Marist Allows Low-Risk Activities to Resume

Marist College will resume low-risk on-campus activities on a “pilot basis,” Deb DiCaprio, Vice President for Student Affairs, said in an email on April 16. This announcement comes after the college spent 25 days in a campus-wide pause from March 17 to April 11 due to rising cases of COVID-19 on campus.

The college will allow certain “low-risk” activities after restarting in-person classes on April 12. Clubs will be permitted to meet in-person with social distancing and indoor occupancy guidelines in effect. The McCann Center will reopen the second floor Fitness Center, operating with a 25% maximum capacity. The McCormick Hall Fitness Center will remain closed.

In-person dining will resume in the dining tent behind the Student Center, but not in the main dining hall.

Athletic teams that are deemed “low-risk” will be allowed to resume practicing, training and competing if they need to qualify for conference championships. These teams are Men’s and Women’s Tennis, Softball, and Baseball, according to Director of Athletics, Tim Murray. “For the rest of our sports aiming to get back to training, practicing and competition, we urge you for one last stretch of patience,” Murray said to his Student-Athletes. “We are very, very close to returning. The phase-in-process begins with some of our low-risk sports today and will continue with intermediate and then high-risk sports if conditions allow.”

The Music Department will now be able to utilize their individual practice huts behind the Student Center. There is also the potential for “limited, size-restricted, supervised outdoor activities in specifically designated areas” beginning next week, DiCaprio indicated.

DiCaprio shared lessons the college has learned from the pause. First, the ability to continue to hold in-person activities and events will be determined by “everyone’s cooperation and acceptance of personal responsibility for public health in each member of our community.” Further, like the rest of the country, Marist is seeing COVID-19 transmit differently than it did before. “We are seeing a changed pattern of coronavirus transmission, in which the virus spreads more efficiently, in which many individuals are infecting most or all of their close contacts.” In addition to this, a higher percentage of students that tested positive also experienced symptoms, opposed to lower rates in the fall.

Then, DiCaprio told students what they can do to help to stop the spread of COVID-19 on campus. In the past week, the number of active cases on campus has dropped below 100. According to the Marist COVID-19 Dashboard, there are 64 active cases and 633 total cases for the semester with the college administering 14,375 tests as of April 16. 

“Continue to practice social distancing, good personal hygiene, self-quarantine if you have any symptoms and wear your mask at all times,” DiCaprio said. “Do not go to surveillance testing if you have symptoms.” 

The college now endorses students to ‘double mask,’ the practice of wearing two masks at once for increased protection. DiCaprio recommended wearing a “multilayered cloth mask over a surgical mask.” Finally, DiCaprio reminded students to comply with the college’s biweekly surveillance testing.

DiCaprio ended the email by encouraging all students to get a COVID-19 vaccine, which will allow the college to ease restrictions further. Marist will host its final on-campus vaccine clinic on Tuesday, April 20. Students can sign up here. If you cannot get an appointment with Marist, click here to find appointments in Dutchess County, here for New York State, and here for anywhere across the country. If you have already been vaccinated, be sure to upload proof of vaccination to Marist Health Services.

Marist Allows Low-Risk Activities to Resume on April 16. Source: Greta Stuckey ‘23