ravi