Facilities Services has increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting high-touch surfaces in public spaces, including but not limited to building entrances, door handles, lobby furniture, stair handrails, ADA door controls, elevator buttons, light switches, time clocks, and restroom surfaces and fixtures. These surfaces will be cleaned and disinfected multiple times daily.
Facilities Services is utilizing Clorox 360 electrostatic sanitizing machines to help support the disinfecting efforts. The system pairs an electrostatic sprayer with a portfolio of Clorox disinfectants and sanitizers to ensure all surfaces, even those hard-to-reach, difficult-to-clean areas, are treated.
Campus members should wipe down commonly used surfaces in their work and living areas before and after use. These surfaces include shared equipment, such as copiers and printers, desks and tables, light switches, door handles, coffee makers and break room tables, and appliance handles/doors. EPA-registered, 60% to 90% alcohol solution cleansers will be provided for this purpose in each workplace, classroom, dining facility, residence hall, library space, and other university facility. Hand sanitizer dispensers also will be installed throughout campus buildings, particularly at key building entrances.
Facilities Services staff members will help promote compliance with the requirements of the university’s COVID-19 Work on Campus Plan, including specific regulatory protocols. Examples include:
Facilities Services will perform extra cleaning and disinfecting in all campus residential spaces prior to student move-in in accordance with CDC guidelines.
Measures being taken within campus buildings are as follows:
Current CDC guidance does not identify HVAC systems as a means of transmission, but does provide recommendations related to indoor air quality, including fresh air ventilation and air filtration. The university is installing an Air-Cleaning Bipolar Ionization System (GPS) on its building mechanical systems that can accommodate the retrofit for these units. The GPS auto-cleaning system purifies the air by eliminating airborne particulates, odors, and pathogens.
The university has a variety of building ages and types of systems. Many have operable windows that allow occupants to regulate fresh air intake. In addition, most buildings on campus are supplied with fresh air through the HVAC system. Campus spaces are designed to establish minimum air change per hour rates as recommended by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
Many campus building systems are designed to increase outside air ventilation during favorable weather conditions, which typically occur during the milder spring and fall seasons. The ability to increase outside air ventilation is limited during summer and winter months due to more extreme outside temperatures and the capacity of building HVAC systems. Facilities Services will be proactively inspecting building ventilation systems for proper operation and will seek ways to increase outside air ventilation as feasible.
Specialty-use areas on campus require high-containment or HEPA filters, and the HVAC systems in these areas are designed to work with these filter types. Other campus spaces do not require high-containment filters, and the HVAC systems are not designed for that filter type. Facilities Services is currently accelerating its filter replacement program and is also evaluating filter types across campus to maximize filtration to the greatest extent feasible.