A Message about Voting Protocols, Thanksgiving, Surveillance Testing, and COVID in Our Region
A COVID-19 Update
Topics in This Update:
- Additional Thanksgiving holiday guidance
- Surveillance testing clarification
- COVID-19 in our region
- Voting protocols
In response to our most recent guidance regarding safety during the Thanksgiving holiday, many at Bard have offered to host Thanksgiving gatherings for students not returning home for the holiday. The generosity of so many faculty, staff and neighbors in the community is gratifying. It is disappointing to have to ask everyone to heed the advice of the CDC and our medical consultants. Sharing food in enclosed domestic spaces with individuals who are not members of one's regular household is a high-risk activity, even in small groups.
We ask then, for the continued safety of the Bard community, that we not plan to host students in our homes for Thanksgiving celebrations. The College is planning on-campus activities for the holiday that will be safe and festive, and we encourage members of the campus community to participate in these activities instead. We will soon share details on how to take part in or help sponsor Thanksgiving activities on campus.
Surveillance Testing
Our randomized testing is an important element of our campus safety plan, and its continued success depends on your full participation. While the majority of our students have been fulfilling the requirements of our surveillance testing program, some have not, so we must reiterate that surveillance testing is mandatory for students. Students selected for testing must respond and complete the test that week, even if you have previously been randomly selected.
We continue to encourage employees to sign up for inclusion in the weekly random testing pool, with a reminder that once you opt in to random testing on campus, you are required to complete the test if you are selected. The registration and consent forms can be found here.
Both employees and students can choose the day and time of your test via the reply form, and the test itself takes less than five minutes.
COVID-19 in Our Region
During a press conference Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced several changes to New York State’s cluster zones map, which shows areas with rising COVID-19 cases. Click here to see the state’s updated cluster maps; click here for detailed guidance on the restrictions within clusters; and click here to access a tool to check whether a specific address is within a cluster. Please exercise extra caution or avoid these zones entirely until further notice.
Many nearby states, such as New Jersey and Connecticut, are experiencing increases in COVID cases and hospitalizations, so we must all continue to abide by the prohibition on non-emergency travel and guidance as outlined on the College’s COVID-19 website, in previous Response Team updates, and the New York State Travel Advisory website.
Voting Protocols
The College's COVID policy accounts for access for "essential civic activities such as elections, where visitors will be directed to closely controlled facilities operated and cleaned in keeping with New York State and CDC-approved COVID-19 protocols.” Now that the courts have allowed the District 5 polling site to be moved to the Bard campus, we are finalizing protocols for the polling site which will be announced next week. These will include traffic control, a discrete entrance to the polling site at the Bertelsmann Campus Center, closure of parts of the building, special parking regulations, and special cleaning protocols. All voters from District 5 - nearly 70% of whom are Bard students, employees, and their families - will be able to vote safely at the Bertelsmann Campus Center on Election Day.
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
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
For more information, call 845-758-6822.
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