COVID-19 Announcements

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A Message about CDC Masking Recommendations and End-Of-Semester Protocols

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College Community,

The end of the semester is upon us and both flu and COVID are circulating in the surrounding community and on campus. COVID tests continue to be available at the Bard Health Service for any students experiencing symptoms. As public health experts have emphasized throughout the pandemic, currently available vaccines do not eliminate or prevent COVID, but they do significantly reduce the severity of symptoms and illness.

CDC recommends indoor masking
The CDC has recently classified Dutchess County as an area of high transmission for COVID-19. In areas of high transmission, the CDC recommends vaccination, testing if you experience symptoms, and masking indoors. As a result of this designation, members of our community should consider wearing a mask when indoors and in a public setting and other common or shared spaces where individuals may interact. 

End-of-semester protocols

• Residence halls: As publicized on the College’s Residence Life webpage, the spring semester check-out date for non-graduating students who live on campus is May 25 at noon (graduating seniors have until May 29 at noon). More one thousand Commencement, Reunion, and summer program participants will start arriving on campus almost immediately thereafter. To prepare for the arrival of our summer residents, the College’s Environmental Services team must clean and turn over all residence hall rooms. The College will consider the situation of any student who is ill with COVID on the prescribed move-out date on a case-by-case basis according to the individual circumstances of each student. Students who wish to be considered for limited temporary COVID housing assistance are asked to contact the Bard Cares Team at [email protected] to describe their needs. 
• End-of-semester events: Commencement and Reunion activities are moving forward as planned. Programs and clubs that wish to organize end-of-semester events are welcome to do so, keeping in mind the CDC recommendation on indoor masking. 

Congratulations to graduating seniors. We look forward to celebrating you at Commencement. 

Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs

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A Message about Expanded Guest Policy for Students, HERO Act Expiration, and Response Team Office Hours

Monday, March 28, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community,

Welcome back to campus after what we hope was an enjoyable and rejuvenating Spring Break. As we enter the second half of the spring semester, it is important that we continue to observe best practices to help maintain a safe and healthy campus. New COVID variants will continue to arise, but the good news is that we know how to prevent serious illness: be fully vaccinated and boosted, maintain proper hygiene such as frequent handwashing, and wear masks wherever mandated, such as on public transportation. As we have throughout the pandemic, we will monitor conditions both on and off campus and adjust protocols as needed.

Expanded guest policy
Recently we broadened our guest policy to allow for fully vaccinated guests to attend public events, under the sponsorship of individual faculty or staff or organizations such as the Fisher Center or Hessel Museum. We are now planning to expand the policy, to allow students to directly sponsor guests to attend academic and extracurricular events such as Moderation concerts and Senior Project exhibition openings. The policy for all guests on campus, no matter their sponsor, remains that they must be up-to-date on COVID vaccinations including a booster, and be registered and approved in advance via this form. Among the updates to the guest policy is that the Bard host is now responsible for collecting proof of vaccination from their intended visitor(s) and uploading it when submitting their request. “Proof of vaccination” can be a screenshot of the guest’s Excelsior pass, or a picture of their vaccination card. Guests are still prohibited from entering or remaining overnight in student housing. 

HERO Act expiration
As of March 17, New York State allowed HERO Act regulations for COVID to expire, so Bard faculty and staff are no longer receiving the daily emailed health questionnaires that previously were required by this state law. Please continue to notify Human Resources of any positive test results and do not come to campus if you are experiencing symptoms. 

Response Team office hours
The Response Team continues to hold weekly office hours every Tuesday afternoon 12:30-1:30 pm, to answer questions or otherwise assist our community with any COVID-related concerns. Please refer to your Bard email for more information on how to join via Zoom. If you’re not available to join office hours, you can email us at [email protected] 

Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs

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A Message about a Mask-Friendly Campus, Visitor and Gym Policies, the HERO Act, and More

Monday, February 28, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community:

To reflect changes in New York State policies (including the scheduled lifting of the statewide mask mandate for schools on March 2), updated mask guidance from the CDC, and decreasing COVID cases, the College is adjusting some of our campus COVID protocols, as outlined below.

Mask-friendly campus
As noted in last week’s update, the College will adopt a “mask-friendly” policy beginning tomorrow, March 1. With this policy, we are lifting the indoor mask mandate, but encourage anyone who wishes to wear a mask to do so. In accordance with New York State requirements, everyone must continue to be masked when visiting the Bard Health Service and Nursery School/Children’s Center, and when utilizing any Bard transportation. Students, faculty, and staff who have vaccine exemptions will continue to wear a mask in all indoor and group settings.

Please remember to keep a mask with you so you are ready for various situations you may encounter throughout the day. Members of the Bard community have shown great care and a strong sense of collective responsibility for public health throughout the pandemic, and we ask that you continue to do so.

Visitor policy
Conditions are improving, but it’s important to remember that COVID has not gone away, and the end of the mask mandate does not represent the end of all COVID protocols or public health vigilance. We will continue to monitor the situation and adjust College policies as needed, but in the meantime, all visitors to campus facilities must still demonstrate proof of vaccination, including booster, in advance, and residence halls, the library, and the gym remain off limits to visitors, except as noted below. Approval for visitors can be obtained from the Response Team by using this form. Students who wish to sponsor a visitor should coordinate with a faculty or staff member to fill out the form. 

Gym reopens for family members
Effective March 1, 2022, the Stevenson Athletic Center will be open to fully vaccinated (including booster when eligible) spouses/partners and dependents over the age of 16 of benefit-eligible employees of the Annandale campus only. In order to obtain access, employees must submit their family member's proof of vaccination status using this link. Once the information is submitted, it will be reviewed and verified, and the employee will be notified when their family member card(s) are available for pick-up. Please note that information regarding pool use for children of employees under the age of 16 will be forthcoming in mid-March.

HERO Act
New York State extended the HERO Act through March 17, so employees will continue to be required to fill out the email questionnaire received daily from the Human Resources office before coming to campus. 

Response Team office hours 
The Response Team holds weekly office hours every Tuesday. Anyone is welcome to join. Please refer to your Bard email to learn more, including hours and Zoom information. If you’re not available to join office hours, you can email us at [email protected]. 

Please continue being mindful, as we navigate this next phase of the pandemic, of how our individual and collective actions impact the health of our community. New tools from the CDC, including the county-level dashboard that was released along with the updated mask guidance on Friday, can help you make informed choices. We will continue to share resources with the Bard community as they become available. 

Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs

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A Message about A Mask-Friendly Campus and Response Team Office Hours

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community:

Last week, New York Governor Hochul announced the immediate end of the state’s indoor mask mandate (except in K-12 schools), due to a rapid and steep decline in COVID cases and high levels of vaccination. In addition, today the COVID-specific aspects of the NYS HERO Act are due to expire. 

Based on the updated New York State policy, the low and decreasing number of COVID cases in our community, and the significant protection against illness afforded by vaccines and boosters, the College plans to adopt a “mask-friendly” policy. We will continue to monitor the incidence of COVID in the community, and if current trends continue, Bard’s mask mandate will expire at the end of the month and the campus will transition to being “mask-friendly” on March 1. 

“Mask-friendly” means:

• Masks are allowed but not required in campus facilities, with three important exceptions where everyone must continue to be masked, in accordance with state guidelines: 

1. The Bard Health Service
2. Bard transportation, including the Bard shuttle 
3. The Nursery School/Children’s Center 

• Anyone who wants to wear a mask is welcome to do so.
• Faculty may decide on masking requirements for their individual classes. 
• Those few members of our community who are not fully vaccinated due to exemptions or because they are too young to be eligible, must continue to be masked indoors at all times.

This period between now and March 1 affords academic programs and individual faculty and staff ample time to consult with the Response Team in navigating this transition. Some programs have already been developing mask-friendly practices in consultation with the Response Team and provide a good example of next steps for others. 

Response Team office hours
The Response Team will again hold weekly office hours this semester. Please refer to your Bard email for details. If you’re not available to join office hours, you can email us at [email protected]. 

As we transition to a mask-friendly campus, we honor and respect the choices of individuals to mask or not mask in accordance with the mask-friendly policy described above. The College will continue to monitor the evolving public health situation and adjust our policies as needed. We will also continue to provide tests to symptomatic students, conduct contact tracing on positive cases, and support CDC-recommended policies on campus. The safety of our students, faculty, and staff remains our top priority.
 
Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs

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A Message about Contact Tracing, an Updated Visitor Policy, and Response Team Office Hours

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community,

With the spring semester now well underway, we would like to share some reminders and updates. 

Thanks to those of you who volunteered or participated in the booster clinic held on campus on Monday, February 7. We also want to thank everyone who has submitted proof of full vaccination, which includes a booster if eligible, to the College. 

Contract Tracing
Bard’s COVID-19 Case Management Team, which includes trained contact tracers, continues to conduct contact tracing of all on-campus positive cases to identify campus close contacts. The Case Management Team works with any student testing positive to determine their on-campus close contacts. If our contact tracers identify you as a close contact of an on-campus positive case, you will be contacted by the Case Management Team.

Students who are identified as close contacts will be notified by email from [email protected] and will be asked to take a COVID-19 test about 5-7 days after exposure as recommended by the CDC. 

• Testing for asymptomatic close contacts is at the gym (read your email for times) until further notice. 
• Close contacts who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should call the Bard Health Service at 845-758-7433 during business hours to arrange for testing. Until you have consulted with the Health Service regarding your symptoms, do not go to class or work. Isolate as much as possible, and wear a mask at all times.
• If the college’s contact tracers determine you to be a close contact, you are fully vaccinated, and you have not tested positive and are not experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, per CDC guidance you may continue daily activities and should continue to observe masking protocols and maintain social distancing when possible. You may continue to go to class, your job, study group, etc.
• If you are not fully vaccinated because you have a religious or medical exemption, the Bard Health Service will advise you regarding quarantine requirements for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated close contacts. 

Faculty and Staff who are identified as close contacts will be notified by Human Resources, who will provide guidance and testing options. 

In order for the college’s Case Management Team to conduct contact tracing, the team must be aware of anyone on campus who tests positive. The Case Management Team only has direct access to the results of tests administered by the Bard Health Service on campus. Therefore, it is the responsibility of any student receiving a positive result from a home antigen test or a test conducted off campus to notify the Bard Health Service that you have tested positive, so that campus protocols including contact tracing can be initiated. 

Faculty or staff who test positive off campus should continue to notify the Human Resources office.

As recently announced by the White House, free at-home over-the-counter COVID-19 tests are now available through your health insurance. Please consult this link to learn more, or contact your insurance provider directly about how to avail yourself of this opportunity. 

Updated visitor policy
Visitors who are vaccinated and boosted are welcome in campus facilities (except residence halls and the gym, which remain off limits to visitors except as noted below) with advance approval from the Response Team, which can be obtained through this simple form. Students who wish to sponsor a visitor should coordinate with a faculty or staff member to fill out the form. 

Beginning February 10, the gym is open to vaccinated and boosted spectators at sporting events. Any visitor wishing to attend an event at the gym must be prepared to show proof of vaccination and a booster before entering the facility. Until further notice, gym facilities remain off limits to visitors who wish to exercise; at this time visitor access is limited to observing sporting events. Please stay tuned for further updates about expanded gym access for visitors later this semester.

All visitors must observe the indoor mask mandate at all times on campus.

Response Team office hours
The Response Team will again be holding virtual office hours where members of the Bard community can drop in with any questions. Please consult your Bard email for more information on hours and availability. You are also welcome to send questions to us at [email protected].  

The prevalence of COVID-19, although it is decreasing, remains high in the surrounding communities, so please continue to observe our safety protocols whenever you are off campus. New York State’s indoor mask mandate is still in effect, so please continue to wear a mask in community settings. News organizations have been reporting that later today Governor Hochul may announce future changes to New York State COVID policies, including the indoor mask mandate. If/when that happens, we will consider what adjustments may be appropriate to Bard policies. In the meantime and until further notice, the College’s indoor mask mandate remains in place. 

Thank you all for continuing to help make Bard a safe campus.

Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs

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A Message about Boosters and Booster Clinics, Pre-arrival Tests, and Spring Semester Planning

Friday, January 21, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community,

We would like to welcome our first-year students back to campus and congratulate them on their smooth return to Annandale last week and a safe first week of Citizen Science classes. We are also excited to welcome our new transfer students who arrived in Annandale last week and have been thoughtfully engaging in our new January Language and Thinking Program. As we approach the beginning of the semester, we would like to offer some reminders and updates.

Boosters and booster clinic
Thank you to everyone who has submitted their proof of full vaccination, which includes a booster if eligible, to the College. If you previously provided proof of vaccination but have not yet provided proof of a booster, it is important that you update your records. 

• Students who have not yet done so should submit proof of full vaccination to their medical portal at bard.medicatconnect.com as soon as possible. (If you are unable to access the portal, students may send this information to [email protected].)  
• Employees should upload their proof of booster here and reach out to [email protected] with any questions. 

The College plans to offer more booster clinics on campus after the beginning of the semester, but asks all members of our community not to wait until then if you are already eligible. Boosters are available at many local pharmacies that are accessible via the Bard Shuttle, and at the county-managed site in the Poughkeepsie Galleria, which is accessible via the public bus route on campus. Our next on-campus booster clinic will be Friday, February 4th. Current faculty, staff, and students can check their Bard email for information on how to sign up. 

Pre-arrival tests
Students who have yet to return to campus are reminded to submit proof of a negative COVID test (documentation from the testing site or a clear photo of your test result), either antigen or PCR, before returning to campus to [email protected]. Home antigen tests are widely available and will be accepted as proof. Antigen tests must be taken within 24 hours before arrival on campus, or if you prefer a PCR test, it must be taken within 72 hours before arrival on campus. Any student who receives a positive result on their pre-arrival test should not return to campus until they are medically cleared to do so, and should notify the Bard Health Service. If you have any difficulty obtaining a test prior to arrival, or do not receive a test result in time to travel back to campus as planned, please contact [email protected] to make alternate arrangements for your return.

Spring semester planning
Based on the successful arrival last week of first-year and transfer students and decreasing cases in the surrounding community, we expect few changes for the beginning of the spring semester, but please pay particular attention to these protocols: 

• Masking: As noted previously, the College continues to require that masks be worn indoors. The CDC’s most recent mask recommendation guidance underscores that several types of masks can be effective as long as they are well-fitted. Dutchess County has also provided us with KN95 masks that we will distribute to the student body and employees. 
• Visitors: Fully vaccinated (including a booster) pre-approved visitors are allowed in campus facilities, but it remains that no visitors are allowed in student housing. As has been the case throughout the pandemic, faculty or staff who wish to host a visitor should request approval via the visitor request form, which enables us to verify the vaccination status of all guests before they arrive on campus. It also remains the case that individual students or student groups wishing to host a visitor should coordinate with a faculty or staff member, or the Student Activities Office, about submitting the visitor request form. 
• Residence halls: All residence halls have been equipped with isolation bathrooms whether there are any COVID-positive cases in them or not. We have taken this step to ensure that, should a case arise, proper bathroom protocols will already be in place. 
• Signage: You will notice some new signs on campus regarding current protocols, such as masking and limiting dining to four people per table. These should be helpful in reminding everyone of existing safety precautions across campus. 

We look forward to welcoming our returning students back to campus. 

Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs

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A Message about Campus Protocol and Maintaining a Safe Campus Environment

Saturday, January 8, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community,

The College and the Bard community have consistently maintained a safe campus environment with in-person instruction, and we intend to continue doing so while taking into account the spread of the Omicron variant, which appears to be both more transmissible and milder than its predecessors. Many of our peer institutions have seen rising cases on their campuses, and it is reasonable to expect that we will see similar trends in the coming weeks. The good news is that we are doing and have done everything possible to strengthen our community’s ability to withstand COVID, by mandating vaccines and boosters and requiring masking. This will greatly reduce the instance of serious illness on campus and allow us to focus on caring for vulnerable members of our community. 

Therefore, while the rise in cases associated with Omicron might delay a full ‘return to normal’, it does not mean we need to increase restrictions on campus. We should continue to exercise care in our interpersonal interactions, but thanks to vaccines and boosters, our community has a level of protection against major disruptions. 

Below are outlines of our protocols and expectations for January.

• Vaccination and boosters: In accordance with the recent CDC guidance that everyone 12 years and older should receive a booster, we have updated our mandate to require that all students receive a vaccine booster by January 18 or within 30 days after becoming eligible for a booster, whichever comes first. We will also require all faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated with a booster by February 3 or within 30 days of eligibility. Individuals who received Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are eligible to receive a booster dose five months after their last dose. Those who received Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine are eligible to receive a booster dose two months after your original dose. Boosters are widely available at vaccination sites nationwide. Please see our January 4 announcement for instructions on how to submit proof of your vaccine booster. The College plans to offer more booster clinics on campus after the new year, but asks all members of our community not to wait until then if you are already eligible. 
• Return to campus testing: As previously outlined, this will consist of two elements: 1) pre-arrival testing that is the responsibility of each student and 2) post-arrival testing that will be conducted by the Bard Health Service. Please see our January 4 announcement for details. 
• Masking: All members of the Bard community must wear a well-fitted mask that completely covers your nose and mouth in all indoor settings, whenever distancing isn’t possible in group settings, and wherever masking is recommended or required on and off campus. 
• Isolation: In accordance with updated CDC guidance, anyone who tests positive can be released from isolation after five days if they are not experiencing symptoms. Bard will also require a negative test to be released from isolation. If current COVID trends continue, there is a strong possibility that the number of students testing positive at any given time could exceed the number of single rooms with private bathrooms. Therefore, designated isolation rooms will be prioritized for the vulnerable and symptomatic. Any residential student who tests positive will be given two options: 1) Return home or to another safe place off campus to recover, and after 5 days, if the student is not experiencing any COVID symptoms and has a negative antigen test, they can return to campus; or 2) Recover in their dorm room following already established isolation protocols. The College’s COVID case management team, in coordination with the Bard Health Service, will support all students in isolation with regular check-ins and access to College resources and food. Given the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant, medical experts have advised us that roommates of positive cases are likely positive as well, even if there is a slight lag in test results. Many of our peer institutions have been successfully using this isolation protocol.

