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Although we may be feeling truly “over it” when it comes to COVID-19, the pandemic continues to morph and challenge our working lives on campus and beyond. As campus policies evolve with the pandemic, we retain key tools for supporting our health and safety on campus.

This fall, there is a patchwork of policies in place across the CSU related to COVID-19.

These vary by campus. Some campuses, for example, have kept the indoor mask mandate, while others have not.

On campuses without indoor mask mandates, you can have a discussion with students about comfort levels, collective care, disability justice, and the ways in which the pandemic is having disparate impacts on our various communities. You can ask students to wear a mask, as a measure of collective care and respect. However, you cannot require them to wear a mask in your classroom or offer extra credit or points to those who do, unless it’s the policy of your campus.

Your campus management may have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with your CFA chapter in response to the COVID-19 emergency and in relation to procedures being put in place to protect the health and safety of returning faculty, staff, and students.

For all faculty on all campuses, there are additional tools to support safe working conditions:

  • CFA maintains a statewide MOU with the CSU that pertains to testing programs that are available to CSU employees. This MOU, signed in Fall 2021, has been extended until June 30, 2023.
  • Article 37: Are you still facing unsafe working conditions at your campus, related to COVID-19? Article 37, Health and Safety, is another tool available to support our safety at work. You can file a grievance, and you may request a reassignment during the period of investigation.
  • The California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973 gives workers the right to file a complaint about workplace safety and health hazards. You can file a complaint with Cal/OSHA here.

Click here to locate your campus faculty rights advocates and contact them if you have questions about special evaluation agreements that may pertain to your campus, due to COVID-19 – or if you wish to file an Article 37 grievance.

Want to learn more? Become active with your local CFA chapter Faculty Rights team. Find your representative here.

  • Browse the faculty contract here.
  • See an archive of Faculty Rights Tips.
  • If you have questions about a faculty rights tip or would like to suggest a tip, please write us with the subject line “Faculty Rights Tip.”
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