Community Conversations with Provost Joseph Helble: Apr. 14

put a minute out yeah yeah just editing reorganized here and i am looking at the camera and good to go okay [Music] we're about to go live good afternoon and welcome everyone to our 26 community conversation addressing planning response and operations in the time of covid19 i'm joe helbley the provost of dartmouth college and i'm joining you from the star instructional studio in berry library on wednesday afternoon april 14 2021. i'm joined today as always by justin anderson our vice president for communications from another studio on campus and justin and i are joined today by two guests who've been with us twice before each time at the start of an academic term michael wooten the associate dean of residential life and director of residential education who's been at dartmouth working with students for more than nine years and dr ann bracken md a member of the geisel school of medicine faculty and the director of clinical medical services at dartmouth's health service known to all as dick's house a position anne has held for the past eight years we will follow a regular format with a brief campus update live q a moderated by justin a conversation with ann and mike about current operations and a look ahead to summer and then we will end with an opportunity for them to answer your questions directly i have several operational updates to provide today but let me start with our regular update on testing and case counts first and foremost i'd like to acknowledge that lines for student testing and leverone grew long for several days at the start of spring term and again last week we first adjusted staffing levels at peak periods and when that did not fully resolve the wait time problem we returned this week to utilizing only pcr testing for routine screening as we had done throughout the summer fall and winter terms and it seems based on reports i have gotten this week and what i have seen myself as i wandered over to leverone yesterday from my own test that that has taken care of the issue given this we will continue routine pcr testing but for now we will use the supplemental antigen testing only during transitional periods like arrival and as otherwise needed this will enable us to keep the lines short for the rest of spring term and have high accuracy surveillance testing when 15-minute turnaround that the endogen testing provides is not needed thank you to our students for your patience as we work through this and based on what i saw again early this week things seem to be running smoothly once more if if we find otherwise we will certainly make future adjustments but i'm confident that we've solved the problem in terms of the results of our surveillance testing although case counts across the country have been flat or rising the past three weeks at dartmouth we've seen a welcome decrease in positive tests relative to the end of winter term over the past two weeks we've conducted more than 18 000 tests and had 17 positives for a positivity of just under 0.1 percent in that period for calendar 2021 where two-thirds of our tests have been conducted our overall positivity is 0.27 percent and since the start of testing on july 1st 2020 we have now conducted as of yesterday 183 378 tests as reported on our dashboard with a total of 383 positives and an overall positivity of 0.21 now two weeks ago i had said that i was encouraged by the downward trend at the beginning of that week and that i anticipated we'd see a return to the very low positivity values we'd seen in the fall and the numbers indicate that that has indeed happened that's great news for community health and it's also a moment for a reminder that we need to remain attentive to staying masked staying socially distant and avoiding large gatherings this matters even as numbers decrease because we know that the more infectious variants are present in this country we know that the b117uk variant is now dominant in new infections in the united states we also know that it has reached the upper valley and sequencing data on our campus has now confirmed that not surprisingly some members of the dartmouth community testing positive for the coronavirus this past week are in fact infected with the b117 uk variant while this particular variant does not appear to result in more severe presentation of disease it is more easily spread and it is another reminder of the importance of staying masked staying distant and washing your hands frequently again it matters to help support and protect the health of the overall dartmouth and local community now in terms of trends on other college campuses for our ivy peers reporting data for the year 2021 all lie between 0.15 and 0.71 percent our nescac peers are currently reporting positivity ranges from 0.05 to 0.28 for calendar 2021 and our local state university peers uvm and unh are at 0.34 and 0.60 respectively for the year 2020 dartmouth's value of 0.27 percent for 2021 therefore remains well in line with our local peers let me turn now to vaccinations last week new hampshire governor chris sununu announced that with increases in vaccine availability in new hampshire starting next monday april 19th new hampshire would open vaccination to everyone in the state age 16 and over including college and university students this welcome development means now that all dartmouth students in session on campus will therefore be eligible to be vaccinated in the state of new hampshire for students and for employees residing in new hampshire you can register to be vaccinated through the state's website https forward slash forward slash www dot dot vaccines.nh.gov as of yesterday nationally more than 122 million americans had received at least one dose of vaccine more than 75 million americans or roughly 23 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated and according to the new york times vaccination tracker website in grafton county new hampshire the home county for dartmouth college 28 of the population and 64 of the population over the age of 65 has now been fully vaccinated this is impressive progress in a short period of time but it reminds us that we have a long way to go to reach the federal government's goal of 200 million vaccinations by the end of april and to begin approaching the levels of community immunity that will allow us to return to what we longingly refer to as normal life but with vaccines now becoming widely available in new hampshire and across the country to all individuals age 16 and over with vaccination an essential tool in protecting the vaccinated from infection or serious disease and in reducing transmission to others and with high levels of vaccination essential to achieving the high levels of community protection referred to as herd immunity that are necessary for increasingly normal operations on our campus we anticipate that all members of the dartmouth community will be able to be vaccinated before the start