The CDC and New York State are updating their guidelines and recommendations frequently as new information becomes available, so we expect to continue adjusting our policies and protocols as well. There are hopeful signs the Omicron wave will recede more quickly than others. Please be assured that maintaining a safe in-person experience remains our priority. 

Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs

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A Message about Booster Requirements for Employees

Friday, January 7, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

The College has been closely following the emergence of the Omicron variant and recently announced a booster requirement for students prior to the start of spring semester.

In order to achieve the greatest protection against this new variant, and in consultation with public health officials and our higher education peers, we will also require all faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated with a booster by February 3 or within 30 days of eligibility. If you are eligible, please get your booster as soon as possible and provide updated vaccination cards here. 

We appreciate those members of our faculty and staff who have already received boosters or have appointments to do so in the coming weeks. Although we intend to offer additional clinics on campus during the semester, we recommend individuals proactively secure appointments whenever possible. Boosters are currently available at most major drugstores and supermarkets and a search by location of NYS-operated sites can be found here.

If you have any questions or need assistance uploading the documentation, please email [email protected].

Thank you for your continued commitment to the health and safety of our entire community.

Coleen Alexander
--
Coleen Murphy Alexander ’00
Vice President for Administration
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504
(845) 758-7431

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A Message about Preparing to Return to Campus, Vaccination and Testing Requirements, and Masking Protocols

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

A COVID-19 Update

• Preparing to return to campus
• Vaccination and testing requirement
• Masking protocols

To the Bard College community,
 
We hope you all had a happy and healthy holiday break. In preparation for the arrival of students returning in January, we would like to offer some guidance for the coming days and share a reminder of our return-to-campus protocols.
 
With the current rise in COVID cases, mainly due to the Omicron variant, it’s important that we all take extra care to reduce exposure in the coming days prior to arrival. Please be conservative in your interactions and minimize your contacts, especially in the 72-hour window before returning to campus. If everyone is more careful with their personal safety in advance of their return, we will reduce the probability of any individual bringing COVID back to campus. 
 
As we noted in our last update, all students are required to be fully vaccinated with a booster by January 18 or within 30 days of eligibility. If you are eligible, please get your booster as soon as possible. This booster requirement includes all international students who have received the recommended dose of a WHO-approved vaccine. Once you have received your booster, students should upload the date and submit proof of the vaccine (a screenshot of your vaccine card) to the medical portal at bard.medicatconnect.com (if you are unable to access the portal, students may send this information to [email protected]). Any student with questions about vaccines, including booster shots, should contact the Bard Health Service.
 
As we work towards updating our employee vaccination policy to reflect current public health guidance, we strongly recommend all eligible employees receive a booster shot as soon as possible. We appreciate those members of our faculty and staff who have continued the recommended vaccination sequence and those who have scheduled appointments in the coming weeks. Although we intend to offer additional clinics on campus during the semester, boosters are available now at most major drugstores and supermarkets. A search by location of NYS-operated sites can be found here.
 
Our previous Response Team update detailed the College’s required pre- and post-arrival COVID testing for students. To review those details and other protocols for spring 2022, please visit our COVID-19 website. Remember, your test must be administered no more than 72 hours before you return to campus if you take a PCR test. (If you are unable to access a PCR test in your area in the required timeframe, proof of a negative antigen test conducted no more than 24 hours before your arrival on campus is also acceptable.) Similar to last year, if you do not receive your test result before returning to campus, you must be prepared to shelter in place upon arrival at Bard until you receive your result. Throughout your time away from Bard, and especially between the time of taking your pre-arrival test and arriving on campus, it is important that students adhere to safe behaviors: avoid group gatherings and wear a mask.    
 
Along with vaccinations and boosters, masking remains one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of COVID. Please wear a well-fitted mask wherever masking is recommended or required on and off campus. The most important detail of masking is that whatever the type, it fits well: it should completely cover your nose and mouth, and not allow infiltration around the sides. The better the fit, the greater the protection. 
 
The entire Bard community has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to maintaining a safe campus environment for in-person teaching. The Response Team wishes to thank all Bardians for the flexibility, adaptability, and mutual support that have been hallmarks of our collective response to the pandemic; those attributes will continue to be important and serve us well during this rapidly evolving circumstance. Taking extra care during the remainder of the break and observing our pre- and post-arrival protocols will help to ensure another safe and successful semester. 
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs

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A Message About Return to Campus Testing and Vaccination Mandate

Thursday, December 23, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

• Return to campus testing
• Update to the vaccination mandate
• Pandemic fatigue

To the Bard College Community,

In advance of the new year we would like to provide some details on return-to-campus policies for Citizen Science and the spring 2022 semester. Our primary goal remains the facilitation of a safe, in-person learning experience. As the public health situation continues to evolve, many in our community have questions about how to uphold a safe and productive in-person experience. We will continue to communicate with the Bard community throughout the holiday break as needed. We also wish to express gratitude for the community spirit and mutual support that has motivated this campus since the beginning of the pandemic. Dealing with COVID has been exhausting and stressful, but thanks to sound guidance from public health authorities and scientific experts, and the College’s demonstrated record of preventing outbreak on campus, we can remain in person and devote ourselves to our main tasks of teaching and learning. 

First, a few words about the omicron variant. This variant may be more transmissible than previous ones, but the same methods we have been successfully using to keep our community safe—in particular, vaccination and masking—are still effective in preventing illness and spread. Being fully vaccinated does not eliminate the virus, but it does help to lessen the likelihood of infection and strengthen our ability to fight off the virus and avoid serious illness. It is important that all of us, including the fully vaccinated, continue to wear masks, avoid high-risk behaviors such as large crowds or eating in groups, and wash our hands frequently.  

Return to campus testing
Return-to-campus testing will consist of two elements: 1) pre-arrival testing that is the responsibility of each student and 2) post-arrival testing that will be conducted by the Bard Health Service. All students must participate in both pre-arrival and post-arrival testing. 

• Pre-arrival testing: Students who left campus for the holiday break, including those who live off campus and remain in the local area, will need to provide proof of a negative test before returning to campus for Citizen Science or the spring semester. Similar to previous return-to-campus periods when we have required pre-arrival testing, students should arrange to get a PCR test that must be conducted no more than 72 hours before you arrive on campus. PCR tests are available at most local pharmacies, medical testing companies such as Quest Diagnostics or Labcorp, as well as local and state healthcare facilities. The federal government has begun standing up new testing sites nationwide, with most states adding new testing as soon as next week. You can find local community testing facilities in your state here and through your state health department. We encourage all students and families to look into available testing sites and schedules now; please do not wait until 72 hours before returning to campus to try to make arrangements. If you are unable to access a PCR test in your area in the required timeframe, proof of a negative antigen test conducted no more than 24 hours before your arrival on campus is also acceptable. Please return your proof of a negative test (documentation from the testing site or a clear photo of your test result) before returning to campus to [email protected]. Any student who receives a positive result on their pre-arrival test should not return to campus until they are medically cleared to do so, and should notify the Bard Health Service. Any student unable to access either a PCR or antigen test during the break should notify [email protected] to make arrangements for testing and sheltering in place upon arrival. The small number of students remaining on campus during the break or returning early for athletics team practice will receive separate instructions soon.
• Post-arrival testing: Each student will be required to take a COVID test approximately four days after returning to campus. The College will schedule and administer this test to all students—whether they live on or off campus—via the same MIT/Broad Institute testing program that we have used throughout the pandemic, and that typically delivers results in less than 24 hours. 

Vaccination updates
Bard College is a fully vaccinated campus, requiring that all students, faculty, and staff be fully vaccinated. In accordance with the recent CDC guidance that everyone 18 years and older should receive a booster, we are updating our vaccine mandate to require that all students receive a vaccine booster by January 18 or within 30 days after becoming eligible for a booster, whichever comes first. At this time, we highly encourage all faculty and staff to get the booster as soon as they’re eligible. (The College will release detailed information about booster requirements for faculty and staff after the new year). Individuals who received Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are eligible to receive a booster dose six months after their last dose. Those who received Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine are eligible to receive a booster dose two months after your original dose. Boosters are widely available at vaccination sites nationwide. 

Once you have received your booster, students should upload the date and submit proof of the vaccine (a screenshot of your vaccine card) to the medical portal at bard.medicatconnect.com (if you are unable to access the portal, students may send this information to [email protected]). Employees who wish to upload their proof of booster at this time may do so at [email protected]. The College plans to offer more booster clinics on campus after the new year, but asks all members of our community not to wait until then if you are already eligible. 

Pandemic fatigue
Pandemic fatigue is real. We have come a long way together safely, but the challenges of living safely with COVID protocols on a residential college campus create a lot of stress. As individuals and as a society, we have confronted an unprecedented and mentally taxing level of uncertainty. It is no wonder that many of us feel exhausted. The Response Team wishes to acknowledge the extraordinary mental and emotional work that each of us undertakes every day in support of our collective perseverance through these challenges. And we want to express our conviction that, with the advent of spring, things WILL get better. As we embark upon this new semester, there is energy to be found in our common dedication to the essential work of learning and advancing knowledge together. 
 
Thank you for your support of this community. Bard has been highly successful in maintaining a healthy campus by following the science, adopting and adhering to well proven protocols, such as testing and vaccination, and working together as a community. We will continue to adjust our protocols moving forward and look forward to a safe and successful spring semester. 
 
With best wishes for a restorative holiday break,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges

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A Message about the Holidays, On-Campus Booster Clinics, and Ongoing Safety Protocols

Friday, December 17, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community,

As the semester comes to a close, we would like to offer our congratulations and gratitude to everyone in the Bard community. Working together, we have collectively demonstrated a shared commitment to sustaining a safe, productive, and lively campus despite uncertain times. 

In recent weeks we have managed a safe return from the Thanksgiving recess, processed hundreds of exit tests for those students who requested them, and delivered more than 900 vaccine boosters to members of the Bard community. If you haven’t received a booster yet, we encourage you to do so, keeping in mind that you must be at least six months past the date of your second shot to be eligible for a booster (if you took the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines) or at least two months past the date of a Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Due to that required timing, some of our students will not be eligible until after the beginning of the spring semester, so we plan to continue offering booster shot clinics on campus after the break. 

Heading into the holiday season we ask that you continue to observe the now-familiar safety protocols of indoor masking, avoiding large gatherings, and frequent hand-washing, all of which are compatible with enjoying the holidays with friends and family. 

One of the hallmarks of the College’s success in managing COVID has been our flexible planning, which enables us to be both prepared for and responsive to the evolving situation. Please rest assured that the College’s COVID-19 Response Team is constantly reviewing our protocols and considering what if any changes must be made to help our community stay safe. We also continue to closely monitor the public health situation and coordinate with local, state, and federal officials and scientific experts. We will keep the Bard community informed with clear, accurate, and timely information, including as-needed during the holiday break.

We wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season, and look forward to seeing you in the new year.

Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges

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A Message about End-Of-Semester Exit Testing and Booster Clinics

Friday, December 10, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community,

As we approach the final days of the semester, we want to reiterate that voluntary end-of-semester exit tests are available for any student who would like one. The Bard Health Service previously sent directly to all students and their families a detailed communication about exit testing to meet the needs of students who may need a PCR test in order to board a flight home, or who wish to take an end-of-semester test for any other reason. Tests are available at Stevenson Gymnasium Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 9:00–11:30 am and 12:00–2:45 pm. Tests are also available on Thursday 9 am–12:00 pm for students who are flying internationally over the weekend. Any student experiencing respiratory symptoms is encouraged to make an appointment with the Bard Health Service for an antigen test.

The College has arranged another vaccine booster clinic. Please check your Bard email for details.

Please continue to take care during the final week of the semester, observing the indoor masking mandate and exercising caution when traveling off campus.

We are very proud of how consistently the Bard community has worked together to help keep our number of positive cases low. As a reminder, the Bard COVID webpage has an up-to-date dashboard. Response Team office hours have ended for the semester, but we are available by email to answer questions or arrange to meet as needed. 

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges

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A Message about Being a Fully Vaccinated Community, Testing Protocols, and How Not to Get COVID

Monday, November 29, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community:

Welcome back Bardians from what we hope was a restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving break. That we were able this year to visit loved ones for the holiday and return to campus is a testament to the strides we’ve made since 2020. This year our status as a fully vaccinated campus, and our community’s ongoing commitment to observing important safety guidance such as mask-wearing indoors in public spaces, have helped to substantially reduce risks associated with travel and enabled a return to a more normal campus life.  

Fully vaccinated campus
We have received some questions about what a “fully vaccinated campus” is and whether Bard indeed fits that criteria. The Centers for Disease Control have established guidance specifically for institutions of higher education whose population is fully vaccinated; we have shared the link several times since the CDC first published this special set of guidance, and wanted once more to bring it to our community’s attention, since the CDC updates it regularly.  

With approximately 99% of our students, faculty, and staff vaccinated, and a very small number of Bardians approved for medical or religious exemptions, Bard qualifies as a fully vaccinated campus according to the CDC and local and state public health authorities. 

Testing protocols
Since students returned to campus in August for the Language & Thinking program, Bard has been conducting three types of testing:

• Randomized weekly testing for students. We established a random testing protocol last year in consultation with our medical consultants and local public health officials. Based on decades of experience with a wide variety of infectious diseases, epidemiologists have long recommended that random testing cover 20% of a given population. Accordingly, every week we invite a sufficient random sampling of the student body to participate in random testing, which is conducted every Tuesday and Thursday and takes approximately 5 minutes for an individual to complete. If you receive an email invitation to participate in random testing, please comply, even if you were selected the previous week as well. It is an easy, quick action you can take to help us understand the current state of health of our community. Our small number of unvaccinated individuals are required to be tested every week. 
   
• Testing in response to a positive case. When a positive case is identified on campus, the College provides testing to 1) close contacts of the positive case and 2) individuals who are identified as part of expanding circles around a positive student (but are not close contacts), who are asked to test out of an abundance of caution. Thanks to the College’s Contact Tracing Team, contact tracing of positive cases is typically completed within 24 hours of a positive case being identified in the Bard community. Bard’s Contact Tracing Team is made up of trained volunteers who have completed the Johns Hopkins contract tracing course. The College created this team as a service to our community, since the state and county’s contact tracing efforts are slower. Our Contact Tracing Team has been very effective and efficient in providing more service specifically to the Bard community than our local public health officials are able to do. Please recognize that contact tracing is a time-consuming activity and that we have an outstanding record in completing contact tracing on positive cases within 24 hours.
   
• Symptomatic student testing. Students who are experiencing symptoms should contact the Bard Health Service to get tested. Symptomatic employees should consult their primary care physician.  

Testing is a diagnostic tool designed to identify whether and where there is any infection in a community; it provides a snapshot of community health at a specific moment in time. We are pleased to share that our randomized weekly testing has not resulted in any positive tests at any point this semester, indicating that our community has not experienced any broad on-campus outbreaks. For more information about testing and what to do in case of exposure, please review the Testing & Contact Tracing FAQs we have previously provided. 

As a reminder, any Bardian who receives a positive result from a COVID test conducted off campus should immediately notify the Human Resources office (if you are an employee) or the Bard Health Service or Dean of Students office (if you are a student). After hours and on weekends, students can reach the administrator on call by calling Bard Security and asking to be connected.

How not to get COVID 
Vaccination provides an important layer of protection from illness, but it is not a guarantee against infection. As we have repeatedly emphasized, testing does not prevent anyone from getting COVID; only personal behavior does that. We would like to take this opportunity to remind our community of simple personal behaviors that will help keep all of us safe. 

• Wear a mask indoors in public places. This includes classrooms and shuttle buses on campus, and a wide variety of transportation and locations off campus. 
   
• Avoid crowds. Practice physical distancing whenever possible in public places, particularly when you do not know the vaccination status of everyone present.
   
• Do not share drinks or food with anyone, including vaccinated friends and colleagues. Eating or drinking from the same plate or glass is a high-risk behavior.   

As demonstrated by our COVID dashboard, the College saw a small increase in cases in early-to-mid November. Many of them were associated with an event that took place in the local community. From what we know of the event, not all of its participants adhered to the simple behaviors described above, resulting in several members of our community becoming infected. Fortunately, we did not see any on-campus outbreak from these cases, further demonstrating the efficacy of vaccines. We also want to underscore that the vast majority of our community has been following the recommended behaviors, which is why the number of COVID cases among our students and faculty has remained low overall throughout the semester. 

We do not wish a holiday in quarantine for anyone and encourage all to continue to exercise caution. We look forward to completing the semester safely together in person, and will share more information about planning for the end of the semester and beyond in our next update. In the meantime, the Response Team continues to meet regularly with Dutchess County health officials, the mayors of Red Hook and Tivoli, and the White House COVID-19 Task Force, and closely tracks the evolving public health situation - including news and guidance about the new "Omicron" variant - so that our policies reflect the most recent scientific guidance and we can keep our community informed. 

Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges
 

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An Update on Holiday Travel, Campus COVID Protocols, and Vaccine Booster Clinics

Friday, November 19, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community,

We are nearing the end of the semester and would like to take the opportunity to thank the community for your continued support.

Holiday travel
With many of us making plans to travel to or host family and friends for Thanksgiving, we would like to reiterate the importance of observing COVID safety protocols while enjoying the holiday break. Unlike living, working, and studying on a fully vaccinated campus, traveling and gathering indoors in group settings off campus still pose a risk for exposure and possible infection. Please observe the now familiar safety protocols of mask wearing, frequent hand washing, and distancing wherever possible while off campus. This is particularly important when using public transportation and in larger groups, especially where the vaccination status of others is uncertain. If you find yourself in a group and you do not know the vaccination status of everyone in the group, please wear a mask to keep yourself and others safe. The virus is still quite prominent in many states and localities, so taking these familiar precautions is important to minimize the risk of infection or spread over the holiday break.

Our local community has seen an uptick in COVID cases recently, so we ask that all Bardians continue to exercise care when interacting with others off campus. Bard’s Contact Tracing Team remains active, and immediately conducts contact tracing anytime a member of the Bard community is identified as a positive case. Please review the College’s testing and exposure guidance for more information. A recent cluster of local cases reminds us that unvaccinated people, who can be infected and asymptomatic, can spread the virus to vaccinated populations. 

