1/1/2022 - Winter Term 2022 Return Update

To: Caltech Graduate and Undergraduate Students

From: Kevin Gilmartin, Vice President for Student Affairs; David Chan, Dean of Graduate Studies; Lesley Nye, Interim Dean of Undergraduate Students

Dear Graduate and Undergraduate Students,

We write to clarify and reinforce the importance of our announced safety protocols for the start of Winter Term 2022, particularly our pre-arrival testing requirements.

Caltech is committed to preserving the in-person learning experience for this winter term. In order to achieve this, we need to reconstruct our campus "bubble" as quickly and effectively as possible after the holiday break. Our aim is to gather Covid-negative students over the course of a short period of time, and return them to our residences and our surveillance testing protocols. In doing this, we are hoping to be able to begin in-person learning on January 10th.

This is why we are asking all undergraduate students, and graduate students who are residing in any Caltech-owned housing, to provide proof of a negative test before the term begins.  This will allow us to catch any positive cases before students return to the residences and begin to intermingle and potentially expose others to infection.  We are also requiring this same group, plus all graduate students enrolled in winter term courses, to participate in surveillance testing during the first week of term, in order to identify and isolate cases immediately and prevent any further spread of infection.  

If you are traveling back to campus and are not able to provide a negative test—either because you cannot locate a test, or you test positive—you cannot enter the campus bubble. We ask that you delay your return to campus. If you are already on campus and are unable to provide a negative test, we ask that you delay your participation in any activities on campus, until we can be confident you will not infect others.

If you need to delay your return to campus, please complete the late return form; if you test positive or are experiencing symptoms, report it via the COVID-19 reporting app.

Graduate student late arrival form: 

https://caltechhousing.wufoo.com/forms/k1ua021t05lh9nx/

Undergraduate student late arrival form: 

https://caltechhousing.wufoo.com/forms/undergraduate-winter-break-late-return-form/

COVID-19 reporting app: https://access.caltech.edu/covid19_reporting/

The safety and wellbeing of our campus community remain our top priorities, and everyone needs to support these efforts if we are to return to in-person learning and other campus activities this term.  If you have further questions, please direct them to winterreturn22@caltech.edu.

Sincerely,

Kevin Gilmartin

Vice President for Student Affairs

David Chan

Dean of Graduate Studies

Lesley Nye

Interim Dean of Undergraduate Students