Dr. Charles Petitt
President of Carolina University
To keep faculty, staff, students, and visitors as safe as possible, Carolina University has continued to look to state and local governments and health authorities for COVID-19 guidance. However, the emergence of the highly contagious COVID Delta variant has led to constantly changing and sometimes inconsistent guidelines resulting in rapid and confusing changes for vaccine, mask, and social distancing requirements in many schools as the fall semester is launched. This is a fluid situation for the foreseeable future, and CU leaders anticipate adjusting protocols throughout the school year as the situation changes.
Top CU administrators have all been vaccinated, and they continue to strongly encourage all faculty, staff, and students to be vaccinated. Most colleges have historically required immunization for diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella, and around ten percent of America’s colleges and universities added a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for enrollment and employment this fall. However, the FDA has not yet fully approved any COVID-19 vaccines (only granted “emergency use” approval) leading CU to strongly encourage vaccines but not mandate them.
Governmental and health mask guidance has been anything but static in recent weeks, and CU will likely adjust mask regulations on campus several times over the weeks to come. As classes resume on the CU campus, here are the mask regulations.
- Everyone who has not been fully vaccinated is required to wear masks indoors in public and in crowded outdoor settings for activities with close contact with others.
- Everyone who has been fully vaccinated is encouraged (but not required) to wear masks indoors in public and in crowded outdoor settings for activities with close contact with others.
- Masks are not required for practice or games.
Thanks in advance to all faculty, staff, and students for your patience, flexibility, and love for one another while we go through this pandemic together, and hope to get back to normal soon, whatever that is.