Campus COVID protocols
It is essential to keep in mind that some members of the Bard community need to remain unvaccinated for medical or religious reasons. To keep those members of our community safe, and to strengthen our community’s resistance to the spread of COVID, we would like to remind all Bardians of these key COVID protocols that remain in effect on campus:

• Masking indoors including in classrooms, the Campus Center, the library, and on the Bard shuttle. Please pay close attention to masking signage around campus. If another member of the Bard community asks you to put on a mask, please respect that person’s request and comply immediately.
• No visitors are allowed in residence halls. Visitors are allowed to attend designated campus events under the following circumstances: they have registered and provided proof of vaccination in advance, and have received approval through the Bard COVID Coordinator. 

These simple COVID safety protocols have worked well for our community, and are designed to maintain the integrity of our fully vaccinated campus. Your adherence to protocols such as this have helped keep the Bard campus safe through the fall semester. Let’s keep up the good work.

Vaccine booster clinic
We would also like to announce that the College will host another COVID-19 vaccine booster clinic on Tuesday, November 23, from 10am-1pm at the Stevenson Gymnasium. There will be boosters available for J&J, Moderna, and Pfizer. Please indicate which one you need when you fill out the form HERE to register. Please bring a valid state/federal ID, your insurance card, and COVID-19 vaccine card.

We continue to maintain the College’s COVID webpage, where you can find information about the College’s COVID policies, and the dashboard, which contains up-to-date information about COVID cases in the Bard community this semester. The Response Team also continues to hold office hours every Tuesday 12-1PM via Zoom. Please use the Zoom link and passcode provided in the message to your Bard email.

We wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges

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A Message about the Updated Campus Visitor Policy and COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shots

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College Community,

Since our last update, we have experienced both Fall Break and Family & Alumni/ae Weekend. For the former, many members of our community traveled off campus, and for the latter, we welcomed hundreds of alumni/ae and family members to campus. This is a very welcome change from last year, when we weren’t even able to consider organizing either of these fun annual activities that are important to the life of the College. That we were able to do so this year speaks to the care that our community members are taking when traveling off campus, as well as our visitors’ compliance with our COVID policies when they are on campus. Above all, it underscores that our status as a fully vaccinated campus is helping us return to many of our former activities, with limited and easily manageable restrictions. 

Updated visitor policy

Given our continued extremely low level of COVID cases among Bardians, we are happy to announce two changes to our campus visitor policy.

1 - Fully vaccinated household family members of Bard employees will now be allowed to enter campus facilities without needing approval for each individual campus visit. Bard employees who wish to have their fully vaccinated household family members granted long-term access to campus facilities should fill out this simple form, which asks you to upload proof of vaccination for any and all household family members you wish to have access to buildings on campus. Bard’s COVID check-in coordinator will respond with an acknowledgement that your submission has been reviewed. After you receive that acknowledgement, your approved family members are free to visit campus facilities that are otherwise already open to visitors. The residence halls, gymnasium, and library remain closed to family members and other visitors in order to ensure the continued safety and comfort of our community. 

2 - Visitors to academic and faculty-sponsored campus events: Academic and faculty-sponsored events may now be opened to fully vaccinated members of the community under the same protocols used by such campus venues as the Fisher Center and Hessel Museum. All visitors must demonstrate proof of vaccination in advance and wear a mask in any indoor campus setting. Event organizers will be responsible for planning and staffing for advance registration, including proof of vaccination confirmation, obtaining names and contact information, and enforcing audience mask wearing indoors.

Individuals who do not fall into either of the above two categories and are planning to enter any campus facility must still receive advance approval, via the “Request for Non-Bard Visitors to Campus” form, which is available to Bard employees. Students wishing to sponsor a visitor should contact their dean for more information. 

There is no change to the requirement that approved visitors to campus facilities remain masked while indoors, with the exception that speakers who are physically distanced (for example, at a podium) may be unmasked while speaking. Anyone experiencing COVID symptoms, whether they are an employee or an approved visitor, should refrain from coming to campus.

The campus grounds remain open to visitors, without advance approval needed.

For any questions or additional guidance on holding academic and sponsored events on campus with the potential for public attendance, please drop by Response Team office hours on Tuesdays 12-1 (check your Bard email for the link and password), or email the Response Team.

COVID booster shots

Bard’s status as a fully vaccinated community has provided us an important and very effective layer of protection against illness, and is not affected by or dependent on COVID boosters. Given the efficacy of existing vaccines, the College does not currently require booster shots. We encourage members of the community who are considering getting a booster shot to consult the CDC website and/or their primary care physician. 

In response to interest expressed by Bard students, faculty, and staff, the College is organizing some booster shot clinics on campus in the coming weeks. Please watch your email for registration instructions. Booster shots are also widely available in local pharmacies. 

We also want to remind our community that the Bard Cares Team continues to meet and be active. If you have questions or concerns about COVID policy compliance, or would like to join the Cares Team, please feel free to reach out to [email protected]. 

Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Christian Ayne Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges
 

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An Update on COVID Cases, Mask Mandate, Visitor Policy, Travel, and Testing

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

• Update on COVID cases
• Mask mandate update
• Visitor policy update
• Traveling off-campus 
• Testing
• Response Team office hours

To the Bard College community,

It has been wonderful to see students, faculty, and staff enjoying the beginning of the semester together. As we all settle into the new semester, we would like to help familiarize the campus community with some of our key safety protocols. Many of these protocols should be familiar to returning students and faculty and staff. As a fully-vaccinated campus, our first and most effective line of defense was already in place when the semester began. It is important to remember that COVID is present in the surrounding community. We cannot put up a wall around our campus, nor do we want to. Our safety protocols - chief among them our vaccination mandate - help us in achieving our goal of preventing serious illness in the Bard community while enabling us to continue in-person learning and a more normal campus life.

Update on COVID cases
Vaccination has proven to be very effective in not only preventing serious illness but also in decreasing the likelihood of transmission in the relatively rare instances of vaccinated individuals becoming infected with COVID. This is borne out by our recent experience on campus. All of our randomized testing this semester has been negative for COVID, including almost 300 tests administered yesterday. We currently have four active cases of COVID that were identified through symptomatic testing - three students and one employee. All were vaccinated and have been isolated. The Bard Contact Tracing team was quickly in touch with potential close contacts, and Bard Health Services conducted precautionary testing of those who may have had some type of interaction with the positive cases but were not considered close contacts. The fact that all of our randomized tests to date and the testing of close and potential contacts, including roommates, have been negative demonstrates that our protocols, particularly vaccination, play an important role in containing infection and helping prevent community spread. See the dashboard on the Bard COVID page for updated information on vaccination rates and campus cases. 

Mask mandate update
Last month we announced an indoor mask mandate for the first two weeks of the semester. Having carefully reviewed CDC guidance and consulted with local public health authorities during this time, we have determined that the mandate for mask wearing indoors on campus will remain in effect until further notice. We will closely monitor and evaluate the situation, and will review our masking protocols again before the end of the month. 

Bard’s Security office and mask dispensers around campus are supplied with masks for use in case of emergency. Please take only what you personally need. 

Visitor policy update
We wish to remind you that visitors to indoor campus facilities are only allowed with prior approval and must show proof of vaccination as part of that approval process. Only Bard employees may request visitor approval by submitting this form. Students who wish to host a visitor for a club activity or other reason should contact the Dean of Students office for guidance. Visitors are not currently allowed in the dorms. In order for the Response Team to have sufficient time to review and process the Essential Visitor Request form, please submit it at least 72 hours before the visit in question. 

All visitors, including those who are here for group events such as classes, sporting events, or conferences, will be required to remain masked while indoors, with the exception we have previously outlined: a professor or speaker may be unmasked while physically distanced at the front of the classroom or at a podium. 

The campus grounds remain open to visitors.

Traveling off campus
We ask members of the Bard community to be mindful of your behavior off campus, where rates of COVID continue to be significant and vaccination rates are much lower than on campus. Mask-wearing is strongly encouraged in all indoor settings including public transportation, as are all of the familiar protocols, such as frequent hand washing and avoiding large crowds, particularly in areas where vaccination levels are low. Act judiciously, wear a mask and practice physical distancing where directed and recommended, and remember that our collective efforts support campus health. 

Student Clubs and Organizations wishing to organize activities off-campus should register their event with SPARC to be sure they understand and are following all current guidelines and expectations. All students, faculty, and staff planning to participate in or organize trips off campus are asked to abide by these travel guidelines:

• Masks worn at all times on shared transportation
• Meals should take place outside if possible, or in private quarters. Groups should refrain from eating in restaurants.
• Masks indoors at all times when possible 

Anyone who has questions about planning for off-campus activities is welcome to email the Response Team or attend our office hours (see details below). 

Testing 
Any student experiencing symptoms should contact the Bard Health Services to determine if a COVID test is warranted. Any students determined to be a close contact of a positive case on campus will be contacted by Bard’s Contact Tracing team and the Dean of Students office with detailed instructions.

Faculty and staff experiencing symptoms should follow the same protocol as last year: stay home, contact your physician and/or make an appointment to get tested, and monitor symptoms. Employees experiencing symptoms, or those who have tested positive, should not come to work and should contact Nancy Smith, Employee Covid Coordinator, at [email protected] or 845-752-4931 immediately. Employees may also contact Human Resources at [email protected] or 845-758-7428 with any questions or for additional employee resources. 

The Bard Health Service’s COVID testing team is also continuing to conduct weekly randomized testing of students representing 20% of the student body to establish and maintain a baseline for a healthy campus. Students will be notified by email from [email protected] and participation is mandatory. It is essential that every student selected for this testing protocol respond and complete the process. Getting tested typically takes less than 5 minutes, and can be done at any time during the 9-11:30AM and 12:00-2:30PM windows on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Whenever a positive case is identified on campus, the College will conduct expanded testing to determine if there are any additional infections. Please remember, if a positive case occurs on campus and you are NOT contacted by the Bard Contact Tracing Team, you are not a close contact of that positive case. This additional testing is solely a precautionary measure taken out of an abundance of caution. Since we initiated randomized and precautionary testing last year, the process has not identified a single positive case, indicating that our collective careful adherence to COVID protocols have been successful in preventing community spread and keeping our campus cases numbers extremely low.

This year, Bard is continuing to contract with MIT’s Broad Institute to utilize their PCR tests and processing, which have been shown to be highly accurate and typically return results within 24 hours. You will only be contacted if your test result is positive.

Response Team office hours
Every Tuesday from noon to 1PM, the Response Team holds open office hours over Zoom. No appointment is necessary; if you have a question or want to discuss anything, please drop by using the Zoom link and passcode from your Bard email. If that timing does nt work for you, please email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you as quickly as possible. 

As a community we have worked very hard to create a safe environment for in-person learning and campus life. The most important element of that effort is our success in becoming a fully vaccinated campus. We look forward to working together to solidify this success and continue our return to a more normal campus environment.

Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Faculty Representative 
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges

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A Message about Surveillance Testing, Campus Building Access, and Response Team Office Hours

Friday, September 3, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College Community,

We would like to welcome everyone back to campus and congratulate you all on the successful completion of L&T and the first week of the semester. Seeing everyone enjoying the first week of classes and campus life is a gratifying reminder of why we’re all here. Part of this successful return process has been our policy of masking for these initial two weeks. Another aspect is surveillance testing, which we detail below, along with protocols for building access and the return of Response Team office hours, where community members can ask the Response Team questions about any aspect of campus life in relation to COVID safety. The first office hours of the semester, to be held next Tuesday, September 7, will focus on event planning for the fall 2021 semester.

Surveillance Testing
As part of the arrival process, the Bard Health Service’s COVID testing team began conducting student surveillance testing on September 2. All surveillance tests administered this week have received negative results. This screening protocol, which we will re-evaluate later this month to determine if it needs to continue based on the public health situation at the time, tests randomly selected students representing 20% of the student population, and will help us establish a baseline of a healthy campus, much as we did at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters last academic year. Testing takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students will be notified by email from [email protected] and the participation of selected students is mandatory. Students who were approved for vaccine exemptions will be tested weekly throughout the semester.

Employees who were approved for vaccine exemptions are receiving instructions from the Human Resources office about how to obtain and submit mandatory testing results.

With 99% of our campus population vaccinated, we already have a high degree of protection from serious illness on campus. The additional precautions of masking and surveillance testing bring some extra protection during this return-to-campus period.  

Campus Building Access
With the return to full in-person learning and all campus offices now open, we remind you that College campus buildings remain closed to visitors, including family members, unless prior approval has been granted. Members of the Bard Community can apply for essential visitor approvals here; all visitors to campus facilities must show proof of vaccination and be approved in advance. Please note that professors may be unmasked at the front of the classroom if they are physically distanced from students, and individuals may be unmasked with the door open if they are alone in their office, as long as they are physically distanced from the door. 

Response Team Office Hours
The Response Team will resume our weekly open office hours on Tuesdays from 12 noon to 1pm via Zoom, with no appointment needed. Our Tuesday, September 7th office hours will focus on helping community members plan events to understand how best to proceed within guidelines currently in effect. If you are expecting or hoping to organize any kind of larger event this semester - particularly one potentially bringing groups of visitors to campus, such as a conference - please bring your questions. You can use the link in your Bard email to log in to the Sept. 7 office hours, or email the Response Team at [email protected] for Zoom information.

We are all looking forward to an engaging, enjoyable, and safe semester.

Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges
  E-mail: [email protected]
Website: https://www.bard.edu/covid19/

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A Message to the Bard Community about Masking

Monday, August 23, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College Community,

As L&T comes to a successful conclusion, we want to inform you of an update to our mask protocols. Effective this coming Saturday, August 28th, all students, faculty, and staff will be required to mask in public indoor settings, regardless of vaccination status, for an initial two week period. After the initial period we will monitor the need for continued indoor masking. This will allow for a safe re-entry of all students, faculty, and staff returning to campus for the fall semester. 

This decision is consistent with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), New York State Department of Health, American College Health Association (ACHA), and Commission of Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU). 

Specifics include:

• Dining: Students and employees may remove their masks when seated and eating.
• Residential Life: Students are not required to wear masks in their residence halls.
• Classrooms: Faculty and students are required to mask in indoor classrooms and labs.
• Meetings/Office Spaces: Masking is required in shared office spaces as well as in meetings. This includes all student meetings and events. Masks can be removed in private offices. 
• Campus Vehicles: Employees and students must be masked in College vehicles.

Masks are not required outdoors in group settings for those who are fully vaccinated.

We know that vaccination is our primary defense against COVID-19: students, faculty and staff in Annandale have come together to achieve an over 99% vaccination level as we begin the 2021-22 academic year. So, too, do we know that layers of protection, including masking and testing, when appropriate, remain integral to the public health protocols of our campus and the larger community.

We are instituting this as a temporary measure to ensure a safe return for all to campus. Following this period, we will adopt a “mask-friendly” policy, which allows faculty to decide on masking requirements for their individual classes and allows staff to continue to wear masks in office buildings. NOTE: Additional classroom guidance from the Dean’s office is forthcoming this week.

Careful and continuous study of public health indicators will guide the Response Team and the College in responding and adapting to the virus this semester. 

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]

Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges E-mail: [email protected]

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A Message about Being a “Mask-Friendly” Campus, the Return of the Cares Team, and Taste Budd's Delivery

Friday, August 13, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

• “Mask friendly” fully vaccinated campus
• Cares Team returns
• Taste Budd’s on-campus delivery

To the Bard College Community,

We would like to welcome the Bard class of 2025 to campus, and thank everyone who helped make last weekend’s arrival days run smoothly and safely. The Language & Thinking program is well underway, and we will begin welcoming transfer students today and returning students in the coming weeks.

“Mask friendly” fully vaccinated campus
Bard begins the fall 2021 semester as a fully vaccinated campus with all students, faculty, and staff required to demonstrate proof of vaccination. This enables a return to full capacity in-person learning without requiring masking or physical distancing for those who are fully vaccinated (over 99% of the Bard community), as per CDC guidance for a fully vaccinated campus. At the same time, it is also important to be mindful that there are members of our community, who for various reasons — young children or elderly people in their households or being immunocompromised — either choose to or must wear a mask. In short, there are a variety of reasons why Bardians may need or choose to wear a mask or practice physical distancing, or that some professors may request that masks be worn in their classroom and staff may require masking in meetings or at events.

College policy, based on current CDC guidance and close consultation with medical experts and public health officials, is that Bard is a “mask friendly” campus: vaccinated people are not required to be masked, but any faculty, staff, or students who wish to wear a mask for any reason are encouraged to do so. 

With news of outbreaks in other parts of the country, mostly in areas with low vaccination rates, as well as rising numbers in the greater Hudson Valley area, it’s important to distinguish between risk levels in public settings and those of a fully vaccinated campus. As a fully vaccinated campus, with additional proof of vaccine requirements and stringent protocols for visitors, we are able to minimize the likelihood of potential COVID exposure in the Bard community, and we have also greatly reduced the likelihood that anyone on campus will suffer serious illness due to COVID. 

We are encouraging everyone at Bard to be cautious when in public off-campus settings, where mask-wearing may be advisable or required. We will continue to monitor conditions in the region and CDC guidance and will notify you of any updates to our protocols.

It is important to remember that vaccination is not a guarantee against infection. The purpose and power of vaccines comes from their ability to teach and strengthen our immune systems to more effectively identify and fight viruses, in this case the virus that causes COVID, thereby avoiding serious illness despite potential exposure. While there have been some reports of cases among vaccinated people outside of this area, they are rare. Vaccination, particularly as a fully vaccinated campus, is the best way to minimize exposure and prevent serious illness and community spread.

Cares Team
In the coming weeks the College will reconvene the Cares Team, which will assist students in navigating safety protocols during the fall 2021 semester. Led by Vice President for Student Affairs Dumaine Williams, this team of administrators, faculty, and students will be available to answer questions and advise community members on all matters relating to student safety and well-being. The Cares Team can be contacted by emailing [email protected] or by submitting a Cares Team COVID Report. Anyone interested in becoming a Cares Team volunteer should reach out to Vice President Williams via [email protected] by August 30, 2021 to learn more.

