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Return to Campus Newsletter

September 25, 2020

Dear Bentley Community,

With the fall season officially underway, I hope that you continue to stay healthy and safe whether you are on campus or continuing to study or work remotely. Since the start of the fall trimester, we have shared a great deal of information through these Return to Campus Newsletters and Back to Bentley web updates. With in-person, hybrid and remote learning in full swing, the newsletter going forward will share shorter updates each week. As in past weeks, you can ask any additional questions by emailing me at kwong@bentley.edu.

Flu Season
Starting this fall, all full-time students under 30 years old who visit campus (even once), including all residential students, are required by the state to get the flu vaccine. The flu vaccine is strongly recommended as well for part-time students and those over 30, as well as students attending remotely. For residential students and non-residential students who visit campus and are enrolled in Bentley’s screening test program, flu clinics will be held on campus. You can register here. Clinics will be held on October 6, 14 and 21 and appointments must be registered for in advance. No walk-in appointments will be accepted.

Non-residential students not enrolled in the screening test program, should consult with local pharmacies or their primary care physician to schedule a flu shot.

COVID-19 Dashboard
Earlier this week, we eclipsed our 16,000th screening test of our on-campus population at the Miller Lot testing site. With this week’s totals came four new positive test results, all of which are reflected in the dashboard. Our total for the fall trimester is five cases. As we have said in past updates, positive cases were to be expected on campus this fall, and the Health Center and contact tracing team are working quickly to ensure that the people who test positive self-isolate and any contacts self-quarantine while awaiting their test results.

As a reminder, suspect cases, or individuals who exhibit symptoms that could be related to either seasonal illness or COVID-19, are being handled with an abundance of caution and may be required to isolate until COVID-19 can be ruled out. Those suspect cases are not displayed on the dashboard, and only confirmed instances of COVID-19 resulting in isolation or quarantine are posted. If COVID-19 is ruled out and seasonal illness is confirmed to be the cause of upper respiratory symptoms, the Health Center will work with students towards recovery and in most cases return them to their housing location.

With this week’s results, the percentage of negative test results is 99.97% since we began testing on Aug. 17. We ask on-campus faculty, staff and students to continue to help reduce the number of positive cases by keeping their weekly screening test appointments, conducting a regular daily personal health checklist and properly wearing a face covering.

As always, be sure to check the Back to Bentley website for new information and campus updates. For reference, all past newsletters are archived on that page for easy access.

Kevin Wong
Chair, Return to Campus Communications Workgroup