| Dear Red Wolves:
At the start of the semester, I promised that we would revisit our COVID protocols within a month, and if conditions within the city, county, and region had improved, we would consider revisions. In early January, cases related to the new variant on our campus and in our community were skyrocketing. If you have been monitoring both our campus numbers and our community numbers, you know that the number of new cases has started a very welcome decline.
With these initial improvements, we will lift our requirement for masking in most indoor areas, but we will maintain our requirement for face coverings in the classroom. This change will go into effect on Friday, Feb. 11. Obviously our goal is to remove a masking requirement all across campus, but we want to take a stair-step approach. Yes, cases on campus and in our county are down, but the virus is still present. Classrooms remain a space where students and faculty are required to be for long periods of time. Until we see further improvements, it is prudent for us to keep masking in classrooms in place. Just like the start of the semester, we'll revisit masks in the classroom over the coming weeks, and listen to the feedback from instructors and students.
I want to thank our campus community for its cooperation during this outbreak, and I do believe that it played a role in our campus numbers not surpassing our earlier 2020 peaks. I want to also urge everyone to remain respectful and welcoming to individuals who wish to continue to wear a mask for their personal protection. Some may be wearing a mask because they feel more comfortable doing so, while others may have health conditions for which continued masking is important.
While we are making changes on masking, we are not changing the requirement for individuals with positive COVID test outcomes to report to the university. I want to remind everyone that our Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) will continue to work with positive cases on their individual isolation. Monitoring COVID positive cases will be an ongoing part of our campus safety protocol. Remember: AState.edu/COVIDSelfReport.
It’s hard to believe that we have been working together to combat this virus for just over two years. I am very proud of how our on-campus community took steps to both bring back in-person learning and limit the spread. I thank you, but more important, your fellow Red Wolves appreciate what you did for the pack.
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