113 Morse Hall, 8 College Road, Durham, NH 03824 t: 603.862.5346 • f: 603.862.3151 • shoals.lab@unh.edu • shoalsmarinelaboratory.org
SHOALS MARINE LABORATORY SUMMER 2021 OPERATING PLAN Overview Shoals Marine Laboratory (SML) is committed to the health and safety of our community. In this document, we outline the procedures and policies SML will implement during our 2021 operating season to maximize well-being in light of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The Memorandum of Understanding between Cornell University (Cornell) and University of New Hampshire (UNH) for the operations of SML states that UNH is responsible for the administrative oversight, and thus, this plan engages UNH COVID-19 resources to aid SML’s COVID-19 planning. Throughout this plan, we adhere to the best practices used by our parent institutions and adapt as necessary to meet the needs of our island community and the fluidity of state policies and regulations. Our strategy for the 2021 summer operating season centers around reducing density and potential spread across all in-person academic programming, research, and public programs. We will do this with a strong focus on spatial separation of program pods and operate in a manner that meets or exceeds the protocols for pre-arrival quarantine, housing, testing, food service, social distancing, sanitation, and mask use that have allowed for successful spring and fall semesters on the campuses of Cornell and UNH. We understand that the COVID landscape is changing over time. We will continue to update our operations to match UNH and Cornell practices and adapt as necessary to meet the needs of our island community. We have written this plan based on the assumption that we cannot require vaccines within our island community though we will do our best to encourage it. Our operations will follow a similar process for academic, research and public outreach programs.
Academic Programs The calendar below shows that three academic courses will run simultaneously on the island which we will treat as three socially and spatially distanced groups (referred to as ‘pods’ in this plan) on our island campus. We will stagger the start dates for each course to minimize congestion at our dock in Portsmouth, NH, and also to avoid potential mixing of pods during the transit from Portsmouth to Appledore Island. Teaching staff (faculty and teaching assistants) will arrive and depart SML with their affiliated students. The traditional faculty meetings held on Sunday nights before the start of a course will be conducted remotely to avoid housing 1
Shoals Marine Laboratory, Appledore Island, Isles of Shoals, ME: Dedicated to undergraduate education & research in marine science since 1966.