Pause Extended Through April 11
The college has extended the campus-wide pause through April 11. The voluntary precautionary pause began on March 17 and has now been extended five times, making it the longest pause of the year. Sunday will mark 25 consecutive days. The college is planning to resume in-person classes on Monday, April 12.
“We are writing to inform you that Marist is planning to resume on-campus courses effective Monday, April 12,” Vice President for Student Affairs Deborah DiCaprio said. “Students who have remained on campus and participated in mandatory surveillance testing can begin to attend in-person classes immediately. Students who have left campus during the pause must have a negative COVID test before attending classes in person.”
The college is currently at an orange alert level for COVID-19 cases, indicating cases are rapidly increasing and transmission is less controlled. Last updated on April 7, the COVID-19 dashboard shows a total of 560 COVID-19 cases and 149 total active cases. The college has administered 11,099 tests and will continue surveillance testing and targeted testing during the pause.
“Moving forward, we will be very cautious about our planned resumption of activities and continue to make decisions based on data,” DiCaprio said. “If the number of positive cases moves in the wrong direction over the next few days or once we resume activities, we may impose additional restrictions. On the other hand, if we continue to drive down our rates and students get vaccinated, we will be able to release additional restrictions.”
Students who stayed on campus during the extended pause and have complied with COVID-19 surveillance testing are allowed to attend in-person classes starting Monday, April 12 as long as the college sees the number of cases decrease over the next four days. Any students who have not complied with surveillance testing will be sent an email on April 9 with information on testing slots.
“Students who did not participate in surveillance testing from March 29-April 8 will be assigned a date to return to campus and must complete mandatory arrival testing,” DiCaprio said. “These students will be required to practice a self-imposed quarantine (take classes online, eat in their room, limit interactions with others) until test results are received by the College. Students should return to campus on the day of their arrival testing and not before.”
The college is encouraging students to get vaccinated and wants students who have received their COVID-19 vaccine to upload their proof of vaccination to marist.medicatconnect.com. The college is having students report their vaccine information so they can have an accurate count of fully vaccinated students.
“We are pleased to announce that we will be supplementing the general resources noted above by providing additional vaccines starting next week, through our partnership with Westchester Medical Center and Dutchess County,” DiCaprio said. “It is important to note that we will have a limited supply, so we encourage you to pursue options or other methods. More information about this additional vaccination program will be released shortly.”
The email sent by DiCaprio did not specifically mention if other in-person activities like athletics and dining would resume on Monday with classes. The College also didn’t specify the policies to be followed during the continued pause. Instead, the college focused on getting students back in the classroom on Monday and encouraging them to get vaccinated.
“Thank you again for your continued commitment to keeping our community safe,” DiCaprio said.
Pause Extended until April 11 with plans of starting in person classes on April 12. Source: Greta Stuckey ‘23