Staff and Faculty Climate Survey Begins Tomorrow

“Doing What We Do Better:” Watch for Survey Link Tomorrow

As the college prepares to embark on Project 2024, we will soon gather valuable input from you so we can do what we do at CC even better.

CC is committed to being a great place to work. To do that, we periodically ask staff and faculty how they feel about their sense of well-being; the college’s mission, values, and direction; the shared-governance model we rely upon in making many decisions; and the stewardship and shaping of our campus culture, among other things.

An anonymous employee climate and engagement survey will be distributed during Block 4. From Dec. 1-22, you’ll have the opportunity to share your thoughts, ideas, and feedback on what you like most about CC, what you think the college could improve, and how to make the best of CC’s strengths — as individuals and as an institution — to achieve goals.

The results from previous campus climate surveys prompted major initiatives including the Excel@CC professional development program; a four-year, $1 million investment in staff compensation to bring it up to market levels; a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion; a policy and compliance website; improved internal communications; and onboarding for new employees.

The survey will arrive in email inboxes beginning tomorrow, December 1. Watch for this message — it will come from ModernThink — and thank you for your participation in this anonymous survey.

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Thank You For Sharing Your Thoughts

This message was sent to all students today, thanking them for taking the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates survey. Thanks to all of you who encouraged students to take the survey. Similar surveys will be conducted for staff in Spring 2022 and for faculty in Spring 2023.

Dear Students,

I want to take a moment to thank you. We recently administered the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates, a survey asking students about the racial climate on our campus. Nearly 1,000 of you — or 41.5% of the student body — responded to the survey. Thank you for engaging in this important work.

Your valuable input will help us to better understand your experiences on campus and how you feel about the college’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Our survey partners at USC’s Race and Equity Center will analyze the results and provide recommendations based on their analysis. We will share both with the CC community.

Again, thank you for your commitment to antiracism at Colorado College and for taking the time to complete this important survey. Your participation will help to make our community more inclusive and welcoming for all.

Sincerely,

L. Song Richardson
President

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Thank You For Sharing Your Thoughts

Dear Students,

Sincerely,

L. Song Richardson
President

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Need to Know Post-Break Information

Dear Students,

Welcome to Block 4! We hope you enjoyed a restful Fall Break.

Please take a moment to review the COVID-19 risk mitigation protocols that all CC community members are expected to follow. Indoor masking remains in place on campus as COVID-19 transmission levels continue to be high in El Paso County. You can look up the community transmission level county by county here to inform your off-campus masking practices. We strongly recommend following CDC guidance to mask indoors when transmission levels are substantial or high.

As you return to campus for the final block of 2021, please remember that all students (except for those who have received a positive COVID-19 test result in the 90 days prior) are required to take a COVID-19 test at the beginning of Block 4.

If you have symptoms today such as cough, fever, sore throat, headache etc., please do NOT go to class. Stay away from others, and call the Student Health Center, (719) 389-6384, to make an appointment at your earliest convenience.

COVID-19 asymptomatic screening testing is now administered by eMed, a telehealth provider. You should have received an email from covid19@coloradocollege.edu prompting you to pick up a BinaxNow test kit.

For this initial testing after Fall Break only, students residing in Mathias, South, and Loomis Halls should pick up their test kit at their hall’s front desk beginning TODAY, Nov. 29, during desk hours.

Students residing in other residence halls on campus or off-campus should pick up their BinaxNow test kits at the Tutt Library circulation desk beginning TODAY, Nov. 29,at 8 a.m. You must bring and swipe your Gold Card to pick up a test kit.

As a reminder, please follow the instructions provided with each test kit and take the test by Tuesday, Nov. 30, at 5 p.m. Do not open your test kit until prompted to do so during the telehealth session with eMed.

In order to participate in the testing program, you must download the Navica app, create an account, and enter the Connect Code to connect your account to Colorado College. If you didn’t receive the email invitation to download the app (sent Nov. 16), check your junk email folder; contact us at covid19@coloradocollege.edu if needed.

It’s important to follow these instructions because we will not receive test results until after you have connected your account to Colorado College and your test results won’t count toward the testing requirement, resulting in your key card access to campus being turned off.

