Dear Students,
Welcome back to Wellesley! And it seems that Mother Nature wants to welcome you too, with a major snowstorm headed our way. Get ready. Be sure to get your supplies, snacks, medications, and anything else you might need in place today because tomorrow it could be very difficult to go outside or to leave campus. If you have a car, please remember that students should be parking in designated parking spaces.
And when you do go outside, marvel in the snowy beauty of our campus. Breathe the fresh air. Make a snow person – or an angel, or just a snowball. Please do not go on the lake. The frozen lake and ice can be unpredictable and while it is beautiful and tempting; DO NOT walk, stand or skate on the lake. Consider both your safety and the safety of others.
Covid safety protocols remain in effect until February 16th.
First the good news: just as the State is seeing a reduction in cases and positivity rates, so is the College. We are not nearly back at our Fall 2021 rates yet. Because we want to continue in- person classes, restoring the very low case rates from the fall is important. It will take as long, or longer, for omicron rates to come down as they took to go up. So a return to fall rates is predicted by late February. As a reminder, the restrictions include:
- Masks required in all buildings including the residence halls.
- Students are able to visit each other in their rooms but masks must be on.
- No eating with others in the residence halls. Please do not invite friends to eat with you in your room. It is not safe.
- Common rooms are open and programming is allowed but masks must be worn in all spaces where students are gathered indoors.
- No guests in the residence halls. I know that students are looking forward to when we can have guests in the halls again, but right now is not the time. So we need to maintain our rule that no guests may come into the halls. Again, we will revisit this once we see a significant change in the case counts.
Pooled testing begins next week.
There is no testing tomorrow due to the storm. Testing will follow the regular schedule on Sunday – from noon – 4pm.
Spring break travel will be allowed. Students can travel for spring break but there are no decisions yet regarding onboarding back to campus. We will communicate this as soon as we have a sense of the trajectory of the virus.
Student Life Advisory Group As you may be aware, the Student Life Advisory Group is a small group of students who meet monthly with the Dean of Students and other senior leadership members to discuss policies and practices and suggest ideas for improving the quality of student life. Currently there are sophomores through seniors involved and we could use one or two first years. If you are interested in applying to participate, please complete this form. We will get back to you at the end of next week. The commitment is a monthly meeting for 1.5 hours.
Have a safe, snowy weekend,
Sheilah Shaw Horton
Vice President and Dean of Students