of fall term this september given this and given our expectation that fall term will begin to resemble the normal fall term that we all deeply desire with full residential operations resuming we will require all students to be vaccinated prior to the start of fall term 2021 as we had anticipated last summer and has included and articulated in our community expectations documents that were distributed to the student community at that time students with medical and religious exemptions will of course be accommodated through the normal process for managing exceptions for other vaccination requirements a process that is overseen by dick's house any individuals who are not able to be vaccinated prior to the start of fall term will be expected to be vaccinated soon after arrival in hanover and we remain in contact with state and regional health officials as we explore options for providing vaccinations on campus or in the surrounding area we anticipate having more information on what those options might look like well before the start of fall term for both students and employees as you get vaccinated we ask that you submit information from your vaccination records as soon as you are able that will enable us to track the progress of community vaccination on campus week to week which is essential to implementing our plan to return to normal residential operations this fall if we do not reach the high levels of vaccination in our community by the start of fall term the levels required to begin to approach herd immunity we will not be able quite simply to return to normal residential operations submitting that information as soon as you are able will also allow you as an individual to reduce the required frequency of your participation in surveillance testing specifically all who are fully vaccinated will begin a reduced testing regimen of only one time per week students are asked to submit proof of vaccination via dick's house with information available on the process on the dick's house website employees are asked to provide proof to dartmouth's occupational medicine provider axiom employees will be able to upload their records to axiom as soon as they have received their last dose they will then receive an email indicating that they've been approved for less frequent testing typically within three to five business days of submitting their information to voluntarily submit completed vaccination information to axiom and provide consent to dartmouth's limited use of this information employees should review the policy and complete the form at http.go.org forward slash vax any employee who does not have access to a computer or mobile device within a camp with a camera can make a five-minute in-person appointment with hr to obtain assistance in completing the necessary form all of this information including the vaccination policy and requirement for students will be captured in written form and distributed to campus in the days to come as more and more members of our community are now receiving the vaccine we are also revising our guidance regarding dartmouth-sponsored travel beginning next monday april 19th all fully vaccinated individuals and this means faculty staff and all students will be permitted to participate in dartmouth-sponsored travel within the united states unvaccinated individuals faculty staff and all students will be permitted to participate in dartmouth-sponsored travel only within new england with requests for dartmouth-sponsored travel outside of new england requiring a travel exception all international travel will continue to require a travel exception at this time now while our policies are less restrictive all personal travel continues to be discouraged we still ask all individuals to limit all travel including dartmouth-sponsored travel as much as possible this is true whether vaccinated or not to reduce the frequency of travel to its minimum and minimize the spread of disease this updated travel policy will also be posted shortly and our expectation is that it will be up and available prior to the start of next week in terms of spring term operations i now have several brief updates before we conclude and turn to your questions first as the undergraduate registrar's office announced monday afternoon the faculty committee on instruction has voted to extend the deadline for students to elect the non-recording option or nro for any spring-term nro eligible courses to may 19th to give students more flexibility in decision making around this option and grading this term details are available through the registrar's web page second as more members of our community become vaccinated we will continue to reopen our facilities and our spaces as public health and safety permit specifically effective today the running track at memorial field and some outdoor tennis courts specifically the top lift courts at alumni gym and the courts at sacham village will be available for use by students approved for on-campus access and by faculty and by staff third by agreement of the ivy league presidents ivy league sports teams are now permitted to engage in limited local non-iv competition this spring for ivy league guidelines for dartmouth this means we're eligible to compete against institutions within a 100 mile radius of hanover i'm happy to report that several of our sports teams are scheduled to compete starting on april 24th with details being finalized as we speak by the athletics division specifically we hope to enable initial limited competition starting that weekend for men's and women's tennis softball women's and men's track and field later in april men's lacrosse and possibly in mid-may heavyweight rowing athletic competitions at dartmouth will unfortunately not be able to host spectators but we do anticipate live streaming at least some of those contests details will be provided by athletics as we get closer to competition date and as the details are finalized fourth i'd like to add renewed encouragement to our community and specifically to our faculty to seek out ways to connect with students in person outdoors now that the weather is improving improving as long as you ignore the three inches of snow that are in the forecast for tomorrow night but you remember that tents with video display capability are in fact scattered around the campus we have seven tents five of them audio video capability enabled and three of them available for any purpose including scheduling class sessions or small meetings of faculty and students by working through conferences and events as i walked across campus today i saw students utilizing the adirondack chairs scattered across the campus with their laptops or in small groups of friends to just sit and talk or to work outside i saw no one sitting under any of the tents utilizing the tents these are a resource here for us to use and i encourage you to think about creative ways to hold meetings or class sessions even the occasional session there and