August 13, 2021 – COVID-19 Information for New Students

Dear Class of 2025,

Hello Whitties! My name is Peter Harvey, and in addition to being Whitman’s Chief Financial Officer, I also serve as the Chair of our Coronavirus Task Force. As you prepare to arrive at Whitman in just a week and a half, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and let you know that you will periodically hear from me with updates about our campus COVID protocols. Whitman takes the health of our students, faculty and staff very seriously and it’s important that we are all on the same page about how to live and learn together safely during this pandemic, so I wanted to take this opportunity to give you an overview of where we stand in regards to our campus vaccination rate and Fall COVID-19 Protocols.

The Delta variant of coronavirus remains a particular concern for us as we learn more about just how incredibly contagious it is. (If you are interested in specific statistics, I recommend the American Society of Microbiology article “How Dangerous Is the Delta Variant (B.1.617.2)?”) Walla Walla remains in a high rate of transmission according to the CDC standards, and both locally and nationally infections are rising among young adults and children, including breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals. The good news is that while breakthrough cases are occurring, the vaccines are doing what they were designed to do: prevent serious illness and death.

Start of Semester COVID Testing for Everyone

One important piece in the layers of protection we have implemented at Whitman to keep our students, staff and faculty safe as we come back for entirely in-person learning is baseline COVID testing, which will allow us to gain an understanding of how present the virus is in our community and appropriately implement quarantine and isolation protocols to prevent its spread. Uncomfortable though it may be to contemplate, data suggests that we will find members of our community who are COVID positive and completely unaware, as they may be asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms.

Because this testing is such an important part of our safety protocols, it is mandatory for all our faculty, staff and students. We take this very seriously, and if a person misses their required baseline test and we are unable to confirm that they do not have COVID-19, we will temporarily restrict their campus access. For students living on-campus, they will only be allowed into their residence hall and Cleveland Commons until they have successfully completed the make-up process. Students living off-campus and employees who miss their test will not be allowed on campus at all until they complete the make-up requirements.

Each person will take two COVID-19 tests during our baseline testing period. The testing schedule is:
Round One: August 23–27 and August 30, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Cordiner Hall. We strongly encourage all faculty, staff and students already in Walla Walla to be tested on August 23 and 24. August 25 is Move-in Day and testing will be focused on new students. August 26, 27 and 30 testing is open to everyone.

Round Two: August 31–September 3 and September 7, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Cordiner Hall. You will be told at your Round One test what date you should return for your Round Two test.

Please watch for an email on Friday, August 20 from covidtesting@whitman.edu with more detailed instructions.

Additional rounds of surveillance testing are an option we will consider throughout the semester after evaluating the results of our baseline testing and as we continue to monitor local COVID-19 conditions.

We also strongly encourage everyone coming to Walla Walla prior to the start of the semester to take a COVID-19 test before traveling to Whitman.

Overview of Fall 2021 COVID-19 Protocols

The full details of our Fall 2021 COVID-19 Protocols are available in our COVID-19 Dashboard, but a few key practices I want to highlight are:

Requiring all employees and students be vaccinated against COVID-19. We are very close to crossing 90% of our campus being fully vaccinated, with another 2% having approved exemptions, and we know the vaccination rate will continue to rise these next few weeks until we are truly a fully vaccinated campus. If you have not yet submitted your proof of vaccination, which is required to be on campus this fall, please do so immediately through the COVID-19 Vaccination Reporting Form.
Limiting campus access. Every student and employee approved to be on campus will have a gold sticker on their Whitman ID card to show that they have met the requirements for access. Buildings will only be accessible by swipe card access, and visitors to campus are only allowed for educational or business purposes and must be fully vaccinated.
Wearing face coverings indoors. All individuals at Whitman, including those who are fully vaccinated, are currently required to wear face masks when they are indoors in group settings or public spaces, including residence hall lounges. Unvaccinated individuals with approved exemptions must wear masks at all times when indoors, even if no one else is present unless in their residence hall rooms alone or only with their roommate.
- We will masking for at least the first four weeks and then will re-evaluate based on the results of our baseline testing and COVID conditions on campus and in Walla Walla.
Classroom masking policies and guidelines crafted by the faculty leadership and approved by our consulting epidemiologist are forthcoming shortly.

It is a top priority this fall for our faculty and students to have the fully in-person classes, labs and research opportunities that Whitman is known for. We learned so much over the past year about how to successfully carry out various activities and meetings through Zoom, Google Meet and other online platforms, and ask that at the beginning of this semester, we continue to use those tools when possible for non-academic purposes.

As we have for so many months now, we continue closely watching the pandemic conditions and evaluating the impact on the Whitman community. As the fall progresses it is our hope that the situation will improve and we will be able to relax more of the protocols we have in place. Rest assured that we will keep you updated as the situation evolves and our protocols adapt accordingly.

There are a few other helpful resources you should know about as well: 1) our online COVID-19 Dashboard, which contains links to our full Fall 2021 COVID-19 Protocols as well as archives of our campus COVID updates; and 2) if you have questions about anything COVID-related, you can reach members of the Coronavirus Task Force at covidtesting@whitman.edu.

I look forward to seeing you at Move-In on August 25! If you have any questions between now and then, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Best,
Peter
Chair, Coronavirus Task Force