CSP COVID Protocols & Mitigation Efforts – Update

CSP opened the new academic year with an initial precautionary mask requirement due to recent increases COVID cases impacting the broader community. These requirements call for mask usage in common areas indoors and in classrooms at CSP. It was noted that we would be monitoring the campus experience and adjusting our mitigation strategy as the term unfolded. We implemented the requirements even though instances of COVID on campus remain well below the broader community, including fewer than five cases through the summer months after mask mandates were lifted. 

Now with the first few weeks of in-person interactions on campus for the fall semester, we continue to see very encouraging signs across all campus-specific data points that we monitor closely. To date, the CSP community has shown great leadership in COVID mitigation, which is a credit to the way we all watch out for one another.

Currently, CSP has a required face coverings in common areas indoors and in classrooms. However, discussions are ongoing about the potential to adjust masking requirements, which will be based on what we see in our campus data along with data and guidance from the Department of Health. 

Here are a few important points used to continually evaluate our mediation methodology:

• Student vaccination rate (CSP’s target is 70% or higher)
• Employee vaccination rate (target is also 70% or higher) 
• Active cases as a percentage of on campus population (target is less than 1% active cases).

The targets noted above are based, in large part, on generally accepted guidance from the Department of Health and other public health authorities. 

CSP continues to exceed this guidance, in many instances by wide margins:

• Employees (Faculty/staff) vaccination rates are just shy of 90% (well above the 70% threshold).
• Among students who have at least one face-to-face class on campus, vaccination rates range from 72-85% across groups such as traditional on-campus students, PSEO, and graduate students. 
• Incidents of COVID on campus stand at 3 active cases (well below the 1% threshold), and all identified cases are appropriately following quarantine protocols. 

We were very proud of the way the CSP community rose to the challenges of last year, maintaining an extremely low case count throughout the year. We continue to see such successes early in the current academic year and we will make responsible, informed adjustments to protocols on campus based on the data we’ve been following for nearly a year and a half. 

We encourage the CSP community to continue following Comet’s Commitment as we show care and concern for others, and we thank you for your diligence as we continue to work our way through this pandemic.