Dear Bereans,

This is the update for Monday, June 7, 2021.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

No on-campus employees or students are in any sort of quarantine at present.  We are at almost 70% employees who have documented fully vaccinated status.

Kentucky and Madison County update

The Madison County Health Department reported 15, 6, 7, 8, 0, and 0 new cases for Tuesday through yesterday.  The number of current active cases is at 61, somewhat of an increase.  Our 7-day average of new cases per day moved up to 6, an increase of one, but keeping us in the Yellow Zone at 5.7 new cases per day per 100,000 residents.  The total number of deaths in the county attributable to COVID-19 as reported by the State remains at 111.

Gov. Beshear reported 445, 426, 531, 369, 83, and 36 new COVID-19 cases and 4, 6, 7, 5, 7, and 5 new deaths for Wednesday through today, respectively, in Kentucky.  The 7-day average of the number of new cases/day has decreased to 278 and the average of numbers of deaths/day is down by one again to 5.  The latest test positivity rate is down to 2.28%.

Improvement continues in the Commonwealth but we slipped a bit in Madison County.

Vaccination policy at other colleges and universities

As of this morning, the Chronicle of Higher Education lists 470 schools that will require vaccination in the fall

Policy update

As of the beginning of this month, the AC is rescinding the “Policy on Campus Visitors” that has been in place for much of the public health emergency.  Going forward, fully vaccinated visitors are permitted in all campus buildings without special permission, except for residence halls and the Ecovillage.  It is the responsibility of the employee hosting a visitor to confirm the vaccination status of the visitor(s).  Students may continue to seek approval from Public Safety for vaccinated visitors.

Beekeeping Initiative

Grow Appalachia (GA) and the College Farm are collaborating on a new beekeeping initiative thanks to funding given to both the College and GA by John Paul DeJoria through his Peace, Love & Happiness Foundation to support our efforts to “save the honey bees.”  With contractual support from a local farmer and Berea alumnus, Craig Thivierge, 24 hives were built and installed at a new apiary at Hunt Acres on the Farm and bees were recently transferred into the hives.  A number of trap hives were also built and placed in various locations in the area to catch swarms of bees that occur this time of year, and those hives will be used to produce hardier, stronger bees and queens adapted to our climate and region.  The Farm apiary will also be used as a learning laboratory for our students as well as new and master beekeepers.  Our thanks to Craig, David Cooke, Andrew Oles, and all involved from GA and the Farm who helped launch this important and exciting initiative.

Stay safe, stay negative, stay in touch,
Lyle Roelofs, President
Berea College