Health and Safety Update for the Fall

To: Wellesley College Faculty and Staff
From: Piper Orton, Vice President for Administration and Finance and Treasurer, and Karen Petrulakis, General Counsel
Re: Health and Safety Update for the Fall
Date: August 16, 2021

As we look forward to welcoming all students, faculty, and staff back to campus together for the first time since March 2020, we want to share some additional detail around Wellesley’s multilayered approach to health and safety this fall. Our approach is anchored by several important protective measures, including our vaccine requirement for all faculty, staff, and students; masking requirement inside all academic and administrative buildings; and weekly COVID-19 testing for our entire campus community. The purpose of this email is to share details about the testing process to make sure our campus community understands how to participate.

Weekly Testing
All faculty, staff, and students on campus will be tested once weekly as part of a pooled PCR testing program with the Broad Institute. With pooled testing, all individuals are tested using a nasal swab, and the samples are analyzed in groups of 10. If a pool result is positive, each person in the pool will receive an email and/or text with instructions to promptly retest—the same day or the next day—with both individual BinaxNOW (rapid antigen) and individual PCR tests. Individuals are not considered positive until an individual positive test result is obtained. Faculty and staff might also receive an email and/or text with instructions to retest if the result is inconclusive.

The College’s testing sites this year will be at the College Club and in the Beebe dining hall, which is across College Rd. from the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center. All follow-up testing (with BinaxNow and an individual PCR test) will take place at the College Club.

Whether you are new to the College’s COVID-19 testing program or will be testing for the first time, you will need to do the following:

• Complete the following three forms in the Fall 2021 Documentation Toolbox on MyWellesley. Once completed, each one will turn green. If any of these three are red, you will not be able to test:

  • 2021–2022 Consent to SARS-COV-2 Testing
  • 2021–2022 COVID Acknowledgment
  • Broad Test Data Check

• Between August 30 and September 11, we ask that faculty and staff test in the Beebe dining hall in order for the College to manage the arrival and testing of our 2,200 students, who will all test at the College Club. Testing at Beebe is open every day during this time period, and you may come without an appointment between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.

• Beginning the week of September 12, faculty and staff preferences will be used to assign your testing day and location for the semester. Fill out your testing day and location preference using the form in the toolbox. The regular testing schedule will be Sunday through Thursday.

• Save the phone number for Contact Tracing (781.474.0383) in your phone so that you will recognize a phone call from this number. Note that OEHN nurses may need to reach you regarding health matters, so please be attentive to these calls or voicemails.
• Bring your College ID to the testing site on the day you are testing. If you need a replacement College ID, you may request one from Campus Police. Campus Police will email you when the new card is ready for pick up.

Following is an overview of the testing schedule for the next several weeks. Faculty and staff who plan to return to campus before the week of August 30 should plan to begin your weekly testing the week that you return. We are asking all faculty and staff to come to campus to test during the week of August 30—even if you are not returning to work on campus until the week of September 6—to ensure all have tested negative prior to the first week of classes.

In addition to the shift to pooled testing, we are implementing a number of other changes to our health and safety protocols:

• Contact Tracing: In the pooled testing model, only individuals who test positive in an individual follow-up test to a pool positive will be contacted by one of our contact tracers to identify close contacts. Close contacts who are vaccinated will not need to quarantine unless they are symptomatic, but they will be asked to take additional precautions to protect against the spread of infection. Unvaccinated close contacts will need to quarantine. Contact tracers will be emailing from contacttracing@wellesley.edu or calling from 781.474.0383. Please put this number into your contacts in your phone.

• Symptom Tracker: Beginning the week of August 30, we will discontinue the daily health check and transition to a symptom tracker, which only needs to be filled out if you are experiencing symptoms. This will enable a nurse from our occupational health and safety consultant to contact you. If you are experiencing symptoms, do not come to campus.

• Tents: We will be installing several outdoor tents that faculty and staff can reserve as classroom or meeting space. Booking will be available through 25Live.

Remember to check the Keeping Wellesley Healthy website often for the latest information on Wellesley’s approach to health and safety this fall.

* 8/23/21: Please note a correction in the testing schedule. Testing at Beebe will not begin until Sunday, August 29. The previous language indicated it would begin on Thursday, August 26.