COVID-19 Update: Alert Level Change to Yellow

December 23, 2021

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Since our update on Sunday, December 19, eight additional students and one employee have tested positive through self-administered tests and/or our on-campus surveillance testing. This brings us to a total of 19 students and two employees. Most of the individuals are isolating away from campus. Out of an abundance of caution and because there are students remaining on campus during break, we will be adjusting our alert level status to yellow to remind our community of the need to remain vigilant, wear face coverings, and maintain social distancing.

Yesterday, the college announced that we would delay the start of the spring semester from January 27 to Monday, January 31. In doing this, we removed Trinity Days from this year’s academic calendar to allow the college to operate uninterrupted until spring break, which begins on March 19. The reason for this change is to support our efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID on campus. Upon return to campus for the spring semester, all members of our community will be required to complete a PCR COVID test.

In addition, we are increasing testing frequency during the first month of the semester to mitigate the heightened risk of transmission, since early analysis of Omicron indicate it can spread more readily than other variants of the virus. This will be done at our testing center and more details on this plan will be shared in early January. The precautionary action to change the calendar will help keep all members of our community on campus by limiting travel while we assess the campus, local, national, and global conditions created by COVID. As conditions warrant, we will adjust and modify plans while keeping our community as safe and healthy as possible. We appreciate the flexibility of the Curriculum Committee in making this adjustment to the academic calendar.

With this change in the start of the semester, students will now return to campus beginning Wednesday, January 26 instead of January 22. Please adjust plans accordingly and additional information will be forthcoming in early January. Students on campus for December break and those that return early for J-Term and athletics will be instructed in a separate email on when and where to get COVID tested.

Our COVID-19 Steering Committee continues to meet and will inform the community by early January of any changes to campus protocols as we monitor the global and national issues associated with the Omicron variant.

We have updated the dashboard to reflect the latest data and we will keep you informed as we have information to share.

Sincerely,

Joe DiChristina, Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment Management
Jason Rojas, Chief of Staff and Associate Vice President for External Relations