New Building Safety Concierge Program on Campus

On Sept. 4, The Insider sat down with President Robert Gregerson and Director of Facilities and Operations, Joe Bleehash, to learn more about Pitt-Greensburg’s new building procedures, including temperature scanners and ID readers for contact tracing.  

Contact tracing is the process of identifying people who may have come into contact with an infected person and subsequent collection of further information about their contacts. 

The idea of the contact tracing and temperature scanners came from Oakland. They wanted all branch campuses to have the same precautions. 

It was also noted that Pitt-Greensburg did not pay for any of the new technology implemented on campus.  

“As a matter of fact, we are actually getting hand-held thermal scanners as well,” Bleehash said.  

When a student swipes their ID, the information goes into a database, and is only pulled if said student contracts COVID-19. 

“There is a lot of mining that needs to happen to actually get to who it was and what time it was,” when contact tracing is trying to find what students entered a specific building, Bleehash said. 

Chambers Hall does not have scanners for student and faculty ID cards because Oakland assumed everyone who is living and commuting to campus will be using Chambers Hall.  

The scanners are only for academic buildings, since not every student is entering those buildings.  

“None of the campuses have all of their buildings wired for the card wipe instruments and thermal scanners,” President Gregerson said. 

Most, if not all, backdoors on campus buildings are locked, as there are only temperature and ID scanners at the main entrance of each building. 

“We are relying on good behavior,” President Gregerson said. 

Students are expected to be accountable for their own health and not enter buildings if the scanner detects they have a fever. 

“The thermal scanner does not take a picture of you if you have a fever and send it to the campus nurse,” President Gregerson said. 

Campus staff clean classrooms regularly.  

 “We clean the classes every night or morning before the next day of classes begins. If there is a large break between classes, we can also clean during that time as well,” Bleehash said, 

The classrooms are cleaned with a system of reservoirs filled with spray sanitizers, and then spray a mist that is electrostatically charged. The charge allows the solution to go under desks, instead of just in a horizontal line. There are wipes in the classroom for students and faculty to clean their surfaces after use as well. 

President Gregerson is proud of Bleehash and his team.  

“Joe and his crew have been phenomenal. We have asked them to do a lot more and they responded very well. It is one of the points of pride and is behind the scenes, but it is happening because everybody wants usto be as safe as we can be,” President Gregerson said.  

President Gregerson and Bleehash are also very proud of Pitt-Greensburg students and how they’ve followed the rules and protocols.  

“People have been very cooperative. We have taken the people who have been presumptively positive, put them into isolation, and then given them tests that have come out to be negative,” President Gregerson said.  

“I commend the students for taking a mature and responsible approach to social distancing and mask wearing.” Bleehash said.