On-campus employees continue with 'business as usual' during uncertain times
March 27, 2020
The global coronavirus pandemic has caused most businesses and places of employment
to grind to a screeching halt in recent weeks, but many, including the Community College
of Rhode Island, are still operational and rely on employees to keep operations running
smoothly during this time of uncertainty.
At CCRI’s Knight Campus in Warwick, it’s business as usual for a number of key departments,
even with all students and most employees operating remotely for the past two weeks.
Jeffrey Huyler, the college’s Building Systems Technician, has been on campus each
day tending to most of the behind-the-scenes work, such as changing filters on rooftop
air-conditioning units, and monitoring temperatures in various rooms throughout the
building. Crews from the college and Nextgen Mechanical will be on the premises this
weekend to perform preventative maintenance on the piping for the chillers that keep
the college’s cooling towers running efficiently during the summertime.
“The building doesn’t stop just because no one is here,” Huyler said.
In these times of uncertainty, Huyler said he is taking the necessary precautions,
including maintaining proper distance between other employees and sanitizing his workspace.
He is particularly cautious around his father, who is now 70. Huyler also has a 16-year-old
daughter who attends Cranston West High School and – along with more than 1,500 students
from the school – has been under quarantine for two weeks after a classmate tested
positive for COVID-19 in early March.
“If everyone does their part and stays home,” Huyler said, “it’ll be over a lot quicker.”
The Campus Bookstore also closed its doors to the public under the guidelines from
Governor Gina Raimondo and the Rhode Island Department of Health, but remains as busy
as ever with students transitioning to remote learning this past week. Ray Karasek,
the college’s Auxiliary Services Business Director, credits CCRI’s Information Technology
department with creating a smooth transition for employees to work remotely, especially
with responsibilities mounting as the spring semester wind downs.
“Hats off to them,” said Karasek, who spent Friday afternoon at the Knight Campus
distributing iPads to students who do not have the necessary technology to complete
their online courses.
“The bookstore really never closes, so we’re lucky to have such a good online presence.
We’ve really been on the front lines in terms of making sure the students have what
they need to continue their classes. We’ve worked with publishers to be able to get
some free online materials and members of our staff been coming in daily to ship out
books if they need to.”
Bookstore Manager Tiffany McClay, who was on call at the Knight Campus Friday, described
the empty campus as “surreal.” The large screen in the Great Hall is temporarily shut
off, creating an eerie silence in what is an otherwise bustling space. Hallways on
the sixth floor – the hub of student activity on a typical school day – are unusually
dark and quiet. All parking lots are empty with the exception of a few scattered vehicles.
“When I walked in, it felt like a ghost town,” she said. “It’s not something you’d
ever expect to be a part of.”
Despite the emptiness on campus, resources such as the Bookstore remain busier than
ever. McClay says staff members have kept up to speed through WebEx – “at least once
or twice a week,” she says, “even if it’s just to check in on everyone’s health” –
and at least one employee has been on campus each day to help with sorting packages
and managing invoices so that the store will be ready if and when it reopens. Staff
members are also busy shipping online orders for books and other materials, which
have increased since the campus stores closed.
McClay said the Bookstore is also planning a social distancing sale next month in
which everything – except textbooks – will be 25 percent off with free shipping, the
latter which includes the textbooks.
The remaining employees on campus all play different roles to ensure nothing slips
between the cracks between now and when everyone eventually returns to campus, but
they all have one thing in common – additional caution during this unprecedented moment
in history.
“I’m not leaving home unless I have to leave,” McClay said, “and when I do, I’ve got
the hand sanitizer in my back pocket.”
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