Advocacy for frontline staff for vaccine priority
The following message was sent to all faculty and staff via email on March 1.
Dear Frontline Employees:
As the distribution for COVID-19 vaccines has begun, we know that many individuals may not be eligible under the current criteria set by health officials. Advocacy to expand the categories is underway across the state through a variety of channels. For example, Student Affairs Officers across the SUNY system have written to SUNY leadership to ask for their support to expand eligibility to include Residence Life staff, including paraprofessional Resident Assistants, whose full-time and on-call responsibilities provide direct support to our students, and housekeeping and custodial/maintenance workers whose duties include cleaning living and common spaces in campus residential buildings, including COVID-19 isolation and quarantine spaces. That letter from Student Affairs Officers to SUNY leadership is copied in full below.
We hope that such efforts will yield change so that more of our valued colleagues can have access to the vaccine. We see you and the work you are all doing, and we recognize how critical your contributions are to keeping the doors open and to ensuring the health and safety of our campus community.
Thank you!
Stephanie Blaisdell, Vice President for Student Affairs
Tanhena Pacheco Dunn, Associate Vice President for Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer
February 24, 2021
Dr. John Graham
Senior Advisor to the Chancellor
The State University of New York
State University Plaza
Albany, NY 12246
Dear Dr. Graham,
We write on behalf of the Council of Chief Student Affairs Officers of The State University of New York, representing the Chief Student Affairs Officers at the State-operated campuses across the SUNY system. As you know, Student Affairs divisions include Residential Life/Housing, Counseling, Health Services, Campus Centers/Student Unions, Student Activities and various other support services critical to the in-person operations on our campuses. As I know you are aware, our staff are not currently included in phase 1b of vaccine distribution in New York State.
Our front-line campus housing, residence life, and direct student support-services staff who, live in residence halls, interact with large populations of students, respond to emergencies and serve students in isolation/quarantine housing. These professionals, along with those front-line staff in food service, housekeeping, maintenance and custodial services, come into direct contact with students and therefore face increased risk of exposure and infection because of the requirements of their jobs.
ACUHO-I, the professional association for campus housing and residence life professionals shared the attached letter with Governors throughout the United States last month. In the letter, ACUHO-I CEO Mary DeNiro states, “In normal times, these personnel are essential to the functioning of our residential colleges and universities and to the health, safety, and success of students; during COVID-19, they are the linchpin that make continued operations possible and that keep community members safe. Even institutions that have reduced or eliminated their on-campus offerings have students on campus due to food and housing insecurity, which means that these staff members continue to work and are subject to congregate living environments…. They live in campus residential facilities and are charged with supporting and responding to student needs. They coordinate testing, tracing, and transport to quarantine/isolation spaces on campus as well as to local hospitals when necessary. They provide food and medication delivery, wellness checks, and enforcement of campus COVID-19 protocols.”
Residence life staff, including paraprofessional Resident Assistants, serve as first responders as part of their on-call duties. Housekeeping and custodial/maintenance workers maintain and clean living and common spaces in campus residential buildings, including COVID-19 isolation and quarantine space. Our direct student support operations also provide critical in-person care for our students.
Many of these critical staff members have worked tirelessly through the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic in-person on-campus to support students who could not return home and to assure our campuses’ ability to return to in-person learning.
These staff have stepped up to the collective challenge of continuing to operate our campus, even when instruction has had to go remote. Thus, you can imagine their disappointment that, despite doing this front-line work since the beginning of the pandemic, they were not included with P-12 faculty and staff and higher-ed faculty in phase 1b of New York State’s Vaccination program roll-out, even though the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices December 2020 guidance includes higher education, not just higher education instructors/teaching faculty, as being recommended for phase 1b.
We ask that you advocate to include in-person higher education staff (including student paraprofessional staff) who serve in direct student-facing roles, including housekeeping and custodial maintenance of our in-person facilities, and other staff who provide critical in-person direct care and services for our students, in New York State’s current vaccination roll-out. It is critical that these staff be able to be vaccinated so that we can continue to serve our students.
Please feel free to reach out to us if you have questions or need additional information regarding this request.
Thank you for your steadfast leadership and support.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey S. Putman, Ed.D.
President, SUNY Council of Chief Student Affairs Officers
Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
Cedric B. Howard, Ph.D.
Vice President, SUNY Council of Chief Student Affairs Officers
Vice President for Enrollment and Student Services
SUNY Fredonia
Dr. Tomás A. Aguirre
Vice President for Student Life and Chief Diversity Officer
SUNY Delhi
Tai Arnold, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Student Success
SUNY Empire State College
Courtney Battista Bish
Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students
SUNY Canton
Stephanie Blaisdell, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
SUNY New Paltz
Mary Holohan Bonderoff, Ed.D.
Interim Vice President for Student Affairs
SUNY Morrisville
Michael N. Christakis, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
University at Albany
Eric D. Duchscherer
Interim Dean of Students
SUNY Potsdam
Christina R. Hernandez
Interim Vice President, Student Life
University at Buffalo
Richard J. Gatteau, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students
Stony Brook University
Timothy W. Gordon, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
SUNY Buffalo State
Anne M. Hopkins Gross, Ed.D.
Vice President for Student Development
SUNY Cobleskill
Jerri Howland, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
SUNY Oswego
William J. Imbriale, Ph.D.
Dean of Student Affairs
SUNY Maritime College
Kevin D. Jordan, Ed.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs and CDO
Farmingdale State College
Anne E. Lombard, Ph.D.
Vice Provost and Dean for Student Affairs
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Brian T. Rose
Vice President for Student Affairs
Binghamton University
Shadia A. Sachedina, Ed.D.
Assistant Vice President for Student Success & Dean of Students
Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY
Usama M. Shaikh
Vice President for Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer
SUNY Old Westbury
C. Gregory Sharer, J.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
SUNY Cortland
Michael Taberski, Ed.D.
Vice President for Student and Campus Life
SUNY Geneseo
Bernadette Tiapo, Ph.D.
Interim Vice President for Student Development & Chief Diversity Officer
SUNY Oneonta
Kathryn Wilson, Ed.D., J.D
Vice President for Enrollment Management & Student Affairs
SUNY Brockport