Responsibilities and expectations for the spring 2021 semester
Dear students,
As we look ahead to the spring semester, I wanted to provide an update and a reminder of some very important student expectations. VCU’s priority will continue to be adopting measures to help promote a safe environment for students, faculty, staff, patients and the general public. Your completion of the spring Responsible Together Course, the daily health checks, participation in the asymptomatic surveillance testing and understanding of Entry Pass, are vital steps in this effort.
Responsible Together Course
This course, currently available for all students, serves as a refresh of expectations and responsibilities as well as new content and information specific for the spring 2021 semester. All students are required to complete this course by Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, or by the time they return to campus after the New Year. Students must complete this course even if you completed the Return to Campus training in the fall.
To access the training in Blackboard, find the “Responsible Together Course” in your list of “My Courses.” Click on the course to open it, and click on Assignments to access the full course content. If you aren’t enrolled in the course, please email dsa@vcu.edu.
The course is designed so that all students will have a better understanding of the steps being taken by the university to ensure their health and safety, as well as an understanding of their expected contributions to the health, safety and success of our VCU community – both on-campus and wherever a student may be studying/learning/engaging at this time. Through the course, all students will agree to an acknowledgement of required compliance with public health measures indicating course completion and personal compliance with safety protocols.
Daily health check
All students and employees, whether learning and working on campus or off campus, are required to continue daily health checks at dailyhealth.vcu.edu or by clicking on CampusReady in the VCU Mobile app. This tool supports active monitoring of our health on a daily basis. If you begin to experience symptoms, the daily health check will provide you with instructions and next steps.
Asymptomatic surveillance testing will be mandatory
To monitor COVID-19 within the VCU community, VCU will continue to randomly sample asymptomatic VCU community members for testing each week. Starting Jan. 19, asymptomatic surveillance testing will be mandatory for residential students, students who attend on-campus classes and student employees who work on campus. VCU will contact you by email if and when you are selected to participate. If you are selected to participate, you must schedule your test and attend your testing appointment.
Entry Pass
Entry Pass is a digital tool that shows if you are in compliance with completing daily health checks and/or asymptomatic surveillance testing. Entry Pass is available in the VCUMobile app and will soon be available online. Starting Jan. 25, all students and employees will be required to use Entry Pass to access certain VCU facilities.
Think of Entry Pass as a “fast pass.” Those who complete their daily health check and comply with asymptomatic surveillance testing, will use Entry Pass to more easily access certain campus facilities. Students and employees without an Entry Pass, as well as those who do not complete their daily health check or do not comply with surveillance testing, may face building access restrictions and/or disciplinary action; building access will require a safety protocol review with an entry attendant and, in some cases, building access may be denied.
I also encourage you to review the email that discussed the operational changes and planning for the spring that was sent to all students on Dec. 3 with more detailed information.
Our students, faculty and staff share responsibility for helping to foster the health of our community. We must be able to rely on one another to comply with university guidelines and expectations for health and safety promotion. We appreciate your actions in contributing to this effort.
Sincerely,
Charles J. Klink, Ph.D.
Senior Vice Provost for Student Affairs
Categories Fall 2020 - Spring 2021