Preparing for a safe Fall 2021
The College of Wooster is committed to meeting our mission – preparing students for lives of purpose in a globally interconnected society – while supporting our employees and keeping all members of our community safe during the COVID pandemic.
We expect that the pandemic will continue to change and evolve over the coming year, with periods of higher and lower transmission. We will use all of the resources available to us – including highly effective vaccines, COVID testing, masking and other resources – in appropriate ways, based on current local and campus status, to create a multi-layered strategy that helps us meet our dual goals of safety and a full campus experience.
We will follow expert public health guidance, including from the Wexner Medical Center of The Ohio State University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College Health Association, the Ohio Department of Health, the National College Athletic Association and the Wayne County Health department, to make decisions to support our community.
This year, we are fortunate to have many new tools – including vaccines – and we will use them to support public health while providing a full campus experience – in person classes, performances, athletics, and student engagement on and off campus – to the greatest extent possible. We expect that we will need to adjust tactics over time as the pandemic’s intensity varies and new science and tools become available, and we are prepared to do so, always keeping our mission and our campus’s health and well-being at the forefront.
Everyone on campus – students, staff, faculty and visitors – is required to follow the guidance directed by our COVID task force, in order to protect themselves and our community. Because students live in congregate settings (sharing close living spaces with one another) some rules for students are different from those for employees.
Our community is one of mutual care and respect, and we fully expect everyone will be committed to upholding these approaches to safe operations. If you have a question about policy or process, please write to wooster-covid-19@wooster.edu. If you have a concern that someone is not upholding these policies, please contact Human Resources (for concerns about employees) at humanresources@wooster.edu or the Dean of Students’ office (for concerns about students, please use this form). In case of emergency, call 911 or Campus Safety, at 330-287-3333.