give students the chance to connect directly and for students who are here on campus if there's a professor you'd like to talk with i'd encourage you to reach out and ask them whether they're on campus and whether they'd be willing to meet in person not everyone is coming to campus not everyone is vaccinated and so it may not be possible but if you don't ask you'll never know maybe it's your academic advisor you could reach out to maybe it's a 15-minute walk around the green but the face-to-face even masked connection might well be worth the effort and fifth and finally i know we are all seeking ways to connect in ways to rebuild slowly and safely that in person community that's so much a part of the dartmouth experience it's now been more than a year since we've had any opportunity for gatherings of more than a handful of people together and this is something we all deeply miss we're therefore going to try something a little different this spring and experiment and on three tuesdays april 27th may 11th and may 25th we're going to find an hour in the middle of the day and have three locations around campus for anyone approved to be on campus student staff and faculty alike to stop by gather grab a small stack i'm personally rooting for donuts at least once but i know that my opinion may not carry the day and take a few moments to say hello to one another details will be provided in vox daily as the dates approach and i do hope we'll all take advantage and maybe even find a way for those of us who've been on campus for a while to connect with the members of the class of 24 who were new to our campus this year and begin to enable them to start to experience this part this small part of community at dartmouth now i know the donuts around campus or opening up of tennis courts or taking a walk around the green are not remotely going to bring us back to normal we've all run out of adjectives describing what this year has been like for all of us and i mean all of us there have been moments this year of wondering how we are going to manage the stamina to see this through but i've been struck by the stories of my colleagues these past few weeks who run into one another at the vaccination centers or at the testing site and spoken eloquently of how much it meant to have even two minutes even masked and at a distance with a colleague they hadn't seen in a year i know the student community is feeling the same thing so do all of us on the faculty and staff even as we process our own challenges please try to pause try to reflect and offer a student a chance to connect to the students i know you look out for one another but i'll also encourage you to stop and say hello when you see a member of the faculty or staff outdoors as i was walking into my office early this morning a student walking past shouted hello to me i think it was a friendly hello and as i was walking over to parkhurst it left me with a smile on my face for me that very brief moment of being connected connected to the students and a connected part of this community mattered after a year in isolation please look out for one another it's one of the most important things we can do right now thank you for your attention thank you for your contribution to a successful start to spring term and i look forward to your questions justin over to you uh thanks joe and great to be with you as always um i'm just gonna dive in with questions about uh what you uh announced uh regarding mandatory vaccinations um uh as soon as you mentioned that we started to get uh a series of questions um uh about that very thing so uh i'll just start with um why um why are we choosing to mandate vaccinations for students but not for faculty and staff we are strongly encouraging vaccination of faculty and staff we are starting with students because they are members of a congregate living environment on our campus they are living in closer quarters to one another and we know through everything we've learned this past year that that's one of the most critical areas for controlling spread of infection so we are going to be doing all that we can to encourage faculty and staff to get vaccinated whether we will move beyond strongly encouraged by the end of the summer as to be determined but as of today we like several other colleges and universities are focusing on the importance of the student population because of the congregate living situation and also encouraging them now or informing them now so that they will have ample lead time to plan and prepare and get vaccinated before they return to campus in september so that's the reason for this the difference at this point in time and and joe you certainly pointed this out in your introductory remarks i did not point out um because the questioner didn't didn't make this clear but i do want to make clear that there are exceptions uh on a case-by-case basis for for health um and otherwise should that be should that be necessary so it's important that we i think make make that clear so folks know um if they think that they should be accepted that that is something that they can pursue absolutely justin and if i can you didn't pose that as a question but if i can chime in that would actually be a good question for us to put directly to ann bracken who oversees dick's house when she joins us shortly we have expectations in fact requirements that students will be vaccinated against other diseases when they enroll on our campus we do allow exceptions in those circumstances as well dick's house manages the process it has worked very smoothly and it is the same process we anticipate using here uh joe in in terms of uh vaccinations we'll stay on this for at least one or two more questions um which vaccines or which vaccinations will be accepted must they be fda approved or is it really just any vaccination so right now we we will clarify this justin in the message but right now we are anticipating that initially it will be vaccines that have received fda approval including eua approval and so that is currently the j j vaccine the moderna vaccine and the pfizer vaccine that list may expand over the course of the summer but we are going to have a clear list of vaccines that are acceptable by the time the students return to campus in the fall and we will make provisions for students who may have been vaccinated by another vaccine or vaccination protocol to get vaccinated through one of the fda approved vaccines when they return to hanover if that is necessary that's an important question and we don't yet have the specifics of that worked out in part because they are going to be evolving as approvals evolve over the course of the summer but we felt and i felt that it was important to us let students know today particularly admitted students who are making decisions about which college and university to attend are intentioned to require vaccination when they are arriving on campus this fall uh joe i said that as soon as you mention this