5.22 Emergency Covid19 Policy

adopted: Jun-2020
last revised: Jun-2020

Richland Community College is committed to the safety of individuals coming to campus and will make efforts to comply with guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control, Illinois Department of Public Health, and Macon County Health Department that are currently in place to address the public health hazard related to Covid19 when returning to work or to receive educational services.

Richland Community College has a duty to provide an educational space that is safe and supports the welfare of students, staff, and visitors for all property owned or controlled by the College. Within the capacity of the College, efforts will be made by all staff to reduce the exposure to the hazard through the following means:

Board directs the President or designee to develop procedures for allowing individuals to enter College facilities and to communicate those procedures broadly. These procedures will be based on guidelines and best practices commonly prescribed by public health agencies with jurisdiction over Richland Community College.

Individuals are required to participate in and provide factual information pertaining to their compliance with the stated procedures and criteria as an effort to ensure an environment that reduces the Hazard.

Employees, students, and visitors will not be allowed to enter College facilities if an individual is sick or is symptomatic (with cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fever of 100.4 degrees or above, chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell, or other CDC-identified symptoms of COVID-19).

All individuals on-campus are required to follow Social Distancing guidelines. Individuals that refuse to follow stated guidelines may be removed from campus.

Students that attend on-campus classes or lab classes will be required to wear appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while participating in the activity. Students that refuse to wear PPE or follow other hazardous mitigation exposure procedures when required will be asked to leave campus immediately with no recourse.

Employees may be required to alter their work tasks, attendance, or other changes to their job-related duties in order to accommodate stated procedures that reduce exposure to the Hazard including but not limited to Social Distancing, hours of work, temperature testing, and self-reporting of their ability to meet health criteria for working on-campus.

Employees that are furloughed or quarantined due to Covid19 related actions will continue to receive College provided benefits as if they were currently working.

Pay for quarantined staff will be determined on a case-by-case basis depending on the individual’s ability to perform their duties and/or any earned paid time off.

Employees refusing to return to work due to their individual health risk associate with Covid19 are required to provide documentation from their doctor substantiating the health risk to the Director of Human Resources. The Director and the employee’s supervisor will determine if the employee can perform their Essential Functions without physically being on-campus or through other accommodations. Employees that fail to provide appropriate documentation to the Director and do not return to work may be disciplined up to and including termination.

This policy will be sunset and become void upon the Governor of the State of Illinois designating that the State has reached Phase 5 of his Recovery Plan Dated May 5, 2020.