Employees Who Worked Remotely For The Past Year Will Return To MDC On Tuesday

Non-instructional employees at Miami Dade College who had special authorization to work remotely for the past year due to COVID-19 will return to campus on Tuesday.

The special approval—that expires Friday—allowed employees who are 65 years or older, had underlying medical conditions or were the primary caretaker to a vulnerable individual to work from home. 

Miami Dade College officials did not specify how many employees will be returning to campus Tuesday.

“I have given you all I can at the current time,” the College’s director of communications Juan Mendieta told The Reporter on Thursday via email. “Our focus now is Surfside and, for college operations, an approaching storm.”

Mendieta was able to confirm that when employees return, face masks will be optional—although they are encouraged—for vaccinated employees.

Things were less clear when it came to students. Although a limited population has been taking face-to-face classes for more than nine months, officials were not specific when asked if students would still be required to wear face masks while visiting campus. 

“We’ll communicate with students prior to the start of fall,” Mendieta responded.

The mask update is one of several relaxed safety measures the College has approved in recent weeks. 

On June 21, MDC stopped requiring temperature checks—a precaution that prevented people with a fever or who had recent contact with the virus from entering campus—to enter school grounds. In addition, as of this Friday, the entrances to all eight MDC campuses will be reopened to the public. Most of them had been blocked by barricades to control the flow of traffic to a limited number of entrances. 

Other signs of less stringent mandates include in-person Board of Trustees meetings, open houses and recruitment efforts at places like Aventura Mall. Ceremonies—such as commencement, the Alumni Hall of Fame and the White Coat Ceremony at North Campus—have also jumped on the face-to-face modality. 

Some departments have already been operating successfully face-to-face. For example, the Financial Aid Department at Wolfson Campus has been fully operating in-person for two weeks and the Kendall Campus Testing and Assessment Department has had most of its staff on campus for more than six months, officials said. 

The Learning Resources Department at North Campus and the Carrie P. Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center, which has been offering some in-person services since September, is preparing for the return of 67 employees to campus on Tuesday. They are asking staff to use face masks, installed plexiglass barriers in the office, and deep cleaning spaces at the middle and the end of the day. They will also continue to host meetings virtually, unless completely necessary, via platforms like Microsoft Teams.

“They’re going to receive training the week before they come in,” said Israel Sanchez, director of the department. “We’ll talk about what they need to expect, our safety protocols, what are the areas with limitations, etc. They’ll be joining us in a system that is already functioning.”

Employees returning across the College’s eight campuses next week will be greeted by a bevy of safety guidelines to protect students, faculty and staff from the coronavirus. Most of them have been in place for months. They include:

• A face mask mandate for people who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Enhanced cleaning protocols conducted on a daily basis. 
• Physical barriers, such as sneeze guards and plexiglass partitions, in open areas.
• A social distance of three feet, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and limited capacity for some rooms.
• Stands with hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes across the campuses.
• Continued use of technology platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams to support students both virtually and in person.

Although the College has not announced yet whether clases in the fall will return to being fully face-to-face, the expiration of remote work authorization is one of several bread crumbs that hint that they could possibly be ready to go from Phase 2 to Phase 3 and completely reopen.

According to the College’s Outbreak Recovery Plan, Phase 3 can only be implemented after Miami-Dade County shows an average positivity rate of less than three percent for 14 consecutive days. According to the county’s most recent Daily Dashboard Report published on June 24, the average positivity rate for the week ending on June 18 is 3.8 percent. 

If classes do fully return on-campus in the fall, MDC officials have said that students and faculty will not be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine to be on-campus. 

Wolfson Campus Student Government Association President Isabella Cunningham said she knows that some students are concerned about returning but she is excited to revel in the college experience. 

“Many students, myself included, haven’t had a chance to experience the vibrancy and excitement of being on campus [and] are optimistic [about] experiencing all that MDC offers in person,” Cunningham said.