COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths in our region have resurged. The Delta variant of the virus has proven more contagious than previous variants.
The Delta variant highlights the importance of vaccination. Research confirms that vaccination provides strong protection against the Delta variant. Fully vaccinated individuals are significantly less likely to be infected, be hospitalized and die than people with similar risk factors who are not vaccinated.
If you have not been vaccinated, I encourage you to do it now. Details about vaccination can be found on the COVID-19 Information Center.
Lowering the risk
The health and safety of our campus community is critically important. As we approach the beginning of the fall semester, we have taken numerous steps to mitigate spread of COVID-19:
- We created a Student Vaccination Incentive Program through which students can win prizes — including free tuition, housing, meal plans, computers and more — by getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
- We created financial incentives for faculty and staff to get vaccinated through our Employee Wellness Incentive Program.
- We will test unvaccinated students before they move into residence halls in the fall.
- We will continue to have robust symptomatic COVID-19 testing at Magers Health and Wellness Center and asymptomatic convenience testing throughout campus.
- We will perform weekly wastewater testing at each of our residence halls to identify potential outbreaks.
- We have set aside Kentwood Hall for isolation and quarantine housing and have contracts for off-campus housing options as needed.
- We have contingency plans in place for individual classes and student services to be temporarily moved to alternate delivery on a case-by-case basis.
- We are in regular contact with public health and local hospital officials as well as city, county and state leaders.
The university’s COVID-19 dashboard will go live again in the fall. We will monitor community and campus data and make adjustments as necessary.
Guiding principles for fall 2021
With these precautions in place, we continue to plan for our campus to be open for business in the fall with a robust array of classes, meetings and activities on campus.
We have worked to implement the Guiding Principles for Return to Campus in Fall 2021 that I discussed in my April 6 note. Supervisors have worked (and will continue to work) through requests for remote work arrangements, and compliance staff have addressed (and will continue to address) disability accommodations through an interactive process.
Students continue to be our top priority, and they will largely return to campus this fall. Accordingly, the vast majority of our staff should plan to work from campus on a full-time or nearly full-time basis.
We will have a town hall meeting shortly before or after the fall semester begins to provide information, solicit your feedback and answer your questions. We will finalize a date and time for that meeting soon and notify the campus community through Inside Missouri State.
Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!