Employees: COVID-19 Updates for Spring Semester

Jan. 5 Update: The Berrien County Health Department has recommended that it's best to wear masks that are at least two or three layers.

---

Jan. 3, 2022

Happy New Year, colleagues,

This note is to confirm and share further updates on COVID-19 expectations and protocols for our employees and our Andrews University community as spring semester begins a week from today, Jan. 10.

First, we pray and trust that your holidays, with family and friends and maybe even with some extra time for yourself, were blessed and safe.

As we prepare for this new semester we want to thank you for your ongoing and shared commitment to our Community Covenant of Care, which helps keep our campus community as safe as possible during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, especially as we face the rapidly expanding impact of the Omicron variant here in the United States and around the world.

We’d like to remind you of the virtual Employee Town Hall this Thursday, Jan. 6, at 3:30 p.m., which will review COVID-19 updates and protocols for spring semester and offer time for questions and answers. Thank you in advance for your participation in this critical discussion and review. We'll confirm Zoom details for this webinar shortly.

Over the holidays, plans for the Occupational Health & Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) were allowed to proceed. There have been previous legal appeals to this ETS; the Supreme Court will also review this new OSHA standard later this week.

Due to this development, overall ETS protocols for the University, including the implementation of the specific vaccination or testing standards for employees who are not fully vaccinated, are required to be in place by Feb. 10.

As we prepare for the implementation of this government standard over the next several weeks, employees will need to document full vaccination details online (we’ll share that link with you by email later this month) or begin required weekly testing for those who are not vaccinated, who have acquired immunity or who are partially vaccinated. Andrews University will cover the costs connected with University-provided weekly COVID-19 testing on campus for those who are not fully vaccinated. Any costs for COVID-19 tests completed off-campus to meet this requirement will not be reimbursed.

Andrews University will continue to monitor legal developments and other updates on the ETS and will share additional details on how it impacts you and the University. Please note that if you’re a contract employee working on our campus, e.g. through Dynamic Campus, Bon Appétit or Barnes & Noble, please confirm your employer’s expectations on the OSHA ETS guidelines directly with them.

Other COVID-19 mitigation steps already in place continue to remain essential for our community:

• Please continue to carefully limit your exposure. Also, please remember that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, is required to wear masks while indoors on campus. The indoor mask mandate has now been extended and remains in place through Jan. 31, 2022.
• Continue to practice physical distancing in group gatherings, as appropriate.
• Continue to report symptoms or exposures in a timely manner through #CampusClear.
• Decisions on in-person classes during inclement winter weather will follow the same approach as last school year, and we’ll plan to make decisions the night before. We will leave it at the discretion of individual faculty to communicate their expectations to their students regarding any remote teaching or assignments for that day.
• For those who have fully completed a primary COVID-19 vaccination, you are eligible to receive the booster shot, and we encourage you to please do so. This booster shot presents important added protection in the midst of a particularly contagious fifth wave of COVID-19 driven by the new Omicron variant, which has brought record levels of daily COVID-19 infections nationwide. Daily cases in the U.S. have doubled in recent weeks, with more than 400,000 cases/day, compared to a previous high of just over 300,000 cases/day in the winter COVID-19 surge early last year.

As we commit to beginning this new year and semester together as safely as possible, we pray for God’s blessings in this new year for you, for Andrews University and for your family and friends—and our world.

Andrea Luxton
President

Christon Arthur
Provost