AUG. 13, 2020 UPDATE
To the community,
As we prepare to welcome students, faculty, and staff to campus for the fall term, members of the COVID-19 Task Force are working hard to ensure that Dartmouth is implementing extensive protocols designed to support a safe environment where everyone can thrive. The health and well-being of our community members remain our highest priorities. Our multi-pronged health and safety plan for reopening the campus includes strategies to limit the introduction of COVID-19 to our community through testing, travel restrictions, and arrival quarantine requirements. Our plan includes public health practices and protocols to promote everyone's health throughout the term with face-covering and physical distancing protocols, ongoing surveillance testing, tracking of cases, specially designated quarantine and isolation housing for students, and community expectations that all students are expected to sign. By adhering to these requirements, we all play a role in preserving the Dartmouth experience for one another. Planning details can be found on the COVID-19 website.
TRAVEL AND POST-TRAVEL QUARANTINE GUIDELINES
Because of the close personal interactions that are often unavoidable on Dartmouth's campus--such as students living in residence halls, researchers working in labs, and students and employees working together in classrooms--Dartmouth has established travel and post-travel guidelines that are aligned with and sometimes exceed those prescribed by the state of New Hampshire. Everyone in our community who is returning to, or arriving at, Dartmouth during the 2020–2021 academic year, including all students, will be expected to follow these travel and post-travel quarantine guidelines, which can be found in detail at:
Student and Employee Travel Guidelines
Staff and faculty who have questions about these policies should contact the Office of Human Resources at (603) 646-3411 or human.resources@dartmouth.edu.
Students should contact their dean's office.
REMAINING VIGILANT
Despite success in reducing the rate of virus transmission across the state, New Hampshire continues to see new cases of individuals with COVID-19 and has begun to experience a slight increase in cases overall. Please remember to wear proper face coverings at all times when using or accessing shared or communal spaces and also when a minimum of 6 feet of physical distancing is difficult to maintain. Please also continue to use hand sanitizer, wash your hands thoroughly and frequently, limit gatherings to nine or fewer people, and avoid touching your face. This virus will be with us for some time to come.
MOVING TO THE NEXT LEVEL OF ACCESS
Starting next week on Wed., Aug. 19, Dartmouth will move to the next level ("limited access") in our operational guidelines, assuming that local transmission rates remain at current levels. At this level, activities that cannot effectively be performed at home are allowed on-site with approval and those who can continue to work remotely should do so (speak with your supervisor if this is a challenge). All offices and departments will follow a reopening checklist approved by divisional leadership. Learn more about the guidelines.
As part of moving to this level, we are introducing a telehealth service that will be available for all faculty and staff to help screen for COVID-19. Students already have access to Dick's House to perform this service. The service will be integrated into the daily Temperature Self-Assessment (TSA) for all faculty and staff coming to campus and will provide a medical screening for anyone who has COVID-19-related symptoms or was potentially exposed to someone who has COVID-19. This telehealth service will offer COVID-19 testing for those who have symptoms or who have experienced potential exposure to COVID-19. In addition to testing for those with symptoms or potential exposure, we will also be performing an initial COVID-19 test for any student-facing employee. Employees to be tested will be contacted by their supervisor regarding scheduling. Additional details about the COVID-19 telehealth service and employee testing will be provided next week.
To date, Dartmouth has performed COVID-19 tests for approximately 600 graduate and professional students arriving on campus for the fall term and has not received any positive results.
COMMUNITY EXPECTATIONS
COVID-19 may occur in our community this year, and it will only be through the mutual promises we make to one another to adhere to institutional policies and public health practices and standards that we can hope to contain the virus and move toward a return to a robust and energized on-campus environment. To that end, all students are being asked to sign a document detailing a series of policies that clarify our community expectations and commit to following those standards while in our community. Employees are also required to follow similar policies with respect to wearing face coverings, physical distancing, testing, and related requirements.
WINTER TERM TRAVEL PROGRAMS CANCELED
In light of the continued risk to participants' health and safety and restrictions on travel and mobility, Dartmouth has made the decision to cancel all structured winter term international programs through March 1, 2021, for undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students. This includes language study abroad, foreign study programs (as previously announced on July 22 during the Dartmouth Community Conversation), winter exchange programs, and all Dartmouth-supported leave-term programs such as internships and fellowships. Students are encouraged to consider remote/virtual leave-term opportunities until travel can resume. Other Dartmouth-supported graduate and professional school international travel programs and overseas clinical electives are also canceled. Domestic clinical rotations through Geisel will proceed as planned. Decisions about travel over March break will be communicated at a later date. Dartmouth continues to restrict all Dartmouth-sponsored international and domestic travel outside of New Hampshire and Vermont.
As we prepare to welcome students back to campus, and as long as COVID-19 is present, we will continue to work to de-densify the campus as much as possible. Given the risk of transmission and restrictions on travel, we must emphasize that visitors who have not received specific authorization to be here should not come to campus, including children and family members. We appreciate everyone's cooperation in keeping our on-campus population as low as possible to help safeguard Dartmouth and the Upper Valley.
These are stressful times for everyone, no matter their situation, and we are all experiencing the toll of COVID-19. Please do not hesitate to seek support through Dartmouth resources. And remember to take time to reach out to colleagues, neighbors, and friends. Life holds many challenges right now and we understand that everyone is trying their best. This is hard, but together we can do it.
Sincerely,
Dr. Lisa Adams
Joshua Keniston
Co-chairs Dartmouth COVID-19 Task Force