in your introductory remarks we immediately got questions the first question was does this mean that classes will be in person in the fall that is the expectation classes will be in person in the fall now it is and i tried to indicate this in my remarks justin it is tor it is dependent upon are achieving a sufficient level of immunization of approaching or achieving what is referred to as herd immunity where transmission of the disease is minimal in our community because a very high percentage of our community has been vaccinated if we do not achieve herd immunity levels and if we are vaccinated at a lower level we will need to maintain social distancing protocols in the classroom and we will need to revert to a mixed hybrid residential and remote learning operating mode part of our reason again for announcing now that we are going to require vaccinations for the fall is to provide plenty of lead time so students can get vaccinated so we can track vaccination progress over the course of the summer and be sure that we are in fact on track to achieving our goal of being at a herd immunity level of vaccination by september that we can offer our curriculum in person that is the goal joe in addition to questions about vaccines and vaccinations uh there are also a fair amount of questions about uh commencement um and rather than than than just running through the specific questions uh i guess it would be helpful for folks to know whether or not the plan for commencement uh is set in stone or whether or not uh there is a possibility that it could change between now and june in other words or more specifically is it possible that at some point between now and june we might be able to say that guests will be allowed to attend i'll answer the question this way justin it is highly highly unlikely that it will change there would need to be a significant uptake in the fraction of the population that has been vaccinated there would need to be a significant downturn in the level of transmission in the community and the latter in particular i don't anticipate happening even by june few individuals do anticipate dropping to essentially zero percent transmission by mid-june i understand deeply the desire of parents to be able to participate in commencement and community members to participate in commencement but we do not have the capability within our facilities even with reduced social distancing practices in place even with it being outdoors to accommodate two guests per graduate we've thought about the different variations and options that one could put in place we thought about a series of ceremonies where a fraction of the class would go through at each point in time and i am sure there are members of the community that would prefer that but in the end we know how important it is to our students collectively to gather as a community and as a class and we did not feel that any of the options that caused us to have to divide members of the class of 21 alphabetically or by other mechanisms into smaller groups where were appropriate options for dartmouth there's no perfect choice and there's no right answer but consistent with the values of student community here on campus and the limited spacing we have available in memorial stadium we made the decision that this was the best choice for our campus at this point in time i know it leaves many people disappointed and i wish it were otherwise but that's where we ended up thinking about all the competing interests and trying to focus on what was best for the student community to give them a chance to gather collectively thanks for providing that that detail joe i i know that this is a question that that we hear routinely from from families and parents and it's it's so tough it's been extremely difficult year on so many fronts and we understand that that families and parents just really want to be there for their students and i i know we'd like nothing more than to be able to accommodate them and so appreciate you providing just a little bit more of of the rationale behind this really difficult decision yeah it's extraordinarily challenging justin and i can say as a parent myself having watched my daughter graduate on a zoom screen last year at a distance when for her it was not even an in-person ceremony it was pre-recorded it was still nice and we were proud of her accomplishments and it wasn't remotely the same thing i understand completely we have time for just one more question um and it's really it's really a proposal almost and it's a it's kind of cool idea which i've heard floated a number of times someone writes in whether or not asking whether or not we would consider opening up trips to not just the 25s who will be coming in uh as first years but also to the to the 24s uh who were unable to participate in trips last year so that's i'm going to say let's direct that question to mike wooten uh it might be better put to catherine lively but let's direct it to mike who'll be with us shortly i will give you my answer justin i know that's been floated i think the logistics of that and again not knowing what disease transmission is going to be like in mid-august we want to be conservative as we have been in other things and put in place something that we are confident can succeed rather than pushing the envelope to the limit and potentially having to pull back for everyone so we are attentive to a deep desire to do something for the members of the class of 24 who did not get to experience trips this past year i'm not optimistic that we'll be able to do that jointly with the 25s this summer but we are looking at ways and other moments to do that specifically for the 24s mike may have more detail or he may just deflect to catherine in another week but please whoever asked the question rest assured we are cognizant of the loss of this opportunity for the 24s and finding a way to offer that an appropriate point in time in this next year so thank you justin thanks to all for the the good questions and i'd like to now ask anne bracken and mike wootman to join us and mike good to have you with us again we seem to always have the two of you as a pair on community conversations it just works out that way and always at the start of a term because each of you has so much insight and information to provide on what's happening on campus on the medical side and on the residential operations side and how we expect things to to play out so good good to see you both nice to be here so let me jump right into it and mike if you don't mind i'm gonna i'm gonna start with you and i'm gonna refer back to our prior two conversations you were with us in early september right after i'd seen you biking around campus on your mountain bike checking in on move-in operations and you were here with us again in january shortly after the start of winter term here we are again and we are two and a half weeks into spring term it's our third residential term in the midst of the pandemic