In this week’s Thursday Thoughts, above, LeShelle says dancing makes her happy (and she shows her go-to move), while Chancellor May is not quite as enthusiastic (but we get to see his moves anyway)!
To the UC Davis Community:
As thousands more students begin to arrive for the start of fall quarter in just over two weeks, I would like to emphasize the many COVID-19 precautions we have implemented and the detailed preparatory work we have done to support a healthy environment for the UC Davis community.
We will begin with at least once-a-week testing of our students who are living on campus, and eventually expand to test all UC Davis affiliates. We will have a very limited number of in-person classes and will follow public health guidelines for all campus activities. We have our , easily accessible on our smartphones, a clear reminder to every one of us to self-monitor our health, every day (and it’s required before accessing campus facilities). Signs are up everywhere, on entry doors, on walls and on floors, reminding people to wear face coverings indoors and outdoors when other people are present, to stay at least 6 feet apart from other people, to follow "one-way" walking patterns and to practice good hand hygiene. We are training our team of Aggie Public Health Ambassadors to take up their posts around campus. Food service is to-go only.
Under our , students are prohibited from holding in-person social gatherings, meetings and events, regardless of the location. This includes clubs, registered student organizations, recruitment events and parties.
To be honest, though, we expect to see an increase in COVID-19 cases simply because we are testing to identify cases, and the Davis-area population is growing like it does every fall. Earlier this week we shared the results of our recent survey in which we asked students where they planned to live this quarter. Approximately half of our undergraduates and 70 percent of our graduate students said they were planning to reside in Davis or surrounding communities, including on-campus housing. We figured those percentages represent a range of 23,000 to 25,000 students.
As of the time of the survey, around the end of August, about 11,000 students said they were already living in Davis or nearby, meaning 12,000 to 14,000 were still coming.
‘Wellness’ calls and check-ins
And we will be here for them — no matter where they live in the Davis area, on campus or off campus. For students who test positive for COVID-19 or who have been exposed, we will provide housing and services, should they have to be quarantined or isolated. We are prepared to take care of our on-campus residents and we are prepared to take care of our off-campus residents, if they would be better served on campus. We have set aside almost 400 beds for this purpose. Students will receive “wellness” calls and check-ins from staff in two units: Student Health and Counseling Services, and Student Housing and Dining Services. The campus dining team will prepare and deliver meals (students will order off menus).
Off-campus housing partners are also prepared to provide quarantine and isolation space and are modeling their response plans to coordinate with our process.
We have already provided quarantine and isolation support for students over the summer. We have learned from those experiences; now we are scaling the level of support we will need to accommodate our increased student population. And we have contingency plans on top of that.
We are hoping for the best, but, if need be, we are prepared to provide the best response. That’s what Aggies do. We’re in this together!
Welcome to The Green
Moove-In begins next week, starting at , a brand-new apartment complex that is part of our commitment to the city to provide more on-campus housing. Counting The Green, .
Built in just over a year and a half, The Green’s Phase 1 comprises apartments for 1,000 students. A year from now, The Green will triple in size, with apartments for 3,300 students total. The next phase also includes a 10,000-square-foot community building with a fitness center, multipurpose room and student support services.
The Green’s first residents, around 600 in number, will arrive Tuesday through Thursday (Sept. 15-17), greeted by campus administrators. Moove-In to the residence halls will take place the week after (density will be reduced in the residence halls to one student per room).
Pilot screening
Besides lugging boxes, residents of campus housing will go through our . We have set up a kiosk in The Pavilion parking garage where we will take saliva samples under the supervision of medical staff from Student Health and Counseling Services. These samples will go to the Genome Center for results in 24 to 48 hours. (During the pilot, we will use nasal swab tests as a backup, for analysis off campus.) Student residents should expect to be tested on at least a weekly basis through fall quarter.
While screening will begin with students living on campus, we intend to make COVID-19 screening available to all who are using campus facilities. Once the saliva screening process has been fully validated during the pilot phase, we plan to open more kiosks for phased implementation of screening of all UC Davis students, academics and staff members.
Healthy Davis Together
As a university town, UC Davis and the city of Davis recognize the need for a unified public health effort beyond “campus boundaries,” so that our communities can thrive together. To facilitate this outreach, university and city leadership have been working together and are launching a new initiative: Healthy Davis Together. The goal of this joint project is to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and facilitate a coordinated and gradual return to regular city activities and reintegration of UC Davis students back into the Davis community. We will share more information soon.
Of faculty interest
Earlier this week the