COVID-19 continues to shake our community, our state and our country. New cases and deaths are rising throughout the state of Missouri and the United States.

While the virus spreads throughout our state and our country, case numbers in Greene County have begun to decline from the most recent wave’s peak. Hospitalizations and deaths remain very high.

Updated CDC mask recommendations

Research indicates that the Delta variant of the virus is more contagious. On the basis of this research, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its mask recommendations.

The CDC now recommends that everyone — unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people — wear a mask in public indoor settings.

The CDC’s updated recommendations also state that fully vaccinated people can:

• Participate in many of the activities they did before the pandemic.
• Generally refrain from quarantining before and after domestic and international travel.
• Generally refrain from routine screening testing.
• Generally refrain from quarantining after a known exposure.

Decisions for the fall

David Hall and I presented this information and supporting data to the Board of Governors last week. We discussed at length the appropriate pathway forward as the university begins the fall semester.

The board and I are committed to having a “normal” fall semester with as many classes, activities and events on campus and as few restrictions as possible.

However, the board and I also agreed that we must take appropriate precautions to protect the most vulnerable members of our campus community as the Delta variant sweeps the nation.

The board gave me guidance and approved a resolution granting me authority to make temporary policies to manage the university’s response to the pandemic throughout the fall.

Temporary indoor mask policy

I — like many of you — don’t like wearing a mask, and I don’t have any interest in instituting a mask policy that will last forever.

However, we will start the fall semester with a temporary policy requiring masks indoors throughout campus. The policy is very similar to the mask policy we instituted last school year.

The policy will go into effect on Sunday, Aug. 22, except for classrooms holding intersession classes. Masks will be required in those classrooms when intersession classes begin Aug. 16.

We will reevaluate the policy every 30 days, meaning the first review date has been set for Sept. 21. If necessary, we will extend the policy.

We will rely on the university’s Contingency Plan Guiding Principles when deciding how long the temporary mask policy should remain in place. Relevant factors include campus and Greene County COVID-19 cases, vaccinations, quarantines/isolations, hospitalizations and academic impacts (e.g., classes temporarily moved to remote delivery, etc.).

We are not alone in instituting this temporary masking policy. Most other universities and community colleges throughout the state have instituted (or will soon institute) similar policies.

We have coordinated with OTC as many of our students take classes at both institutions. OTC plans to announce a similar masking policy today.

We will remain engaged with healthcare and public health leaders, state and local government officials, and our higher education peers as we navigate Missouri State’s response to the pandemic.

Masks available

In addition to implementing a temporary indoor masking policy, we have secured 20,000 KN95/N95 masks for use by faculty and staff throughout the fall semester.

KN95/N95 masks are rated to filter out 95% of particles entering the mask and, unlike cloth masks, are primarily designed to protect the person wearing the mask.

If you would like access to these KN95/N95 masks, please contact your department head or supervisor.

Keeping campus open

I cannot overstate how important it is that we be fully open for business when the fall semester begins Aug. 23.

Our students have made it clear that they want to be on campus in the fall. To achieve our educational mission, we must provide a robust, on-campus learning environment replete with face-to-face classes, meetings, activities and events. Without this experience, students — particularly under-resourced ones — will not enroll or will not successfully complete the fall semester.

With this in mind, we will begin the fall semester without the great majority of the temporary policies we put in place last year.

• We do not plan to move classes currently scheduled for seated delivery to online or a hybrid model.
• We do not plan to cancel campus meetings, activities and events.
• We do not plan to pivot back to widespread work-from-home arrangements for faculty and staff. We will continue to implement the Guiding Principles for Employee Return to Campus in Fall 2021. The vast majority of our staff should continue to work from campus on a full-time or nearly full-time basis.

We will continue to have symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 testing widely available on campus. We will also test all unvaccinated students moving into the residence halls, perform weekly wastewater testing, and provide isolation and quarantine housing for students living on campus.

We will continue to encourage students to get vaccinated through the Student Vaccination Incentive Program. We have also created an Employee Vaccination Incentive Program to encourage full and part-time faculty and staff to get vaccinated and report their vaccination information to the university.

The COVID-19 Information Center will continue to provide the latest COVID-19 information at the university. Our COVID-19 Dashboard will resume at the outset of the fall semester, and our COVID-19 Response Team will continue to perform contact tracing and serve as a resource to answer COVID related questions for members of the campus community.

Set aside time for town hall

In lieu of our traditional State of the University Address, we will host a series of virtual town hall meetings throughout the year to update you on the status of COVID-19 and inform you of our plans, strategies and responses.

