This message was sent on Tuesday, May 31, 2022.
May 31, 2022
Dear Staff, Faculty, and Graduate and Postbac Students,
We hope that your summer has gotten off to a good start. We are grateful to have had a wonderful celebration of the Class of 2022, in spite of some rain challenges for the undergraduate ceremony.
We are writing with a few changes to our COVID protocols for the summer, beginning on June 1. The full set of Summer Mitigation Guidelines is posted on the website. We will highlight just a few of the guidelines here.
- Given the recent surge in Montgomery County, we are not changing our indoor masking requirement at this time. However, in anticipation that we might be able to do so at a later time, we have reframed our masking requirement to talk about the places where we are mask-friendly (where mask wearing is welcome, but not required).
- People who become COVID-positive no longer need to report their status to the College. Staff should notify their supervisors. Students should call Team Health (610-517-4921) for medical support. The new guidelines list the requirements to return to campus and all COVID-positive individuals should follow the enumerated steps. Students with questions are welcome to call Team Health, and faculty and staff can call Kari Fazio, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer (610-526-5641).
- Vaccinated people who are living in a household or dorm room with a COVID-positive individual will no longer be required to quarantine. They should follow the instructions in the Summer Guidelines for Close Contacts.
- Montgomery County is no longer requiring contact tracing and we have seen that community members are contacting individuals with whom they have had contact. We will no longer be contact tracing and ask that COVID-positive individuals notify their close contacts as per the Summer Guidelines.
- We have suspended the COVID dashboard.
- At this time our vaccination requirement remains full vaccination plus one booster.
We will remain flexible and responsive to developments with the virus over the summer and will adjust our approach accordingly. Thank you for all that you are doing to protect the health of the community. We hope you have a wonderful and safe summer.
Sincerely,
Operations Group: Nina Bisbee, Kim Cassidy, Kari Fazio, Beth Kotarski, Angie Sheets, Beth Kotarski
