Dean Julie Ramsey updates the residential student cohort about procedures for this week’s round of testing and upcoming moves into single rooms.
Dear Students,
You are a member of the group that has been approved and accepted a place to join the on campus residential cohort for the remainder of the Fall 2020 academic semester. This cohort is much smaller than our traditional on campus cohort and allows the College to better manage the challenges associated with COVID-19.
In that spirit, the College will conduct another round of testing which will take place this week, Wednesday, September 9 and Thursday, September 10. We view this testing plan as a complete reset and therefore you will be asked to quarantine after testing until you receive a negative test result.
All negative results will be communicated through the Medicat portal. If your test is positive, Health Services will be in contact with you regarding follow up. If that is the case, you will be asked to identify “close contacts,” – those with whom you have been in contact for more than 10 minutes and within 6 feet. In order to keep close contacts to a minimum, you need to maintain a distance of two arms lengths from others AND wear your mask according to the Health Agreement.
Later today you will receive notification from the Residence Life office about your testing time and the location of the test. It is very important that you to show up for testing at your assigned time.
You will be tested each week until the conclusion of the semester. Additionally, over the course of the next two to three weeks, all students will be assigned a single. We understand that this may be a challenge for some and therefore, our Residence Life staff will work with you through the process. You can contact Residence life directly at residencelife@gettysburg.edu or 717-337-6901 if you have questions. While many of the precautions needed to protect everyone from COVID-19 are inconvenient, the highest priority of Gettysburg College remains the health and safety of all members of the campus community. Now that we know COVID-19 has appeared on campus, we must be even more careful. Maintaining physical distance between people is essential; housing students in single rooms is therefore safer than having them share a room. Housing students in single rooms also makes it easier to manage any further spread of the virus that might occur on campus.
Just as we did in previous rounds of testing, we will update you as quickly as we can on the status of your test results.
Best,
Dean Ramsey
Julie L. Ramsey, ED.D.
Vice President for College Life
Gettysburg College
717-337-6921
ramsey@gettysburg.edu