what are you seeing now and is it any different compared to fall and winter well joe thanks for having us back and i told ann i've i've decided to only do this conversation if she's with me so uh thank you anne for also joining and just who makes these possible it's good to be back it's good to be talking to the community about these important topics um so it's great to have the 24s and 21s back that's the community that's mostly here for the spring term that's of course our first years and our our seniors it's wonderful to have them back on campus we were able at the beginning of the spring term to reduce the quarantine process by a day we think that was a nice start to the spring term for our students even during quarantine the many staff and faculty that are invested in our students lives uh the dick's house staff and nurses and doctors who care deeply about how our students are doing in these difficult times of arrival we're checking in with our students how are you what do you need what are ideas that you have to make this place uh your home for the coming 10 weeks and so it started that way and it's it's wonderful to have people back it's been exciting to see more facilities open on campus we've been working hard on that front um collis the library tents going up joe that you've already described in which students and faculty and staff can program and have opportunities to be together in a safer way outside i i my office looks out over the green on a day like today i look out over the green and i see people socially distanced sitting on the green having a bite to eat or looking at each other studying that's wonderful to see people back in this way on our campus if you walk by college there's an outdoor stage right now that's ready for musical acts and again these are all the efforts that have gone that have been put together to welcome people back and in fact to welcome students good ideas about how to make this place your home how to be here in an engaged exciting way um for the for the weeks of the spring term um and that's my last plug there is that there are so many people that want to be engaged with you with students in that process our house professors our programming board staff and students that work on that our caller staff the faculty and staff that work in our many buildings and programs across campus talk to them if you have an idea they would love to work on that with you and find a place to both execute the the program and to make sure that we can live into this place in the ways that it deserves all right great thanks now it's been great to see the students out on the green mic and and i really noticed that students as i said in the adirondack chairs as i was walking over here to the library this afternoon i do miss the skating rink in the middle of the green but i think it's its time has come and gone for this particular year i'm hoping we'll be able to do that again next year but it is great to see them out and about and enjoying the weather so thanks to you for all your efforts so anna i'd like to turn to you now and i'd like to ask you about the vaccination news that's really at the top of the news this week and it was just yesterday morning the fda recommended a pause in the administration of the single-dose j j vaccine while it investigates a fairly small number six incidences of a blood clot out of over 6.8 million doses administered so it's a rate of less than one in a million nonetheless what can you tell us what do we know about what's happening so far and should anyone who's gotten the j and j vaccine a few weeks ago be concerned or attentive to any possible symptoms sure so it was pretty unsettling news yesterday to uh to hear about this the six cases were of the they were all women between the ages of 18 and 48 and they had cerebral veinous sinus thrombosis which means a clot in the brain and it was paired with bleeding and thrombocytopenia the the notion is that the vaccine may have induced a very vigorous immune response to platelets causing them to activate aggregate clot and then be consumed and have bleeding associated with it these six women presented with them within six to 13 days of having the j j vaccine with headache some back pain abdominal pain nausea vomiting and four of the six had some focal neurologic findings including loss of speech um some nurse uh sensitivity and um some visual disturbances so it's this thrombosis paired with the thrombocytopenia that was particularly concerning the good news is as you mentioned it's super rare event then um and the other thing is that the system of recognizing adverse events with vaccines is working so the vaccine adverse event reporting systems affairs detected this because people are reporting adverse events and it was noted and then they could press pause the other good news is that this has not been paired with the mrna vaccines so the maduro and pfizer have not had this associated with them the astroz zeniga which is not currently being used in our country in europe has also had some clotting issues specifically this cerebral veinous sinus thrombosis and it may be the vaccine vector and the way the vaccine is created that could cause this problem however it's super rare that's the good news you had asked what if people had this vaccine in the past three weeks if they've had severe abdominal pain severe chest pain severe leg pain unexplained shortness of breath then they they should notify dick's house if their student or their doctor we don't expect this to happen again because this is such a rare thing we also know that our students are actively getting immunized now through the state and have come back having been vaccinated and they should expect to have some side effects related to vaccine so not to be too nervous if they get a headache or we know that 80 to 90 percent of people who get the the modern pfizer are going to have redness pain on the localized pain so they'll have a localized reaction they may have adenopathy which is you know lymph node in the armpit and then 50 to 80 of people will have systemic reactions side effects like chills and fever and body aches and joint pains and young people have vigorous immune systems so they tend to have a little more of these side effects they may have them day one to three and they should get better any side effects that people are worried about called exhaust call um they can call axiom or their primary care providers if they're employees right that's really helpful and if i could just ask you a quick follow-up just briefly so if we put i mean that the scenario first of all the system's working as you say we're capturing the side effects they're being disseminated widely i give those who were involved fda and the medical establishment great credit for being so transparent and so responsive in terms of publicizing this the concern those of us have who are seeking broad vaccination is that will frighten people from getting vaccination