Important COVID-19 Update & Adjustments to Campus Activities
Saturday, October 3, 2020
Dear Albion Community,
We have learned that another member of our community has tested positive for COVID-19. This individual is currently in isolation. The Calhoun County Public Health Department is working to identify close contacts. This means that there are now five cases in isolation on campus. We are not aware of any linkage between these cases that would indicate a community spread outbreak at this time.
These new positive cases are the direct result of individuals actively choosing to violate the public health protocols of Together Safely, specifically through unapproved travel outside the bubble and visiting other residential facilities.
Simultaneous positives in more than one location on campus, together with an ambiguous result from an instance of wastewater testing, necessitate the following actions:
All non-academic athletic and co-curricular in-person activities will be immediately canceled until further notice. Activities may continue in a virtual format. All student employment will shift to a virtual format immediately. In the case where student employment is not possible remotely, that employment will need to be suspended until further notice.
Students will be limited to the following locations/activities outside of their residential location:
- Attending classes, academic support appointments, or scheduled tutoring sessions with faculty or staff.
- Retrieving mail and packages from the KC mailroom.
- Accessing academic resources/materials from the bookstore immediately before or after classes.
- Grab-and-go food pickup from Baldwin and the Eat Shop only.
- Retrieving library resources during temporary limited hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
All students, including athletes, are required to be tested on Monday and Tuesday in Washington Gardner as scheduled:
- Monday, October 5: all athletes, Wesley Hall and all fraternities.
- Tuesday, October 6: Whitehouse, Seaton, Mitchell Towers, all apartments (Munger Apartments & Munger House, The Mae, Briton, Burns, 416 & 507 Erie St.) and commuter students.
Results will begin coming in as early as Wednesday. Additional wastewater testing results will be available by Monday and new samples will be shipped Monday for test results returned on Tuesday. We will revisit the temporary cancelation of in-person non-academic activities once we have these test results.
We continue to be impressed with the concern that most students are illustrating for each other and the broader community through their increasing compliance with our public health protocols. However, we now know that some students are actively choosing to violate our protocols, putting all of us in danger and jeopardizing the safety of others outside of our campus bubble. For this reason, Dean Wright and the Student Development team will immediately activate the student conduct process — including the potential for suspensions and expulsions — for any student that clearly and actively violates any of our public health and safety protocols.
To be clear, this includes but is not limited to:
- Moving between residence halls.
- Any unapproved social gatherings.
- Leaving campus without permission for any reason.
- Not completing the daily health screening symptom check reporting in the Aura app.
- Failure to be tested on assigned dates and times.
Any student that does not comply with testing on Monday and Tuesday will face immediate temporary suspension pending participation in the conduct process.
Albion College has now completed and received more than 9773 test results, and identified a total of 17 positive cases from our first date of testing. To date, our overall positive testing rate is 0.17%, and our population positive rate is 0.85%. This is significantly lower than the national rate (4.8%) and the rate for the state of Michigan (3.06%).
In order for us to continue the semester on-campus, compliance with all of our public health protocols must increase and will be enforced. This includes proper mask-wearing, six feet physical distancing and remaining in your own residential assignment.
We continue to monitor compliance with our public health protocols with a goal to reduce restrictions over time. We cannot consider making changes to our policies until compliance with these measures increases.
All of us must live the commitment we made, the Albion Community Commitment, in order to be successful. We are confident Brits can do this — and we look forward to a continued productive, fun, healthy and safe fall semester.
Office of the President
For more information, see our Positive Test Response Protocol.
Note:
Testing percentage = % of total tests resulting in a positive.
Population percentage = % of population testing positive.
Important COVID-19 Update
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Dear Albion Community,
Last night, we learned that two new members of our community have tested positive for COVID-19. These individuals are currently in isolation. The Calhoun County Public Health Department is working to identify close contacts. This means that there are six active cases in our community, two in isolation off-campus and four in isolation on campus.
We have strong indications that these new positive cases are the result of individuals not following the public health protocols. Specifically, regular travel outside the bubble without permission to places with high public exposure and visiting residential facilities other than the one assigned for housing. Despite our hope to continue to see student compliance increase, it is clear it is now decreasing. More than 100 students did not report for testing last week and needed to be tracked down for testing earlier this week.
In order for us to continue the semester on-campus, together safely, we must increase compliance with all of our public health protocols. This includes mask-wearing, physical distancing and remaining in your own residential assignment.
In the coming days, we will be more fully activating the off-campus alerts and following up with students who violate the public health protocols. If we have evidence that the violations are intentional and persistent we will be forced to move toward the more severe conduct measures many other campuses have begun to use but that we have thus far avoided.
We continue to monitor compliance with our public health protocols with a goal to reduce restrictions over time. We cannot consider making changes to our policies until compliance with these measures increases.
Albion College has now completed and received more than 9553 test results, and identified a total of 16 positive cases from our first date of testing. To date, our overall positive testing rate is 0.16%, and our population positive rate is 0.8%. This is significantly lower than the national rate (4.8%) and the rate for the state of Michigan (3.55%).
All of us must live the commitment we made, the Albion Community Commitment, in order to be successful. I am confident Brits can do this — and I look forward to a productive, fun, healthy and safe fall semester.
Office of the President
For more information, see our Positive Test Response Protocol.
Note:
Testing percentage = % of total tests resulting in a positive.
Population percentage = % of population testing positive.
Important COVID-19 Update
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
Dear Albion Community,
Last night, we learned that two members of our community have tested positive for COVID-19. These individuals are currently in isolation. The Calhoun County Public Health Department is working to identify close contacts. This means that there are four active cases in our community, two in isolation off-campus and two in isolation on campus.
We continue to monitor compliance with our public health protocols with a goal to reduce restrictions over time. However, student compliance for on-time participation in testing appointments has decreased. If student testing returns to 100% compliance next week as scheduled, we may be able to consider reduced restrictions.
Likewise, now is not the time to relax on mask-wearing and physical distancing. If compliance with these measures increases, it will become more likely that we can reduce restrictions on campus.
Albion College has now completed and received more than 9167 test results, and identified a total of 14 positive cases from our first date of testing. To date, our overall positive testing rate is 0.15%, and our population positive rate is 0.7%. This is significantly lower than the national rate (4.8%) and the rate for the state of Michigan (3.55%).
All of us must live the commitment we made, the Albion Community Commitment, in order to be successful. I am confident Brits can do this — and I look forward to a productive, fun, healthy and safe fall semester.
Office of the President
For more information, see our Positive Test Response Protocol.
Note:
Testing percentage = % of total tests resulting in a positive.
Population percentage = % of population testing positive.
Important COVID-19 Update
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Dear Albion Community,
Today, we learned that a member of our community has tested positive for COVID-19. This individual is currently isolating off-campus. The Calhoun County Public Health Department is working to identify close contacts currently. This means that there are two active cases in our community, both isolating off-campus.
If compliance increases, we will consider scaling back restrictions that are currently in place to protect our community.
Albion College has now completed and received more than 8650 test results, and identified a total of 12 positive cases from our first date of testing. To date, our overall positive testing rate is 0.13%, and our population positive rate is 0.6%. This is significantly lower than the national rate (4.8%) and the rate for the state of Michigan (2.91%).
All of us must live the commitment we made, the Albion Community Commitment, in order to be successful. I am confident Brits can do this — and I look forward to a productive, fun, healthy and safe fall semester.
Office of the President
For more information, see our Positive Test Response Protocol.
Note:
Testing percentage = % of total tests resulting in a positive.
Population percentage = % of population testing positive.