Taste Budd’s on-campus delivery
The beginning of the fall semester offers us an opportunity to introduce a new class of Bardians to one of our favorite local businesses: Taste Budd’s Cafe in Red Hook. Taste Budd’s provides a daily delivery to campus once per day at noon. Order by 11:15AM via the Taste Budd’s website, selecting “Budds Bard Drop” on the menu, in order for your items to be included in the noon delivery. Item pickup is at the Taste Budd’s table at the Old Gym on main campus.

At the beginning of the semester, we will also restart Response Team weekly office hours, where community members can speak directly to Team members to get real-time answers to questions related to COVID safety. Any member of the Bard community is also welcome to email questions to the Response Team.

Our campus community has shown great mutual support and respect throughout the challenges of the pandemic, and we are happy this week to welcome our new class of first-year students into this community.


Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Testing Protocols, Pre-travel Guidance, and College-sponsored Trips

Friday, August 6, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

The Response Team acknowledges a lack of clarity in the August 6 update and provides edited text, below, 08/27/2021.

• Testing protocols
• Pre-travel guidance
• College-sponsored trips
• Stevenson Gymnasium update

To the Bard College Community,

Thanks to our vaccination mandate, Bard College is now considered a “fully vaccinated campus” by CDC standards. This is a special status that enables the College, and our peer institutions that have achieved fully vaccinated status, to return to full capacity in-person learning without requiring masking or physical distancing for people who are fully vaccinated, in accordance with CDC’s Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People and New York State requirements. Vaccines have been shown to be very effective at preventing illness, including from the Delta variant (the article at the link was written by Bard alum Nsikan Akpan ’06, a biologist who is health and science editor at New York Public Radio and recipient of this year’s John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service).

As previously discussed, for the fall 2021 semester, all students, faculty, and staff are required to provide proof of vaccination, bringing us to a vaccination level of over 99 percent. The fewer than 1 percent of students and employees who remain unvaccinated through the semester have received prior approval for medical or religious reasons. Any unvaccinated student or employee, for as long as they are not fully vaccinated, must continue to follow the same protocols that kept our community safe last year when we were all unvaccinated, including masking and physical distancing at all times indoors or in group settings on campus. 

In order to maintain our campus as fully vaccinated, for the fall semester the College will require all visitors to show proof of vaccination before being approved for access to College facilities, as described in last week’s Response Team update. Although the community around Bard has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, there is still a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated people in public spaces beyond Bard, so we ask all Bardians to follow the protocols in place at off-campus locations, many of which require masking. Any Bardian who prefers to remain masked in places where it is not explicitly required, on campus or off, is welcome to do so. 

Testing
Because we have a fully vaccinated campus, we are able to adjust our testing protocols from last year’s broad and continuous surveillance testing to a system that identifies symptomatic individuals and initiates CDC-advised protocols to minimize risk to the broader community. Therefore, the College plans to test the small number of unvaccinated students and employees regularly, and will also make testing available to vaccinated students who experience symptoms. 

Any fully vaccinated person who tests positive for COVID-19 will be required to isolate themselves from others by remaining out of in-person activities for 10 days, or until 48 hours after all symptoms resolve or they have received a negative test result. Students in a single room may remain in their room; however, students with a roommate will be placed in isolation housing for the duration of their isolation period.

Any fully vaccinated person who has come into close contact with someone with COVID-19 should be tested three to five days following the date of their exposure and wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result. They should follow the above restrictions if they test positive.

If an unvaccinated member of the Bard community tests positive, they will be moved into isolation housing (if they are a student living on campus) or will be asked to remain in their off-campus home until they are medically cleared to return to campus.

Pre-travel guidance
For students preparing to travel to campus, we ask that in the days immediately prior to arriving at Bard you observe safe travel practices, such as masking in public places where the community is not fully vaccinated as well as on planes and other forms of public transportation. This, combined with full vaccination prior to arrival, will help us to begin the fall semester safely.

College-sponsored trips
With a fully vaccinated campus community, students and faculty will be able to resume course-related and club day trips off campus by following common sense safety protocols, such as masking in any indoor public space and avoiding large gatherings. Participants on these trips and events will also be asked to abide by the guidelines in place at your destination. Anyone hoping to plan an overnight trip off campus should consult with the Response Team as part of the planning process. Please email [email protected] for more information about off-campus trips including the application form.

Stevenson Gymnasium update
The Stevenson Athletic Center is currently open to students and staff, with hours posted on bardathletics.com. Users should present their Bard ID at the front desk when entering the building. The pool is available for lap swim on a reservation basis. Please visit the website for more information.

Starting on September 1, the Stevenson Athletic Center will reopen for community use through a membership system; all patrons will be required to show proof of vaccination. Hours will also be reduced for community use; more information will be available in the coming weeks on bardathletics.com. All fans at indoor sporting events will also be required to show proof of vaccination to be allowed entry to the building.

We’re looking forward to returning to a more normal in-person, on-campus experience this fall, starting with our first-year students arriving today for L&T! Last year, our community showed great mutual support and care in our collective careful adherence to behaviors that kept us safe and enabled us to engage in in-person learning throughout the year. This year, we must continue to be mindful and flexible as the public health situation evolves, with the knowledge that vaccination is a powerful tool that together we have all brought to our community.

Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges

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A Message about COVID-19 Campus Protocols for the Fall

Thursday, July 29, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

• Mask guidelines
• Proof of vaccination requirement
• Arrival protocols for first-year, transfer, and returning students
• Visitor policy, including for residence halls, and event planning

To the Bard College Community,

With the fall semester approaching, we would like to share arrival protocols for first-year, transfer, and returning students, as well as updated policies for visitors and student spaces. The key to our successful return to normalcy is vaccination and, wherever indicated, mask-wearing. As previously announced, all students, faculty, and staff are required to be vaccinated by August 1, with exceptions only for pre-approved medical or religious reasons. 

Mask guidelines
Throughout the previous academic year, when we were all unvaccinated, our community kept each other safe through personal behaviors including mask wearing and physical distancing. Now that vaccinations are available and we will be close to a 100% vaccinated community at the start of the semester, mask wearing and physical distancing are not our only defenses against illness and are no longer required by vaccinated people in many situations, under current health conditions. 

This week, the CDC updated its mask recommendations to say that fully vaccinated people should wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high risk of transmission. In addition, the CDC stated that fully vaccinated people might choose to wear a mask regardless of the level of transmission, especially if they are at increased risk for severe disease or have someone in their household who is unvaccinated or at increased risk. 

COVID cases continue to be much lower than they were a year ago in the area around Bard, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. Dutchess County is not currently considered an area of substantial or high risk, according to CDC data. Vaccines have been shown to be effective in greatly reducing both illness and transmissibility, making it much less likely that a vaccinated person who catches COVID will either become sick from the virus or spread it to others. For these reasons, the College does not currently require vaccinated individuals to be masked indoors on campus. Wearing a mask is optional for vaccinated students and employees, while all unvaccinated individuals must remain masked inside campus facilities. We will continue to monitor the public health situation, as we have for the past 18 months, and will update College policy as necessary, and we ask all members of our community to continue to monitor their own health.  

Proof of vaccination requirement
All students are required to submit proof of a World Health Organization-approved vaccination to [email protected] or upload it to your Medicat portal as soon as possible, so that we can verify your vaccination status prior to your arrival on campus for the fall semester. All employees have received instructions from the Human Resources office for submitting your proof of vaccination prior to August 1. You may send a scanned copy of your vaccination card or a copy of the New York State Excelsior Pass. If any student is unable to access a WHO-approved vaccine before returning to campus, misplaced your vaccination card, or will not yet be fully vaccinated before the start of the semester, you must contact the Bard Student Health Service immediately so the College can help you make arrangements to complete the vaccination process. 

Arrival protocols
On arrival days, two people will be allowed to accompany each student to any indoor event or activity. Additional family members accompanying a student are allowed on campus grounds, but guests are restricted to two per student at any indoor event. Any unvaccinated person accompanying a student must wear a mask at all times. 

Please note:

• If a student does not have access to a vaccine where they live, they can get vaccinated locally upon arrival, but must make arrangements in advance of arrival to do so. Contact the Bard Student Health Service as soon as possible to be informed about local options for vaccination in the Bard area. Until fully vaccinated (two weeks after single dose vaccine or two weeks after second dose), a mask must be worn at all times.
   
• If a student arrives unvaccinated, has not previously made arrangements with the Bard Student Health Service for local vaccination upon arrival, and is not pre-approved or pending approval for a vaccine exemption, they are not eligible to be on campus. Their account will be frozen, and access to course registration and College facilities including dining and residence halls will be denied.

• Any student or employee with a College-approved exception to be unvaccinated, or who is not yet fully vaccinated, must be masked at all times and remain physically distanced.

Visitor policy and event planning
For the fall semester, our aim is to keep our community safe by maintaining the College as a fully vaccinated campus. Guests remaining outdoors do not need to register in advance, but any essential visitors needing access to College facilities, including guest lecturers and all conference participants, must be approved in advance by the Response Team and must be vaccinated to enter any College facility. Any Bard employee may apply to host individual visitors by using this form. Bardians interested in organizing a large group event such as a conference should contact the Response Team for additional guidance. Visitors will be required to show proof of vaccination and complete a health screening prior to arrival on campus in order to have access to any College facility.The Response Team will consider exceptions on a case-by-case basis in extraordinary circumstances. For conferences and other group events, it will be the responsibility of event organizers to obtain proof of vaccination from all attendees in advance. 

• Residence halls: At this time, no off-campus guests are allowed in the residence halls. Enrolled students are now allowed to access other residence halls at the invitation of a resident of that building.  

• Student Spaces: During L&T and the first three weeks of the semester, no outside musicians will be allowed at SMOG or the Root Cellar. Students can begin planning for bands to perform after the third weekend of the fall semester. All bands must be fully vaccinated. The Office of Student Activities must obtain proof of vaccination for anyone playing at any venue

We worked together as a community last year, in the absence of vaccines, and through our careful and consistent collective efforts and personal behavior, kept COVID rates on campus extremely low while preventing any outbreaks. This year, with a fully vaccinated campus, we will be in an even stronger position than last year to keep our community safe and healthy. We appreciate the cooperation and support of the Bard community in helping us reach the fully vaccinated status that will enable our return to normalcy, and look forward to seeing you all in August.

Please refer to Bard’s COVID-19 webpage for more information.

Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges

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A Message about Vaccination Requirements, New Testing Protocols, and Planning for the Fall

Thursday, July 15, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in This Update:

• Employee and student vaccinations
• New testing protocols
• Mask policy
• Stevenson Gymnasium update
• Taste Budd’s delivery update
• Engaging with the Response Team

To the Bard College community,

We are very much looking forward to welcoming first-year students to campus in a few short weeks! Thanks largely to the widespread availability of safe and highly effective vaccines, New York State and the CDC have relaxed most of their COVID-19 restrictions, allowing the College to do the same. As a result, we are planning for as much of a “return to normalcy” as possible for L&T and the fall semester. The College will continue to be guided by public health trends and guidance and data from the CDC and public health authorities as we emerge from the pandemic.

Employee and student vaccinations
Given the proven effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, it’s clear that our full return to normalcy hinges on ensuring that our community is fully vaccinated. Therefore, we announced to employees last week that the College will require all faculty and staff working on campus to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by August 1, 2021. Employees can submit proof of vaccination to Human Resources here. Employees who wish to request a medical or religious exemption may submit an Exemption Request Form to [email protected]. Requests must be submitted by July 26 for review. Exemption requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

For those employees who have not yet been vaccinated, a comprehensive list of local vaccination sites can be found at covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov. COVID-19 vaccines are readily available, free of charge, throughout New York State, including at pharmacies, grocery stores, and medical offices. If you have trouble locating a facility, you may reach out to your primary care doctor or contact [email protected] directly for assistance.

As noted in previous updates, students will also be required to be fully vaccinated prior to returning to campus. Details of the process for providing proof of vaccination, and for requesting medical or religious exemptions, have been communicated directly to students by the Bard Health Service. The College will accept any WHO-approved vaccine, and will assist any unvaccinated student or student with an unapproved vaccine to receive a WHO-approved vaccine upon arrival at Bard.  

New testing protocols
Among the College’s adjustments to protocols moving forward will be changes to our testing regime. Students traveling from abroad will be required by their airline to have a negative COVID test before boarding a plane to the United States. However, the College itself will not require pre-arrival testing of returning students and does not plan to require any students to quarantine upon arrival. Having a fully vaccinated population enables us to forego those actions, which were necessary last year at the height of the pandemic to comply with New York State regulations and CDC guidance. Students who are unvaccinated and would like assistance in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine upon arrival should notify the Bard Health Service as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made. 

Our regular weekly testing of a percentage of the on-campus population has served us well over the past 18 months, enabling the College to quickly identify and isolate infection. However, having a fully vaccinated community allows us to move to a more targeted process of symptomatic testing for the fall semester. This means, if current public health trends hold, that the College plans to minimize and possibly eliminate regular weekly testing for the fall semester. The Response Team will release more information about fall semester testing plans in the coming weeks. Students will continue to have access to testing based on symptoms at the Bard Health Service, while employees are still asked to get tested by their primary care physicians if they suspect they have been exposed to or contracted COVID-19. While the odds are low, it is possible to become infected post-vaccination, so we ask that all students and employees remain vigilant and get tested should symptoms arise.

Mask policy
Fully vaccinated individuals are no longer required to wear masks on campus except in specific circumstances (ie Bard Health Service appointments). The Response Team will consider on a case-by-case basis whether visitors may need to be masked, based on their vaccination status, travel origin, and planned activity and contacts on campus.
 
As part of the College’s multilayered approach to preventing the spread of COVID last year, masking provided an important and effective layer of protection that worked well as part of our strategy. This academic year, the Response Team will use the same strategy of examining data, local rates of infection, complying with any remaining State guidelines, and requiring vaccination, which has been shown to be exceedingly effective in reducing illness and preventing the spread of COVID. Data will continue to guide our plan for in-person instruction this coming semester.
 
Stevenson Gymnasium update
Stevenson Athletic Center remains open to students, faculty, and staff, with extended hours in July, from 8am to 8pm Monday through Friday, and 10am–4pm on Saturday and Sunday. The pool is also open to lap swim with weekday and weekend hours by reservation, with more information available on bardathletics.com.

At this point the gym remains open only to Bard students, faculty, and staff. The potential to open the Athletic Center to families of faculty and staff, community members, and others will be reevaluated in the coming weeks. Any and all updates will be available on bardathletics.com.

Taste Budd’s delivery update
Taste Budd’s Cafe, a wonderful friend-of-Bard business in Red Hook, is continuing its daily service to campus throughout the summer, providing delivery once per day at noon. Order by 11:15am via the Taste Budd’s website, selecting “Budds Bard Drop” on the menu, in order for your items to be included in the noon delivery. Item pickup is at the Taste Budd’s table at the Old Gym.

Engaging with the Response Team
The Response Team continues to meet regularly to plan for the fall semester, and will soon release event-planning guidance for those Bardians planning to hold conferences or other events this fall. For the month of July we have suspended our weekly Zoom office hours, but please do not hesitate to email us if you have a question, and feel free to consult FAQs and our previous announcements on the Bard COVID-19 page for more information.

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director of Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Vice President and Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski,  Associate Dean of the College
David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Professor of French, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Early Colleges

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A Message about Vaccination Milestones, Easing Mandates, and Ongoing Restrictions

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in This Update:

• Vaccination milestones & easing mandates
• Policies that remain in force
• Response Team office hours

To the Bard College community,

Governor Cuomo announced today that New York State has reached the milestone of 70% of adults age 18+ having received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. With that, the state is lifting most state-mandated COVID-19 guidance, giving businesses and institutions the freedom to apply safety measures on an individual basis. Colleges and universities like Bard, where there is congregate living and some higher risk activities such as singing, are working with State authorities to observe the updated guidance while retaining and adjusting some necessary restrictions specific to our individual circumstances.  

Vaccination milestone & easing mandates
We’re pleased to announce that Bard has also reached its own milestone of 85% of campus community members fully vaccinated. The College’s 85% threshold is in line with the CDC’s recommendation for herd immunity for COVID-19, and also reflects the threshold set by some other institutions. As noted in last week’s update, now that we have met our threshold we can begin to lift some of the college’s mandates:

• Bard’s mask mandate, already lifted for outdoor activities for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, will now be lifted for vaccinated employees working indoors on campus. Effective immediately, vaccinated individuals may choose to go unmasked inside campus facilities. This new guidance applies only to vaccinated individuals; any unvaccinated individuals must still wear masks indoors. Please note that some facilities and activities, such as Fisher Center and SummerScape events, may still require masking. Your supervisor or program director will advise you if your facility or program requires special protocols due to its specific circumstances. 
   
• Beginning the week of 6/21, employees and students will no longer be required to fill out the daily health screening form in order to work or attend class on campus. All employees and students should continue submitting the screening until this Friday 6/18, and all employees are highly encouraged to update their vaccination status, to assist the College in further refining our analysis of the percentage of vaccinated people in our community. If you are an employee, are vaccinated, and have not previously notified the College of your vaccination status, please take the opportunity now to update the Human Resources office. The more we know about the vaccination status of our employees, the more effective we can be in adapting or lifting additional protocols moving forward. Please note that some programs, such as the Fisher Center and SummerScape, will still require daily health screenings.
   
• Physical distancing and general group gathering restrictions are lifted for vaccinated individuals outdoors, with the caveat that many organized and specialized outdoor events and activities must still adhere to some restrictions. Please check with the event organizers about protocols before participating.

Last week we mentioned that we would also be able to consider lessening the frequency of COVID testing and resuming some in-person meetings indoors, upon meeting our vaccination threshold. The Response Team is working through some of the details associated with these policies, and will provide further updates soon. In the meantime, all employees - including student employees - remain subject to random weekly surveillance testing, and students participating in on-campus classes will also continue to be tested regularly. Please continue to watch your email and abide by the testing instructions you receive.

