As Temple prepares to welcome students, faculty and staff back onto campus, keeping our buildings and common areas clean is essential so that our community can feel as safe as possible in their learning and working environments.

To help slow the spread of COVID-19, we will manually clean and disinfect surfaces using a combination of electrostatic sprayers, aerosol foggers and liquid disinfectant.

Manually cleaning (physically removing dirt and reducing germs) and disinfecting (killing germs) on a daily basis is the best way to keep high-contact surfaces clean, and electrostatic sprayers (tools that look similar to what you would use to spray a lawn with fertilizer) and aerosol foggers allow maintenance staff to disinfect over a large area. 

We will also be using durable liquid disinfectant, which gives building occupants an added level of protection in case there is an unintended interruption in the cleaning and disinfection process.

This Cleaning and Disinfection Protocol applies to the Main Campus, Ambler Campus, Temple University Center City and the Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry. 

Classrooms, instructional spaces and common areas
Daily: Housekeeping will manually clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces in all scheduled classrooms and instructional spaces. Housekeeping will also manually clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces including stairwell railings, door knobs, classroom desktops, chairs, and other used surfaces in high-traffic areas, including restrooms, lounges and elevators.

Weekly: Housekeeping will electrostatically disinfect classrooms and instructional spaces in all university buildings.

Every other week: Housekeeping will apply a durable liquid disinfectant. 

Computer labs, computer-based instructional spaces, communal areas and instructor stations
In-between usage: Some amount of manual cleaning and disinfecting with wipes or other products will need to be done by faculty, staff and students before and after personal use of public computers, instructor stations and communal areas. (These guidelines are still a work in progress and subject to revision.)

Clinics (Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Dental, Podiatry, Student and Employee Health Services)
Daily: Housekeeping will manually clean  and disinfect high-touch surfaces including stairwell railings, door knobs, classroom desktops and chairs, and other high-touch points in high-traffic common areas, restrooms, exam rooms, waiting rooms and elevators.

Housekeeping staff will be present in clinics during normal operating hours to clean and disinfect surfaces as necessary.

Daily, after hours of operation: Housekeeping will electrostatically disinfect clinics.

Research laboratories
Daily: Housekeeping will manually clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces, including door knobs, chairs and other high-touch points in high-traffic common areas. 

Research laboratory staff will clean and disinfect high-touch, common use surfaces within the lab on a regular basis.

Faculty and administrative offices and other occupied faculty and administrative spaces
Daily: Housekeeping will manually clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces including door knobs, table tops, chairs and other high touch-points in high-traffic common areas, including reception areas, kitchen areas, restrooms and lounges.

Weekly: Housekeeping will clean and disinfect internal office spaces.

Administrative staff and faculty are responsible for personal use surfaces, such as computer keyboards, desktops, chairs, bookcases, filing cabinets, etc.

Temple-owned residential halls, including public, private, instructional and shared community spaces
All residents are responsible for cleaning and disinfecting their living space while they are occupying it.

Twice daily: Housekeeping staff will electrostatically disinfect community and public restrooms and public and common spaces including lobbies, elevators, stairways and public lounges. This system will allow us to clean and disinfect all soft and hard surfaces.

Daily: Housekeeping staff will manually clean as necessary and disinfect high-touch surfaces in high-traffic public areas. This includes public and common areas, public restrooms, lounges, elevators, stairwell railings, door knobs, light switches, tabletops, desktops, chairs and other high-touch points. Housekeeping staff will clean and disinfect the communal bathrooms and showers in Temple-owned dormitory style facilities, Johnson and Hardwick Residence Halls.

Weekly: Housekeeping staff will perform additional, weekly cleaning of Housing’s residential hall public restrooms.

Bimonthly: Housekeeping staff will apply a durable liquid disinfectant to all high-touch surfaces within public residential spaces as an added precaution.

Winter Break: Housing housekeeping staff will electrostatically disinfect all Temple-owned apartments and suites inside the residence halls including all residence bedrooms, bathrooms and apartment lounges and kitchens.

Shuttle buses
Daily: Using appropriate Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disinfectant, staff will clean and disinfect all high-touch surfaces in the vehicle including handrails, doors, windows and floors. This will be completed after each one-way trip.

Equipment will be alternated to allow staff to clean buses after round trips.

EPA-registered disinfectant fogger will be used at the end of each vehicle’s daily service.

Additional safety measures for shuttle buses will include

• reduced frequency of service to allow for time to properly sanitize the vehicles after each trip;
• installation of acrylic shield between the driver’s area and the cabin of the bus;
• requiring all passengers to wear masks prior to boarding the bus; and
• limited passenger capacity of each trip to ensure proper distancing for passengers.

These guidelines are issued in accordance with Temple’s Infectious/Communicable Disease policy and Community Health policy as well as other applicable policies. Read the full Cleaning and Disinfection Protocol. (You will need an AccessNet account.)

—Edirin Oputu