but i think it's important there's a leading question now but it's important to put that in the context of the more than 560 000 people in the united states alone who have died from covid19 versus thus far i believe you said one death associated with administration of the vaccine so how do you discuss vaccine safety with your patients who might have concern or questions about whether they should go forward what's your advice well first of all you mentioned close to 120 million people have been vaccinated in the u.s so huge numbers of people and we have the system to detect adverse events um and and so that system is working most of the students that we're engaged with want to get vaccinated and they're desperate to get vaccinated so we're really trying to to enable that um if we meet with students on an individual level to talk about contraindications to the vaccine or precautions related to the vaccine so on an individual level we give advice before we give any vaccine um and but i have found that the dartmouth students are highly motivated to get vaccinated to protect themselves to protect their community to protect their grandparents and also as you mentioned they will have some more liberties and have the testing cadence can be reduced for those who have completed their vaccine process so there's that piece too as a piece of motivation but we have really found that students are very enthusiastic about trying to get vaccinated great thank you man yes it's text it's testing reduction in frequency and it's also greater travel flexibility for dartmouth sponsored travel which will absolutely next week and we anticipate a little bit more freedom will develop over the course of spring term as well so thank you mike let me now turn back to you with a question about summer and there's a good chance just looking at the numbers that there will be more students on campus in residence than we have typically in the summer sophomore summer this year will include i believe almost all the sophomores as it typically does plus it will include juniors or the rising seniors many of whom deferred their sophomore summer experience from last year so what can you tell us about summer move-in facilities and operations as you seek to manage what is going to be as i understand it a 30 to 40 percent increase in the typical number of students on campus yeah that's that's a great question joe and we're thinking a lot as you would expect about the summer right now we know the summer is a beautiful time in new england it's a great time to be on campus so we expect that people want to be here right but one way to understand how we're imagining the summer is that it is both a continuation of many of the coveted protocols that we have in place to ensure the safety of our community and it begins the the on-ramp to what is what you've described as a more normal experience and to do both as a bit of a gimmick right because the summer term goes all the way until the end of august and we know that we have many people who return beginning even in august who are here for what is the fall but come for all sorts of orientation experiences athletics um trip leaders all these things so what we expect is that the summer will be a mix of both those scenarios right we we know because we would not be fully vaccinated yet in the community that in some ways the residential experience on campus will resemble some of what we've been having and experiencing for the last year we need to have those protocols in place until the vaccination is required until we have enough vaccination across the community to ensure the safety of the community and we know that we need to start planning and preparing for what will be a closer to normal fall term so we have uh we have all sorts of expectations to be able to use the outdoors in ways that it's harder to do in the winter and spring we have the opportunity to uh to to really make the most of uh the the college experience here in hanover uh in new england in ways that we've not been able to do knowing that we are moving closer towards a normal experience than we've had up until now right great thanks thank you and uh those words closer to a normal experience i know are words that we are all so desperately willing to implement that's what we're all seeking and i and i will say that i remain more than cautiously optimistic i remain optimistic that summer is going to be a period of transition and we are moving forward towards a normal fall residential operating term particularly if and as students and members of the faculty and staff are getting vaccinated over the course of the next several months so ann let me turn to you with a final very short question before we open it up to our audience who i am sure have questions for the both of you and my question is we're asking and in fact we're requiring even those who've been vaccinated to continue to practice masking continue to practice social distancing when they're on campus whether they're indoors or outdoors so for you as a physician why why does that remain important well joe we still have a lot of people who are not vaccinated on campus and people can have breakthrough with um even being vaccinated with getting covered in fact we've had two episodes of people who've been fully vaccinated have a breakthrough and have coveted infection we know that masking can reduce the r so the infection rate which is typically 2.5 so one person who's infected can spread it to 2.5 we can reduce that r naught from 2.5 to 0.5 and really halt the transmission so it's so critical we had that big outbreak in march um early march which was a struggle and affected so many students on campus and so by masking and distancing we can continue to enjoy being not being isolated not being in quarantine and be able to enjoy each other and be outside and as the herd immunity increases then the use of masks may be reduced but i think we'll be with mass for a while so get your fashion mask and be outside you're going to reduce risk all right great thank you and and what you say implicit in that is what's so important for all of us to remember the vaccines even as they were being rolled out we were reminded they are not a guarantee that they stop infection they reduce infection or reduce the severity of the disease that ensues if one does get infected so the vaccines are working exactly as they're advertised but they are not at guaranteed that there will not be breakthrough infection something important for us all to remember so justin with that why don't i turn to you and let's see what questions are coming in from the community for ann and mike uh thanks joe and let's uh let's stay with anne um and you you just mentioned that uh most students are are desperate to get uh the vaccine and to get vaccinated uh but not all uh and so what what what's the what's the rationale for for uh mandatory vaccination i mean obviously lots of schools are beginning to do this and and joe talked a