September 2, 2021

To the Dartmouth community,

The energy level on campus is rising as graduate and professional students have returned to Hanover and the undergraduates are soon to follow. As we look to the fall, we know that COVID-19 is still with us. We must remain vigilant and allow for flexibility to quickly address emerging public health needs, in order to protect the community, particularly children under 12, for whom the vaccine is not yet available.

New Testing Frequency and Format for Students

Testing is an important tool in preventing the spread of the virus. Effective immediately, we are resuming a weekly testing cycle for all vaccinated students. Unvaccinated students will need to continue to test twice a week. Please remember to schedule your testing appointment in advance. Later this month, we will introduce the use of convenient take-home testing kits for everyone participating in surveillance testing (both vaccinated and unvaccinated students). Students will be notified when the new kits are available and will receive instructions for picking up labels, a testing kit, and information about designated testing kit drop-off locations. On-site testing will continue to be available for those who need to use it. Please note that on-site testing has been moved from the Courtyard Café to West Gym, which is located in Alumni Gym at 16 East Wheelock St.

As a reminder, vaccinated employees who work on-site also need to test weekly for COVID-19. Take-home testing kits are being distributed to employees now and over the next few weeks.

Card Access Needed for Campus Buildings

Beginning Sept. 4, entry into campus buildings with access control will be open only to enrolled students and employees, who will need to use their Dartmouth ID card to enter. Buildings without card-access control will be open during the day and locked in the evening in accordance with our usual practice unless building occupants agree and request key access only. We will review this policy toward the end of September. 

Expanded Face-Covering Requirements

With the return of students to our peer institutions, many have experienced significant COVID-19 outbreaks. As a precaution, we will now require the use of masks in all indoor locations, including residence halls, during the early phase of move-in, until we are certain that virus transmission rates are stable. Masking is not required when you are in a private, non-shared space, such as a dorm room or your office, or alone in a laboratory. Students who live in a shared dorm room may remove their face covering while in their room with their roommates if none of them have COVID-19 symptoms. We will review this requirement during the week of Sept. 20 and are hopeful that public-health conditions will permit us to relax this precaution at that time.

For more information regarding COVID-19 community expectations for all undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students during the 2021-2022 academic year, please see the Dartmouth policies website.

Extra Beds for Students Who Need to Isolate

As part of a contingency plan to address a possible significant outbreak of COVID-19 on campus, Dartmouth has evaluated more than a dozen locations for accommodating student isolation needs, ranging in size from housing as few as 10 students to accommodating more than 100. We reviewed key operational and health and safety elements to determine the best location, including quality of ventilation and temperature control, access to food service, sufficient showers and bathrooms, and life-safety equipment. Based on these factors, we chose the Boss Tennis Center as the preferred option for large-scale isolation housing. 

We do not anticipate using the center as regular isolation space; however, in an urgent situation, the center can be divided into personalized spaces (roughly 10 feet by 10 feet) with cots set up for approximately 100 people separated by curtains that can be closed for privacy. The facility will have dedicated spaces for eating, relaxing, and doing work when not in bed. Additional Wi-Fi capacity is being installed in the building. We are continuing to explore ways to make the space as comfortable as possible and will know more in the coming days as we confirm the availability of supplies. Our tennis teams will shift their indoor practice to an alternative facility in the event of inclement weather this fall. We want to thank Athletics for working closely with us to transition this space into potential use for isolation. Ideally, this would not have been necessary, but living with COVID-19 requires us to make difficult decisions that prioritize the physical and mental health of our community and maintain campus operations that allow us to pursue Dartmouth’s mission in as normal a manner as possible under the circumstances.

We hope that by taking these important steps to limit the scale and scope of COVID-19 transmission, we will be able to enjoy an academic year filled with regular activities, in-person instruction, and memorable experiences. Thank you all for working together to make the return to campus successful for everyone.

Sincerely,

David Kotz ’86
Interim Provost

Rick Mills
Executive Vice President