As we assess vaccination rates on campus and in the community in the coming days we will announce further adjustments to our protocols. Remember that the College and its community members must continue to prioritize health and safety even as the pandemic appears to be ebbing. Please abide not only by the protocols that are still in effect but also by common sense and the knowledge we’ve all gained during the past year. Lifting mask mandates does not mean you cannot wear a mask if you choose to do so. Campus life is beginning to return to normalcy. Following the science and working together as restrictions ease, we can help to ensure this return to normalcy is fulfilled when we return to the classroom this fall. 

Policies that remain in force
We are working with public health authorities to confirm further details of how today’s announcement from Governor Cuomo applies specifically in higher education and congregate living settings. Until we receive further information, the following policies remain in place as previously described:

• Visitors: visitors (vaccinated or otherwise) are welcome outdoors on campus grounds, but are not permitted inside campus facilities unless they have been approved in advance as Essential Visitors.
   
• Testing: the College’s testing protocols for weekly surveillance testing remain in place at our adjusted hours for summer (Monday and Thursday from 9am to 12 noon at Stevenson Gymnasium). We will continue to monitor the public health situation and coordinate closely with State and local public health officials on any testing protocols that may be required for student return to campus in August for the Language & Thinking program and the fall semester. We will make an announcement closer to the time about what if any pre-arrival and post-arrival testing requirements will be in place.

Response Team office hours
If you have questions about these or any other College COVID policies or protocols, please feel free to visit Response Team office hours, which take place every Tuesday afternoon 4-5PM. Check your Bard email for the URL and password, or email [email protected].  

Thank you for your patience, understanding, and cooperation as we work through this time of transition.


Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A COVID-19 Community Update

Thursday, June 10, 2021 Update 6/10/2021
 

• Updated mask policy
• Updated travel guidelines
• Vaccination challenge to relax campus COVID policies
• Campus grounds now open
• Response Team office hours

To Bard College faculty and staff:

The risk of outdoor COVID transmission has been shown to be low, so masks are no longer required outdoors on campus grounds. Masks are still required inside all campus facilities, unless you are by yourself in your office or other private space.

Updated travel guidelines
The College has updated its travel guidelines to reflect improving public health conditions and rising vaccination rates. While we ask that all members of our community exercise caution when undertaking higher risk activities such as travel, official College travel is no longer restricted. Please take relevant CDC and U.S. State Department travel advisories into account. The College’s updated guidelines will be posted on the College’s COVID page today.

Vaccination challenge to relax campus COVID policies
With vaccination rates rising statewide, the College is aiming to reach a vaccination threshold that will enable us to relax many of the COVID protocols still in place. We know that a very high percentage of our community is already vaccinated, so we are now able to plan for a “return to normalcy” this summer. If we can reach or exceed 85% of our population (including students in residence this summer and all on-campus employees) fully vaccinated, then we can undertake the following changes:

• End daily health screenings via email for employees and Involvio for students
• Allow vaccinated individuals to be unmasked in all campus facilities
• Expand size limits for events and decrease Response Team event approval requirements
• Lessen the frequency of COVID testing of employees and students
• Resume some in-person meetings indoors

According to New York State, “fully vaccinated” means two weeks beyond the date of your final vaccination shot. Please be aware that due to ongoing New York State requirements, we must continue to observe some regulations regardless of our community’s vaccination status, including size restrictions and physical distancing for all indoor gatherings. Unless and until the Response Team announces that we have reached our vaccination threshold, all the current, more restrictive policies will remain in place. 

In order to reach the 85% threshold that will enable us to relax some restrictions, we encourage all vaccinated members of the Bard community to do the following as soon as possible:

• If you are an employee, please use the health screening tool that is delivered by email every morning to indicate your vaccination status if you have not already done so. (If you have previously provided this information, no further action is needed.) If you are unable to enter this information via the online tool or are unsure if you have previously provided it, please contact the Human Resources office directly to indicate your vaccination status at [email protected].
• If you are a student currently living or working on campus, you can provide your vaccination status to the Bard Health Service at [email protected] if it is not already reflected in your online health record.  

For those community members who are not yet vaccinated, please remember that vaccination in New York is free and widely available throughout the area, with no appointment needed at many vaccination sites close to Bard. The sooner we reach our threshold, the sooner campus life can begin its return to normalcy. 

The Response Team will soon provide further information for first-year and returning students who have left campus for the summer about confirming their vaccination status before the beginning of the fall semester, if it is not already reflected in their online health record. The College will accept proof of any vaccines administered in another country as long as they are approved by the World Health Organization, and will work with any students unable to get vaccinated over the summer to facilitate access to a vaccine upon arrival in New York.
 
The College has joined the COVID-19 College Vaccine Challenge, launched last week by the Biden administration. The Challenge asks its adherents to advance three primary goals: Engage all students, faculty, and staff to ensure they understand they are eligible for and have the resources to access vaccination; identify vaccine champions across campus and implement a plan to get as many members of the campus community vaccinated as possible; and bring vaccines on-site and make it easy for students, faculty, and staff to get vaccinated at sites near campus. This is an ongoing effort that will continue to engage students, faculty, and staff, and we will share further details in the weeks and months to come.

We appreciate everyone’s participation in this important first step in our return to normalcy, and we look forward to reaching new milestones as the summer progresses and we approach L&T and the fall 2021 semester. 

Campus grounds now open
As of June 1, the main Bard College campus grounds in Annandale are now open to the community. Please be aware that, due to Bard Summerscape rehearsals and performances at Montgomery Place, public access to the Montgomery Place campus will be restricted throughout the summer; please consult the Montgomery Place website for details. External groups that wish to hold outdoor gatherings on campus grounds should contact [email protected] to discuss relevant restrictions and required approvals. Please note that indoor access is still restricted only to approved visitors, and one-way traffic flow inside buildings and related signage are being discontinued/removed. 

All COVID policies including group size limits and physical distancing restrictions indoors and outdoors will remain in place until our vaccination threshold goal is reached.

Response Team office hours
If you have questions about these or any other College COVID policies or protocols, please feel free to visit Response Team office hours, which take place every Tuesday afternoon 4-5PM. Check your Bard email for the URL and password.


Sincerely,


Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message of Appreciation to the Student Body, with Notes on Summer and Fall Planning 

Friday, May 28, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College Community,

As the semester comes to a close and we mark the accomplishments of our senior class with celebrations and Commencement, we would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude and congratulations to Bard’s entire student body. This has been an unprecedented and exceptionally difficult year, and you have demonstrated an extraordinary level of strength, intelligence, and perseverance during the past two semesters. Your commitment to education and the Bard community has made possible something few other colleges have been able to achieve over the past year: completing two uninterrupted semesters of in-person classes with one of the lowest community infection rates in the nation. 

We have worked and learned together, following the science, adapting to rapidly changing circumstances, and creating and adhering to complex protocols that dramatically altered the way we operated but did not prevent us from sustaining a vibrant learning community. Throughout, our students have exemplified and inspired us with the best qualities of resilience and mutual support. From the first-year students who arrived in the midst of the pandemic, to the seniors who completed their Senior Projects under very difficult circumstances, to our international students who persevered virtually, and our dedicated faculty and staff, we want to thank you, applaud your work and your spirit, and wish you well for the summer and semester to come. 

We are also very pleased that, thanks to the improving public health situation, summer this year will be much different from last year. We look forward to welcoming students and faculty in Bard’s MFA program to campus beginning next week, and are working closely with the Fisher Center to facilitate a full Summerscape program. We expect our work as the COVID-19 Response Team — if current trends continue — will focus on facilitating these programs while helping the College adapt to the State’s evolving requirements. The College still must adhere to many State-required COVID protocols specific to institutions of higher education and the performing arts; to support those efforts and planning for the fall semester, the Response Team will continue to meet and hold weekly office hours until further notice. Any member of the Bard community is welcome to drop by our office hours Tuesday afternoons from 4 to 5pm. Click here to join with passcode 679464.  

Congratulations again to our graduates and to everyone who helped them reach this point.

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges

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A Message about Continued Testing and Health Screenings, and Predeparture Testing for Students

Friday, May 21, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

• Continued testing and daily health screenings
• Pre-departure testing for students

To the Bard College community:

We hope you are all enjoying the final days of the semester, and we wish good luck to all students completing final papers and exams. 

New York State continues to require that the College provide detailed daily reports to the State Department of Health, so on-campus COVID testing will continue and we will keep the College’s COVID dashboard updated. Please join us in thanking the many people who have organized and operated Bard’s testing program over the past year. We can all be incredibly proud of our collective efforts that have resulted in less than 40 cases total and over 23,000 tests administered. As we transition into the summer, the College’s testing program - including continued surveillance testing of employees - will help us safely welcome new cohorts of students and employees to campus. In support of New York State requirements, until further notice the College will also continue requiring daily health screenings - via Involvio for students and via email for employees coming to campus.

We would also like to remind all students that pre-departure testing is available. No appointment is necessary; just walk into Stevenson Athletic Center anytime 9-11:30AM or noon-2:45PM Monday through Thursday next week, May 24-27. Unvaccinated students attending Baccalaureate and/or Commencement need to get a COVID-19 PCR test next Wednesday, May 26. 

We are looking forward to Commencement next Saturday, followed by an enriching summer with students in the College’s summer programs as well as with the performers and staff who have been working hard to bring Summerscape back to life this year.

Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Mask Guidance

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College Community,

Today, new New York State guidelines regarding masking go into effect, allowing vaccinated people to be unmasked in many circumstances. The State continues to require masking in schools (K-12), public transit, and some other institutions, and physical distancing is still required in all indoor settings. 

We are pleased that this change has taken place. It is a hopeful sign for a fully vaccinated future. However, given that it is not yet possible to quickly distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated people on our campus, the College will continue to require face masks and physical distancing indoors in all campus buildings and outdoors in group settings until we announce otherwise. 

Until we can safely, quickly, and fairly determine who is and is not vaccinated, and design practical ways to implement the new guidance across the campus for diverse populations and events, mask wearing must continue, with our current exceptions for individual and low-density outdoor activities. 

The campus community is making great strides in getting vaccinated, but there are still many unvaccinated and immunocompromised people on campus. We must, as an institution and a community, continue to maintain a safe environment for everyone in our community. Please continue to abide by our masking protocols until we announce any further adjustments.

We appreciate your continuing observance of Bard’s safety protocols. You have helped to make Bard a safe community for all. As more members of our community get vaccinated, we look forward to a more normal fall semester. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges

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A Message about Mask Guidance, Vaccination, and Surveillance and Departure Testing

Friday, May 14, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

• Mask guidance
• Vaccination update
• Surveillance and departure testing
• Event planning
• Response Team office hours

To the Bard College community:

Welcome to the final weeks of the 2020-2021 academic year. Thank you for your continued care and mutual support as we approach the end of the semester.

Mask guidance
New York State regulations continue to require masking and physical distancing. Yesterday the CDC updated its recommendations on mask wearing for those who are fully vaccinated, but federal, state, and local authorities are still deciding whether and how to turn CDC recommendations into regulations. It is essential to keep in mind that New York State is reviewing the new CDC recommendations and has not changed its masking regulations to mirror the CDC, and that Bard continues to be subject to New York State regulations. We do not know if or when New York will update its regulations about masking, and equally important, we do not yet have an effective way to quickly distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated people on campus. Therefore, the College will continue to require mask wearing and physical distancing in all indoor and group settings until further notice. This insightful article helps explain why New York State and the College are keeping these policies in place for the time being. We are pleased that the Bard community has made great strides toward becoming fully vaccinated, but until we can quickly and easily verify who is and isn't vaccinated, we owe it to the community, which has worked so hard to maintain a safe campus for the past year, to do everything we can to support that safety. 
 
Vaccination update
The new CDC recommendations are based on strong and growing evidence that being fully vaccinated not only protects you from developing severe illness, but also decreases transmission. The most important takeaway from this new guidance is that we should all get vaccinated as soon as possible. Vaccines are plentiful and widely available to all New Yorkers age 12 and older, and all New York State-run vaccination sites are open for walk-ins. The route to a more safe and open campus and community life is through widespread vaccination, so please seize the opportunity and get vaccinated as soon as you can. Thank you to everyone who participated in and volunteered at the vaccination clinic we held on campus earlier this week.
 
Surveillance and departure testing
The College’s COVID-19 testing program will continue into the summer as we welcome summer cohorts of students and conduct surveillance testing of employees. We will continue to administer the same highly accurate PCR test through the MIT/Broad Institute program that has served us well all year and has often delivered results in less than 24 hours. As we approach the end of the semester, the testing program for undergraduates will shift from surveillance testing to pre-departure testing. This week was the last week of mandatory surveillance testing for undergraduate students. The College will make pre-departure COVID-19 tests available for all students who need one starting next week, particularly for those who will be traveling or attending Commencement activities, as follows: 

• Testing will be available on a walk-in basis next week, Monday through Friday, May 17-21 at the Stevenson Athletic Center from 9-11:30 am and noon-2:45 pm, and the week after, Monday through Thursday, May 24-27 at the Stevenson Athletic Center from 9-11:30 am and noon-2:45 pm. 
• Any unvaccinated students planning to attend the Student Awards Ceremony on Monday, May 24th need to get a COVID-19 PCR test on Friday, May 21. 
• Unvaccinated students attending Baccalaureate and/or Commencement need to get a COVID-19 PCR test on Wednesday, May 26. 
• Unvaccinated students planning to attend all three events (Student Awards, Baccalaureate, and Commencement) should get a COVID-19 PCR test both Friday May 21 and Wednesday May 26. 

No appointments are needed; just walk in during open times.  
 
Event planning
As has been the case throughout this academic year, the Student Activities office and Response Team stand ready to advise students, faculty, and staff who would like to apply to hold an event, so that it can be planned and held safely and in full compliance with New York State and Bard policies. We first announced last fall that if you are interested in organizing an event or activity, indoors or outdoors, you must submit a specific plan for the event and receive prior approval, either via this form (for faculty and staff) or through [email protected] (for students). We would like to thank all the students, faculty, and staff who have gone through this process with us over the past year, and have creatively planned and safely implemented a wide variety of activities in our community. 
 
Response Team office hours
Finally, a reminder that the Response Team holds weekly office hours. Any member of the Bard community is welcome to drop by Tuesday afternoons from 4-5PM. Check your Bard email for the Zoom link and password. Please also feel free to reach out to us by email. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges

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A Message from the President of the College about a Campus Vaccine Requirement and Upcoming Vaccination Clinic

Wednesday, May 5, 2021 To the Bard College community:

As the 2020-2021 academic year comes to a close and we look forward to Commencement 2021, I am grateful to all of you for working so well together and having kept our community safe. Thanks to the remarkable adherence to Bard's COVID-19 safety protocols, the College has seen an extremely low number of COVID-19 cases throughout this academic year. With vaccines now widely available, the College has been helping community members get vaccinated as quickly as possible. We have organized shuttle buses to local vaccination sites and offered an on-campus vaccination clinic. As a result, a large percentage of students and employees is already fully vaccinated.

Public health experts advise that universal vaccination is the surest basis for a normal campus experience, including expanded in-person instruction, campus activities, athletics, performances, and gatherings in the fall. In addition, the American College Health Association has recommended that colleges require COVID-19 vaccination for all on-campus students for the fall 2021 semester. Over 200 other colleges and universities have announced such a requirement. As the ACHA notes, pre-matriculation vaccination requirements for students attending institutions of higher education in the United States are not new. 

As a result, Bard College will require all students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the 2021-2022 academic year, and strongly encourages all employees to be vaccinated as well.  

To support this requirement, the College has arranged one more vaccination clinic this semester, which will take place on campus on Tuesday, May 11 9am-12PM. The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be administered, enabling anyone who participates in the clinic to be fully vaccinated in time for Bard’s Baccalaureate and Commencement activities. This clinic is open to all members of the Bard community: students, faculty, staff, and their immediate household members over the age of 18. If you would like to participate in the May 11 on-campus vaccination clinic, please fill out the interest form in your Bard email by the end of the day on Friday May 7.

In the coming weeks, Bard’s COVID-19 Response Team will offer additional details for returning students and new students arriving in August, including requests for exemptions and anyone who may have a necessary contraindication. The College will work closely with new and returning students, both domestic and international, to facilitate access to vaccinations before the start of the fall 2021 semester.

COVID-19 testing will continue to be required for members of the Bard Community who will be on campus over the summer, in order to keep Bard’s campus and its neighbors safe and to comply with New York State guidance. We expect federal and state guidance to evolve over the summer and will keep you informed regarding any required testing and quarantine protocols for the fall semester.

With the arrival of safe and effective vaccines and a deeper understanding of how to maintain a safe campus, we are confident the fall semester will mark the beginning of a return of normalcy here at Bard. We look forward to the next academic year and opportunities it will bring to renew the time-honored tradition of liberal education and the community of scholars centered around a campus—the opportunity to gather, study, work, create and celebrate together, in-person once more.

Sincerely,
Leon Botstein

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A Message about Updated Mask Protocols, Testing and Allergy Season, and End-of-Semester Departure Testing

Saturday, May 1, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

• Updated mask protocols on campus
• Testing and allergy season
• End-of-semester departure testing

To the Bard College Community,

In response to rising vaccination rates, the CDC this week adjusted its mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people in outdoor settings. “Fully vaccinated,” according to the New York State Department of Health, means you are two full weeks past the second dose of a two-dose vaccine series (such as Pfizer or Moderna) or two full weeks past a single-dose vaccine (Johnson & Johnson). Many members of our community have been vaccinated, but some still have not been, so it is important that we continue to take precautions. However, based on the new CDC guidance, along with the decreasing rate of COVID in the surrounding community, and the scientific community’s analysis regarding the risk of potential COVID transmission outdoors, Bard is updating its masking protocols as follows:

Masks are no longer required:

• If you are outdoors walking, sitting, or exercising by yourself in low-traffic areas where the risk of being near people is low

Masks are still required, regardless of vaccination status:

• At all times indoors (except for eating in Kline, Manor or DTR, or when you are by yourself in your dorm room or office) 
• On all Bard shuttles
• In any outdoor settings involving group activities or where others may come within 6 feet, including walking or hanging out with friends

As before, masks are also still not required in any of the physical distancing circles painted on the lawn around main campus. Please remember only one person or household (which for students means you and your roommate) at a time in each circle.

You should always have a mask immediately available in case you find yourself close to others while outdoors.