Feeling Sick?

If you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, do NOT go to class. Stay home and away from others.
Call the Student Health Center as soon as possible to make an appointment with a health care provider: (719) 389-6384.
In addition to COVID-19 testing, the provider will be able to test for a range of other illnesses, such as influenza, strep, etc., to help you recover as quickly as possible.

Think you may have been exposed to the Coronavirus?

Wear a mask when around others.
If you’re asymptomatic, make an appointment at the Student Health Center, (719) 389-6384, for testing on day 5-7 after the last known exposure. If you test sooner, the test may not accurately detect an infection because of the incubation period.
If symptomatic, call the Student Health Center and make an appointment with a provider.

All members of the CC community are encouraged to get a COVID-19 booster shot. We will share details soon about an on-campus COVID-19 booster clinic.

If you have questions, please contact covid19@coloradocollege.edu and check our Coronavirus Updates and Resources webpage.

We are excited for you to be back on campus and wish you a healthy and rewarding Block 4!

Sincerely,

Andrea Bruder
Chief Public Health Advisor to the President

Mateo Muñoz
Chair, COVID-19 Policy and Implementation Committee

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TOMORROW: Block 4 First Mondays

The final First Mondays event of the Fall Semester is happening TOMORROW, Nov. 29, at 11:15 a.m.

Start Block 4 together at a hybrid First Mondays event. What is innovation, anyway? Director of Creativity & Innovation Dez Stone Menendez ’00 explores that question and what it means to expand innovation beyond the commercial sphere to the cultural, social, and personal. She will share the philosophy and guiding principles behind the Creativity & Innovation initiative at CC.

This First Mondays event will take place in Kathryn Mohrman Theatre and via Zoom. If you’re attending virtually, please register in advance. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The First Mondays Event Series is a campus-wide forum that aims to engage all members of the CC community, including students, staff, administrators, and faculty. The series creates opportunities for the whole community to gather, encouraging everyone to be part of the intellectual life of the college, and facilitating discourse among students, faculty, and staff, across courses, disciplines, and divisions. Classes are dismissed early on the first Monday of each block so that all may attend the First Mondays event.

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Download Navica App NOW for Post-Fall Break Testing

Students are required to take a COVID-19 test following Fall Break.

As announced in Block 3, our COVID-19 asymptomatic screening testing program will be administered by eMed, a telehealth provider.

On Nov. 16, all students received an email from noreply@navica.abbott (sent to your CC email account). Follow the instructions in that email to download the Navica app, create an account, and enter the Connect Code to connect your account to Colorado College. Once you have connected your account, you are ready to participate in testing.

Create your account and connect to Colorado College by TODAY, Nov. 22. If you haven’t received the email invitation, check your junk email folder, and contact covid19@coloradocollege.edu.

Watch this short video and view detailed instructions from this previous message and via FAQs here.

Thank you for your continued participation in our COVID-19 testing program.

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Save the Date for: “Calling In the Call Out Culture with Loretta J. Ross”

Calling In the Call Out Culture with Dr. Loretta J. Ross

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, 6 p.m. MT
This is a virtual event. Register in advance for this webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Join activist and public intellectual, Dr. Loretta J. Ross in calling in the call out culture and in the fight against white supremacy. How can we dismantle hate if the methods we use replicate it? Dr. Ross asks us to contemplate how we can instead intentionally and collectively shift our culture in order to build a united movement for human rights. She notes that in our well-intentioned activism we often use our radical consciousness to harm each other, while we are together hurting and healing, instead of coming together to fight a common oppressor. In this talk, Dr. Ross will discuss how Calling Out/Calling In is not another false binary but rather a continuum of accountability.

Dr. Ross is associate professor of the study of women and gender at Smith College, where she teaches courses on white supremacy, human rights, and calling in the call out culture.

She was the national coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective (2005-2012) and co-created the theory of reproductive justice. Ross was the national co-director of the March for Women’s Lives (April 25, 2004) in Washington, D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history at that time. She founded the National Center for Human Rights Education in Atlanta, Georgia, launched the Women of Color Program for the National Organization for Women, and was the national program director of the National Black Women’s Health Project. One of the first African American women to direct a rape crisis center, Ross was the third executive director of the D.C. Rape Crisis Center.

