Dear Bereans,
This is the campus update for Monday, March 21, 2022.
Quarantine, testing and vaccination update
Overall cases are declining in our county and in our state this week, and the campus numbers are quite good, too. As of today, we have three students in isolation, one quarantining on campus and the other two off campus.
As to on-campus employees, there are no positive cases or close contacts. (A week ago there were three active on-campus employee cases.)
COVID-19 Community Level
As of last Friday, Madison County remains in the “Green” in terms of COVID-19 Community Level, and the new good news is that some of the counties around us have gone green, too, including Garrard, Rockcastle, Jackson and Estill.
The CDC level and guidance for these levels can be found here.
The Administrative Committee will be discussing our testing and masking policies tomorrow taking into account both the improvements locally and that we have seen some student cases in the week following Spring Break. I will announce any decisions in that regard in another message tomorrow.
Kentucky update
Because of the improving case rates and because of the shift in CDC recommendations, Madison County is no longer releasing case rates. The Commonwealth is reporting only on positivity rate and the number of new COVID deaths. The former for the past week is 3.08%, another welcome decrease from last week’s 4.71%. The number of deaths in the state for the week is still troubling at 279, only a very slight improvement from the 283 reported last Monday. I am hopeful that the death rate will show more improvement soon.
Future campus updates
Last week I asked the following question:
Given the good progress on campus and locally, it has occurred to me that perhaps these weekly updates are no longer needed. It has been enjoyable to try to provide as much information to the community as possible, but it does take some time every week, and I also do not want to waste everyone’s time by sending unnecessary emails for your attention.
So, a question for anyone who would like to share their views with me (please DO NOT reply all). Would you be satisfied with notifications only when something significant changes, like new policies or dramatic changes in case rates? Or would you like to continue receive weekly campus updates with as much information as I am able to obtain?
A good number of you (35) responded with your ‘vote’ or with interesting suggestions. The following data table is a quick summary.
| N | Continue weekly | Other | Only as needed | |
| Faculty | 9 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Staff | 15 | 3 | 0 | 12 |
| Students | 11 | 7 | 1 | 3 |
| Total | 35 | 12 | 3 | 20 |
It looks like there is a clear preference for “Only as Needed,” so that is probably the way to go. I also want to express thanks—nearly everyone who leaned that way also expressed great appreciation for the regular reports to date. Given that there were a number who preferred for the reports to continue, going forward I’ll err on the side of “when in doubt, send one out.”
Stay safe, get vaccinated and boosted, stay in touch,
Lyle Roelofs, President
Berea College