By Monica Munjal, Director of Operations & Facilities, and Yunny Yip, Dean of Students August 11, 2020
Dear Students,
We are eagerly preparing CIIS for Fall 2020, both in virtual and in-person ways, and look forward to welcoming you to the new academic year. This unprecedented time has required a lot of extra planning and care in order to protect the safety of our community.
This email includes information about:
- CIIS Mission Street Campus
- CIIS Arkansas Street Campus
- Campus Policies and Protocols
- Changes to Campus Life
- Campus Hours and Access to Student Services
Mission Campus
Starting August 17, CIIS’ Mission Street campus will open to students by advance appointment. This is only required for visits outside of your Fall face-to-face class schedule. Campus is currently open to staff and faculty by appointment. Please contact Operations at OperationsRequests@ciis.edu at least 24 hours before your visit. Please include the date(s) and time(s) that you plan to visit. This information will enable us to monitor and control the number of people in the building in order to stay within safety guidelines. We also ask for this information so that we can quickly notify specific students in the event that SFDPH regulations change and CIIS can no longer allow individuals on campus.
San Francisco is currently on a watchlist until the county has 14 consecutive days of declining COVID cases. It is an unknown at this time if CIIS will need to start the semester fully virtual due to this restriction. Our goal is to ensure that students still have access to the Mission campus by appointment, regardless of whether we are able to have face-to-face classes.
Arkansas Campus
Starting August 27, CIIS’ Arkansas campus will be open to students for classes and clinic shifts. Special appointments outside of that can be made by emailing actcmclinic@ciis.edu. Because this campus is smaller, we need to restrict activity to just classes, clinic shifts, and essential staff and faculty work. There will not be any study or break spaces for students inside the building, but students are welcome to take breaks outside or use the Mission campus study spaces. More detailed information about Arkansas plans for Fall will be sent to that community in a separate email.
Campus Policies and Protocols
Please be sure to check out the Building Access Policies and fill out the CIIS Health Screening Formon MyCIIS before each visit to either campus. If you are unable to print out the form, you have the option of filling it out electronically and emailing Operations at the email above, or we will have the forms in the lobby to fill out when you arrive. Everyone entering our campuses is expected to wear a face covering while in the building. Also, be prepared to have your temperature taken upon entering either campus. Last, we ask that any community member who will be coming from out of the state or country, or who has concerns about being recently exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, to quarantine for 14 days before coming to either building.
Changes to Campus Life
Part of our University’s commitment to keeping our campuses open to is to support all students, including those who do not have in-person classes; and those who need to access resources that include internet access, spaces conducive to studying, and an environment committed to meeting public health standards. We have created five dedicated study spaces for this purpose at our Mission campus: the first-floor lobby, rooms 216 and 218, the 2 ndfloor tech center for computers, and the 3 rd floor café. However, please be aware that there will be some required changes surrounding common spaces.
Due to safety regulations, we will no longer be able to offer for communal use our student and faculty lounge refrigerators on the 4 th and 5 th floors. The Byte refrigerator in the café will not have food available for purchase in Fall semester. Similarly, we will no longer be serving coffee and tea in that space to meet food handling requirements set forth by OSHA. We also have changed the structure of the BREATHE Food Pantry, which will now require advance requests to be sent via email to foodpantry@ciis.edu with curbside pickup by appointment for items at the Mission campus only. We hope to expand BREATHE curbside pickup to Arkansas campus by Spring 2021 semester. More info about food pantry will be coming soon in a separate email.
We are required to limit the occupancy of specific rooms, to ensure that we are meeting public health requirements. For that reason, our 5 th and 6 th floors, including the Zen roof garden will be closed to students for Fall semester. In addition, for safety we must discourage any congregating or gathering around campus.
For both campuses, we ask that everyone be mindful of signs and floor demarcations, and that we all take shared responsibility for keeping everyone in our community safe, by practicing appropriate distancing of six feet, observing good hand-hygiene protocols and wearing a face covering. We appreciate your support with these changes.
Campus Hours and Access to Student Services
Starting August 17, our planned building hours at the Mission campus will be Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Starting August 27, our planned building hours for the Arkansas campus will be Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.
A member of our Operations staff will be on-site at all times at both campuses during operating hours. Please feel free to email questions to OperationsRequests@ciis.edu for both Mission and actcmclinic@ciis.edu for Arkansas campuses.
As hours are subject to change, we ask that you confirm CIIS/ACTCM building operations and hoursbefore coming to campus.
While some administrative and student-service offices may be available for in-person meetings at our Mission campus, we encourage you to contact the office directly regarding possible in-person hours and to schedule an appointment.
Registrar’s Office registrar@ciis.edu
Financial Aid finaid@ciis.edu
Business Office businessoffice@ciis.edu
Student Affairs studentaffairs@ciis.edu
Admissions admissions@ciis.edu
Center for Writing and Scholarship cws@ciis.edu
Please note that all offices continue to be available for virtual meetings.
The Library will be open at the Mission campus on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 11am to 4pm. Browsing and studying will not be allowed in that space due to COVID safety restrictions, but Library staff will be able to assist you with checking out materials and other services. More info can be found on the Library website.
Library hours are subject to change based on staff availability. Please be sure to check the Library website for the most up-to-date information before making a special trip to campus.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Fall 2020 semester and wish you safety and well-being.
Monica (Director of Operations & Facilities) and Yunny (Dean of Students)
