Hobart and William Smith Colleges

May 2, 2022

Good morning,

Throughout the month of April, our community had many opportunities to celebrate academic and co-curricular achievements. Charter Day, Moving Up Day, the Hobart and William Smith Athletic banquets, and the Blackwell-Hale Awards, among others, recognized the hard work of our students and the dedication of our faculty and staff. As we enter the final week of classes, we hope you also take the time to reflect on your personal achievements from the academic year.

Currently, three community members remain in isolation. We will continue to post new cases to the Colleges’ dashboard through traditional residence hall closing post finals, and update the case counts until any active positive cases resolve. The Colleges’ Campus Logistics Team has been meeting recently to evaluate public health recommendations and policies relating to COVID-19 that might impact our own expectations for next academic year. 

• The Colleges will continue the facility upgrades implemented last academic year to help reduce the risk of spread of all airborne diseases, including regular maintenance of air purifiers and the continuation of cleaning kits and sanitizer stations across campus.
• Following CDC definitions of vaccination status, the Colleges will continue to require all employees and students to be fully vaccinated. Per the CDC, a person is fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving all recommended doses in the primary series of their COVID-19 vaccination. Similar to the procedure the Colleges have for New York State required vaccinations for students, community members will need to upload proof of vaccination or submit a vaccination waiver form. 
• The Colleges will recommend community members stay up-to-date with their vaccination status. A person is up to date with their COVID-19 vaccination if they have received all recommended doses in the primary series and one booster when eligible. Because of the variety of medical and previous COVID-19 diagnosis reasons an individual may not be boosted, as well as that certain age groups now have different booster options available, we will not monitor boosters beginning summer 2022.
• Students who are not fully vaccinated will be entered into weekly surveillance testing; asymptomatic testing will be activated only if the community’s symptomatic testing numbers indicate a larger cluster may be present. This may be randomized within the not-vaccinated pool. This approach also follows NCAA testing guidelines for student athletes based on vaccination status and public health guidelines to reduce asymptomatic testing, and focus on symptomatic testing.
• Masking will be a personal option for all community members. 
• We do not plan to have a dashboard for the summer or fall, as our case counts related to COVID and other illnesses are similar. We will continue to send Deans’ notices to faculty for students required to be in isolation.

As with everything related to the pandemic, we recognize these recommendations may need to be modified as we monitor COVID-19 over the summer. We appreciate everyone’s extraordinary commitment to the health of our community.

Sincerely,

Joyce P. Jacobsen
President

Sarah Kirk
Provost and Dean of Faculty

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