Dear Members of the Hamilton Community,
With the first week of universal quarantine drawing to a close, I wanted to update you on the news from campus.
Move-in took place from Sunday through Tuesday and went smoothly, thanks in large part to the faculty and staff who helped to move student belongings into residences. This effort allowed parents to leave the area more quickly and prevented additional close contact among large groups of people.
Testing that began before arrival continued Monday through Wednesday. Between faculty, staff, and students, Colgate has conducted 4,000 COVID-19 tests in the last two weeks. As we announced previously, these tests were able to identify current Hamilton residents who were asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 prior to the arrival of students. Robust testing has also allowed us to detect 22 students who were asymptomatic carriers upon arrival and isolate them quickly in accordance with CDC and New York State guidance.
We are not finished with our extensive testing plan. It will continue with:
- A follow-up third test 7–10 days after arrival
- Testing for students experiencing COVID-19-like symptoms with results returned within 45 minutes
- Surveillance testing of the University’s wastewater to monitor presence of SARSCoV- 2
- Randomized tests of 6% of students and 6% of employees every week for the rest of the semester
President Casey entered quarantine with the students last Sunday, taking a room in West Hall until Sept. 8. He has been providing daily video reports as part of longer daily update messages to campus. You can watch his videos and read those messages, too, on our website.
As the president notes in his August 25 message, unfortunately, a small number of students were sent home almost immediately for violating the terms of Colgate’s Commitment to Community Health. We acted swiftly to address the issue, keeping our promise to hold community members accountable for their choices at this important time. We will investigate any further reports, and if you feel that you are witnessing a breach in the commitment, please let us know via this online form.
To monitor the effectiveness of our public health efforts, we have posted a new dashboard, which shows 20 different measures that are being monitored by our Health Analytics Team. We encourage you to keep an eye on the dashboard as well. It is updated daily and reflects a seven-day average of the data we collect.
We believe that these efforts have set us firmly on a path to a new normal for in-person instruction this semester. If you have any questions based on what you see here, please email covid19@colgate.edu. I will make sure that your question is directed to the appropriate department for response. Keep in mind that our team is working to support our students and campus operations in various new roles at the start of this semester so we appreciate your patience as we respond to your inquiries.
On behalf of everyone on campus, thank you. We are in this together, and the University takes your health and well-being to heart as we make the decisions that will guide us through to November.
Sincerely,
Laura H. Jack
Vice President for Communications