Week 1 Update, Vice President for Student Life

Happy Monday, Students!

Welcome to Week 1 of spring semester. I realize that none of us anticipated having a remote start to classes. However, with the advent of the Omicron surge, we felt it was best for our community to keep the campus as de-densified as possible and provide ample time for all of us to entry-test and receive our booster doses if we have not already done so.

Residential students were required to also take a pre-entry test (evidence of a negative test prior to coming to campus). That requirement helped to identify some students who were actually infectious and so those students delayed their travel to campus. For students who have arrived on campus but have not completed their testing, you must do so immediately so as not to risk any delay in attending your classes. If you have questions you should email covid19info@lclark.edu as soon as possible. The Wellness staff are experiencing a very high volume of emails, so please be patient as you wait for a reply.

Please remember to monitor your LC email account for messages from the College. One thing that Omicron has shown us is that we have to make decisions quickly and the situation is highly changeable. As soon as we have updated information, we will send that information to your LC email account.

Here is the latest regarding positive COVID cases:

• COVID-19 cases: We tested 353 individuals this week. Entry testing will begin in earnest over the next few days as well. Of the 353, we had 5 CAS students, one law student, one contract staff member and one CAS employee test positive for an overall positivity rate of 2.27%.

I encourage you to continue monitoring for any COVID-like symptoms and keep practicing good health mitigation efforts. It is extremely important that everyone limit their social interactions (temporarily), and, having received a negative entry test, only socialize with individuals inside of your “pod”, until we have a better idea of the overall positivity rate of the campus. These next few weeks may be bumpy; there is a likelihood that the number of cases on campus will increase. We will do our best to respond to the situation, and we ask that you do your best to follow the health mitigation and enhanced social distancing measures that we recommend.

All the best,

Robin H. Holmes-Sullivan
Vice President and Dean of Students