President

Phase 2 Updates

Dear all,

After 14 days of having 0 active cases on campus, we are sending an update to the community standards, effective today. Thank you all for your commitment to the community’s health and safety!

The changes:

  1. Within the houses, students may begin to “pod” within residences with four or fewer students. This means, you may select rooms with which to pod, ideally proximal to your room and inclusive of all roommates in those rooms. With these four students, you may remove masks and reduce 6 feet distance. You may eat together inside or outside, and generally treat each other as a “family unit.” Note that if any students in the pod have a positive test, all pod members will be separated and will self-quarantine for 14 days. This change does not affect the THs, TAs, Socos, suites, and quads, in which the apartments are already set up as pods. Please use this form to register as a pod. If you have any questions, please refer to the following FAQ page or reach out directly to your House Advisor. Pods must be registered with your House Advisor; reports to Campus Safety or the Community Cares Team will be cross-referenced with the pod registration information.
  2. For classes held in tents, faculty and students may remove your masks if you are all stationary and 6 feet apart from everyone, and if the instructor and all students in the class are comfortable to have masks removed. Faculty will convene discussions with the class to come to a consensus decision for the class. Regardless of the decision of the class, individual instructors and students may continue to wear masks if preferred. As always, everyone must complete the health assessment daily and not come to campus if you have symptoms or are feeling ill.
  3. Open Tennis and Basketball is now available to the Vassar campus community at the Josselyn Outdoor Tennis Courts by reservation. For further information and to reserve a spot, please visit here.

Items that have not changed

Students still must stay on campus at all times, and the campus remains closed to non-essential visitors (except for highly controlled circumstances). If you have an urgent need to be off-campus, please contact Director of Case Management Erika Pappas, who can help. Failure to remain on campus can result in removal from campus to study remotely for the rest of the semester.

We all still must wear a mask inside (unless students are with people in your pod only) and outdoors (unless you are 6 feet apart and stationary)

Students may gather informally in groups of 10 or fewer inside or outside, in masks, with 6 feet distance. You may gather in groups of 25 or less outdoors for pre-approved events. All such events must be approved by Campus Activities.

We will continue to monitor the health situation, to prioritize campus and community health and safety. We may move to Phase 3 later in the semester depending on our COVID-19 cases, and we will keep you posted on those plans.

Again, thank you so much for all you are each doing to keep yourselves and our community healthy and safe through this uncertain and unparalleled time.

President Bradley

Elizabeth H. Bradley, President
VASSAR COLLEGE
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
@EHBVassar