2-8-22: Campus Community Message
Dear Students, Colleagues and Families,
I hope you are well as we move through this snowy season! I write to update you on campus public health. Thanks to the commitment and hard work of students, staff and faculty, our community has navigated the Omicron surge well thus far, with decreasing numbers of positive tests each week. (Our opening move-in testing resulted in 41 students going into isolation – either before coming to campus or on arrival – with positive COVID tests. We had ten students in isolation in the second week of classes, and six in the third week, and two students are in isolation at present.) Although COVID case numbers remain high around the country, we are pleased to see them decreasing rapidly – especially in our region.
We are committed to actions to continue operating safely according to current public health guidance. The requirement for students wearing high-quality masks in all shared settings has been an important component of our strategy. Our task force has reviewed this approach after three weeks (as promised) and has decided to continue it at least through spring break (March 28th.) We will also continue to require masks for faculty, staff and visitors in shared spaces throughout our campus. As a reminder, several types of masks are available at academic departments, the Scot Center, the Libraries, the Wellness Center, APEX, Lowry, Kittredge, and the Post Office/Bookstore. (Orders to replenish stock can be sent to wooster-covid-19@wooster.edu.)
As we have shared throughout the pandemic, our goal is to provide the fullest possible campus experience, safely. Rather than treating our campus as a “bubble”, as was needed before the availability of vaccines, we are operating relatively normally, while appropriately using the public health tools available to us as the pandemic evolves. We have been delighted to see music, theater, and athletic activities and most audiences return to campus, as well as the reopening of in-person experiential learning opportunities and the Great Decisions lectures which connect our campus and local community. Our admissions visit programs, which were nationally recognized over a year ago as models for safe in-person activity, will also continue this spring, as we welcome students and families who want to learn more about Wooster. As with all visitors, admissions visitors are required to mask. Those visiting classes must show proof of vaccination, and prospective students staying overnight must be vaccinated and share negative test results just before or upon arrival.
Although the semester is only beginning, we know that many of you are looking ahead to summer programs. We do expect to have programs, including alumni weekend, AMRE, summer research, summer student jobs, a limited OLO season, and some camps and conferences running on campus this summer. (There are some capacity limitations that arise from Lowry construction. Please contact Marjorie Shamp (mshamp@wooster.edu) as soon as possible if you are considering running a summer program.) All summer camps and conferences will be required to follow public health protocols based on the COVID situation. Given how quickly that situation can change, we are planning to make initial determinations for summer public health protocols in mid-March. For those who need an early sense of summer protocols, we recommend starting with the current campus protocols (including vaccine requirements for those staying in campus housing and masking for public spaces).
My tremendous thanks to all of you. Together, you continue to make Wooster’s promise possible through an extraordinary time. Here’s to a great spring semester!
Go Scots!
Sarah Bolton
President
Posted in Community Message on February 8, 2022.
