New COVID-19 Pandemic Health & Safety Policy
August 13, 2020
To All Students, Faculty, and Staff of the Stony Brook Community,
With the start of the semester less than two short weeks away, there’s an excitement growing in the air on Stony Brook’s campus. All summer, we have been planning and preparing for a safe, healthy, and smart reopening that will enable each student to succeed and get the most out of their education, despite the profound ways that COVID-19 has changed university life. We’ve missed the rush of ideas and discussion; the interchange of discovery and innovation; the inspiration of art and expression. We can’t wait to welcome you back!
It is this energy that we want to preserve, and continue to build on, and to this end I am happy to share the University’s COVID-19 Pandemic Health & Safety Policy. This policy clearly defines COVID-19 and health protocols for this coming year, which include required daily health screening for all students, staff, and faculty. It provides information on our facial coverings mandate—which requires that face coverings be worn at all times within buildings and when using campus transit, with few permissible exceptions. All residents are required to produce a negative result on a COVID-19 test at least 14 days before returning to campus, and residents traveling from overseas or a restricted US state must self-isolate for the same amount of time before coming to campus. Additionally, all employees must complete their mandatory training (see instructions), which will prepare them to safely return to in-person work.
In order for Stony Brook University to continue to thrive through adversity, each and every one of us needs to be responsible when it comes to individual and collective health on our campus. Our course design includes online, in-person, and hybrid classes with synchronous and asynchronous learning options. On campus, small classes will be held within large spaces to allow for social distancing while larger lectures will be delivered online. This is a great start. But much of our success will depend on personal responsibility—the willingness and commitment of all of us to do our individual parts. This policy sets our expectations, and will enable us to help secure the wellbeing of our campus, while offering the same level of integrity and rigor in our academic experience.
We are in an unprecedented situation where new challenges arise in an instant, policy changes overnight, and flexibility is necessary. We will remain adaptable throughout the course of this historic semester. We will keep you informed and appreciate your continued patience. Thank you to all the staff and faculty who have helped us design for the future, and thank you to all the students whose adaptability will help make Stony Brook the healthy, safe, accessible, and brilliant academic community it’s always been.
Sincerely,
Maurie McInnis
President