Barnard Breaks From Columbia's Original Guidance

Upper West Side NY

30 July, 2021

10:30 AM

Description

Columbia Daily Spectator BY DIA GILL JULY 29, 2021 In an email to the Barnard community sent out this afternoon, administrators announced updated guidelines for the fall 2021 semester related to COVID-19 testing, social distancing, and the use of space on campus. The college's updates are the first to be announced since a June 24 email that notified students of the fall vaccination requirement, and they come amid rising concerns surrounding a national surge in COVID-19 cases. As the highly contagious Delta variant continues to disproportionately infect unvaccinated populations across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that vaccinated individuals resume wearing masks indoors, reversing previous recommendations, in areas that have recorded more than 50 new infections per 100,000 residents over the previous week. All five of New York City's boroughs meet this benchmark. Barnard's fall procedures note varying standards for vaccinated and unvaccinated affiliates. All students are required to receive their final dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or document an approved exemption by August 16 in order to access campus. Regardless of vaccination status, all faculty, staff, and students accessing campus will be required to fulfill a regular COVID-19 testing requirement and continue to wear masks indoors. Vaccinated students will be able to access outdoor spaces without masks, face relaxed indoor physical distancing requirements, and dine in person at Barnard's on-campus dining locations, including Hewitt Hall, the Diana Center, and Peet's Coffee in the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning. Unvaccinated students will only be permitted to access to-go dining services, are expected to continue wearing masks outdoors, and "will be informed of any additional distancing precautions that may be required." Today's email also addresses the use of campus spaces, stating that they will be "prioritized for instruction" and meeting spaces are expected to be "somewhat limited." Events and meetings that will only include affiliated members of the Barnard and Columbia community can be held in-person and scheduled prior to the fall, with the assumption that attendees are in compliance with Barnard's vaccination requirements. Barnard's announcement differs from policies announced by Columbia on June 17, when daily positive cases in New York City were comfortably below one percent. Then-interim Provost Ira Katznelson announced that campus spaces would be fully utilized and that masking and distancing would no longer be required once the University reached fully-vaccinated status on September 9. "We are extremely grateful for the many staff and faculty members who have worked tirelessly to reinvent our operations, develop new systems, and thoughtfully develop protocols to best protect the community," today's email reads. "All the above is subject to change as we will continue with our principles of being adaptable and nimble in response to the dynamic nature of what is still a global pandemic." News Editor Dia Gill can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @_diagill. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.