To the Campus Community,
From the moment last spring when we, and the rest of the world, realized that the coronavirus was causing a global pandemic, UMass Boston set as its priority the safety of our campus community and, by extension, the families and the communities of our diverse students, faculty, and staff populations. Prioritizing health and safety led to UMass Boston becoming one of the first universities to announce that we would continue operating in a remote modality for the 2020-21 academic year.
As we plan for a return to campus, we do so with a continued commitment to the health and safety of our campus community. As part of this effort, the university engaged an environmental consultant, Environmental Health and Engineering (EHE), to conduct a thorough study and engineering evaluation of the campus’s HVAC systems in relation to COVID-19 precautions, as well as regular operations. EHE has been working with the campus during the pandemic to help ensure we are incorporating the latest guidance into our operations.
Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems can help to reduce the airborne concentration of the coronavirus if it is present in the air. In November 2020, EHE conducted an inspection of the HVAC systems serving all buildings on the UMass Boston campus to identify operational or performance issues. In addition, the inspection looked at outdoor air ventilation provided to occupied spaces to optimize outdoor air intake in accordance with OSHA recommendations as of November 2020. The Facilities Department has implemented the recommendations from these inspections. In buildings that have been unoccupied, Facilities has run the HVAC systems twice per day to keep the air in the buildings fresh.
An additional recommendation by the CDC and ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) was to upgrade all HVAC filtration systems to a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) 13 or higher. All UMass Boston HVAC systems have been upgraded and now operate with MERV-13 filtration, among the most efficient to filter out small airborne particles. These filters are changed at a minimum quarterly, which is considered a best practice.
With regard to the demolition of the Science Center and central plaza we have engaged in a series of mitigation measures to address possible air quality issues that could arise. The project requires the construction manager to take appropriate steps to prevent dust caused by construction operations from creating a nuisance and from entering adjacent occupied areas. These include misting machines that continuously spray water over active demolition to control dust, spray bars on active crushing operations sites, water trucks to spray travel ways, filter fabric at air intakes to limit movement of dust into air handling units, frequent street sweeping, and other measures.
Over the course of the past year, the university has worked closely with union representatives to keep them informed of the steps being taken and to address any additional concerns. Moving forward we will continue to assess and reassess our efforts to ensure that the air quality in our campus buildings, and out of doors on campus, are the best and safest they can be as we plan for a return to campus.
