Dear Hamilton Community Members,
This weekend, Colgate University and the Village of Hamilton will welcome students back for a new academic year. This annual tradition takes place at an extraordinary moment, and I write with what I expect to be the first of many community updates during the fall 2020 semester.
I encourage you to read the full details of Colgate’s preparation for in-person education:
- Commitment to Community Health
- Colgate Reopening Plan Submitted to New York State
- Universal Quarantine for Students
- Return to On-Campus Operations
I would also like to highlight key elements that are likely to be the most important to the Hamilton community.
Students will arrive during scheduled time blocks beginning this Saturday through Tuesday. The University’s staff and faculty will take on the work involved in moving belongings into residence halls. Families are not permitted in University housing and have been encouraged to leave the area quickly after dropping off their students and their belongings. They have also been reminded of New York State regulations regarding visitors from out of state.
Students, regardless of home state, will be placed in a mandatory, universal quarantine. For most students, the universal mandatory quarantine will end at 7 a.m. on September 8. Every day, hundreds of staff members will deliver thousands of pre-packaged meals to residence halls. Textbooks and school supplies have already been placed in rooms.
Colgate has begun a robust COVID-19 testing and monitoring protocol, which includes:
- A student pre-arrival at-home test, which must be negative in order to arrive on campus
- Testing students within 24 hours of arrival at Colgate
- 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 SARS-CoV-2 and to help determine subsequent population or individual-level testing
Staff and faculty who will work with students on campus this fall were also tested earlier this week prior to students’ arrival.
Some students have spent the summer on campus and have already completed two quarantine periods and two rounds of COVID testing. They will live at the Wendt University Inn, apart from the rest of our students, through Sept. 8. You might see them on campus and in the village — they will not be in violation of our protocols and have been directed to wear face coverings while following other New York State and Colgate mandates to promote health and safety.
The University has established a Health Analytics Team that has developed more than 22 metrics to monitor the community’s public health. We will publish a dashboard of their findings on our website. It will be updated each day, and I encourage you to monitor it with us. The data points you will see on this dashboard will open or close a series of Gates on campus, similar to New York State reopening phases. If conditions hold steady for at least two full weeks, a new Gate will open and activity will move closer to a new normal, in keeping with New York State regulations. Negative trends will close Gates, triggering more restrictions for the Colgate community.
Please review our Gates, and if you see a situation that you believe violates our current status, please address it with the student directly, or you may fill out this form to inform us for follow-up.
A Colgate education is founded on in-person engagement in a community environment, and we are committed to doing everything we can to protect the health of our students and our neighbors. University employees have been working tirelessly toward this goal. Students are also members of this village and are expected to demonstrate an awareness of this membership by caring for others as well as themselves. To that end, each of them have been required to sign a Commitment to Community Health.
We have dedicated significant human and financial resources to the University’s reopening efforts, because we care about our students and we value our relationship with you. We are doing this together so we can be together, learn together, and thrive together.
If you have any questions or concerns, please email covid19@colgate.edu.
Best wishes,
Laura H. Jack
Vice President for Communications