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Health, Wellbeing and Belonging

Dec. 30, 2021 – Message on Spring 2022 for faculty

Posted by on Thursday, December 30, 2021 in Community Messages.

Dear faculty,

As a follow-up to today’s email from Chancellor Diermeier, Provost Raver and Vice Chancellor Kopstain, I write to share guidance on Spring 2022 COVID protocols, including a pre-semester testing requirement, expansion of the regular asymptomatic testing program, the return of sentinel testing, and the current masking mandate.

All community members, including faculty, must take a COVID-19 test between now and Jan. 14 regardless of your vaccination and booster status. You can test at home (a PCR or rapid antigen test is acceptable), at a community testing center, or at Vanderbilt’s Testing Center at the David Williams II Recreation and Wellness Center, which is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 4–6 and Jan. 10–13.

  • If your test result is negative, you can return to campus. If you test at home or elsewhere, you do not need to submit proof of a negative test. Vanderbilt test results will be shared automatically with the university.
  • If your test result is positive, you must share your test result with the Command Center and isolate at home in accordance with the latest CDC guidelines.

As you will recall, the university has instituted a weekly testing protocol to maximize our community’s health and well-being, wherein individuals who are not vaccinated are required to be tested weekly. This protocol has now been extended to include those individuals who have not yet received the booster. Accordingly, you must submit proof of a booster to be exempt from the regular asymptomatic testing program. 

  • Individuals who have not provided any vaccination documentation will be required to test twice a week.
  • Individuals who have provided documentation of completed vaccination but not of a booster will be required to test once a week.
  • Individuals who have provided documentation of completed vaccination and a booster will be exempt from asymptomatic testing.

We also are relaunching the sentinel testing program to test randomly selected asymptomatic students, faculty, staff and postdocs, regardless of their vaccination and booster status.

Masks will again be required indoors on campus at all times, except when in an enclosed office by yourself. For now, this includes masking while you are teaching.

We will continue to provide updates and adjust our plans and protocols as needed in response to the latest public health information and guidance from our colleagues who are leading experts on the pandemic. I also encourage you to attend the virtual town hall for faculty scheduled for Friday, Jan. 7, at 11 a.m.

I look forward to seeing you on campus in 2022.

Sincerely,

Tracey George
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs