Photo: Middlebury campus. Courtesy photo.
by Bruce Edwards, Vermont Business Magazine Middlebury College is implementing the following three-phase approach to the fall semester.
Before coming to campus, all students must sign the Middlebury Health Pledge that is specific to students, and faculty and staff must sign one designed for employees to affirm they are willing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 restrictions and Middlebury’s health and safety policies.
There will be three phases of the fall semester.
The first is Campus Quarantine, which begins when the first students arrive on Aug 18 and lasts until at least September 15. It's the most restrictive, with only small gatherings allowed, most services provided to students online or by telephone. There is no local travel.
If health conditions allow, the college will move on to subsequent phases which will gradually ease some restrictions, such as allowing local travel off campus for errands, while maintaining health precautions and ensuring all activities are in compliance with the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development requirements.
If health conditions require the college to move back to a more restrictive phase, it is prepared to do so.
Middlebury is implementing a robust testing program in partnership with the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Broad Institute. Each student will receive a COVID-19 viral test upon arrival on Day 0 and again on Day 7.
After the arrival testing, students will move into their rooms and quarantine there until the Day 0 test results are back.
Students who are unable to meet the 14-day pre-arrival quarantine period must remain in room quarantine until after their second test results have been returned and are negative.
In addition to universal testing for students upon arrival, viral tests will be administered to randomly selected healthy students, faculty, and staff frequently throughout the fall semester and possibly the entire 2020–21 academic year.
Other new guidelines include wearing face coverings, physical distancing, contact tracing, a protocol for rapid isolation of students who become infected with COVID-19 and self-quarantine for those exposed, and a variety of changes to coursework, housing, dining, and other aspects of campus life.
Bruce Edwards is a freelance writer from Southern Vermont.