June 4, 2021

To the Dartmouth community,

This week, Dartmouth moved to the "Less Limited Access" phase of our five-phase campus reopening plan. In this phase, in-person on-campus activities such as coursework and events can start to expand in accordance with prevention guidelines. Employees will continue to work remotely whenever possible to help keep on-campus density lower but should begin to work with supervisors and managers to plan for a return to full access later this summer. You can find more information about the plan.

As the number of people who are vaccinated increases, we are all eager to remove our masks and engage with one another on a normal basis. Beginning today, face coverings are no longer required in outdoor spaces on campus, such as the Bema, our outdoor athletics facilities, or the Green. The town of Hanover's mask-wearing ordinance remains in place, so please be respectful of public spaces such as the downtown area, sidewalks, and streets where everyone is required to wear masks by town regulation. Dartmouth continues to require individuals to wear masks when indoors or at large gatherings such as commencement or investitures. We are following the rising vaccination rates in our community, along with the town of Hanover's pandemic regulations, and we will anticipate relaxing indoor mask-wearing as soon as those two elements make it possible.

As a reminder, Dartmouth has relaxed its COVID-19 policy to allow all students to host in their dorm room two guests who also reside on campus. Thanks to the efforts of our community, more than 69% of students, faculty, and staff in the area and accessing campus have been vaccinated. Students can gather indoors and outdoors informally in groups of up to nine people and may schedule formal gatherings for up to 25 individuals. Events can have more than 25 in-person attendees in pre-approved locations managed by Dartmouth's office of Conferences and Events. Please bear in mind, however, that while these updated regulations provide more opportunities to gather, our physical space constrictions and staffing requirements mean that we must still limit the ability to welcome external guests to campus events--other than guests attending commencement and investiture celebrations as previously announced.

Starting July 1, surveillance testing for all vaccinated employees and students will be reduced to once a month, although individuals will have the option to test more frequently if they would like to do so. Unvaccinated employees who are coming to campus for any reason will need to be tested twice a week. Beginning in July, we will no longer be using the daily temperature and self-assessment screening tool (TSA).

Getting vaccinated is now easier than ever. Vaccines are provided free of charge to everyone regardless of health insurance coverage. The CVS pharmacy in Hanover is offering vaccines, and additional locations in New Hampshire and Vermont can be found here:

New Hampshire: https://www.vaccines.nh.gov/vaccination-locations

Vermont: https://www.healthvermont.gov/covid-19/vaccine/getting-covid-19-vaccine

Please remember to upload your confirmation of full vaccination for inclusion on our COVID-19 dashboard and to be eligible for less frequent testing. You can find detailed directions for doing so at https://covid.dartmouth.edu/testing-health. This information helps us to remove restrictions and make other important operating decisions. Thank you for doing your part to move us closer to a better campus experience.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lisa V. Adams
Josh Keniston
Dartmouth COVID-19 Task Force Co-Chairs