little bit about the nature of of of the importance of having students vaccinated versus first um uh faculty or staff who don't live on campus in in close proximity but if but if most students are going to get it anyway why make it mandatory what's the sort of the public health rationale behind that well we have a lot of vaccines that are are required for students who are living in congregate living situations if you look at the dick's house website and you go to the medical records options you can see what the immunization requirements are for our different population so undergraduates because they're in concrete living situations have different risk profile than our medical students who are you know interacting in health care and have a lot of vaccine requirements versus our graduate students who might live off campus in the community so it is a typical process to have required vaccines to protect the community like measles mumps rubella varicella vaccine or documentation of illness the the diphtheria a cellular pertussis vaccine the meningitis vaccine for undergraduates not for people who are graduate students not living in congress living so there's a long history of requiring vaccines to to protect the population and as joe and you both mentioned there's a waiver process so people can have a medical waiver or a religious waiver we find i usually communicate with people who waive vaccine for medical or religious reasons and have and call up the first year students just to have a discussion sometimes they um they they think about changing their mind particularly as students were traveling a lot before and not having vaccines is a as a risk when you travel but um we we can accommodate religious um exemptions and um and medical waivers and so this is kind of a typical process that as as joe and you mentioned we've been we've been in this business for a long time and there's usually very little resistance in the student population to requiring vaccines justin if i may interject and just to put an exclamation point on what ann's saying i think it's really important for the community to remember this is not a radical departure from policy this is not a new policy all we are doing here is adding another vaccination to the expected vaccination portfolio that students will present when they enroll thanks for clarifying that joe mike if i could if i could go over to you uh in in your in your exchange with joe you we talked about how during this summer we're going to have more students on campus potentially because in addition to the typical sophomore summer we will have more juniors than usual um and then in the fall uh we're hoping to be back up uh you know full residential um capacity in terms of the students who will be coming to campus um from uh from a numbers standpoint from a housing standpoint how are you planning for what could be you know record levels of students wanting to live on campus both in the summer and and during the fall while also presumably having to maintain uh space for for quarantine yeah it's an important question so that just to clarify summer so the summer numbers will not be as they never are as high as the other three terms so that gives us again i've been using the language of a an on-ramp uh into what is the intensity and the density of the fall we will have time to do some of that work in ways that we wouldn't ordinarily because two classes is still not um the capacity of campus so you know the summer is a little bit less than i think for the fall this question of do we need it goes back to some of the important things that um that joe has been saying and anne have been saying about the the amount of both hurt immunity and vaccination efforts for our students see the importance of a mandatory vaccine so if we can get the community to a vaccination level we may not in fact need quarantine and isolation beds in the way that we use them now that's not fully determined right now but we may not need those beds in the same ways that we've had for the last year so that's part of the calculus as we think about the fall there is no doubt so the fall is always our fullest term the fall will be a full term we will be back to having roommates we'll be back to using all of our spaces and the ways that we've had to use in the past and i think that's part of what makes a residential experience special and it's worth noting we're coming out of a pandemic so this is there will be some challenges with having a density that we've not seen for a year on our campus that we're thinking about now that we know that um as much as we all want to come back and we all want to be back on our campus uh it comes with with a lot of people there can be some anxiety that will come with that so we're working through that we're trying to figure out the best uh the best way through that those challenges um and uh back to you with another uh vaccine related question um obviously people were pleased that the governor decided to open up uh vaccine distribution for out-of-state college students in new hampshire uh so that's going to be a a big boost for for many of our students we've gotten a bunch of questions though about the logistics of that um and out-of-state students who will be on campus who you know don't have cars and would be unable to travel very far to to get vaccinated so um can you talk about how we are planning to manage the the logistics of of distribution of vaccines for for all students but specifically for out-of-state students for whom it there may be additional hurdles well we've already been trying to support some of these students some of them have been able to get appointments done in west lebanon actually michael's shop have we've been just trying to figure out how we can get kids rides down to west lab we're also really hoping that soon we will be offering the vaccine on campus and that will make a huge difference for students and we'll be doing a second round of vaccines for people for some employees and students on april 28th and uh tom schizias our emergency planner has been working very industriously with the state to get more vaccine available so that we can vaccinate people on campus that's our primary goal but and until we're able to do that we're going to support students to try to help them get to vaccine sites thankfully advanced transit goes down to um westleb and that's been a site where a lot of people have been getting vaccinated and some pharmacies are going to be opening up for vaccination uh mike back to you with a a uh a question that that i post to joe uh about trips um and i'm coming back to that because just the mere introduction of trips uh uh on on camera spurred even more questions uh uh about it so um i'm wondering if if you could talk about the the the idea of perhaps you know merging trips for the 24s and 25s and turning it into you know super-sized trips um which i know presents lots of lots of logistical challenges but you know we we're all