Thursday 2.5 update

As you know from yesterday, our state is moving to a Phase 2.5 status, which brings with it some good news: beginning Tuesday, we will gradually open our wellbeing center and gym facilities for lower-risk activities (outdoor recreational activities will still remain available). In addition, student organizations that have completed COVID training requirements may begin live on-campus events and activities on September 7. Yay!

Our goal remains to keep our students safe and keep them here, and we are attentive to higher ed trends and what is happening at other schools with COVID. As such, one of the things that we are maintaining right now is the limits on group sizes. Those are staying at 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors (for both on and off campus gatherings).

I want to make sure everyone understands maintaining smaller gathering sizes is not meant to be draconian, but to be medically prudent. The risks of a congregate living environment (i.e., people living in close community/proximity, such as a college, nursing home, etc.) require us to make our own decisions on health and safety. Smaller-sized events also allow us to do effective contact tracing, which is critical to our mitigation efforts. You can read the full 2.5 message here.

I also want to brag on your students today, because I heard this at at least two COVID meetings today: your students are behaving in a really exemplary way. Their mask compliance and social distancing are remarkably good, and we are so grateful. Our students have truly stepped up and we are so proud of them. Lavish a little extra love on them for all their great work!! You can see them in action through this video of the first week and our photo gallery.

Heard the following message in one of my meetings and was asked to pass this on to families: if your student thinks they have been exposed to COVID, please make sure they contact our Student Health Service for guidance (rather than run out to a minute clinic or something like that). It’s important that students connect with SHS staff, as they are steeped in the guidance needed for college students.

We’ll close today with this: we all know that our students want and need connection, and we do not want them to feel isolated, particularly our ’24 new students and our transfer students. The weather is going to start cooling down on Saturday, which will be a welcome change (and will give even more motivation to be outdoors and enjoy our beautiful campus).  If your students are still trying to find more connections, here’s some suggestions on how to meet other people and find their network:

Find one person from each of your academic classes and one person from your residence hall that you haven’t already gotten to know. Reach out to them and ask them to get together for some activity in the next week:

Take a walk to Reynolda Village. If you want to, get May Way Dumplings (best in the city!)

Try every tent. Meet another student in each of the tents on campus and figure out which one feels like your spot.

Play a game. Reserve one of the Recreation Go games and play with a friend.

Expand your palate. Grab a friend and make a point to eat at every single one of our dining venues. You could even make a game of it in your residence hall with a small group of friends, with a sign up sheet saying which venues you are trying on which night, and having a group discussion after you have cycled through them all. Don’t forget to eat at the off-the-beaten-path ones, like Legal Grounds.

Study group al fresco: take a blanket or a camp chair for each of you and study together outside, or talk about what you learned in class. (And then when your work is done, get to know each other).

See what is blooming in Reynolda Gardens. They have a beautiful formal garden, and there is a giant lawn in front of Reynolda House, perfect for frisbee or catch or impromptu soccer.

Grab a coffee and a pastry (you know I am shameless in my love for Camino Bakery) and hang out. Meet a new person and trade stories.

Take a walk down Faculty Drive with a friend, or make the loop around campus.

Attend a virtual event with a friend. You can be in your room (both masked) but logged in on one computer to see the same event.

You get the idea. It takes a little effort on your part to make that outreach (and as an introvert myself, I know that can be hard!), but every time you put yourself out there, you have the potential of making connections and building your network of support.

— by Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (’92, MA ’94)