[Faculty] In-Person Research for Spring 2021

[Garoma, Temesgen]

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share with you the current DRI guidelines for in-person
research. The guideline is for the initial months of the Spring semester.
The criteria will be reevaluated and may be modified depending upon the
public health situation in both the SDSU and regional communities,
following guidance of the San Diego County Health & Human Services.

This criteria applies to in-person research, scholarship, community service
and creative activities at all SDSU, SDSURF, and Field Research sites. No
approvals are needed for researchers working virtually.

   - All research activities that can be done at home should continue to be
   done at home (including planning experiments, evaluating data, reading, and
   meetings with other researchers)
   - No in-person research by freshmen, sophomores
   - No in-person research by volunteers. Exceptions will be considered in
   cases where the volunteers are essential to avoid disruption of research
   operations. In such cases, a request for an exception that clearly explains
   why the volunteers are essential for the research project should be sent to
   dri-cov2 at sdsu.edu
   - Juniors or seniors who are either enrolled in research credit or paid
   as research employees may continue in-person work on approved, critical
   research projects.
   - Graduate students may continue to work on approved, critical research
   projects
   - Replacement of graduate student and staff positions is allowed as long
   as the net number of researchers in the approved space is not increased
   relative to the approved density. All additional personnel must complete
   the Personnel Agreement form prior to approval for in-person research.
   - Continuation of face-to-face research with human subjects that has
   been approved by the IRB requires consent of the Vice President for
   Research.
   - Research personnel must follow all public health criteria including:
    physical distancing (no more than one person per 250 sf in shared rooms),
   face coverings at all times while on campus including in research spaces,
   hand hygiene, and disinfection.
   - All personnel must be screened for COVID-19 symptoms prior to
   attending work each day. All students must be tested for COVID-19 every
   other week. Research Leaders must check for university clearance prior to
   each work shift.
   - REPORT any positive COVID-19 incident to the university using this
   form.
   <https://sacd.sdsu.edu/student-health-services/covid19-case-alert-protocol>
   - Given the current surge of COVID-19 cases in our region, it is
   imperative to carefully abide by all of the health and safety requirements,
   and to impress on all personnel that their behavior outside of the research
   group could prevent continuation of both their research and that of the
   entire group.

For additional updates, please visit the COVID-19 information updates from
the DRI - https://research.sdsu.edu/coronavirus

Thank you,
Temesgen Garoma
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