about logistical challenges this year so um could you talk about like how you're thinking about those possibilities before you answer mike i'll just point out that supersize is a word that should still give all of us pause at this moment that's true size is a problem so i have two uh look you know let's be really clear one of the things that makes this place really special is the outdoor experience students come here for that reason the that's a hat tip to the trips directorate to kaz and his staff in outdoor programs it is amazing the opportunities to we are this is a unique characteristic so there's no there is no surprise that people have lots of questions about how do i experience uh a trips the trips experience uh because i didn't have a chance or not the other observation i would make is that is that the the experience for the 24s has not been the same as it's been um that's true for all classes but for the incoming class that's been really difficult and we've heard that clearly from the the 24s and so it's a natural thought that there are some opportunities here to do more throughout our programs through the trips directorate to mirror some of the opportunities of what happens in trips um at the you know end of august early september as as the first year class returns i want to be careful to not shoehorn my good colleagues who have to do that thinking and do the logistics on that um and commit them to things that are not mine to commit them to but i know that we're all eager to support our students in what is really one of the the jewels of the experience of being a dartmouth which is the outdoor experience and i'm going to go back to you for a final question um and you know i i don't want you to leave without giving you an opportunity uh to weigh in on um efforts that we are making to support the the mental health of students um you know we get this question every week um we hear about this constantly from students and from parents it's a huge huge issue um that we've obviously been addressing all year long uh but i so i don't wanna i don't want to let you go without giving you an opportunity to just talk about that a little bit and the specific question was about you know how are we doing basically on not letting students fall through the cracks it's been you know as you know a really rough year for everyone's mental health um when students are in isolation and quarantine on campus all those students are called every day and they're also surveyed too and have an opportunity to to comment on mental health that counselors reach out to students and isolation quarantine so there's that effort we've also hired a lot of new counselors and counselors are doing a lot of outreach and communicating particularly with the 24s have been it's it's been a rough year for 24 so there's a lot of outreach related to mental health we in primary care we do a lot of mental health so we do telehealth visits phone visits and in-person visits and for mental health basic mental health problems anxiety depression are things that are very common practices for primary care providers to engage in so there's a lot of attention and um and support related to mental health and when students i feel like students are reaching out to us when they're concerned about their peers too so um we continue to try to to really engage with students related to their mental health and want to hear from them if they're worried about themselves or another a friend and and and just to be clear if if they if students do want to reach out um on behalf of friends or or uh for themselves you know how should they do that they can call counseling at 603 603-646-9442 and they can leave a message with a counseling with a counselor too they can talk to a counselor about a friend they can call primary care 646-9401 and make an appointment with a primary care provider they can call nursing 24 7 646 9440 and and talk to a nurse if they're worried about so there's a lot of people who are here we want to hear from people if they're worried about friends or themselves thank you anne for that very much um and thank you mike and anne for uh for joining us again mike and anne and mike we have to have you guys together and one team you know we are committed to bringing you uh back together at some point in the future but thank you very much for joining us that was really interesting conversation um we appreciate your time we appreciate all you do for dartmouth so thank you um and with that joe i'll go back to you so so thank you justin and ann and mike let me add my thanks it's particularly helpful and wonderful to have you with us at the start of term when there's so much that's changing at the start of every term and just given the conversation we've had today about residential operations plans for the summer what that means for students who want to go on trips and all the questions around vaccination that are in everyone's minds employees students and the alumni and parent community alike really helpful to have this clarification and explanation of the things we're trying to do moving forward and so let me just say from that uh make a few comments that are a little bit broader you know i couldn't help but reflect as i was getting ready to sit down here at the desk for today's community conversation that we've now been engaging in these conversations with the campus community for a year this is our 26 community conversation we've been doing these roughly every two weeks and we started them in april of last year in an effort to provide a different vehicle for communication and to supplement and complement information that we were posting on websites and sending around by email neither justin nor i ever imagined that we would be doing this a year later but we found it is certainly for us a helpful way even if we can't answer all the questions to get the questions that are immediately on the minds of the community we try to be as transparent as we can i know we don't often reach the the bar that many including our students are hoping for but we do earnestly try to take your questions and answer what's in progress and what our decision-making process is and what we're thinking about down the road as best we can if you have thoughts on other topics we should address related to covid please let justin or me know we are committed to continuing these certainly through the spring term and doing our best to keep the campus informed in the face of changing conditions all the time as we work through spring term and anticipate a transitional summer and hopefully hopefully if we can achieve herd immunity a return to normal operations this fall thank you everyone stay well and be well and we look forward to seeing you again in two weeks have a good afternoon

Channel: Dartmouth

Views: 786

Rating: 4.1999998 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: xiaxjQxq-M0

Length: 63min 10sec (3790 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021