Experiential Learning COVID Safety Plan

Effective March 15, 2021 the SJSU Leadership is permitting students to participate in in-person experiential learning provided that the responsible faculty or staff member has developed an Experiential Learning COVID Safety Plan. The plan must be approved by the Office of Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S), Facilities Operations & Development (FD&O) and the Provost before students can participate in the event. 

Experiential learning includes, for example, field trips, field work, participation in a student competition, service learning, and unpaid academic internships. To streamline the process for plan development and approval, a template has been created that guides you through the types of information that you must supply in your plan.

Please start the plan approval process at least 14 days prior to the event.

Process for Plan Approval

  1. Access the Experiential Learning COVID Safety Plan Template

  2. Make a copy of the template and save it to your drive by clicking on “File” in the Google Doc toolbar. Then click on “Make a copy”.
    Image of instructions on copying Safety Plan from File menu

  3. The “Copy document” window will appear as shown below.  In the “Name” box customize the title of your document from “Experiential Learning COVID Safety Plan TEMPLATE” to something that reflects the course or program associated with your event.  In the example below the customized title is “UNVS 15S - Experiential Learning Safety Plan”.

  4. Select which folder you want to save it in. In this example the document is saved in “My Drive”

  5. Click on the “Share it with the same people” checkbox. Then click “OK”.
    Image of instructions on Safety Plan to copy to document

  6. In the copy that you have saved to your own drive, complete all of the information requested in the Experiential Learning COVID Safety Plan template. Provide as much detail as needed so that someone who is not familiar with your event can understand exactly what the students plan to do and how they will be kept safe. You may refer to this sample safety plan for the type of information you might enter. If you are need assistance, email your questions to undergraduate-education@sjsu.edu.

  7. When you have completed entering information, you will email the plan for review. To email the plan, click on “File” in the Google Doc toolbar. Then click on “Email” and then “Email collaborators”.
    Image of instruction of emailing completed Safety Plan to collaborators

  8. An email window will open that is pre-populated with three recipients as shown below. You may add additional recipients if you wish. You can also send yourself a copy by clicking on the “send yourself a copy” checkbox. Write a note that your plan is ready for review, and click send. 
    Example of email window pop up for sharing Safety Plan email with collaborators

  9. Matt Nymeyer in EH&S and Traci Ferdolage in FD&O will review your plan and use the “comment” function in Google Docs to ask questions and request additional information. Please modify the document in response to their comments.

  10. When you are finished with your review, please email them again using the procedure outlined in Step 7 and let them know you have completed all of the modifications.

  11. When the final version of the plan has been approved, EH&S will send it for signature via Docusign to EH&S, FD&O, the Department Chair, the Dean and the Provost with a copy to you.
    If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please email undergraduate-education@sjsu.edu.