Information for Staff

To Faculty and Staff:

A reminder that on Friday May 1, the campus will be open between the hours of 9:00 am and 4:00 pm for retrieving essential items necessary to perform work functions from home.

Please note:

• Anyone choosing to return will be required to wear a mask or face covering for the entire time they are on campus.
• Please be advised that you must use the Route 110 entrance where a university police officer will ask you for your name, destination, and estimated time it will take to complete your retrieval. Please wear your face covering when interacting with the UP officer. The officer will ask to see your mask if you are not wearing it.
• We expect anyone who returns to retrieve their possessions to do so in an expedient manner.  Please ensure that college records, documents, and other materials needed to work remotely are secured.
• We also are requesting that anyone who plans to return on May 1 to coordinate their return time with other staff members who work in the same office to minimize face-to-face interactions with other members of staff/faculty.
• Due to the expected number of people on campus and the limited staff in central receiving, campus mail will not be available while staff are on campus on May 1.

Anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 should return only if they have been cleared by the local Department of Health. Those who have had contact with a known positive COVID case within the last 14 days should refrain from returning. Please do not come to campus if you feel ill, or if anyone you have had close contact has been ill in the last 14 days.

Anyone who chooses to return should retrieve items needed not only for the remainder of the spring semester, but also summer sessions and the fall semester.

Thank you for your cooperation.

John Nader
President

Dear faculty and staff members, 

On Friday May 1st, the campus will once again offer the opportunity for faculty and staff members to return to their offices in order to retrieve items that are essential for them to perform their work functions. The campus will be open for this purpose only, and only between the hours of 9:00 am and 4:00 pm.

Anyone choosing to return will be required to wear a mask or face covering for the entire time they are on campus. Please be advised that you must use the Route 110 entrance where a university police officer will ask you for your name, destination, and estimated time it will take to complete your retrieval. Please wear your face covering when interacting with the UP officer. The officer will also ask to see your mask if you are not wearing it.

We expect anyone who returns to retrieve their possessions to do so in an expedient manner. It is important during this opportunity to ensure that college records, documents, and other materials are secured. We also are requesting that anyone who plans on returning on May 1st to coordinate their return time with other staff members who work in the same office in order to minimize the potential for face to face interactions with other members of staff/faculty.

Anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 should return on May 1 only if they have been cleared by the local Department of Health. Those who, within the past 14 days, have had contact with a known positive COVID case should refrain from returning. Please do not come to campus if you feel ill, or if anyone you have had close contact has been ill in the last 14 days.

Due to the uncertain circumstance in regard to returning to normal business operations, anyone who chooses to return should anticipate retrieving any items that may be needed not only for the remainder of the spring semester, but also summer sessions and the fall semester. While we hope to phase our return to campus as soon as possible, all staff should plan for the potential of working remotely for the foreseeable future and retrieving all items that could potentially be needed.

To Faculty and Staff:

In accordance with the Governor's directive, non-essential employees should continue to work remotely through April 29, 2020 and will not be required to charge their accruals. We will continue to provide you updates on the status of non-essential employees.

Only essential personnel as identified and instructed by supervisors are to report to work at this time. College operations remain open to the extent possible, but access to the campus is restricted and many buildings are closed. Non-essential employees should not report to campus for any reason unless specifically instructed

While classes have resumed in a distance learning environment, all events and activities have been cancelled through April 30, 2020. Keeping your personal safety as our top priority, we continue to sanitize common areas of the campus and bathrooms.  

Please continue to check the web site for up-to-date information.

John Nader
President

To Our Faculty and Staff:

Thank you. That’s all I can really say.

The past few weeks have been difficult for all of us. As a campus community we have made incredibly challenging adjustments. Our faculty made a truly amazing transition to distance instruction and did so in the space of only two weeks. At the same time, nearly every member of our staff was required to work remotely with only a few days’ notice. With all of these changes, the College continues to fulfill its core academic mission at what is perhaps the most difficult period in FSC’s history.

Although few staff members remain on campus, we are moving ahead with all of the tasks needed to serve students. Each day our Information Technology team—and they are truly a team—addresses multiple inquiries and issues from students, faculty, and staff. They have worked through weekends to insure that technology was distributed to those students who needed it. They returned to campus as essential employees to help meet faculty and staff needs.

Our custodial staff has worked tirelessly to decontaminate spaces. They continue to do so. These are the people who were our first and most important line of prevention when the virus broke. They quickly created a prevention plan, which has been updated and aggressively implemented. 

University Police officers have assisted in the difficult task of assuring an orderly departure from campus of students with their belongings, and have been vital to promoting social distancing and other preventive measures. Each officer is now assigned a discrete single vehicle to limit exposure.

Our Foundation and Alumni offices established an emergency fund for students whose ability to continue their course work is threatened by the economic shutdown caused by the virus. Our librarians acted quickly to provide resources and assistance to students and faculty alike.

Our faculty and academic staff moved 96% of our courses to a distance format, including labs in the sciences. Our admissions staff has created a virtual Open House and Accepted Students Days, and we continue to communicate directly with prospective students in new and different ways.

The campus community has been actively engaged with helping others during the Covid-19 crisis. Nursing, Dental Hygiene, Med Lab Science, Custodial, Health and Wellness and Athletics have all made personal protective equipment available to Northwell Health. Our custodial and facilities staff assisted another SUNY college in using decontamination equipment. The LIEOC will work with Island Harvest to distribute ready to heat meals in two communities, and we are providing ponchos to Long Island Community Hospital to be used as PPE by health care workers.

Our emergency management group meets remotely each day to solve problems, address public health and safety concerns, and insure the continuity of all of our operations. Much of our attention has been focused protecting public health. We worked very hard to encourage students to safely leave the residence halls while allowing those to stay who had no real housing alternatives. The group is also implementing many new policies and procedures regarding remote learning and work, dealing with credits and refunds to students, meeting the demand for technology, answering questions, dealing with legal matters, issuing daily communication, maintaining our enrollment efforts, helping students to register, and much more.

It is truly extraordinary to see how a college of 10,000 students and 2,000 faculty and staff members can operate with practically no one being physically present on campus. Although the sense of community is greatly diminished without our daily interactions, everyone should be proud of what we have accomplished. However, this virus will pass and I can’t wait to see each of you soon. Thank you!

John Nader
President

The Town Hall session which was held on Thursday, March 26, 2020 has been recorded and is available on ARIES for Faculty and Staff to view.