CHAPEL HILL – Terra Dotta, a startup focusing on program management for universities, is rolling out technology – including an app – to help colleges manage COVID-19 pandemic issues as they seek to reopen campusues.
Partnering with Yale University’s school of medicine and law firm White and Williams LLP, Terra Dotta announced the program early Wednesday.
“The higher education community’s guiding light is to serve students’ best interests, including welcoming students back onto campuses safely and with strong measures and policies in place that comply with CDC guidelines,” said Anthony Rotoli, CEO of Terra Dotta, in the announcement.
“We are excited to combine Terra Dotta’s existing technology capabilities with best-practice health, safety and risk guidelines from the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale School of Medicine and White and Williams, to help institutions develop safe practices as a shared responsibility among all members of the campus community.”
The solution, Terra Dotta says, is delivered through cloud computing and is designed to help institutions:
- publish guidelines and standards of conduct for social distancing
- mask requirements
- health and safety guidelines to students, faculty and staff returning to campus through a checklist of required documents institutions will be able to record confirmation of readership and agreement to adhere to the guidelines
- providing in-app updates for continuous communication with students
- an in-app engagement to facilitate contact tracing
- provide digital confirmation that each student has read and understood the content of the guidelines and their agreement to adhere to them
“We have an established set of best practices and guidelines for maintaining the health and safety of students, faculty and staff once they return to campuses, however communicating the specific regulations and policies interactively to ensure participation and widespread adherence is a very real challenge for all universities and colleges,” said Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS, director of Equity Research and Innovation at Yale School of Medicine. “By enabling proper health and risk mitigation guidelines with the right technology platform and engagement capabilities, we’ll be able to give students and institutions a higher level of confidence in monitoring and improving student health.”
Terra Dotta works with more than 600 universities and colleges, providing travel, study abroad and international program management solutions.
