FAQs

Students should contact their primary care provider or the Proctor Student Health Center at 704-637-4404.

Students should contact their primary care provider’s after-hours number. They may also call their RA, who will contact the Dean on Call. Should students need immediate assistance, contact Public Safety at 704-637-4000.

Employees should receive communication from their supervisors regarding the anticipated date of return to on-campus work. Catawba College initiated a flexible return to work plan on June 1, and plans to return the workforce to campus, with exceptions, on Monday, August 3.

Discuss your concerns with your supervisor regarding the return to work plan. You may also contact Human Resources for additional information. You may contact Drew Davis at 704-637-4227 or dhdavis18@catawba.edu and Meredith Cole at 704-637-4116 or mncole19@catawba.edu.

Catawba College will continue to be flexible with employees. Please work with your supervisor to determine whether you are able to continue your remote work arrangement beyond August 3. 

Staff employees may use accrued personal or vacation leave time. If a staff employee exhausted his/her accrued leave, that employee may be placed into unpaid status if unable to work from home. Faculty members should work with their department chair, dean, or the Provost.

Due to liability concerns, children may not accompany employees to the workplace during this pandemic. Employees should contact their supervisors to discuss their options.

Yes. Catawba College has developed a self-health questionnaire for employees. We ask each employee to monitor his/her health daily. The self-health questionnaire is located here. Additionally, Catawba College plans to link this questionnaire to the Catawba phone app. Please note employees are not to report to work if they do not feel well.

• Employees who have symptoms (i.e., fever, cough, or shortness of breath) should notify their supervisor, should contact their healthcare provider, and utilize leave to stay home. 
• Employees with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and have symptoms should follow CDC-recommended steps, should use leave, and may not return to work until the criteria to discontinue home isolation are met, in consultation with healthcare providers and state and local health departments.

Employees who are well but who have a family member at home sick with a confirmed case of COVID-19 should notify their supervisor, follow CDC recommended precautions, stay at home, and utilize COVID-19 personal leave (and sick leave after your COVID-19 personal leave is exhausted).

Effective August 1, the College renewed the ten (10) additional days (equals 80 hours) of personal leave needed due to COVID-19 related absences previously provided by the College. These ten (10) days are not subject to the College’s leave payout should an employee depart the College after advancement of such leave and will expire effective December 31, 2020.

Although the mass gathering limitations in Governor Cooper’s May 20, 2020, Executive Order do not apply to educational institutions, all employees are directed to limit the number of people at gatherings to limit the spread of COVID-19 in accordance with the gathering limitations in that Executive Order. Examples include:

• When in-person meetings are necessary, no more than the number of people defined in Governor Cooper’s May 20, 2020, Executive Order may be present, and physical distancing should be in place.
• Video conferencing and conference calls should be used instead of in-person meetings.
• The College will not approve any event, meeting, or gathering that includes more persons as allowed by Governor Cooper’s May 20, 2020, Executive Order and/or any subsequent order. 

Please note the limit on gatherings includes other personnel that may be present in that space. 

Catawba offers a comprehensive list of technology tools and services to help you be productive while working remotely. Please see the Working and Teaching Remotely webpage.

• Practice good hygiene and social distancing at all times.
• The College’s Return to Work and Return to Learn groups have worked and will continue to evaluate campus work environment and make necessary adjustments to ensure social distancing practices can be followed. In shared offices or workspaces, the following should be considered:
• Utilize flexible work schedules, staggered work hours, and staggered arrival and departure times. Examples include:
• Rotations of remote and in-person work: Create schedules that rotate employees on in-person and remote workdays in order to ensure offices are covered while also supporting social distancing and decreasing congestion in the office.
• Staggered scheduling: Stagger the arrival and departure times of employees, so that not all employees arrive or depart at the same time.
• Alternate break/lunch scheduling: Alternate work or lunch schedules to minimize the number of individuals working together, congregating in one area or gathering. 
• Adjust furniture and office layout to allow for social distancing. Example include:
• Move desks or furniture apart to maximize spacing within offices, office suites, work areas and lounge or public spaces.
• Relocate individuals to alternate spaces or use larger spaces if possible.
• Based on limited availability, and as a last resort, consider the use of office partitions or Plexiglas dividers for areas where the prominent purpose is customer service or interacting with walk-up traffic of students, faculty, staff, parents, or campus visitors 
• Alter or limit congregating factors or spaces where the virus may be easily spread. Examples include:
• Discontinue the use of office coffee pots. Post signage to require disinfecting handles on refrigerators and microwaves, as well as control panels of microwaves and vending machines. Post signage discouraging drinking from water fountains.
• Alter break room setups to increase social distancing. Limit the number of people who can be present where gatherings often occur such as lunch or break rooms. Encourage outdoor break periods.
• Ensure adequate space between personal items in areas of shared storage such as locker rooms or mailrooms.

