An email from President Wendy Raymond of Haverford College sent on September 13 announced that, as of 10:00 PM that evening, the College would be entering Level 2 of the Bi-Co Mitigation Plan. The changes would entail largely restricting both on- and off-campus travel, disallowing guests in personal spaces, decreasing the size of gatherings, and limiting the use of academic facilities like the library.
President Raymond’s email stated that the provisions of the change included the following:
- “Students may not leave campus, except to attend in-person classes at Bryn Mawr.
- “Students may leave their room only for classes, restroom, laundry, mail room, grab-n-go and take-out meals, and distanced outdoor gatherings in groups of 10 or fewer.
- “Students may collect food delivered by local grocery stores and restaurants to Sharpless Triangle.
- “Class modality is unchanged; courses meeting in-person will continue to do so, including across the Bi-Co. The Blue Bus will run for academic class times.
- “There will be no student travel across the Bi-Co outside of class attendance; in-person socializing with Bryn Mawr students is not permitted.
- “There will be no gatherings in any indoor spaces, including no guests in individual student rooms.
- “Commuting students may come to campus for class times only and then must depart.
- “Students may go to the library only to collect materials requested from library staff.
- “Faculty and staff day-to-day practices are unchanged from Level 1.
- “Athletics limitations remain unchanged from Level 1.
- “Individual students already on Campus Quarantine for travel reasons must continue to abide by those rules, including attending class meetings remotely, through the conclusion of their individual Campus Quarantine period.”
This decision comes on the heels of “numerous student social gatherings [that] violated our limits of gathering sizes and our expectation of universal masking and physical distancing,” according to Raymond’s email. Student parties occurred in multiple places throughout campus; an ambulance was even observed outside Barclay Hall late on Friday evening, according to one Haverford student who asked to remain anonymous.
Previous messages from the administration had urged students to respect the college’s COVID-19 guidelines, including a statement from Dean Joyce Bylander on September 12 warning that “[failure] to uphold the health and safety protocols you agreed to by returning will result in your being being asked to leave Haverford.”
The Mitigation Plan also states that the colleges will “supplement with targeted additional surveillance testing” when at Level 2. The COVID-19 dashboard writes that surveillance testing will occur on a bi-weekly basis for students, with certain groups receiving more frequent testing, including athletes and those who have recently traveled off-campus. Point-of-care testing will also be offered for those who are “symptomatic or under suspicion.”
According to the data publicly available on Haverford’s COVID-19 dashboard, 1130 tests have been conducted for students living on-campus or commuting to Haverford for classes, with 0 testing positive as of September 16. 568 employee tests have been conducted for both faculty and staff, which have resulted in two positive tests. Similarly, Bryn Mawr’s dashboard records 1042 conducted tests, with no faculty and one student testing positive.
Haverford will consider returning to Level 1 of its COVID-19 operations on Sunday, September 20.