Vaccine availability has increased enormously in recents weeks, with everyone over age 16 now eligible for vaccination. This week, all mass-vaccination sites in New York State opened for walk-in vaccinations. No appointments are required and vaccine supplies are plentiful. We encourage everyone in the Bard College community to take this opportunity to get vaccinated. 

Testing and allergy season
As we noted last week, testing is still an essential component for our COVID safety protocols. Please respond to any email you receive about surveillance testing and follow through with getting tested. If you experience any COVID-like symptoms, please get tested right away. You may think you are suffering from allergies, whose symptoms are similar to COVID. As we did during flu season this past winter, we strongly encourage anyone experiencing COVID-like symptoms, even if you may think they are due to the flu or allergies, to get a COVID test to rule out the possibility of COVID-19. There are still unvaccinated and vulnerable individuals in our community, and we still need to protect against potential spread. 

End-of-semester departure testing
The College will soon announce our plans for transitioning students from bi-weekly surveillance testing to end-of-semester testing, including dates that testing will occur. Any student who needs a departure test for travel at the end of the semester should be able to get one close enough to your travel date to be valid. Please carefully make your travel and testing plan keeping in mind that it generally takes around 24 hours - but could take up to 48 hours - to receive results from PCR tests administered at Bard. We will disseminate more information about end-of-semester testing soon. In the meantime, it is important that everyone continue to participate in the College's surveillance testing program.

Thank you for your continued commitment to the health of our community. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Continue Surveillance Testing and Vaccination Updates

Friday, April 23, 2021 In This Message:

• Continued surveillance testing
• Vaccination updates
• Response Team office hours

To the Bard College Community,

As we near the end of the spring semester and look forward to celebrating the milestones this brings, we would like to remind everyone that the COVID protocols you’ve all become familiar with are still in place, and that testing, in particular, still plays an essential role in campus safety.

The College will continue to conduct regular surveillance testing of students, faculty, and staff. We are also planning to conduct exit testing of students before they depart campus, as we did at the end of the fall semester, and in advance of Commencement, in keeping with New York State requirements for large events. While many in our community have been vaccinated, many still have not. It has also not yet been proven that vaccination fully prevents the spread of COVID. For these reasons, it is essential that everyone who receives an email calling for a test continue to respond immediately and follow through with completing the test. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it is still a central pillar in our campus safety protocols. In order to be eligible to participate in any of the upcoming campus events, such as Spring Fling or Commencement, academic program celebrations, and related events, you must continue participating in surveillance testing.

In addition to continuing testing and COVID protocols, all students, faculty, and staff on campus must continue to use daily health check-ins through the Human Resources form (for employees) and Involvio (for students), regardless of vaccination status. Being vaccinated does not prevent the possibility of catching or transmitting COVID-19, and does not exempt anyone from these requirements.

As noted in an earlier update, everyone over the age of 16 is now eligible for free COVID vaccinations throughout New York State, and we encourage everyone in the Bard community to get vaccinated as soon as they can. All of the vaccination sites in the local area now have openings for scheduled appointments, and many are also allowing vaccination on a walk-in basis. The sooner we are all vaccinated, the safer we will be. We have also just received clarification from the New York State Department of Health that the term “fully vaccinated,” for the purposes of adhering to current State guidelines, means someone who has completed an FDA-approved vaccine course plus two weeks. 

As a community we have done an extraordinary job of maintaining a safe campus. With just a few weeks left to the semester, we should remain vigilant and end spring 2021 with a sense of accomplishment and hope looking forward.

Finally, a reminder that the Response Team holds weekly office hours. Any member of the Bard community is welcome to drop by Tuesday afternoons from 4-5PM. Check your Bard email for the link and passcode. Please also feel free to reach out to us by email. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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Vaccine Eligibility Update, Campus Safety Protocols, Gym and Library Access, and Response Team Office Hours

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

In this update:

• Vaccination eligibility update
• Campus COVID protocols remain in force
• Expanded gym and library access
• Response Team office hours

To the Bard College community,

We are pleased to announce that starting today, April 6, everyone in New York age 16 and over is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. That means the entire Bard College community is now eligible, and we encourage all students, faculty, and staff to get vaccinated as soon as possible. The sooner we are all vaccinated, the safer we will all be. Since January, when vaccines were first made available, we have been working with local healthcare providers and State and county Departments of Health to try to organize a vaccination site at Bard. We have also diligently been exploring opportunities to reserve blocks of appointments for Bardians at nearby vaccination sites. Those efforts have not yet borne fruit but we hope they will soon. We will continue exploring every available opportunity to provide our community access to vaccines. In the meantime, please use this tool on the New York State website to find a nearby vaccination site and make an individual appointment. 

Infection rates in New York and some other states remain stubbornly high and, in many places, are rising again. New York City, in particular, is experiencing an uptick in positive cases. As you can see from the campus dashboard on the Bard COVID webpage, Bard has sustained a low number of active student and employee cases for the past several weeks, and we still have lower numbers than many of our peer institutions and our surrounding community. Through our diligent collective efforts, together we have prevented an outbreak on campus, but our efforts to contain infection must be consistent and ongoing. For that reason, the College is not relaxing the prohibition on non-essential travel or the requirements to be masked and physically distant on campus. The College’s COVID protocols will remain in force until further notice. We know what works - mask wearing, physical distancing, and avoiding large gatherings both on campus and off, for example - and we know what behaviors risk infection and spread. We have been tremendously successful in maintaining a healthy campus. Let’s not risk that success now, with just six weeks remaining in the semester. We can enjoy the spring weather while wearing masks and observing the necessary behavior.

Members of the Response Team continue to meet on a near-daily basis, to review scientific updates and changes to State guidance, consider adjustments to Bard policy, approve requests for assistance, supervise the College’s COVID operations including our extensive testing program and our isolation and quarantine spaces, and plan for the rest of the semester, the summer (including the MFA program, the Bard Summer Research Institute, [email protected], and Bard Summerscape and the Bard Music Festival among other programs), and the fall semester. We are glad we have been able to safely expand access to some campus facilities, as has been recently announced: faculty and staff can now utilize Stevenson Gym under the same restrictions as students, and Stevenson Library has expanded its hours so students have increased access to study space in the evenings and on the weekends. Please see your email for detailed announcements from both facilities. Also, don’t forget about the new Taste Budd’s pick-up site on campus at the Old Gym, with twice-daily pick ups at 12PM and 5PM; order at www.TasteBudds.com.

Finally, a reminder that the Response Team holds weekly office hours. Any member of the Bard community is welcome to drop by Tuesday afternoons from 4-5PM. Check your Bard email for the link and password. Please also feel free to reach out to us by email. 

Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges

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A Message about How Vaccines Work and Should Inform Community Behavior

Saturday, March 27, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To the Bard College community,

With the COVID vaccine becoming more widely available, it’s important to understand what the vaccine is designed to do, and how that should inform your behavior. 

What the COVID vaccine does:

• It strengthens your immune system’s ability to fight the coronavirus. 
• It helps to ensure that if you are infected, the course of your illness will be far milder. All of the currently available COVID vaccines have been shown to be highly effective in that regard. 

What the COVID vaccine does not do:

• It does not eliminate or kill the coronavirus.
• It does not prevent you from being infected with COVID.   
• It does not eliminate the possibility that you could transmit COVID to others. Some evidence shows that the current vaccines lessen transmissibility, but there is not yet enough clear data to draw definitive conclusions.

So, what does this all mean for us?

Everyone, even those who have been vaccinated, must continue to observe COVID safety protocols, such as mask wearing whenever you’re near others, physical distancing, and avoiding large gatherings. Once vaccinated you must also continue to watch for symptoms, fill out your daily health screening, and continue to participate in Bard’s testing program, since you can still be infected with or transmit the virus. The COVID vaccine will not cause you to test positive. If your test is positive, whether you have been vaccinated or not, it means you are infected with COVID and must isolate immediately to prevent further spread.

This is especially important as more contagious variants are spreading rapidly.

Everyone should get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible and can do so. Being vaccinated offers a high degree of protection to individuals against severe illness. The more individuals in our community are vaccinated, the safer we will all be. Eventually enough people will be vaccinated that the federal government and New York State will relax the current policies. But we are not at that point yet. Until the majority of our community is vaccinated, we cannot change the protocols and behaviors that have kept us safe so far. 

The arrival of increasing numbers of vaccines, and expanding eligibility, offer tremendous hope, and an extraordinary opportunity for us all to have a lessened fear of severe illness or death. It does not give us license to immediately ‘go back to normal’ or to disregard safety protocols. The pandemic is not over, but there is hope on the horizon. 

We are now one year into this pandemic and we should take great pride in how successful we have been in protecting our community. Together, we have accomplished many things that may have seemed impossible just six months ago, including in-person classes for nearly two full semesters. We have conducted more than 17,000 tests on campus since last summer and found fewer than 30 positive cases. Thanks to these extraordinary efforts, we are very close to reaching a far more open and safe new normal. 


Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Campus Visitors, Off-Campus Travel, and Expanding Vaccine Access

Friday, March 19, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

In this update:

• Campus visitors
• Off-campus travel
• Expanding vaccine access 

To the Bard College community,

Starting Monday March 22, the College is expanding the categories of approved on-campus visitors to include daily household members of Bard students, faculty, and staff. This new exception applies only to current, daily members of your local household, not anyone who has traveled to visit you, and pertains only to the outdoors campus grounds. For students, New York State considers residential college roommates to be household members. Please note that the main campus remains closed to unapproved visitors from outside of the campus community, and no visitors of any kind are permitted inside buildings or facilities unless they have been approved in advance by the Response Team via the Essential Visitor Request Form on the Bard Human Resources page. All visitors must be accompanied at all times by their Bard host and must follow all masking and physical distancing requirements.

Understanding that off-campus group activities are an important aspect of the student experience, the College is developing new guidelines that will allow for limited organized group day trips in the Spring semester. These guidelines will enable student groups seeking to participate in college-sponsored off-campus activities to apply to travel for activities such as field research, academic enrichment, volunteer and civic engagement efforts, athletic Liberty League competition, and outdoors groups. 

Health and safety protocols will be central to the planning and approval of any organized student day trips. Consideration for approval will include risk assessment, staffing (all group travel will require faculty/staff chaperones), transportation, and testing capacity. Groups approved for off-campus travel will be required to abide by Bard’s masking, distancing, and testing protocols as defined through the application process. No overnight travel will be permitted at this time. In the coming days we will circulate details on the application process.

Off-campus travel by individuals is still restricted. COVID rates remain high, with very contagious variants continuing to circulate around the country. It is important for us as a community to uphold all the efforts we individually and collectively put into completing the “return to campus” protocols, which enabled us to carefully bring our community back together and prevent COVID from spreading on our campus. Students who are taking in-person classes and need to travel for personal reasons, whether you live on or off campus, should submit a request to travel HERE prior to departure, to receive guidance and ensure we can accommodate your safe return to campus. 

Please remember that we are still in a pandemic and that this movement toward allowing limited group travel and household campus visitors can only succeed with continued adherence to COVID safety protocols, particularly mask-wearing, physical distancing, and testing. 

We are encouraged by the recent expansion of eligibility for and availability of COVID vaccinations in the region. New mass-vaccination sites have opened in Ulster County, and we expect more to open in the region in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, the Bard Health Service continues to test and care for students who experience symptoms or feel ill; students are encouraged to call 845-758-7433 to make an appointment as needed.

Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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An Update on Vaccine Eligibility for Faculty and Staff

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

To all faculty and staff,

We are pleased to inform you that New York State has expanded vaccine eligibility with new categories that apply directly to faculty and staff. Adding to last week’s expansion to include everyone over the age of 60, this new expansion makes all “in-person faculty and essential staff” eligible for vaccination. With the adoption of the new criteria, all faculty and staff working on the Bard campus are eligible for the vaccine.

We encourage all on-campus faculty and staff to make an appointment as soon as possible. You can do so through the New York State vaccination website, and can confirm eligibility and vaccination locations here. Please bring proof of employment, such as an ID card or pay stub, to the vaccine site. You can also obtain a letter of employment confirmation from the Human Resources office. Please note that the new criteria currently apply to New York State vaccine locations, not pharmacies, though this might change in the coming days. Vaccine supplies are still somewhat limited, but they have increased this week, and both Dutchess and Ulster counties are starting up new sites intended to accommodate people in these new categories.

The sooner we can all get vaccinated, the safer we will be as a community. Remember that all COVID safety protocols, such as mask wearing and physical distancing, will remain in effect for all members of the Bard community, even those who have been vaccinated.

We will continue to update the community as vaccine eligibility expands further.
 
Sincerely,

Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Symptoms and Testing, Vaccine Eligibility, Contact Tracing, and Response Team Office Hours

Friday, March 12, 2021 Topics in this message:

• Symptoms and testing
• Vaccine eligibility
• Contact tracing
• Response Team office hours

To the Bard College community,

Spring is around the corner and with it come allergies and seasonal sniffles. We would like to reiterate the importance of not dismissing cold or flu-like symptoms. If you experience cold or allergy-like symptoms, even mild ones, please get yourself tested for COVID. In the vast majority of cases, it will not be COVID, but even one undiagnosed case poses a risk to you and also creates the potential for spread in your community. If you are experiencing symptoms, please fill out your daily health screening to indicate these symptoms. If you are a student, please also alert the Bard Health Service to get yourself tested. If you are an employee, please consult your physician. 

Our testing program—by which half the student body gets tested every week along with 20% of employees—has been working very well. Bard’s testing team has conducted over 8,000 COVID tests since January, with fewer than 20 positive results overall among all students and employees. Thanks to the rapid turnaround of test results by the Broad Institute and the hard work of Bard residential life staff and the college’s contact tracing team, we have been able to rapidly identify and contain all cases on campus and prevent further spread. As of the writing of this message, we have 1 active COVID case on campus who remains in isolation. Please continue to check the Bard COVID dashboard for up-to-date information. 

We are very heartened by President Biden’s announcement last night that all adults—we presume including college students—should be eligible for the vaccine beginning as early as May 1. Under current guidelines, college students as a general category are not yet eligible for vaccination in New York State. However, individuals who have previously documented comorbidities or are directly involved in the college’s on-campus COVID response are eligible to be vaccinated, and some students (such as the student EMTs who work for Bard’s COVID testing team) fall into those eligible categories. We have volunteered multiple times for Bard to be a vaccination site, without a positive response so far. The recommended way for individuals to make arrangements to get vaccinated is through the state’s “Am I Eligible?” website we have previously shared. We are looking forward to increased vaccine availability in New York State and will continue advocating through every possible avenue for vaccines for Bardians. There are reasons to be optimistic, but at the same time it is imperative to keep in mind that masking and physical distancing will continue to be key factors in upholding public health on campus, because most members of our community are as yet unvaccinated. 

On Wednesday, the Response Team held a webinar on Contact Tracing at Bard. For anyone with questions about what contact tracing is, how it’s done, and who is doing it here at Bard, please email the Response Team at [email protected] for login information.

Finally, a reminder that the Response Team holds weekly office hours. Any member of the Bard community is welcome to drop by Tuesday afternoons from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. Please also feel free to reach out to us by email. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Vaccine Availability, Respite Days, and Webinars on Vaccines and Contact Tracing

Friday, March 5, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

• Vaccine availability
• Respite Days
• Webinars: vaccines, contact tracing

To the Bard College community,

While news of an impending expansion of vaccine availability is encouraging, the process of obtaining a vaccination in New York State is still frustratingly slow, difficult to navigate, and limited. We encourage everyone seeking a vaccination to begin that process by following the steps outlined below to determine eligibility and find nearby vaccination sites. 

Vaccine Availability

• We recommend that you first establish vaccine eligibility via the State website here. Please consult our step-by-step guide for navigating it. (This is the same guide we shared in our January 15 update; there have been no significant changes to the process, but fortunately the state website has been improved to handle more traffic.) This website will generate a list of nearby vaccination sites once eligibility is confirmed. 
• Additional information about vaccination sites and appointments available in Dutchess County can be found here, and in Ulster County here.
• A number of pharmacies in the area are beginning to offer vaccination appointments, including CVS and Walgreens, along with some grocery store pharmacies, such as Tops and Hannaford.
• A federally-backed online tool called Vaccine Finder lets you search for vaccination sites by zip code, with links to appointments. 
• Students who are eligible due to comorbidities should contact their personal physician about obtaining the State-required documentation. The Bard Health Service can also generate the required documentation, if records of the student’s qualifying illness and/or medication are already on file.

We will continue to do everything we can to advocate for access to vaccines for our community and will continue to update you with news of vaccine eligibility and availability. In the meantime, we must continue adhering to the mask wearing and physical distancing protocols that the College has put in place. We look forward to a time when we can relax them, but that time is not yet here, so the best way to continue to protect our community is to follow the same behaviors that kept us safe in the fall.

Respite Days
As previously announced, instead of Spring Break this year, the College has scheduled six separate Respite Days, the first two of which will take place next Monday and Thursday. The purpose of these Respite Days is to give students and faculty short breaks from class at roughly the halfway point of the semester while discouraging travel. Our entire community just completed a very difficult and complex return-to-campus process where numerous students exposed to COVID in their travels had to endure isolation and quarantine. With a lot of hard work and cooperation, we successfully prevented those cases from expanding into outbreaks. However, the hard-won safety we have created on campus requires ongoing, consistent adherence to the College’s COVID protocols, including the prohibition on non-essential personal travel. Enjoy your Respite Days, but please remember that now is not the time to jeopardize campus health with unnecessary travel that carries significant risk of exposure. Therefore, it is important that students and employees continue to refrain from any non-essential personal travel, including during Respite Days. Students with special circumstances should discuss any essential or emergency travel needs with their dean, and employees should contact their supervisor or HR. 

