Dear Instructors,
With Spring semester underway and the prevalence of the omicron variant in our region, we’re experiencing an increase in reported COVID-19 cases in our campus community. In an effort to maintain a safe learning environment and improve the efficiency of contact tracing, we’d like to review our current protocols for what to do when a student or instructor tests positive:
If a student tests positive for COVID-19
- Report all positive (student) cases through NMC’s Red Flag incident reporting system:
- Check “Health Concerns” in the questions section.
- Please include:
- The best contact information for the student (cell and/or email)
- The room number of your class
- The time class met
- Any other information related to unusually close or lengthy contact with additional students (i.e. lab partner)
- Please ask the student to contact NMC Health Services to expedite reporting and follow-up.
- To maintain student privacy, we strongly discourage notifying an entire classroom if a student in your classroom tests positive.
- Health Services is responsible for contact tracing, focusing on close contacts since they are most at risk. Should the instructor choose to notify an entire class of a case in their classroom, it’s very important not to identify the student who tested positive. Exclude their name and other personally identifiable information.
- If Health Services is made aware of or discovers a student case before an instructor, they will notify the instructor as soon as possible.
- If Health Services identifies multiple classroom cases, they will notify the instructor and arrange a meeting to assess the need to pivot to virtual instruction or cancel for a period of time.
- Instructors should contact Health Services immediately (via the Red Flag process outlined above) if multiple student cases are discovered by the faculty member first.
- Instructors should then follow guidelines for “Multiple Classroom Cases” in determining whether to temporarily shift the course online.
If an instructor tests positive for COVID-19
- The instructor should notify their supervisor and Human Resources (include Hollie DeWalt and Mark Liebling).
- Coursework may be temporarily cancelled, adjusted or shifted online at the discretion of the instructor during quarantine (generally 5 days unless symptoms persist).
Rapid testing resources
- Health Services provides free rapid testing services for all students.
- Health Services also provides testing services to faculty and staff who experience on-the-job exposures. Due to limited resources, testing services are not available for employees who are exposed elsewhere in the community.
- Free COVID-19 rapid-testing sites near you can be found here and are also available through COVIDtests.gov
Please also note the dates and locations of potential campus exposures are posted to NMC’s COVID-19 dashboard by 4 p.m. weekdays.
Thank you,
Troy Kierczynski
Vice President of Finance & Administration
Administrative Services
(231) 995-1147 | www.nmc.edu
