January 7, 2022 – Preparing for Spring 2022

Dear Whitman community,

I hope that you all have had restful and enjoyable times these past few weeks. Since the end of last semester, we have been closely monitoring the COVID situation as the Omicron variant has emerged and have been weighing options with the Cabinet, faculty leadership and our consulting epidemiologist to make sure we are making the best decisions to keep our community safe when we return for the spring. While Omicron’s high transmissibility makes it likely we will have more cases than we did in the fall, being a fully vaccinated and boosted campus also increases the odds that these will be mild cases, and we feel confident in our ability to safely resume in-person classes as planned on January 18 with some additional safety requirements.

As a reminder, in  December we announced a number of important new requirements for our community in preparing for the spring:

• All students must get a COVID test before returning to campus and must complete the Spring 2022 Pre-Arrival COVID Test form by January 15
• The entire Whitman community must take two baseline COVID tests following their return to campus
• Everyone who is eligible must receive a COVID vaccine booster by January 15, or have an approved exemption; anyone not eligible must get the booster within one month of becoming eligible

In the spirit of prioritizing our educational mission and for the well-being of our students, faculty and staff we have decided to add further layers of protection to our plans for the start of the spring semester. 

Face Mask Requirement Update

In accordance with campus and Washington state requirements, face masks must be worn at all times on campus in public indoor spaces and in private indoor spaces when in the presence of anyone who is not your roommate. Because of the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant, we will now require that face masks worn on campus must be N95, KN95 or KF94. Research from MIT shows that the wearing of N95s safely allows at least two times the occupancy in an average classroom space compared to cloth masks. Whitman has ordered reusable N95 masks for all faculty, staff and students; we will share distribution information as soon as these arrive on campus.

Modifications to Campus Activities

As we minimize the risk of time spent in densely populated and potentially unmasked situations, we will start the semester with a few changes to campus activities.

1. Cleveland Commons, Jewett Cafe and Reid Cafe will be closed to in-person eating. Students will order and receive their food from the standard dining stations, but then take and eat it in their rooms or other private spaces where they can safely remove their masks. We ask that faculty and staff do not use campus dining services at this time. 
2. Social activities, including informal gatherings in residence halls or off-campus housing and club meetings, should be limited to no more than five masked people, or, whenever possible, held online. 
3. Volunteer activities in the Walla Walla Valley will be temporarily paused. Students with off-campus jobs should ensure they are strictly following masking and other COVID protocols while at work.

We do not currently intend these changes to be permanent for the semester and will re-evaluate these activities once we have the results of baseline testing.

Expanding Isolation Capacity

While we are hoping for the best (a minimal number of positive COVID cases), we are also planning for the potential of a high number of COVID cases on campus. Therefore, we have increased the number of rooms available in campus housing for students needing isolation space and support services. 

Although the CDC recently shortened the quarantine and isolation guidelines for the general population, the Washington State Department of Health has instructed colleges and other educational institutions to continue using the former, longer guidelines for our students and employees, requiring 10 days of isolation following a positive test or from the onset of symptoms. We expect further guidance from the state to come soon, and will then consider if there are revisions we can make to our quarantine and isolation practices.

Planning for Increased Testing

In addition to the symptomatic and close contact testing available on campus, we are also planning for the possibility of conducting ongoing surveillance testing, in which a random selection of the campus population is tested each week. A decision on whether or not we implement this will come as we evaluate the results of our baseline testing.

Visitor Guidance

There will be further guidance coming regarding visitors to campus and spectators to athletic events and theater and music performances.

All of the new requirements have been updated in the Spring 2022 COVID-19 Protocols section of our COVID-19 Dashboard (a page I strongly recommend you bookmark for future reference).

The past two years have been a roller coaster ride, and while we know we cannot predict the future impact of COVID, one thing I know for sure is that Whitties are committed to caring for each other. Your cooperation with our COVID protocols has helped us keep cases well below community and national levels in the past and I trust that we can continue to support each other in staying healthy throughout whatever this spring brings. I look forward to seeing you all on campus soon.

Best,
Kathy

Kathleen Murray
President, Whitman College