Dear Marist Students,

We are writing to inform you that Marist is planning to resume on-campus courses effective Monday, April 12. Students who have remained on campus and participated in mandatory surveillance testing can begin to attend in-person classes immediately. Students who have left campus during the pause must have a negative COVID test before attending classes in person. Directions for obtaining this test are outlined below.  

Moving forward, we will be very cautious about our planned resumption of activities and continue to make decisions based on data.  If the number of positive cases moves in the wrong direction over the next few days or once we resume activities, we may impose additional restrictions.  On the other hand, if we continue to drive down our rates and students get vaccinated, we will be able to release additional restrictions.

Mandatory Surveillance Testing Reminder

As a reminder, students must participate in mandatory surveillance testing. 

• Any student who remained on campus and participated in surveillance testing during the pause will be permitted to attend class in-person starting Monday. 
• Any students who did not participate in surveillance testing from March 29- April 8 (except those who were previously notified of an exemption) will be assigned a date to return to campus and complete mandatory arrival testing. These students will be required to practice a self-imposed quarantine (e.g. take classes online, eat in their room, limit interactions with others) until test results are received by the College. Students should return to campus on the day of their arrival testing and not before.
• Testing times for students who have not complied with surveillance testing will be provided via email by Friday, April 9th. Return testing times will be staggered during April 12- April 16 to allow time for processing results and contact tracing. Any student who was previously scheduled for testing between April 9-11 should attend as planned and will be allowed to attend class beginning April 12th.

Vaccination Reminder

The most important next steps we can all take is to get vaccinated.  This is all of our best interests:  we will be able to release restrictions as more members of our community become vaccinated. 

We urge you to use the following resources to register for an off-campus vaccine appointment:

• New York: Visit New York State’s vaccination site: am-i-eligible.covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov to schedule an appointment.
• New York: Register for COVID-19 vaccination updates from Dutchess County Government to be notified when there is an appointment available at specific locations: www.dutchessny.gov/vaccineinfoform.
• All Locations: Utilize Vaccine Finder, a centralized, searchable database, to track vaccine availability in pharmacies, health care providers, and municipalities across the United States.

If you have been vaccinated, please upload your proof of vaccination to marist.medicatconnect.com in order to provide us with an accurate count of fully vaccinated students.

In addition to those links, we are pleased to announce that we will be supplementing the general resources noted above by providing additional vaccines starting next week, through our partnership with Westchester Medical Center and Dutchess County.  It is important to note that we will have a limited supply, so we encourage you to pursue options through the links above or other methods. More information about this additional vaccination program will be released shortly.

Thank you again for your continued commitment to keeping our community safe.

Sincerely,

Geoff Brackett, Executive Vice President
Thom Wermuth, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Deb DiCaprio, Vice President for Student Affairs