Anne Ehrlich, Vice President of College Life, and Jen Lucas, Executive Director of Human Resources, update the campus community about changes to existing COVID protocols.
Dear Campus Community,
In the past 24 hours, we have seen three additional positive COVID test results that are unrelated to the cluster referenced in Wednesday’s email. For this reason, we are making the following changes to our COVID protocols:
- We are returning to universal indoor masking effective immediately. All individuals—regardless of their vaccination status—are required to wear masks while inside campus buildings, with the following exceptions:
- When a vaccinated student is inside a campus house or residence hall. Unvaccinated students are still required to mask in campus housing except while in their assigned room or apartment.
- When an employee is alone in their personal office or workspace.
- When an individual is eating or drinking.
- Visitors and guests (anyone other than a Gettysburg student or employee) are not permitted in residence halls.
- We will be reaching out to coordinators of events that may carry a high risk of transmission and working with them to implement additional mitigation strategies.
Any member of the campus community who is experiencing potential COVID symptoms or is concerned about exposure should be tested. Students can test at Health Services or at the Mobile Health testing site. If an employee is identified as a close contact through contact tracing on campus, the College will offer testing to that individual on a voluntary basis free of charge.
It is our sincere hope that these measures are temporary. However, we are mindful of travel and gatherings associated with the upcoming Thanksgiving break. We encourage all members of our community to be vigilant in taking precautions during this time, including masking during travel, limiting gatherings to small groups, keeping distance when possible, and washing hands frequently.
We are monitoring our campus positivity rate very closely and will tighten or loosen mitigation strategies as data directs us.
Sincerely,
Anne Ehrlich
Vice President of College Life
Jen Lucas
Executive Director of Human Resources