Employees: COVID-19 Updates, 2022-2023 School Year

August 11, 2022

Dear colleagues,

It’s exciting to be making our final preparations for the new 2022–2023 school year.

We make those plans as many COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines have continued to change, or even be relaxed, in the United States and around the world. Even so, we will continue to each have important shared responsibilities for the health and safety of the Andrews community here on our Berrien Springs campus.

Please note that it is still not possible to completely eliminate the risk of COVID-19 infection. Nevertheless, each one of us as faculty and staff must continue to take significant steps to help significantly reduce the risk and spread of COVID-19 infection by continuing to protect and care for our own and others’ health and safety—which includes keeping up our immunity through healthy lifestyle choices, frequent hand washing and sanitizing, making the choice to wear face masks in extended, close contact with others, and choosing to be up-to-date on our COVID-19 vaccinations (which continue to be strongly encouraged but not required).

At this point, there will be no required formal campus-wide COVID-19 testing this school year, however it’s important for anyone who’s symptomatic or ill to self-test for COVID-19 (see local testing options here).

Those shared responsibilities also mean making the responsible choice to stay home when you’re sick, regardless of your illness, to help protect your own health and the health of our community. If you do test positive, please report that test result using this Google form.

The University also currently has no employee travel restrictions in place this school year. We do recommend that you take personal precautions, such as wearing masks when traveling and keeping vaccinations up to date as another layer of protection. Be sure to confirm vaccination (COVID-19 or other vaccination) requirements at your travel destination before beginning your travel—this will be a requirement when you are leading a student group in travel.

If you haven’t visited it recently, please carefully review the revised and updated information on our Andrews University COVID-19 website. In particular, please review the revised 2022–2023 Community Covenant of Care and the accompanying Statement of Responsibility, which both apply to all members of the Andrews University community on our Berrien Springs campus. As has been true throughout this pandemic, our mitigation protocols can and will change if the direct COVID-19 risks increase in our southwest Michigan community.

We are grateful for the care and commitment you have offered as Andrews University employees during this challenging COVID-19 journey, now nearly two and a half years long.

As we begin a new school year, may God bless our campus as we share responsibilities and commit to keeping each other safe and healthy.

Cordially,

Andrea Luxton
President

Christon Arthur
Provost