Hobart and William Smith Colleges

August 16, 2021

Dear Members of the Hobart and William Smith Community,

This is an important week for all of us at the Colleges as faculty and staff prepare for the arrival of students and students not already on campus finalize packing and transportation details. Classes start in just a week and although we are thrilled to welcome everyone to campus, we do so mindful of a national surge of COVID-19 infection accelerated by the Delta variant. For students preparing to travel to campus, regardless of vaccination status and particularly if you are coming from a high transmission level area, we suggest you monitor your health carefully and strongly consider taking a COVID test before arrival to make sure you can start with optimal health conditions. So far all of our campus entry tests have been negative and our pre-orientation on-campus activities are proceeding without incident; we would like to continue on this good trajectory.

In preparation for the start of the semester, the Colleges continue to take steps to protect the health of our community. We have added four new sections to the COVID-19 Dashboard page that cover frequently asked questions regarding Academics; Campus Life & Housing; Testing, Health & Safety; and Athletics. Throughout the semester, this COVID-19 Dashboard will serve as the hub of information regarding all issues related to COVID-19 and we will archive all messages to the community here.

As we prepare for in-person classes, we remind you that if you have not already done so, to please alert the Colleges to your vaccination status. This remains critical as we track the community’s overall vaccination percentages. With over three-quarters of our students now having reported their status, we continue to trend at more than 95 percent vaccinated.

• In order to receive keys for student housing, all students must update their vaccination status using the Student COVID-19 Vaccination Portal, even if they previously alerted the Colleges to their status via another process. Directions have been sent to all students and the Portal can be found on the Hubbs Health Center website. Any student who does not submit proof of vaccination will be considered non-vaccinated and will be tested upon arrival on campus and regularly thereafter until vaccination has been documented.
• We encourage faculty and staff to submit vaccination information to the Colleges using the Employee COVID-19 Vaccine Confirmation Form.

Vaccination remains the very best way to protect everyone against the threat of infection. U.S. vaccines are available, safe and highly effective, and HWS will continue to encourage and assist our community members in accessing them. We are therefore offering three vaccine clinics for any member of the HWS community, including Sodexo employees:

• August 16: 1-5 pm, Hubbs Health Center, first dose of Pfizer vaccine; to register, please click here.
• September 7: 1-5 pm, Bristol Field House, first and second dose of Pfizer vaccine
• September 27: 1-5 pm, Bristol Field House, second dose of Pfizer vaccine

As always, if you have any questions not covered on the COVID-19 page or if we can be of assistance in any way, please reach out to us.

Sincerely,

Sarah Kirk
Provost and Dean of Faculty

B.B. Barile
Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Students