COVID-19 update and changes for February 18

Dr. Shai Butler, vice president for student development, sent the following update to students and employees today (February 18, 2021):

Dear Students and Colleagues,

This week we have seen an uptick in students testing positive for COVID-19. While 18 active cases represent only 1% of the more than 1,800 students and employees who are coming onto campus, we wanted to make you aware of the numbers and share some of the adjustments we are making to be proactive in our response. Contact tracing has been ongoing and students and College employees who are considered contacts of positive cases have been notified and instructed to quarantine.

Unfortunately, these changes come with some sacrifice, but our hope is they are temporary, and that rates will come back down. We will keep you updated.

On-campus classes will still be held in-person. College offices will remain open and will follow the usual COVID protocols including using the Navigate app to make appointments.

To be proactive, and until further notice, we are:

• Closing the lounges in the residence halls.
• Canceling in-person programming and co-curricular meetings.
• Closing the Fitness Center and athletic training room. We are also suspending all workouts for all teams except men’s and women’s basketball, which are being tested a minimum of three times a week in order to hold games and have not had any positive cases. We will continue to closely monitor these teams.

We appreciate the effort you make every day to consider the dear neighbor and keep our community safe. Please continue to follow the recommended protocols. The CDC has recently recommended that double-masking or achieving a better mask fit be used as an added layer of protection in the fight against COVID-19, and though we have not changed the policy and only a single mask is required on campus, we wanted to make you aware of this recent change to the CDC’s recommendations.

All things have a season, and as a community, we will continue to do our part as we wait for campus life to return to something closer to what we once knew. In the meantime, we will support each other.

Be well,

Dr. Shai