Webinars

• This week, Bard Professionals of Color presented a webinar titled The Covid-19 Vaccine: Unpacking the Fears of Communities of Color. Dr. Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence and member of the COVID Response Team, moderated a panel of experts who discussed historical, medical, and mental health concerns of communities of color regarding vaccines. A recording of the panel is available here.
• Next Wednesday 3/10 at 7:30PM, the Response Team will host a webinar titled Contact Tracing: How It Works. Members of Bard’s Contact Tracing Team will explain what contact tracing is and what to expect if you receive a positive COVID test, are identified as a close contact, or are asked to undergo surge testing. 
• Next Thursday 3/11 at 6PM, the Bard Prison Initiative will host a webinar titled To Take the COVID-19 Vaccine or Not? featuring the experts listed below. Register here.
  • Kizzmekia Corbett, PhD, Scientific Lead for Coronavirus Vaccines Team, National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center 
  • Hancy Maxis '15, Project Manager, Pathology at Montefiore Health System
  • Robert Fullilove, EdD, BPI Senior Advisor, Public Health Program; Professor, Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia University Medical Center; Associate Dean, Community and Minority Affairs, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Finally, a reminder that the Response Team holds weekly office hours. Any member of the Bard community is welcome to drop by Tuesday afternoons from 4-5PM. Please also feel free to reach out to us by email. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Associate VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges

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A Message about the Return to Campus, Updated Campus Protocols, Upcoming Webinars, and Response Team Office Hours

Friday, February 26, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in this update:

• Return to campus complete
• Adjustments to campus protocols
• Latest Nuvance webinar
• Upcoming vaccine webinar
• COVID-19 Response Team office hours

To the Bard College Community,

This week marks the conclusion of our return-to-campus period. We would like to thank everyone who has helped the College reach this point successfully. Bringing nearly 1500 students safely back to Annandale from around the world at the height of the pandemic, under stringent multi-faceted government restrictions, was an extremely complex logistical challenge that required our entire community to be both focused and patient. Our success in doing so is a testament to the extraordinary dedication of Bard students and employees. 

Return to campus complete
All returning students on campus have completed their arrival testing and quarantine processes, and we have now conducted the first full cycle of student surveillance testing, by which all students attending in-person classes are tested every other week. We are pleased to report that the process has worked very well. Students began returning to Bard in early January, and since that time the College has completed over 4000 COVID tests, with a total of 15 positive student cases identified over that six-week period. The majority of positive cases were identified through the arrival testing process, indicating those students were exposed to COVID prior to their arrival to campus. All students who tested positive were moved into isolation housing, and thanks to the work of our contact tracing team, we were able to quickly identify close contacts, move them into quarantine housing, and prevent further infection. Today, we complete the return-to-campus period with three active student cases and one active employee case; all other previous positive student cases completed their time in isolation without further complications and were medically cleared to be released. 

The low rate of COVID on campus is attributable to our ongoing collective efforts in adhering to strict protocols. You can always find current data by visiting our COVID dashboard, where you will also find links to the Dutchess County and New York State dashboards. 

Please keep in mind that asymptomatic positives—people who are infected but have no symptoms—pose the greatest ongoing risk. Therefore the best way to mitigate COVID risk still lies in adhering to the behaviors with which we are all familiar: mask wearing, physical distancing, avoiding crowds, and frequent hand washing.

Adjustments to campus protocols
Now that we have completed the return-to-campus process we can begin making some adjustments to campus protocols. The following adjustments will begin on March 1:
 

• Community members may now begin to plan small, COVID-safe in-person activities. All proposed events must adhere to COVID safety protocols as outlined in the COVID-19 Student Handbook Addendum, as well as any additional protocols needed for each specific event. Students should contact SPARC through the student activities office by emailing [email protected]. Employees wishing to hold events may apply by filling out the form here. 
• Montgomery Place will reopen for public access on weekends from dawn to dusk, beginning Saturday, March 6. Annandale campus remains closed to the public at this time.
• The Stevenson Athletic Center will begin extending hours for student use of the fitness center and allowing faculty and staff use of the pool. Details of these expanded hours and protocols for swimming access will be provided next week. Please note the facility remains closed to the public.

It is important to remember that all other campus COVID health protocols remain in place, including prohibitions on nonessential visitors. We are continually reviewing conditions both on and off campus, and will share any further adjustments in the coming weeks.

Latest Nuvance webinar
This past Wednesday, members of our team were joined in a webinar on risk and safety by infectious disease experts Dr. Andrew Yanofsky and Dr. Marc Tack of Nuvance Health. They reviewed Bard’s COVID policies and risk management strategies, and answered questions about the impact of COVID variants and vaccines. They underscored that mask wearing and physical distancing remain the key effective behaviors for containing spread of the virus. 

Upcoming vaccine webinar
On Wednesday, March 3, at 7 pm, Bard Professionals of Color will present a webinar titled The Covid-19 Vaccine: Unpacking the Fears of Communities of Color. It will address the subjects of historical and contemporary resistance to vaccines in communities of color. Dr. Kahan Sablo, Dean of Inclusive Excellence and member of the COVID Response Team, will moderate. Panelists will include:

Lydell Lettsome, MD
Cheryl Wilson, MBA, MSW, LCSW
Myra Young Armstead, PhD, Vice President for Academic Inclusive Excellence and Lyford Paterson and Helen Gray Edwards Professor of Historical Studies

All are welcome. Join here: https://bard.zoom.us/j/86465311761.

Response Team office hours
Any member of the Bard community is welcome to send questions or suggestions to the Response Team by email, or to attend our weekly office hours, which we will resume next week. Every Tuesday afternoon from 4 to 5pm, members of the Response Team will be available on Zoom for anyone who wants to drop by with a question. Please check your Bard email or write to the Response Team for Zoom details.
 
Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Alexander Murphy, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President Student Affairs/Dean for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
 

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A Message about the Risks Associated with Asymptomatic Positives

Saturday, February 13, 2021 To the Bard College community:

To help our community appreciate the serious risks associated with asymptomatic positives, which make up approximately half of all COVID cases, we ask each of you to take a few moments to engage in an important thought exercise.

The exercise is this: imagine that *you* are an asymptomatic positive. You feel fine. You think you are healthy. But you have just received a phone call from the Bard Health Service (if you are a student) or from Human Resources (if you are an employee) and the message is that you tested positive for COVID through Bard's on-campus testing program. The next thing that will happen is a member of Bard’s contact tracing team will call you. 

The contact tracer is about to ask you to identify all of your contacts from the past four days. This includes anyone with whom you have been unmasked for at least 15 minutes. Think very carefully: every meal you have eaten, every time you hung out, every time you rode in a vehicle. Make an exhaustive list of everywhere you have been in the past four days and who your contacts were in each place. Be honest and thorough.

How many people are on your list? If it is only your roommate or members of your household, congratulations and thank you: you have been extremely careful and helped contain the spread of COVID. Is it five people from outside your household? That is very risky, since each of them could now be sick too and unwittingly spreading COVID to others. Is it more than 10? That is extremely risky, and you should immediately change your behavior. Is it so many that you cannot remember the names of them all? That is downright dangerous and disrespectful to every other member of the community. The risk of community spread increases exponentially with each additional person on your list. 

Whatever your answer, that is the number of people who are potentially exposed to COVID and, in accordance with New York State regulations, must immediately go into a 10-day quarantine and be tested. If you are a student on campus, that is the number of people the College now must move into quarantine housing and manage. 

What do you need to change about your behavior to help keep our community safe? Will it help you to establish a small pod of people and only eat meals with that same small pod? Do you only take your mask off to eat, or do you take your mask off as soon as you sit down in a restaurant or dining hall and leave it off even after you are done eating? What can you do to lower the number of people on the list you must give to the contact tracer? Your answers determine the role you play in this pandemic: as someone who helps contain the virus by minimizing contacts, or as someone who spreads the virus. 

Each decision you make about your behavior to lower your number of contacts is a gift that is your duty to make to the rest of us. We thank you in advance. 

This situation is not hypothetical. Several members of our community have discovered they are asymptomatic positives over the past month, which is entirely in keeping with local and national virus statistics.

We all must recognize our individual responsibility to stay informed and support the collective health of our community. We are even more tired of writing it than you are of reading it, but please diligently wear a mask and practice physical distancing so that you don’t make others sick if it turns out that *you* are an asymptomatic positive. There are serious and real consequences from interacting without caution. We rely on each other’s good will and voluntary compliance. Each of us working or living on campus has signed at least one health pledge that we will do what is necessary to keep all of us safe, on campus and off.

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges

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A Message about the Return to Campus Phase, Communicating COVID Information, One Mask or Two, and Pandemic Fatigue

Friday, February 12, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in this update:

• Return-to-campus phase
• Communicating COVID information
• One mask or two?
• Pandemic fatigue

To the Bard College community:

Having just completed the second week of the semester, the College is still in the “return to campus” phase, with most but not all students having completed their return-to-campus protocols. Precautionary post-travel quarantine at this moment, mandated by the state, is an essential element of these protocols, so until all returning students have been cleared for in-person classes we will remain in the return-to-campus phase. This means that we are still unable to allow non-essential visitors on campus, and in-person social activities cannot yet be planned. We will reevaluate these protocols periodically. 

Through these protocols, some students learned they were asymptomatic positive through their required pre-arrival tests, and therefore did not travel to Bard as scheduled, and several others tested positive through their required post-arrival test. As we noted in our last update, all students must participate in our surveillance testing process, which started this week and will test half the student body each week. Students whose last name begin with L-Z received a notification earlier this week and must complete this mandatory testing by today. Students with a last name beginning with A-K will soon receive notification about being tested next week. Students will continue to be tested every other week for the remainder of the semester.
 
The college responds to any positive test by moving the positive student into isolation housing and immediately launching contact tracing and surge testing. All on-campus close contacts identified by our contact tracing team are moved into quarantine housing, as required by the State of New York. Any off-campus positives or contacts are instructed on how to isolate or quarantine in their off-campus residence. Our testing program through MIT/Broad Institute continues to provide test results typically within 24 hours of delivery of our samples to their lab in Boston. (Thank you to all the Bard drivers who have made the trip to Boston countless times.)

Students who test positive and are in isolation housing are directly monitored and treated by the Bard Health Service, and they, as well as students in quarantine, receive daily deliveries of food and necessities. Explanations of isolation and quarantine housing and the State-mandated rules for students placed there are outlined in the COVID-19 Addendum to the Student Handbook that was distributed at the beginning of the fall semester to all students, who were also required to sign a health pledge attesting they reviewed and agreed to abide by all COVID policies and protocols. We strongly encourage all students to revisit the Student Handbook and health pledge linked above. 

There are many reasons that students may be in quarantine, including: state-mandated post-travel quarantine, potential exposure to a positive case, or experiencing flu symptoms and awaiting a COVID test result to find out if you have the flu or COVID. The college has assisted around 400 students through quarantine for different reasons over the past month. Quarantine is a precautionary measure to limit the potential for community spread. Taken together, these practices help us rapidly isolate and contain any positive case and limit the potential for spread. 

Because we immediately move any positive case into isolation housing to prevent the spread of infection, it is easy to avoid exposure to known active cases on campus. A greater challenge is the risk of asymptomatic positives, who may feel perfectly healthy and therefore do not suspect they have COVID. Studies show that up to half of all COVID cases are asymptomatic positives, which has been a major contributing factor in the spread of COVID. All of our COVID policies are designed to take into account and protect against possible spread of infection from asymptomatic positives. Masking and physical distancing are the most effective known methods of preventing spread from asymptomatic positives. 

All of these protocols have proved useful and effective, with the number of confirmed cases on campus far below that of our peer institutions and the community at large. 

Communicating COVID information
As you know from prior updates, the College is required to submit a daily report to the New York State Department of Health about the status of COVID on campus, and these reports are available for public viewing on the NYSDOH website, which is linked below the Bard COVID dashboard we launched last summer. The Bard dashboard shows the number of current active COVID cases on campus and total cases to date, while the New York State dashboard also shows quarantine rooms in use (which includes precautionary quarantine), type of test administered, hospitalization rate, and a separate category including employees who self-report results of off-campus private-party testing. The Bard dashboard includes all student and employee positive test results identified through our on-campus testing program, and tracks all on-campus cases. 

Our COVID dashboard is available at all times to everyone in our community and beyond, including Red Hook residents and Bard families around the world. Our peer institutions have also followed this long-established public health best practice by creating their own dashboards.

Those of you who have been following the Bard COVID dashboard have noticed that we identified one additional active case yesterday. This was a student who had already been in quarantine for several days as a potential exposure. The results of over 300 other tests were negative. 

As you continue to monitor the dashboard going forward, please keep in mind that the College directly contacts all positive cases and their contacts and moves them into isolation and quarantine housing as necessary. If you do not hear any details about a particular case, it is because you have not been identified as a contact. 

One mask or two?
This week the CDC updated its guidance on masking to prevent the spread of COVID-19, recommending that wearing a cloth mask over a medical procedure mask decreases exposure. The Response Team has researched and discussed this guidance and wants to share with you why we have decided that, until further notice, Bard will follow New York State’s lead in continuing to require one mask.

The key point is that mask effectiveness against the spread of disease is chiefly dependent on mask fit. A single tight-fitting mask remains extremely effective at preventing the spread of disease. Please visit the mask policy page we created last fall for more info. 

In personal experiments, Response Team members trying on two masks found that having two loops over each ear sometimes caused the masks to fall off, or to displace each other on the face so there was no longer a tight fit.

The College will continue to provide masks to students and employees who need them at the mask dispensing stations around campus. 

Pandemic fatigue
Pandemic fatigue is real. We made it through the fall semester safely, but the complex challenges of life under COVID on a residential college campus sometimes made it feel longer than a semester. The strangeness and unpredictability of the public health situation and shifting government regulations have often been frustrating and confusing. As individuals and as a society, we have confronted an unprecedented and mentally taxing level of uncertainty on a daily basis, without the emotional benefit of close contact with our friends and colleagues. Technologies like Zoom are invaluable, but not a replacement if what you yearn for is not just a sympathetic ear but a hug. It is no wonder that many of us feel exhausted. We are doing our best to find the “normal” in this bizarre situation. The Response Team wishes to acknowledge the extraordinary mental and emotional work that each of us undertakes every day in support of our collective perseverance through these challenges. We are thankful for the many sacrifices that members of our community have made - including missed vacations and voluntarily spending holidays alone - in order to focus on the demanding work of keeping this community safe under COVID. And we want to express our conviction that, with the advent of spring and more vaccines coming on line, things WILL get better.   

Nonetheless, it is normal to be nervous. Nervousness can be helpful, as it compels us to abide by the essential behaviors that keep us safe. Indeed, it would be illogical not to feel some nervousness in the midst of a global public health emergency. As we embark upon this new semester, there is energy to be found in our common dedication to the essential work of learning and advancing knowledge together. And there is help to be found in many College resources, which are available to Bardians wherever in the world they may be; see the Bard Connects page we established last summer for some examples. We can give ourselves and each other moments of respite, such as this short breathing exercise that Bard Counselor Dan Sullivan created for the Bard community in the fall. The Bard Wellness team is planning many activities for replenishing and strengthening our individual and community resilience. If you have ideas for additional activities, please contact them. 

There is no denying that these are stressful times. But out of challenge comes resilience. 

Please continue to check Bard’s COVID website, where we have been posting resources and updates for the past 11 months for ease of access to Bardians and their families. If you have any difficulty accessing the link, you can go to bard.edu and click on the red “COVID-19” button at the top of the page. Or, if you google “Bard COVID,” the college’s COVID page is the first result.  

Happy Lunar New Year. 

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Preventing Outbreaks and On-Campus Testing

Thursday, February 11, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in this update:

• Spring 2021 surveillance testing
• Testing compliance

To the Bard College Community,

Now that we have completed the return-to-campus process and our first full week of classes of the spring semester, it is an important time to review the current state of the pandemic and our priorities for the coming weeks. The pandemic is at a high point, and while cases appear to be declining slightly, they are still at record highs. Cases in New York and our region in particular are very high, so despite pandemic fatigue this is not the time to let down our guard or relax any protocols. Many colleges are seeing unacceptable infection rates as they begin their semesters, and we do not want to join that group. 

Fortunately, thanks to our interactions with state and local health officials and our medical consultants, we know how to avoid joining that group: rigorously adhere to the core elements of prevention, including mask wearing, physical distancing, and frequent hand-washing. But there is more to preventing outbreaks. Herewith a critical reminder of necessary behaviors that are embedded in our campus COVID policies and protocols, including the COVID-19 Addendum to the Student Handbook that was distributed last fall and the College’s Human Resources COVID page for employees.
 

• Stay home and do not come to campus or attend class in person if you feel unwell or have any symptoms.
• Carefully fill out your health screening or Involvio app every day before coming to campus or walking into class.
• Minimize contact with others, don’t gather in large groups, and maintain physical distancing. The most prevalent source of community spread is through people who are asymptomatic. Feeling well does not guarantee you not a carrier and cannot spread COVID-19. Keep track of your contacts (i.e., who you dined with) in case you are called by a contact tracer.
• Dining at Kline: there is a **limit of four** people at every table. Only remove your mask when eating, and put your mask back on as soon as you have finished eating. Hanging out unmasked after you are done eating is unacceptable risky behavior.
• Transportation: The masking requirement extends to vehicles on campus. All passengers who are not roommates or from the same household and share a mode of transportation on campus—whether it be the Bard shuttle or a privately owned vehicle—are required to be masked.

Receiving a negative test result is not license to engage in risky behavior. Testing is used to identify and contain potential outbreaks, not to calibrate personal behavior. A test result only tells you the state of your health at the moment you took the test. Continue to adhere to safety protocols at all times, regardless of a negative test result.

On-Campus Testing
All students whose last name begins with L–Z received a notification earlier this week that they are due for mandatory testing this week. Students with a last name beginning with A–K will go next week. Students will continue to be tested every other week for the remainder of the semester. This semester’s higher level of testing is necessary because of the evolving public health situation, including the high incidence of COVID in the surrounding area. 

All employees are also subject to mandatory random testing, and should watch their emails for notification that they have been selected.

You should always behave as though there are unknown positive COVID cases in our community, because based on current data, there most likely are. Continue to wear a mask in all settings and situations, with the only exceptions being actively eating or drinking or in your own dorm room or home with only your own roommate/housemate, and continue to adhere to campus safety protocols. 

We are continually assessing the state of public health in the region and on our campus to determine any adjustments in protocols. Based on the current number of COVID cases and community spread possible, we are not ready to consider relaxing any protocols at this time.

