Dear Faculty Senators, Deans, Chairs, and friends,
Welcome back (not that we went anywhere). We hope you did have a chance to relax and be refreshed over the holiday, at least for a little bit.
Here’s a 10-minute video to help think about coming back to classes next week.
As we get going, we want to make sure you’ve had a chance to think about COVID safety for the coming semester. The news about the vaccine is exciting, but it’s only one layer in our “Swiss Cheese Model,” especially given the time the vaccine rollout will take. The other layers remain important: Masks are still required in public areas on campus and in Kirksville. Daily symptom checking is expected. Classes should continue to enforce social distancing and
Many students coming back to Kirksville and may need to quarantine or may want to self-quarantine right away. We encourage you to support that if you can, and maybe even think about creative ways to do the first week of class. We were all sent information over break about General COVID-19 Protocols and Quarantine/Isolation Protocols. You might consider including it in the information and materials you share with students or go over in the first days of class.
Our local Walgreens has recently added COVID-19 testing, increasing Kirksville’s capacity. Remember that students can be tested on campus, but faculty and stuff can use Walgreens, Hy-Vee, local Urgent Care centers, and your own health provider. You might even want to think about having a COVID-19 test this week. Testing isn’t perfect either, but it’s one more layer in the “Swiss Cheese Model” and might help you feel better about a new semester.
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Please forward this information to your departments or other interested groups of faculty, students, staff, alumni, and friends. Although we aim these videos and sheets at faculty, please share the video and this information with students in your classes and elsewhere.
Our earlier videos and Tip Sheets are available here:
https://www.truman.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-working-group-videos/
If there are other questions or things you’d like to know more about, please contact us at: ndmoore@truman.edu
-Faculty Senate COVID-19 Working Group
(Nancy Daley-Moore, Christine Harker, and Scott Alberts)