• Members of the College’s Return to Work group toured and reviewed nearly every building on campus.
• Decals demarcating six (6) feet of space in lines are being placed throughout campus. Should you require additional decals, please contact Jeff Hartley at jhartley@catawba.edu or 704-637-4245.
• The College created traffic patterns to decrease face-to-face interactions. Employees with unique work locations may further adjust traffic patterns to force one-way travel. You may safely utilize barriers such as tape or furniture as needed to insure proper traffic patterns and limit access, as long as access to exits is not impeded.
• We will limit the number of people moving through large spaces such as the dining hall.
• When walking in corridors or hallways, stay on the right side according to the direction you are heading in order to maximize distance when passing others.
• The College is marking stairwells as “Up” or “Down” where possible.
• Where possible, the College is designating certain doors as Entry Only and others as Exit Only. Clear signage is being placed on these doors. Nothing herein precludes any door from being used as an exit door in the case of an emergency.

The CDC identified individuals with higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19 as older adults and people who have serious underlying medical conditions. You may find specific information regarding high-risk populations here. 

Employees in the identified groups should consult the CDC’s extra precautions site and speak with their healthcare provider. Employees in the above groups who cannot maintain a six (6) foot distance from others during work should consider wearing a mask regularly and speak with their supervisor and healthcare provider. 

Supervisors or employees should contact Human Resources to discuss instances potentially needing an additional accommodation for someone who has identified themselves as higher risk for severe illness and unable to work in conditions provided to them.

Catawba employees are required to wear a face mask or covering on campus when in the presence of others and in public settings where other physical distancing guidelines are difficult to maintain. Appropriate use of a face mask or covering is critical to reducing risk to others near you. You may spread the COVID-19 virus to others even if you do not feel sick. Please note your mask or face covering is not a substitute for physical distancing, but is to be used in addition to physical distancing, hand washing, and the use of hand sanitizer. As the CDC indicates they do not prevent the transmission of COVID-19, face masks with valves or vents are prohibited. 

Yes. Catawba will require all visitors to campus wear a mask. Employees are requested to remind visitors of this requirement to promote safety for the Catawba community. As the CDC indicates they do not prevent the transmission of COVID-19, face masks with valves or vents are prohibited.

Yes. Catawba students are required to wear a face mask or covering on campus when in classrooms and labs, in the presence of others, and in public settings where other physical distancing guidelines are difficult to maintain. Appropriate use of a face mask or covering is critical to reducing risk to others near you. You may spread the COVID-19 virus to others even if you do not feel sick. Please note your mask or face covering is not a substitute for physical distancing, but is to be used in addition to physical distancing, hand washing, and the use of hand sanitizer. As the CDC indicates they do not prevent the transmission of COVID-19, face masks with valves or vents are prohibited.

The College is providing all employees with two (2) re-usable, washable cloth masks. Employees may provide their own mask if they so choose.

Local health department staff and the CDC do not recommend face shields as substitutes for face coverings, such as face masks.

Employees are entitled to protections against discrimination based upon age, disability, and a number of other protected categories. Others should not presume to determine if someone is in a high-risk category. Each employee should assess using the CDC guidance and/or their health care provider to determine if it is safe to come to work. If a co-worker learns of a high-risk factor, they must maintain confidentiality of that information, only reporting it to Human Resources or a supervisor.

All persons returning to campus shall follow the CDC guidelines set out for traveling throughout the United States: 

• www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html
• www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-in-the-us.html

Working remotely, managing childcare and work, anxiety about possibly contracting COVID, and worry about placing loved ones at risk are all unusual stressors during a pandemic. Catawba realizes COVID continues to create stressful situations for you and your family. A host of resources exists for you and your loved ones.    

Should you need assistance, we urge you to contact the College’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for free support services. The Work Life Matters EAP may be accessed at eapcounselor@ibhcorp.com or 1-800-386-7055.  

Other free, generally available resources are:  

• The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which connects you to a national network of local crisis centers providing free, confidential support. 1-800-273-8255; https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
• You may obtain 24/7 support via text message from the Crisis Text Line by texting 741741, which connects you to a crisis counselor who is a trained volunteer (not a medical professional).
• The North Carolina HopeLine provides a free helpline that offers crisis intervention, supportive and non-judgmental active listening, gentle and understanding discussion of crisis resolution, and referrals to community resources. You can call or text at 1-919-231-4525 or call 877-235-4525; www.hopeline-nc.org.
• You may also access the telephone numbers for North Carolina county or region specific suicide hotlines at http://www.suicide.org/hotlines/north-carolina-suicide-hotlines.html.

Catawba developed a decision plan for transitioning back to remote learning and a remote-only workforce. The Go Remote/Re-Exit Plan includes four (4) stages, color coded from Green to Red, and is based on a non-exhaustive list of internal and external factors. This Plan may be located in the Information for Students and Information for Employees sections of the Return to Catawba webpage. 

Additionally, the color of the Return to Catawba banner near the top of the Catawba webpage will match the current Go Remote stage. 

The College’s COVID-19 FAQs for employees are located here.