CS 70 COVID-19 Policies
The course's COVID-19 policies are outlined below.
Background
While in some parts of the country, measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission have been relaxed, the LA County Department of Public Health continues to recommend masking in indoor settings where people are gathered. This is particularly important in spaces with minimal air exchange or filtration, such as a computer lab. Therefore, in this class we are following that guidance.
COVID-19 remains an issue for our community, with new strains that can affect those who are vaccinated and even reinfect people who have previously caught COVID-19. Although vaccinations mean that many cases of COVID-19 are mild, some people who catch COVID-19 will experience a wide range of ongoing health problems, which can last weeks, months, or years.
The CDC notes that post-COVID conditions are found more often in people who had severe COVID-19 illness, but anyone who has been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 can experience post-COVID conditions, even people who had mild illness or no symptoms from COVID-19. In addition, the odds of adverse consequences increase with the number of times someone is infected with the disease.
The CDC also notes that 13.3% of people infected with COVID-19 have issues at one month or longer after infection and 2.5% continue to have issues at three months or longer, based on self-reporting.
Thus, if most people in our class caught COVID-19, the odds are high that one member of our class would have serious long-term consequences.
For all of these reasons, CS 70 continues to have a strict masking policy which you are required to follow.
Mask-Wearing Policy for CS 70
Wear an Effective Mask
All students in CS 70 are required to wear a medical-grade mask (e.g., N95 or KN95) at all times while in class, in the computer labs, and during any other class-related activities. This policy is in place to protect all students in the course and to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Masks must be worn properly in order to work effectively. If your mask easily slips down or doesn't make a good seal, it is not effective.
Share Responsibility for Ensuring Everyone Behaves Safely
In addition to taking care of your own mask, you can also help others realize when they aren’t masking effectively. If someone has a problem with their mask, it’s often possible to let them know with a quick non-verbal gesture to indicate the issue in a non-judgemental way. And, if someone seems to have continuing problems with masking properly, they may need someone’s help to figure out a better solution than the approaches they’re currently using.
Consume Food and Drink Outside
Masks need to be removed for eating and drinking, but, regardless of the COVID-19 situation, food and drink is prohibited in the lab. If you need to eat or drink, please go outside.
Use True Consensus to Choose Mask Rules for Pair Programming Outside the Lab
Pair programming partners need to make various choices when it comes to their work together, from when and where to meet, to effectively communicate with each other and plan their work. One choice each pair needs to make is whether to work outside of the lab environment (where masks are required) and what masking policy to adopt in those circumstances. Like other choices made by a programming pair, this choice, these choices need to be done on a consensus basis,
Understand that if one student is passionate about an issue, it is often easy for the other to decide to “go along” rather than push back. In the case of masking, it is important that no one feels pressured to not mask. Thus a pair should only choose not to be masked if both members of the pair strongly support not being masked.
No Masks Needed on Zoom
If you attend office hours (or class) from a private setting (e.g., alone in your dorm room), you do not need to wear a mask.
Virtual Class Attendance
We generally expect you to attend whole-class activities in person. However, if you need to isolate due to COVID-19, you may do so via Zoom. Please make sure that your instructors know ahead of time so that we can remember to ensure Zoom participation is available.
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