Dear Members of the Campus Community,

As we enter a summer season full of classes, internships, and a fair amount of fall planning, I write with some news regarding our approach to mitigating the continuing risk of COVID-19 to our campus community.

As we communicated two weeks ago, we will be shifting to mask optional, but still recommended, beginning on May 23, 2022.  With the reduced number of people occupying spaces on campus throughout the summer, we are confident in taking this less restrictive approach to our mitigation tactics. In addition to the updated summer masking policy, we are making the following changes:

  1. We will shift away from weekly asymptomatic testing of the campus community as we see the de-densification of campus as the key mitigation tactic during the summer. We urge you to take advantage of the free testing options provided in the broader Tacoma-Pierce County region and these sources for free at-home test kits.
  2. With the change to the mask optional policy, we recognize the need to update the broader policies that reference the masking mandate. The following policies are being updated to reflect this change:
    1. COVID-19 Prevention: Interim Policy for In-Person Events That Include Participants Other Than Students, Faculty and Staff 
    2. COVID-19 Visitor Guidelines and Procedures
    3. COVID-19 Work on Campus Plan
  3. We anticipate updates to the COVID-19 Dashboard and will share more information when that resource is refined.

Thank you for all your hard work, dedication, resilience and commitment to making this a successful and memorable academic year. I wish you all the best for a restorative and productive summer.

With appreciation,

Isiaah
Isiaah Crawford, Ph.D. | President