Dear Colleagues,

I hope you have had a safe and enjoyable August weekend.  While, as ever, I’d like to emphasize our core public health policies and information, tonight I’d like to call our attention to two specific areas of questions on our face covering policy, and a comment on what it means to be a “close contact”. Many thanks for reading – I know there’s a lot of information overload these days, so thanks for your time and attention to this message.

Comment on face coverings: As indicated in the information session last week, we have been reviewing the intersection of eating, drinking, the face covering policy, and public health measures. Because consuming food and beverages generally require the removal of a face covering, students are only permitted to eat in their residence hall room or lounge, or outside. Faculty and staff must eat in their office, designated break areas, or outside. For students and employees eating in break areas, lounges, and outside, this is all with respecting proper physical distancing.  We are augmenting outside seating, and strategically placing waste receptacles to assist in the disposal of grab-and-go food packaging. We’ll ask for help from the entire community in respecting this policy. Students and staff with specific medical needs should reach out to Accessible Education and Student Support, or Human Resources.

Additionally, Malcolm and I have received questions about the face covering policy and classes held outdoors. Classes outdoors must keep all face covering requirements, for both students and faculty.  This is consistent with the advice provided to us by the Mayo Clinic team last week. While risks are generally considered to be lower outside due to wind and other factors, we still want the two factors of safety – keep six feet of distance and keep face coverings on. This is consistent with our face covering policy that requires face coverings in shared spaces and in congested spaces outside. Our policy was written to allow people to be without face coverings when walking largely by themselves or within private spaces, and while we can discuss exactly where outside classrooms fits there, the appropriate level of caution is to have outside, coordinated activities with coverings. This is consistent with other student activity expectations, and is consistent with the caution that Dr. Rizza provided last week – that the outside can give a false sense of security that prompts people to let down their guard.

At the end of the month we will be updating the face covering policy, and the Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response Plan, to include this language.  

Comment on what it means to be a “Close Contact”: For COVID-19, the CDC defines a “Close Contact” as anyone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. An infected person can spread COVID-19 starting 48 hours before the person had any symptoms or tested positive for COVID-19. This website covers a lot of questions about Contact Tracing, and more, and has relevance beyond Bates. Ask yourself who you might count as a close contact for you – if you are thoughtful about distancing from others, this should be a rather limited number of people. Coupled with good hand hygiene and face coverings, you are doing your part to limit the transmission of COVID-19.

Again, thanks for reading, and I hope to see you on campus this week. As a reminder, employee baseline testing is occuring Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Be sure to sign the Consent Agreement and schedule your test in the To-Do’s in the Garnet Gateway, or ask your manager or HR if you need a paper copy. Please see this website for information, including a short video, to understand what to expect when you arrive at Underhill.

Many thanks,
Geoff