A Message about Being a Fully Vaccinated Community, Testing Protocols, and How Not to Get COVID
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.
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.
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
For more information, call 845-758-6822.