Dear Campus Community,

As the Omicron wave recedes, it is time to reassess our approach to COVID-19. It has been a long and difficult two years, but as a community we have navigated these challenges through a shared commitment to our collective health and well-being and by being responsive to changing conditions. The steep decline in COVID-19 cases on our campus and in our community now allows us to modify some of our COVID protocols while maintaining other interventions that have and will continue to serve us well.

MASK POLICY UPDATE

Effective Monday, Feb. 21, the University will no longer require universal masking in all indoor locations.

Masks will continue to be required in certain situations, as listed below:

• Students, faculty, and staff who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, test positive for COVID-19, or who are identified as close contacts are required to wear a mask according to these rules.
• Students, faculty, and staff must wear a mask in the Student Health Center, the on-campus testing clinic, and Sports Medicine.
• Instructors will have the discretion to require masks in their classrooms, and students must comply with an instructor’s direction to wear masks.
• Faculty or staff who are meeting with students or colleagues in private offices or small conference rooms may require the attendees to wear a mask.
• Students, faculty, and staff are strongly encouraged, but not required to wear masks when being served in dining locations.
• The University may require masks in certain work settings where distancing is difficult or applicable regulations require masking.
• Students, faculty, and staff must wear a mask on public transportation, including University shuttles.

Please see the University’s mask policy for more information.

We understand that this change in our mask policy will be welcome news to many, but that others will disagree with making such a change. We assure you that this decision was made after careful consideration and with a sincere commitment to the best interests of our campus community.

Our COVID-19 case rates have declined sharply, and, although we expect case rates will continue to fluctuate as COVID-19 becomes endemic, we have and will maintain the resources to respond to those cases. There is widespread evidence that the Omicron variant causes milder illness in most people, and that has certainly been our experience over the last month. Our campus community is also highly vaccinated and boosters are readily available. Even without required universal masking, individuals can mitigate against the risk of transmission and serious illness by being vaccinated, getting a booster, and wearing a high-quality mask. As result, we have concluded that the best course of action is to support voluntary masking with those exceptions noted above.

Masks have been and will continue to be an important part of our mitigation strategy. We continue to strongly support individual decisions by members of our campus community to wear a mask, and the University will continue to maintain a supply of high-quality masks available at no cost to students, faculty, and staff.

MODIFICATIONS TO QUARANTINE PROTOCOLS

Effective Feb. 21, we will modify our quarantine protocol for students identified as a close contact of someone with COVID-19. As you will recall, individuals identified as close contacts and who have not been vaccinated and boosted are required to quarantine for five full days. We recognize how disruptive it is for students and faculty when students are placed in quarantine. To mitigate this disruption, we will adopt the “test-to-stay” approach that health experts have recommended for K-12 students. Under this approach, close contacts who are asymptomatic will not be required to quarantine if they agree to test every day during what would be their quarantine period and test negative. Students who test positive will then go into isolation. The University is not changing its isolation protocol for students who have tested positive for COVID-19.

COVID-19 PROTOCOLS REMAINING IN PLACE

We recognize that COVID-19 is not going away and that we will be living with it in some form for the foreseeable future. Our approach to COVID-19 will continue to evolve, but, for now, we are maintaining most of the protocols and interventions that have served the campus so well, including the following:

• COVID-19 Testing. We will maintain our on-campus COVID-19 testing clinic and will continue to provide self-test kits at no cost to students, staff, and faculty.
• Response to Positive Tests. We will continue to support those in our community who test positive for COVID-19. We will maintain our isolation and quarantine spaces for students and will continue to make available COVID-19 leave for staff through at least the end of the semester. We will also continue contact tracing.
• Reasonable Accommodations. Members of our community who have disabilities that put them at high risk for serious illness may seek reasonable accommodations, and we will be flexible with those affected by other short-term COVID-related disruptions, such as the need for a family member to quarantine.
• Physical Distancing Framework. We will continue in the Lime Stage of the Physical Distancing framework for the next few weeks and will continue to evaluate whether we can move to the Green Stage.
• Improvements to Air Handling Systems. The air handling systems in campus buildings will continue to be set to increase outside air intake and the bipolar ionizers and UVC filters will remain in place.
• Cleaning and Disinfection. We will continue to implement our enhanced cleaning and disinfection protocols.

As we approach two years since COVID-19 began impacting our campus, we want to commend our campus community for your collaboration in our institutional response to the virus. With your help the University has been able to implement crucial mitigation strategies that have allowed us to respond effectively, ensuring the health and well-being of our campus while maintaining our commitment to academic excellence. We are so proud of the flexibility, care, and resilience our community has demonstrated, and we appreciate all you have done and continue to do to contribute to our progress during this challenging time. 

Sincerely,

David Hale
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer 

Jeffrey Legro
Executive Vice President and Provost

Shannon Sinclair
Vice President and General Counsel, Resilience of Operation Chair