Provost Follow-up to President's message regarding the lifting of the All-Student Quarantine

Dear Colleagues:

First, I continue to be grateful to all of you for your hard work and flexibility in the face of the ongoing uncertainty created by COVID-19. I am particularly grateful to those of you who are teaching hyflex classes in an environment that is constantly challenging us to change what we are doing. I am confident our students are also grateful for your dedication to them.

By now you should have seen the message from President Standifird announcing how tomorrow morning we are returning to the same modes of instruction you were using prior to the two-week quarantine. In order to alleviate any confusion, please note that face-to-face instruction will end Nov. 20, but online instruction for all classes and finals will continue through to the end of the regular semester as originally planned.

Please note from President Standifird’s message the decision to return to pre-quarantine instruction is grounded in a downward trajectory in terms of the number of new COVID-19 cases and the number of students in quarantine and isolation. As you have already heard, our contact tracing has revealed NO evidence of classroom spread of the coronavirus. As we move back to pre-quarantine instruction, I would remind all of you to set good examples by wearing your masks in classes and labs, when in hallways, and even when walking across campus and anytime you are interacting with students or colleagues.

We will make every effort to provide faculty with updated lists of students who cannot attend face-to-face classes because of quarantine or isolation by tomorrow morning. I will ask you to be patient as this is a bit of an undertaking. It is possible you will not receive all of the information at once and some may come a bit later in the day Wednesday. We have also noticed students are quick to tell faculty when they are placed in isolation or quarantine. They may send notices to you faster than we are able to get them to you. I hope you understand our first goal is to inform the students who are directly involved, we will, however, inform you as quickly as we are able.

Student-facing offices that were open prior to the quarantine should return to those hours as soon as possible.

The President’s message provided detailed guidance for students regarding their ongoing participation in activities such as capstone projects, clinicals, etc. as well as guidance about their day-to-day activities on campus. Please refer to his message for any detail or insight that would be helpful for you about what students may and may not do.

We recognize the restrictions in place are strong. We hope to loosen some of them, but that will not happen until we feel it’s safe to do so. We must see a further decline in positive cases and quarantine numbers before that is an option. Until then it is critical that all of us follow them and do our very best to stem the spread of this virus.

I know this has been perhaps the most challenging year any of us have ever faced. Thank you again for your continued efforts on the behalf of Bradley and our students.

–Sent to all Employees on 09/22/20