August 27, 2020
Greetings Faculty and Staff,
I hope the semester is off to a great start for you. The students I have spoken to say they are glad to be back on campus, despite the technology challenges, distancing, and mask requirements. Thank you all again for working to create a safe environment where students can learn and get the assistance they need to succeed.
Our buildings are open and we need to continue to work to have an on-campus presence with appropriately and safely staffed offices. It is important for students to be able to get the help they need when they visit various offices, so thanks for working on staffing schedules to ensure students are greeted by a friendly member of the Titan Family. The contactless portals are also getting up to speed to provide virtual access to friendly faces at safe distances. The interactions we have with our students are critical for making sure they feel like they belong as valued members of our campus community. This, in turn, is an important factor for keeping students enrolled and on track for graduation.
Hopefully by now you have all received your IU face masks. If you have not, please visit the Gateway Information Center. As a reminder we also have disposable masks available at a variety of locations if needed (see for locations).
Health and Safety Reminders
Wearing your face mask is an essential component of our plans to keep everyone safe. It is important that your mask completely covers BOTH your mouth and your nose. You are required to have a mask on at all times with the exception of below:
- In enclosed spaces when you are alone AND the door is completely closed. Please note that doors cannot be partially open or ajar if you are taking off your mask.
- During eating or drinking as long you are able to maintain adequate physical distance from others. When you are done eating, please put your mask back on if you are in the Grill or other public space.
- During university-sanctioned artistic performances, such as when playing wind and brass instruments, acting, singing, etc.
Everyone is required to wear a mask inside our buildings, even if you are the only one around. IU also recently came out with these that might be helpful.
Members of the IU South Bend community can report violations of the university’s COVID-19 health and safety directives . It’s important for us to kindly remind each other of these requirements and to report violations so we can be sure that our compliance levels are high.
COVID-19 Testing
IU has released of students moving into the residence halls across the university. Overall, the positivity rate was 0.91% and ours was just over 1% - well within expectations and manageability. IU will also be coming out with a COVID-19 data dashboard later this week. I also want to remind you about the IU video on as well as the video series with Dr. Aaron Carroll, which are both great resources. IU medical experts are closely monitoring the testing and trend data on a daily basis.
To help keep our community safe, IU will begin conducting ongoing of students, faculty, and staff starting next week. Each week a random sample of the IUSB community will be contacted via email to schedule an appointment for a saliva test. It should only take a minute for you to provide a saliva sample. Samples will be sent to a lab for analysis and results will come back in two to five days. Those testing positive will receive detailed instructions from IU Health on isolation and next steps, including isolation procedures. Students, faculty, and staff who are working or learning in a fully remote mode all this semester may be exempt from mitigation testing. This mitigation testing is essential to IU’s ability to continue to safely offer in-person education this year; without it, we have no way to identify individual asymptomatic cases before they spread to others. If contacted, it's critical and required that you participate. Our goal is to test 430 members of the IU South Bend community each week. Many thanks to Maureen Muldoon and Tiffany German-Hall for overseeing our mitigation testing effort, our facilities staff for setting up the testing site, and to those helping to staff the site in its first couple of weeks. We couldn’t do this without you!
Reminders for Students
Some of you have asked for a list of the more important things to emphasize with students right now. Here are the top messages you can help communicate:
- Sign the .
- Stay vigilant with distancing, mask-wearing, and sanitizing.
- Participate in mitigation testing when contacted.
- If sick, stay home. Anyone who tests positive is required to report any COVID-19 test result they have obtained off campus or if they have been identified by public health officials as a close contact of someone with COVID-19 using .
- Familiarize themselves with , Canvas, and Zoom and make sure they can access these resources on their laptop, tablet, or desktop computer. If they are concerned that they may not have the technology or internet access needed we have . We have also identified spaces in the library if students need a while on campus.
- Stay engaged and get involved. We will continue to offer events and co-curricular experiences both in-person and virtual this semester.
- Check this for information on hours and access.
- Read the Daily Titan, daily. It contains timely campus information as well as event and student organization information.
Please take the time to help students who might need a little extra support or wayfinding as they come back to campus. For many, it is their first time on campus having participated in virtual orientation and registration events. Thank you for being flexible and patient as we all come back together, safely.
I want to conclude by taking a moment to acknowledge the shooting of Jacob Blake this week. This event is the latest in a series of tragic reminders of how much work we have to do to dismantle systems of racial oppression in our nation and communities. Let us continue to commit to meeting this crucial challenge together.