Please remember to visit the College's COVID website, where you can always find the most current information on campus protocols. For those who would like to review the status and number of active cases in the Bard community, please consult our campus data dashboard, which is updated daily in accordance with mandatory reporting requirements to New York State. 

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Spring Surveillance Testing on Campus

Friday, February 5, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in this update
 

• Spring 2021 Surveillance testing
• Testing compliance

To the Bard College Community,

The spring semester is now underway and next week we restart our surveillance COVID testing of students. While our testing process remains largely the same, we have increased our capacity to enable the testing of more students and with greater frequency. We will test approximately half the student body each week, with the goal of testing the entire student population twice per month. We also expanded employee surveillance testing this semester, with all employees enrolled in mandatory random surveillance testing.

We believe this robust testing regime will provide us with the information we need to maintain campus safety in the coming months, considering the higher rates of infection in the surrounding community and more contagious variants that now characterize the public health situation. Students will receive emails from [email protected] and faculty and staff will be notified by [email protected] of their next test; people selected for testing will have multiple day/time options for completing their test. It is extremely important that every member of the Bard community comply with and respond to these notifications. This ongoing testing is an essential element of Bard’s COVID safety plan, and participation is not optional. Please monitor your email carefully for these notifications and other communications about supporting health and safety on campus. We aim to make this testing process as smooth as possible and appreciate your cooperation. A 1-minute video demonstrating the testing process is posted on the college's COVID page; scroll down to "Getting a COVID-19 Test at Bard" and click to view.

It is gratifying to be back for in-person classes, a situation that would not be possible without the care and vigilance that members of our community have consistently demonstrated. We look forward to another safe and successful semester.  


Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Mask Dispensing Points, Required Actions, Travel, and Visitors

Friday, January 29, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in this update:

• Mask dispensing points
• Required actions (check-ins and surveillance testing) and helpful resources 
• No travel or visitors

To the Bard College community,

We would like to welcome back all of our students, faculty and staff for the spring semester. We can all be proud of the College’s collective success in maintaining a safe campus last fall, and begin the spring with a redoubling of our efforts to ensure a safe, engaging, and productive new semester. We all know that the COVID pandemic is not over and that national and local infection rates are at an all-time high. As we learned last semester, we can have a fulfilling and successful semester of in-person classes if we adhere to our COVID protocols, all of which are still in effect. We encourage everyone to visit the college's COVID-19 Response website to review these protocols, stay up-to-date on new developments, and understand our testing, assessment, and reporting protocols. We also encourage all students, especially those who live on campus, to review the important policies contained in the COVID-19 Addendum to the Student Handbook (scroll to the bottom of the page) that was disseminated last semester and continues to be in force.

Mask dispensing points
With new, more infectious COVID variants now circulating, mask safety takes on even more importance. Done properly, it is one of the most easily implemented and effective measures we can take to prevent infection and spread. Wear a mask at all times on campus and off, and wear it properly. The only exceptions are if you are inside your office or home alone or with members of your household. For the purposes of COVID protocols, New York State considers college roommates to be members of the same household, so you can be unmasked with your roommate, but not with anyone else. If you find yourself in need of a mask, please note that the College has mask dispensers at various locations across campus. 

Required actions (check-ins and surveillance testing) and helpful resources
Students are required to resume daily health check-in with the Involvio app, and employees must continue their daily web-based check-ins each time they come to campus. Student surveillance testing begins next week, and employee surveillance testing is ongoing, so please read your emails and be certain to respond to any testing-related message. Details on employee testing can be found on the Human Resources website. The Bard Cares Team is up and running for the spring semester and is available for student support and reporting of COVID-related incidents. Students should also be aware that other support resources can be found on the Dean of Student Affairs website. 

No travel or visitors
Another lesson from the fall semester is that, once everyone is safely on campus, we should all do our best to remain in the local area (Dutchess, Ulster, Columbia, or Greene counties). Non-essential work travel is still prohibited, and students and employees should refrain from any non-essential personal travel. Students with special circumstances can discuss any essential or emergency travel needs with their dean, and employees should contact their supervisor or HR. We are still operating as a closed campus until further notice, so no visitors are allowed in any campus facilities or dormitories. All essential visitors still must be approved in advance (please do not write directly to the Response Team about potential visitors; the form at the link includes key questions that must be answered before we can consider your request). Academic programs seeking to arrange off-campus activities should contact Associate Dean Emily McLaughlin ([email protected]). No off-campus academic work may begin until an operation plan has been prepared and reviewed by the Response Team. Any student seeking to engage in off-campus activities for academic purposes should discuss with their professor or advisor. 

The COVID-19 Response Team held two “return-to-campus” webinars this week: one for students and one for employees, to review the policies and protocols for the spring semester that we have disseminated through our updates, and answer questions. If you missed the webinars and would like to see a recording of either one (they are each around 30 minutes long and review the same brief slide presentation), please contact the Response Team to request a link.


Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
 

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A Message about Arrival Protocol and Webinars, Vaccines, and New Coronavirus Variants

Monday, January 25, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in this update:

• Arrival protocol reminder for students
• Faculty and staff return-to-campus protocols
• Return-to-campus webinars for students and employees
• Vaccines
• New Coronavirus variants

To the Bard College community,

Welcome back students, and congrats to those who are finishing Citizen Science this week.

Arrival protocol reminder for students
Student arrivals for the spring semester continue to run smoothly and safely, thanks both to our dedicated staff and our students, who have demonstrated a strong commitment to safety through their broad adherence to our arrival protocols, particularly pre-arrival testing, mask-wearing/physical distancing, and quarantining as needed. All aspects of our arrival protocols are equally important and necessary. All returning students, including those living off campus, must participate in our pre- and post-arrival testing process before they can receive clearance to come to campus and attend classes. We understand that returning students are anxious to see each other and reconnect with friends in person, but it is essential for the health of our community that students wait to do so until they have completed all shelter-in-place or quarantine requirements. 

Faculty and staff return-to-campus protocols
Faculty and staff returning from outside NY and contiguous states must observe New York State mandates for quarantine and testing. Even if you haven't traveled, please remember that engaging in risky behaviours locally, such as participating in large gatherings or not consistently wearing a mask, can put you and the campus community at risk. Your behavior off campus can endanger the entire Bard community, so please exercise caution as you prepare for return and be sure to observe the screening protocols found on the Human Resources website. Remember that each day you come to campus, even if it is only for a few minutes, you are required to submit a health self screening in advance. You may not bring any visitors onto campus, even members of your own family, without prior approval from the Response Team. Currently, all non-essential visitors are prohibited. We will revisit the visitor policy next month, after the semester is safely underway. 

If you are eligible for vaccination and need a letter of confirmation from the College, you can obtain one by contacting [email protected]. If you are fortunate enough to have received a vaccination prior to return, remember that vaccination does not prevent community spread, so you must still observe all safety protocols. Random surveillance testing of employees working on campus started two weeks ago, and will be expanded next week to include all employees. If you are selected for testing, you will receive a notification the weekend prior from either Nancy Smith ([email protected]), Bard’s COVID check-in coordinator, or the Bard Human Resources office, and will have several days and times to choose from to get tested at Stevenson Gymnasium - the same MIT/Broad Institute tests we used last semester that typically provide test results in less than 24 hours. 

Return-to-campus webinars for students and employees
To help students, faculty, and staff prepare for the new semester, the Response Team will be holding two “Return to Campus” informational webinars this week, one for students and one for faculty and staff as follows. There is no need to register in advance; just log on at the appointed time. The sessions will be recorded for anyone not able to attend; if you would like to receive a recording of the session, please write to [email protected] asking for the link to the recording. 
 

• Return to Campus Webinar for Students

Wednesday, 1/27, 7pm
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://bard.zoom.us/j/87216316832?pwd=aUJlb1FNaFhOZHRjdFBGdDJDK3gyUT09
Passcode: 251453
Or iPhone one-tap : 16465588656,,87216316832#,,,,*251453#  or +13017158592,,87216316832#,,,,*251453# 
Or Telephone: +1 646 558 8656  or +1 301 715 8592  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 9128  or +1 253 215 8782 
Webinar ID: 872 1631 6832
Passcode: 251453
 

• Return to Campus Webinar for Faculty and Staff

Thursday, 1/28 at 8am
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://bard.zoom.us/j/87486550236?pwd=Qis0MXJabGswTEdkRkZlWkVqamlIZz09
Passcode: 122522
Or iPhone one-tap : 16465588656,,87486550236#,,,,*122522#  or +13017158592,,87486550236#,,,,*122522# 
Or Telephone: 1 646 558 8656  or +1 301 715 8592  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 9128 
Webinar ID: 874 8655 0236
Passcode: 122522

Vaccines
There has been a lot of confusion and frustration on the topic of vaccines. Eligibility was rapidly expanded far beyond the ability of the state and federal governments to provide sufficient vaccines for the eligible population. The College has been in direct contact with the governor’s office, Congressman Delgado, our State Senator, State Assemblyman, and county executive offices in both Ulster and Dutchess counties to advocate for more vaccines in northern Dutchess County. We have also volunteered multiple times to both the state and Dutchess County to host a vaccination site on campus. However, until the federal government provides more vaccines or New York State finalizes a purchasing contract with Pfizer (which is currently being explored), we do not expect there to be a significant change in the availability of vaccines locally. In response to a question we relayed to the New York State Department of Health, as of this afternoon we have received the following information on which vaccination points are vaccinating which eligible populations:

• Pharmacies will vaccinate those over 65
• Hospitals will vaccinate healthcare workers; priority group 1a [We have reached out to Northern Dutchess Hospital to find out how this will affect them once they receive more vaccines]
• Health departments will vaccinate essential workers as listed in priority group 1b

Those three bullet points are the extent of the response we received this afternoon, to a question we submitted last Thursday. We will continue to press for answers and reliable information, and in the meantime encourage you to send your questions to [email protected]. Preventing the spread of confusing and inaccurate rumors is a shared responsibility of all of us. And until the preponderance of the population is vaccinated, masking and physical distancing will continue to be essential to ensuring the health of our community over the coming months. A slow vaccination rollout is unfortunate, but is no reason to panic. We have kept our campus community safe so far by adhering to recommended personal behaviors, and will continue to do so.

New coronavirus variants
There has been a great deal of media attention about new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus, and we would like to clarify what that means for us moving forward. The current science on this topic shows that the new variants are indeed more contagious but do not appear to cause more aggressive courses of COVID-19. The key to protecting against these new strains is to maximize efforts to prevent transmission. We already have the tools necessary to lessen the chance of contagion and illness - mask-wearing, physical distancing, frequent hand-washing, and other existing safety protocols - and we need to rigorously adhere to them at all times. That means wearing your mask consistently and properly. We understand that quarantine fatigue is real, but we are still in the midst of an international pandemic and infections rates are higher than ever. We know what it takes to remain safe - we just need to recommit to doing everything in our collective power to remain vigilant. 


Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President Student Affairs/Dean for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate

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A Message about Operating as a Closed Campus, Pre- and Post-Arrival Testing, and Vaccine Guidance

Friday, January 15, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in this update:

• Closed campus
• Pre- and post-arrival testing
• Vaccine guidance

To the Bard College community,

With Citizen Science now underway, we want to remind everyone that Montgomery Place and all campus facilities are closed to public access until further notice. In light of rising cases regionally and nationwide, access to the campus by members of the surrounding communities, friends or family, or casual visitors is still prohibited. Anyone who does not live, work, or study at Bard is not allowed access to campus without prior approval from the College. No visitors are allowed in dormitories, and students should refrain from visiting each other’s dorms until further notice. After all returning students have completed their return-to-campus protocols and have exited quarantine, we will reevaluate our visitor policy and also consider requests for small in-person gatherings, much as we did in mid-September last year. The no visitors policy and continuation of social restrictions is particularly important given the new strain of the virus, which is easier to transmit and the resultant disease no less severe. However, the good news is that vaccination is understood to be effective against all known strains. 

All first-year students have arrived for Citizen Science and their return process has gone smoothly. There was one positive test among returning students this week, and that individual is now in our on-campus isolation housing. We want to reiterate the importance of pre-arrival testing and ask that all students returning for the spring semester review our pre- and post-arrival testing protocols and adhere closely to those protocols, which are based on requirements from the State of New York. Community spread begins largely with people who are infected but asymptomatic, so this testing process is one of our most effective ways of starting off the semester safely. 

The vaccination process in New York State is off to a slow and confusing start, but we expect it to improve and for more vaccines to become available in the coming weeks. We understand the State is controlling all aspects of the distribution and delivery process to individual vaccination sites. We recommend that you first establish vaccine eligibility via the State website here. Please consult our step-by-step guide for navigating it. This website will generate a list of nearby vaccination sites once eligibility is confirmed. It has been very challenging to get accurate information about the vaccine process, as this article underscores. If you are having trouble getting an appointment, you are not alone. The College has been in touch with many local, state, and federal officials this week, trying to gather accurate information and access to vaccines for our community. We have volunteered on multiple occasions for Bard to serve as a vaccination site. The key underlying problem is the lack of vaccines, compounded by chaotic roll-out of the vaccination plan at the state level. Many vaccination sites do not actually have any vaccines to provide. Those that do have vaccines have many fewer than they hoped for. Ulster County, for example, established a vaccination site in Kingston capable of vaccinating 50,000 people a month. However, in their first month of operation, they only received 2,100 vaccines from the state. This in turn reflects the lack of vaccines at the federal level. At this stage of the process, patience and persistence are recommended. More vaccinations will become available in the Hudson Valley Area and we consider that to be the best option. If you do travel elsewhere within the state for your vaccinations, please take extra precautions while traveling to and from your destination. 

We will continue to do everything we can to advocate for access to vaccines for our community at the local, state, and federal levels. Until there is widespread vaccination in our community, we must continue adhering to the mask wearing and physical distancing protocols that the College has put in place. We look forward to a time when we can relax them, but that time is not yet here, so the best way to continue to protect our community is to follow the same behaviors that kept us safe in the fall.

Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President Student Affairs/Dean for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
 

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A Message about Pre-arrival Testing, Vaccine Availability, and the Mandatory Daily Health Screening

Monday, January 11, 2021

A COVID-19 Update

Topics in this update

• Pre-arrival tests
• Vaccine availability
• Mandatory daily health screening 

 To the Bard College Community,

This week we are beginning random surveillance testing of all employees working on campus, and welcoming Citizen Science students and faculty to campus. We want to express our thanks to the students who remained on campus over the break and strictly adhered to the COVID-19 policies and protocols we put in place to keep the campus safe. We tested all students on campus last week, and all those who remained on campus over the break tested negative. (As we announced last week, we had one positive student result, from a student returning to campus from out of state.) We also tested approximately 200 employees last week who are working on campus, with two positive results (1%); the affected employees and a small number of direct contacts will remain off campus until cleared to return. The College’s contact tracing team completed its work in the case of each positive result within 24 hours. Test results are reported daily to the New York State and Dutchess County Departments of Health, and are reflected on our campus data dashboard.  
 
Pre-arrival tests
Our return-to-campus testing protocols are designed to identify sick individuals before they come to campus. Several asymptomatic students, who were planning to travel to campus this week and did not previously know they were sick, have notified us that their pre-arrival test was positive. In August, the same protocol similarly identified several students who were infected in summer and did not know it. Studies have clearly demonstrated that most community spread begins with infected individuals who are asymptomatic, so feeling well does not mean you can skip pre-arrival or surveillance testing. We are working directly with these students to shift them to remote classes as needed. 
 
These pre-arrival test results highlight the necessity of our pre-arrival protocol. Every student who has access to a PCR or antigen test is required to get one within three days of returning to Bard. For those students unable to get a pre-arrival test, please be prepared to be tested immediately upon arrival at Bard, and to shelter in place until receiving your test result the next day, refraining from contact with others while you await your result. You will receive detailed instructions from Residence Life staff upon arrival. 
 
Vaccine availability
As of this morning, the state has added “in-person college instructors” to the list of populations who are eligible to be vaccinated beginning today. Eligible individuals should register for a vaccination appointment via the New York State COVID-19 Vaccine Form. Another option for scheduling an appointment is through the State’s new COVID-19 Vaccination Hotline, at 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1-833-697-4829). The complete list of populations currently eligible for the vaccine as part of Phase 1a & 1b is here. If you are not sure if you are eligible, you can visit this NYS Department of Health website to determine your eligibility; “in-person college faculty or instructor” is an option under the “Additional Information” section. 
 
It’s important to emphasize that while faculty teaching in-person classes are now eligible to make a reservation for vaccination, demand for vaccines still far outpaces the state’s supply. We encourage eligible employees to register today. Appointments at all vaccination points in Dutchess County were full for this week as of yesterday, but once you register, you will be notified by email when more appointments become available. 
 
The vaccination process is complex and involves multiple layers of government. New York State defines who is eligible by phase, sets the timeline for each phase, and receives vaccines from the federal government and distributes them to the counties. County governments establish and operate vaccination sites, and have in many cases also launched county-level vaccine websites. We encourage employees to visit the appropriate websites for Dutchess County or Ulster County to learn more. Those in NYC should visit the NYC COVID vaccine website. If you live outside of these areas please check with your local county health department for details on vaccination sites. Some counties are requiring individuals to bring proof of eligibility to their vaccination appointment, such as an employee ID card, employer letter, or pay stub. Please contact the College’s Human Resources office if you need assistance with any of these.
 
Access to vaccinations is currently limited by New York State eligibility requirements and supply, but we encourage you to visit these sites and begin this important process as soon as possible. Vaccinations are not yet available to students in New York State. We will share any new information on eligibility and access to vaccinations as it becomes available.
 
Mandatory daily health screening
We are all looking forward to returning to campus and to the classroom, but must remain cognizant that cases are rising locally and nationally, so we must be particularly vigilant as we work to reestablish a safe campus environment for the coming semester. It was very gratifying to see how well the students who remained on campus over winter break adhered to health and safety protocols. We ask that all of our returning students, faculty, and staff recommit to making campus health and safety their top priority for the coming semester. We also want to remind all employees that submitting a daily health check-in is mandatory before you come to campus, and you should not enter any campus facility without submitting one.
 
 
Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
 
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President Student Affairs/Dean for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate