Health and Safety
Last updated: January 22, 2021 at 12:17 PM
As we plan for another robust in-person semester, our community's health, safety and well-being is our highest priority. Our current protocols and procedures follow guidance provided by the city of Waltham, Middlesex County, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the federal government. After a successful in-person experience in the fall semester, we’ve learned that these protocols were effective in minimizing overall COVID-19 cases and mitigating any on-campus transmission.
Before Coming to Campus
You must complete the three required steps before coming to campus:
Expectations
Students, faculty and staff will adhere to required health and safety guidelines established by the university and the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Each of us has a personal and shared responsibility to create a safe and healthy environment to protect ourselves and those around us.
Violations
Undergraduate and Graduate Students
The following violations of Brandeis’ health and safety policies will result in immediate referral to the appropriate authority to be addressed, and may result in extensive restrictions from living on or coming to campus:
These and other serious violations will be reported to the appropriate authority, including the Dean of Students Office. Students should not attempt to access university facilities without a yellow or green Campus Passport.
Faculty and Staff
Faculty and Staff may not come to campus and access university facilities, however briefly, without a green or yellow Campus Passport. These violations are subject to disciplinary actions in accordance with the Brandeis Campus Scaling Up Guide & Policy.
To comply with health and safety requirements, prior to coming on campus, all faculty and staff must:
- Have completed the required training;
- Pass the Daily Health Assessment found in the Campus Passport portal; and
- Participate in our free COVID-19 testing program, according to the frequency with which you visit campus. If you only come to campus on rare occasions to visit a facility, such as the Library or Gosman, you will need to schedule a test for the day you are coming to campus and take the test that day.
A green or yellow passport signifies successful compliance with these requirements and must be shown to Campus Passport monitors to access university facilities. There are no exceptions to this policy.
Personal Behavior and Health Measures
Below you will find information about some of the expectations of Brandeis students, faculty, and staff.
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All members of the campus community coming to campus must meet the following requirements:
- Training: Before coming to campus, all community members must complete a Brandeis’ online COVID-19 training course in LATTE. This step is completed once, before your first arrival.
- Daily Health Assessment: All individuals living on or arriving to campus must complete a Daily Health Assessment each day, prior to arriving to campus (or leaving their residence) to screen for potential exposure to or infection by COVID-19. This only needs to be completed if you are coming to (or residing on) campus.
- Testing: All Brandeis community members who come to campus are required to submit samples for testing. Testing frequency is based on how many times one expects to come to campus each week. Upon submission of a sample, you will have 84 hours until your next test is due.
- Community members should self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 which at this point include one or more of the following:
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
To help determine the risk of potential exposure to others, university health officials are conducting contact tracing for any individual who tests positive through Brandeis' asymptomatic testing program. All members of the community spending time on campus should be prepared to take calls from our contact tracing team and abide by any recommendations they provide, such as quarantining, if you are determined to be a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Under state rules, if you host a gathering, and an attendee or worker tests positive, you are required to cooperate with contact tracing. Failure to do so may result in a $500 fine per violation.
Brandeis has built flexibility into all of its plans, so that our students, faculty and staff can transition to remote work should conditions warrant it. The university's decision to transition to remote-only operations would be based on the following:
- Local, state, or national shelter-in-place advisories or restrictions that require remote-only operations.
- Exceeding quarantine and isolation capacity for the residential population.
- A surge in cases, coupled with increased severity of illness among campus demographic cohorts.
- Contact tracing analysis (a surge in cases tied to an event, for example, may be treated differently than one tied to rampant community spread with severe illness).
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Brandeis has made accommodations for high-risk individuals to teach and attend classes and, where feasible, work remotely. Faculty and staff can refer to Requesting an Accommodation for Working on Campus for more information.
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According to the CDC, these include but are not limited to individuals with chronic lung disease, moderate to severe asthma, serious health conditions, immunocompromised conditions, severe obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and liver disease, and those who are over the age of 65.
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Any students who have health concerns or face travel restrictions are able to register for remote instruction instead of in-person classes without needing to seek permission or accommodations. Although students living on or near campus will be encouraged to register for in-person or partially in-person classes, they may also register for remote-instruction courses.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. We recommend the use of cloth, reusable, washable face coverings. Some people may be unable to wear a snug mask due to medical conditions and could use a looser bandana style covering as needed.
Members of the community are expected to provide their own masks. In case of circumstances where an individual temporarily does not have a mask, such as forgetting to wear one or losing it, Brandeis will have extras available. Masks are for sale at the bookstore.
Yes. Brandeis has set aside rooms for quarantine and isolation for students living in residence halls on campus who test positive for or become symptomatic with COVID-19. These students will be supported throughout their quarantine or isolation by the Department of Community Living, Dining Services and the University Health Center. Students living off campus should have a plan for quarantining or isolating in their off-campus residence; the university is not able to deliver food off-campus.