Greetings CSP Community,
The Fall 2021 semester is now about a month away, and we know students, faculty, and staff have many important questions regarding the impact COVID-19 may have on the on-campus experience.
Our larger peer institutions, such as the University of Minnesota, have had to make decisions over the last few days to reinstate mask mandates and other actions due to increased COVID cases, particularly the Delta Variant. The relative size of the CSP traditional campus in Minnesota, our facilities with Ionic air cleaning systems, and in-person traditional enrollment allows us greater flexibility and time to make such decisions and implement processes for the upcoming semester.
For the time being, we are not mandating the use of masks on the St. Paul campus. Additionally, CSP is not mandating vaccinations by students, faculty or staff. We are, however, working in close collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Health and monitoring data and information from the CDC and other official sources to inform decision-making in the coming weeks, which affords many potential pathways forward.
*Note-For our Portland on-site nursing students, faculty and staff are masking indoors and meeting vaccination standards in compliance with the local requirements.
A few key things to note:
- We are gathering data from state sources and are launching a survey of students, faculty, and staff to better gauge vaccination rates for those on campus (details below).
- We encourage students, faculty, and staff to consider getting vaccinated for COVID-19 if you have not already done so.
- While not mandated, we still encourage reasonable distancing, frequent hand washing, and other reasonable measures to help maintain a safe environment.
Data Gathering
As noted above, we are collecting data from state sources and asking for your voluntary participation in a brief survey to help us better determine vaccination rates for our St. Paul campus community. All data gathered will be protected according to our standard practices and will only be shared as aggregate, campus-wide information.
You can participate in this voluntary confidential survey, which will be emailed directly to you. We are asking for minimal information, so it should only take a minute or so to complete.
CSP will offer some fun incentives for students to encourage participation in the confidential survey. Prizes include a number of CSP Bookstore gift cards and a weekly $100 student account credits.
Important: incentives are based on participating in the survey.
Data gathered from the Minnesota Department of Health will be cross referenced with our survey data as well as information being gathered through our athletics program for better modeling and decision support moving forward.
We respect your privacy above all else. Our intent for gathering information is strictly to help inform the decisions that will be made to help support the goal of providing a safe, in-person campus experience for the upcoming academic year.
Contact Tracing and Reporting
CSP’s COVID-19 response protocols helped us navigate last year in a much better position compared to many colleges, universities, and other organizations. COVID infection rates among our students, faculty, and staff stayed well below community averages. That success continues to this day with only one reported and contained active case for our campus community.
With great cooperation from everyone, we were able to support quarantining and remote learning opportunities for those impacted by the virus last year. CSP continued providing in-person learning alongside online delivery – and we were able to resume full participation in activities including athletics, choral music, theater, and chapel.
We will continue our COVID-19 reporting and tracking protocols for students via this link. Faculty and staff will work directly with Human Resources to report and respond to any possible exposures or confirmed cases by emailing [email protected]. Information about these protocols can be found at https://www.csp.edu/coronavirus/.
Internships, Clinicals, Study Abroad, Service Learning
Students involved in these additional areas of study may encounter more stringent requirements around masking and vaccination. If you have questions or concerns about requirements you may face for off-campus learning activities, contact:
- Internships – Faculty Supervisor
- Clinicals – Clinical Supervisor
- Service Learning and Study abroad – [email protected]
Next Steps
We will continue to provide updates weekly or more frequently as warranted. We have a cross-functional team dedicated to COVID-related issues. This group works with the appropriate local, state, and federal entities tasked with managing this pandemic to help ensure the needs and concerns of all CSP stakeholders are addressed.
CSP is building on our successes navigating the unprecedented challenges of the past year. We’ve learned a lot along the way and we methodically apply those learnings alongside an expanding body of data to make informed decisions.
In the meantime, we again ask everyone to do their part. Consider getting vaccinated if you have not already done so. Also, maintain appropriate distancing, hand-washing, and other cautionary actions as needed.
The upcoming academic year shows great promise to be much more “normal” than the past year. By building on the CSP community’s great successes last year, we are confident we will again be a model for others to follow.
Stay tuned for more updates in the days ahead. We are committed to your well being along with providing the CSP experience you’ve earned and deserve. Thank you for the amazing work the CSP community has done in the past 18 months and we know that you will continue to do so as we move forward.
Go Golden Bears!