Dear colleagues,
As of Wednesday night, the city of Salem was classified in the red zone due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. It is not a surprise that Salem has joined 11 other communities in this category, including neighboring cities such as Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, Revere, and Saugus.
Some of you may be wondering how this new information changes our fall repopulation plans—at this time, it doesn’t. Fortunately, the safety plan we have put in place for our campus helped us prepare for modest increases in positive rates. With the required resident student move-in testing along with the ongoing surveillance testing, and the daily symptom monitoring through the CoVerified app, our campus is currently as safe, if not safer, than home for many of our students.
Just to put this in context, when we made our plans in June for the repopulation of campus, the Commonwealth was at a . The Commonwealth is . . For Salem, we’re basically at the same rate as when our fall plan was envisioned. Overall the Commonwealth is doing well with the rate of positivity decreasing in the last 14 days. However, among cities and towns with at least 15 new cases in the last two weeks, there are 25 communities experiencing higher percentages of positive cases in that same time period. The city of Salem is ranked ninth on that list. This means that we all need to be fully committed to the safety measures we have put in place, including the required wearing of face coverings and physical distancing, along with following gathering restrictions, and other guidelines.
We have consulted with city and state officials in regard to this matter. Neither Commissioner Santiago nor the Massachusetts Department of Public Health have indicated this change in status requires us to alter our course. We have been directed to continue to work with our local health agent, as we’ve been doing since this spring. Elisa Castillo, assistant dean of students for wellness, who speaks regularly with the city of Salem’s Department of Public Health, requested their guidance on how Salem’s reclassification may impact our repopulation efforts. City Health Agent David Greenbaum also agrees that we should move forward with our planned course. However, as has been the case during the length of the pandemic, we will continue to make the best decisions as more information becomes available. We will continue to consult with state and local officials to inform our plans and will be ready to change course if needed.
I want to share this information as you may be hearing directly from students who are concerned. We are seeing an increasing “melt” in students who planned to live on campus. In fact, we have gone from having a wait list just two weeks ago to having more than 150 beds available. This means that there will be an additional gap in our FY21 budget. Safety has always been our number one priority and I believe that we remain in a good position to mitigate the spread of coronavirus on our campus.
I am holding open forums next Thursday, August 20 at 2 pm and 4 pm to further discuss our strategies for repopulating our campus, including the safety measures that have been put in place. I hope you will have the opportunity to join me and I welcome the chance to answer, as best I can, any questions you may have about this evolving situation.
Sincerely,
John D. Keenan
President