The first such Town Hall Meeting is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Aug. 18. I will summarize university accomplishments during 2020-21, update you on COVID-19 data, and discuss our plans and policies as we begin the fall semester.

As in prior town hall meetings, you will have the opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions.

We will schedule other town hall meetings as needed and inform you about them through Inside Missouri State.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Last week education leaders in the Springfield community met with the Springfield Greene County Health Department (SGCHD) about strategies and responses related to COVID-19. Following that meeting we held a press briefing to encourage students and young adults in our community to get vaccinated. I highlighted the steps we are taking to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

At the meeting, all area higher education institutions committed to work together with SGCHD as we manage the pandemic in our community. All area higher education institutions also indicated they will follow the same model as we prepare for the fall semester together.

Enter now to participate in Missouri’s vaccination incentive program

Vaccination encouraged

For people aged 12 and older, we are continuing to aggressively encourage vaccination. Masking and other protocols that were mandated a year ago were intended to bridge the gap until a vaccine was developed. The vaccine is now available, and we must commit our efforts toward vaccinating students, faculty, staff and the Springfield community.

Children under the age of 12 are in a different category. They are not yet able to be vaccinated. Accordingly, Greenwood Laboratory School and the Child Development Center will soon be announcing masking rules that will go into effect no later than the beginning of the fall semester.

Monitoring and communicating

The fall semester will begin in less than four weeks. We will use this time to continue to monitor relevant data and research, remain in constant communication with health and hospital officials as well as city, county and state leaders, and evaluate options for changes to our plans and protocols.

In lieu of our traditional state of the university address, we will host a series of virtual town hall meetings throughout the year to update you on the status of COVID-19 and inform you of our plans, strategies and responses.

The first such town hall meeting has been scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Aug. 18. I will summarize university accomplishments during 2020-21, update you on COVID-19 data, and discuss our plans and policies as we begin the fall semester. As in prior town hall meetings, you will have the opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions.

We will schedule other town hall meetings as needed and inform you about them through Inside Missouri State.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

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!

As I think most of us are aware, two weeks ago, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances. It also stated that fully vaccinated people do not need to be tested for COVID-19 after exposure, if asymptomatic.

Folks, we are nearing the end of the COVID crisis.

This announcement was based on extensive research and science on vaccinations.

There are a lot of definitions for science, but I like this one: Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.

As an institution of higher education with a Carnegie classification of doctoral/professional university, science drives much of what we do at Missouri State. So, when it’s clear this very important CDC information is based on science – it makes me happy and confident in the information.

In response to the latest CDC announcements on the protection vaccines provide to individuals, cities and states have lifted masking and distancing policies. Springfield’s masking policy will end May 27.

Missouri State’s Masking Policy is set to expire May 31. We will not renew or extend this policy.

We have modified the expiration date for the Events and the Return-to-Campus and Travel policies to end May 31, as well.

You will notice other changes to our operations in the coming weeks. Social distancing markers on the floors will be removed. Room capacity calculations will be eliminated from our space reservations program. Signs referencing COVID-19 precautions will begin to disappear. The campus and our operations will begin to look more like it did before the pandemic.

However, masks will still be required in our campus clinics.

Regaining normalcy

I know many of you will welcome these changes while some in our community are not quite ready for these big steps. We understand.

However, as a university that safely sustained and grew during the last year while others did not fare as well, returning to normal operations is important for our students and our continued success.

Strengthen our community

While all the positive news regarding the vaccines, changing policies, etc. is very exciting, there is a segment that perhaps isn’t rejoicing – those with immunocompromised systems who continue to be at risk as a result of medical conditions for which the vaccinations aren’t as effective (organ transplants, some blood cancers, etc.).

The university continues to provide accommodations in these instances. Please reach out to Deputy Compliance Officer Julia Holmes at JuliaHolmes@MissouriState.edu or 417-836-6755 to renew your accommodation status. We will do everything we can to ensure your safety.

We can all strengthen the safety net for our coworkers by getting vaccinated. The vaccine is no longer in short supply.

It virtually eliminates serious versions of COVID-19 and radically reduces the chances you could contract or spread the virus.

Please consider going to Magers, a pharmacy or a healthcare provider to get vaccinated today.

For those who have made the decision to not get vaccinated, I would like to note that nearly 100% of recent patients on ventilators in the COVID wings of our local hospitals have been unvaccinated. I sincerely hope you do not become part of that statistic.

So, one more time for good measure, please consider going to Magers, a pharmacy or a healthcare provider to get vaccinated today.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!