Operating Mode Announcement

Dear students, staff and faculty:

We have been carefully monitoring pandemic conditions on campus and within the surrounding community while we prepare for the beginning of the spring semester and the end of our blue operating mode on January 31.

Notably, our campus positivity rates have been declining and we have not identified significant on-campus transmission of COVID-19. While we remain hopeful that these trends will continue, we will enter orange mode on Monday, January 31, for one week to better allow cases in our community to further subside.

January 31 - February 6

Effective Monday, January 31, Smith College will move to orange mode. For details, please see https://www.smith.edu/covid19/operating-modes.

As a reminder, orange mode includes the following guidance:

• In-person classes resume on Monday, January 31.
• Staff whose jobs are already being performed remotely should continue to work remotely.
• Testing cadence for students and any employees on campus will be twice per week.

Employees: please ensure that you have a negative result from a PCR test before your assigned return date. The test must be taken within 72 hours of your return to campus. PCR tests may be taken through the on-campus testing program or a testing site that is more convenient for employees who do not live near campus. As a reminder, rapid antigen at-home tests are not approved for return-to-work clearance.

February 7

On Monday, February 7, we hope the college will be able to transition to yellow mode. Should conditions require a different course of action, this change may be delayed.

Notably, yellow mode guidance includes all staff returning to their on-campus work schedules. Managers are asked to begin planning and approving a phased return of staff not currently on campus, starting February 7, and continuing throughout the month of February. Staff participating in the hybrid remote work program may continue their approved schedules pending review of that program.

These mode changes, along with any future mode changes, will be communicated through email and through the banner at all smith.edu websites.

We would like to extend our thanks to the students, staff and faculty whose close attention to Culture of Care guidelines has helped minimize the impact of COVID-19 on our community’s health and safety.

Sincerely,

The COVID-19 Incident Response Team (CIRT)

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