Covid Alert Level Turns Yellow with Rising Case Numbers

The COVID-19 dashboard at Marist is now under the alert level of yellow after reaching eight active cases on campus. With a campus vaccination rate of 96%, the college is taking extra precautions with rising case numbers. 

The Campus alert levels (green, yellow and red) are informed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), New York State, Dutchess County health officials and the Marist College Medical Advisory Group. Moving into the yellow alert level, the college has extra COVID-19 precautions such as 70% capacity at indoor events and the encouragement of mask-wearing for outdoor events. 

Currently, there are 6,549 members of the Marist community vaccinated with 96.2% of the student population vaccinated and 95.3% of employees vaccinated. Over the course of the fall semester, there have been 108 recovered COVID-19 cases with 97 of those cases being students and 11 of the cases being employees. As of Friday November 12, there are eight active COVID-19 cases on campus that have all been attributed to students. 

“I felt comfortable on campus until a wave of people started getting sick,” Marrisa Sciotto ‘25 said. “The sickness going around isn’t related to COVID-19, but because everyone is sneezing and coughing, I feel like I need to wear my mask all the time now.” 

The Marist administration has not communicated the number of COVID-19 cases to students or the community this semester since they expect them to use the dashboard. In an email sent to the college community on August 16, the Marist Administration updated their policies regarding the COVID-19 guidelines for the fall 2021 semester. 

“Marist is instituting a temporary and limited revision to our campus masking policy,” said the President's Office. “In addition to the mandatory masking requirement for individuals with an authorized exemption, we are temporarily extending this requirement to all members of the Marist community.  As of Wednesday, August 18, the use of masks is required in all administrative and academic buildings on campus, including the Library.”

While an indoor mask mandate is still necessary and effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19, the Administration never sent an updated email to students regarding the COVID-19 making policies. In their email to the community before the semester, they said that the masking policy was “temporary.” Some students feel that there has been a lack of communication in regards to COVID-19 information on campus this fall. 

“This semester Marist has only felt the need to inform the student body of its covid statics when there's an outbreak on campus or a dorm lockdown,” Jennifer Coury ‘22 said. “I would have a better opinion of the school’s handling of covid if they gave us more information than just case numbers on the state of covid on campus.” 

While the college has not updated students on the masking policy, they recently changed the policy regarding guests in on-campus housing. Loosening restrictions, students are able to have a maximum of two non-student guests in their on-campus housing. In accordance with Marist’s COVID-19 policies and procedures, all non-Marist guests in the residence halls are required to complete the guest attestation before coming to campus.

“Thanks to the cooperation of our students, and due to the high vaccination rates and low infection rates, overnight non-Marist guests will be allowed in the residence halls beginning the weekend of November 5-7,” Vice President for Student Affairs Deborah DiCaprio said. “Opening the residence halls to non-Marist visitors is one more step to getting back to pre-COVID life.” 

Marist students living in freshman dormitories are also required to get a guest pass for any non-student staying on campus overnight. Similar to years prior, Marist students are responsible for the behavior of their guests and will be held accountable for any of the guest’s behavior that is in violation of the Code of Student Conduct. Hosts must remain with their guests at all times.

“A guest is limited to two consecutive night stays and may only stay overnight on Friday and Saturday night, there are no overnight guests allowed in the first-year areas Sunday through Thursday night,” DiCaprio said. “No guests are permitted during Thanksgiving break or from 12/5 until the conclusion of the fall semester.”

With four weeks left in the fall semester, the Marist community hopes to limit the number of COVID-19 cases on campus. In two weeks, students will leave campus for Thanksgiving break which will be the most extensive break of the semester. Marist will continue to be cautious in loosening restrictions on campus as they work to return to the alert level of green on the dashboard.

Covid Alert Level Turns Yellow with Rising Case Numbers. Source: Charolotte May, Pexels.