8-24-21: Campus Community Message
Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,
My deepest thanks to all of you for your incredible work in supporting our new and continuing students as they arrive on campus (from a record 70 countries!). It is wonderful to have our student community back, and so many have expressed how grateful they are for the opportunity to live and learn together on campus again. At the same time, I know it is stressful to be beginning the semester at a complex moment of the COVID pandemic, which is likely to continue to be with us for quite some time. As we shared last week, we will continue to evolve our policies and plans as needed to support our mission and the safety of our community, and to share with you transparently what we are learning. I write today to share an update on our campus status and some new resources and policies that we hope will be helpful to staff and faculty.
Vaccines continue to be highly effective in protecting individuals from dangerous COVID illness, and we are very happy to see the Pfizer vaccine receive full FDA approval yesterday, following extensive testing and broad use among hundreds of millions of individuals. The high vaccination rate of our campus is one of our greatest strengths as we start the fall semester.
Here is an update on the current campus COVID status: (We will continue to share this information on our COVID dashboard, starting next week.)
· All students were required to test for COVID on or before arrival. We have received the results of over 1500 COVID tests. Of those, 3 have been positive, for a total positivity rate of 0.2%.
· The current student body vaccination rate is 98%. (2% of students – 37 in total – have been granted vaccine exemptions based on documented medical, ADA, and religious concerns.)
· The faculty vaccination rate is 99%
· The vaccination rate for all employees is 77% and rising.
We have heard concerns from a number of staff and faculty about the Delta variant, and particularly about the possibility of employees catching COVID in classrooms, offices or other spaces on campus and bringing it home to family members who may be unable to be vaccinated or otherwise especially vulnerable. We have reached out to our medical advisors on these questions, and have again been assured that our combination of extremely high vaccination rates, masking, testing, and other actions are strongly protective, and make our campus a very unlikely place for COVID to be transmitted to employees.
To assist staff and faculty, we have made the following additions to our policies and practices.
· At present, the campus has a universal mask mandate for indoor spaces aside from private offices or residence hall rooms. This mandate will be reviewed on September 10th. If the universal indoor mask mandate were to be lifted at any point this semester, individuals would still be welcome to wear masks if they felt it was best for them. And, staff and faculty would still have control to require mask-wearing in their own offices and in classrooms. We would share signage with the College’s logo for those who wish to require masking in their office or classroom.
· Faculty and staff have asked about options if they wish to be tested for COVID. For local testing options, all of which are either free or covered by the College’s Cigna health insurance plan, please see the link . (Note also that for those with the College’s insurance, a test can also be shipped to you free of charge. See this link to order.) We will also obtain a supply of rapid tests for use by employees, and will let you know when those can be picked up as soon as they are in.
· The Armbrust masks the College is providing have excellent filtration, and will be available at the libraries, academic coordinators’ offices, and Scot Center. You are also welcome to pick some up at the President’s office. The highest individual protection is provided by medical-grade N95 masks, which are worn largely by hospital workers. The College will have a supply of N95 masks available for anyone who may choose to try one and will announce that availability as soon as we have them in. For more information about mask types and fit, please see the link here.
· While operations at regular density are supported by our high vaccination rates, as well as our testing and masking protocols, we know that some faculty may find that their classrooms feel crowded. Faculty who wish to explore options for moving their courses to a larger room may request to do so by emailing Broede Armstrong in the Registrar’s office, at barmstrong@wooster.edu. The Registrar will make every effort to accommodate their needs, although that may involve using classrooms further from individual offices. We are several additional large spaces available for teaching (including McGaw and the Governance room) to allow more options.
One final note: many had been concerned by the news coming from Rice University last week of an unexpectedly high rate of positive COVID tests despite a relatively high rate of vaccination. Yesterday, Rice reported that they had received a significant number of false positive test results from one testing company, which have now been confirmed to be in error on repeat testing. With these corrections, Rice is again seeing very low COVID rates of much less than 1% positivity, and is returning to in-person operations.
We will continue to share updates with you throughout the semester, including weekly information about campus COVID status. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact wooster-covid-19@wooster.edu .
With best regards, and many thanks,
Sarah Bolton
President
Posted in Community Message on August 24, 2021.