This event is open to all Colorado College students, alumni, faculty, and staff and community members from the Colorado Springs area and beyond.

This event is part of Dismantling Hate: An Educational Series Toward Understanding and Action. This series, for the academic year 2021-22, is a campus-wide initiative that provides programming for CC students, faculty, staff, and alumni and community members from the Colorado Springs area. The purpose and goal of this educational series is to support our communities in better understanding hate — the root and outcomes — and to motivate people to take action to dismantle hate. Each educational program in the series will feature a conversation with an activist, broadly defined, who will share their work and experiences dismantling hate against marginalized communities.

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Gratitude for our CC Community

Dear CC Community,

Most of the colorful leaves from our long and beautiful autumn have fallen, making the magnificent views of Pikes Peak, or Tava, as the Ute people call it, more visible over Cutler Hall. There are gifts in each season.

As I become accustomed to the rhythm of the block, I continue to be amazed by the capacity of our community to accomplish so much in so little time. An important part of that ebb and flow is the block break, which gives us time to reflect on what we’ve learned from our accomplishments, our failures, and our connections with others.

This is the season for gratitude, but I have felt it and witnessed it so much throughout my first few months at CC. I am grateful that we are living, working, teaching, and learning in person this year. The connection, energy, and support of this community are palpable. I am grateful for all who make that possible – our students, staff, faculty, families, alumni, and community – and all who support our efforts to do so as safely as we can.

As we embark on Fall Break, I hope we reflect on the gifts of learning, the people who brighten our days, and this place that brings us together. I wish everyone a wonderful and rejuvenating week.

Sincerely,

L. Song Richardson

President

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Fall Break COVID-19 Reminders: Testing + Boosters

Dear Students,

Thank you for your continued participation in public health protocols including testing and indoor masking. Your participation has supported our response to the recent spike in infections.

Implemented at the onset of the spike, additional screening testing detected existing infections and effectively prevented further spread. After peaking mid-last week at 77, the number of new weekly cases has rapidly declined, to 26 as of today. Most students who received positive test results have completed their isolation periods.

Even though we are taking care and adhering to protocols at CC, COVID-19 transmission rates are high in El Paso County and in much of the country. You can look up transmission levels at your destination here to inform your masking practices.

Common risks for exposure include indoor activities such as visiting friends and family, parties and other gatherings, eating in restaurants, and traveling.

It’s important that we take extra care to reduce risk of COVID-19 spread as we prepare to spend time with friends, family, and others during Fall Break. Please take steps to protect yourself and others:

Follow CDC guidance for domestic and internat ional travel. Depending on your destination and vaccination status, this may entail testing. See testing resources below.
Protect family members who may be more at risk of severe illness, even if they are vaccinated:
- Test prior to leaving campus;
- Consider testing prior to attending holiday gatherings. At-home antigen tests (not to be confused with antibody tests) such as the BinaxNow, iHealth, BD Veritor, and others are now more widely available from pharmacies and Amazon.
- Get tested if you’re not feeling well.
Do NOT travel or interact with others if you’re experiencing COVID-19 symptoms such as cough, sore throat, fever, chills, headache, fatigue, loss of taste or smell, congestion or runny nose, nausea or diarrhea. Stay home and away from others.
Avoid large gatherings and mask up indoors.
Get your COVID-19 booster shot. Due to wide spread, Colorado and some other states now recommend that all people 18+ get a booster dose.

Symptomatic Testing

The Student Health Center will be open for normal hours through the end of Block 3 (8 a.m.-noon and 1-7:30 p.m.on Wednesday) with limited hours Nov. 18 and 19 (noon-5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday). Contact the SHC, (719) 389-6384, if you’re feeling sick. They will help you with testing for COVID-19 and a range of other illnesses, and treatment.
During Fall Break, beginning Saturday, Nov. 20, through Sunday, Nov. 28, students should contact the Optum Medical Center Point Urgent Care, (719) 636-2999, if experiencing symptoms or feeling unwell.

In addition to COVID-19 testing, the provider will be able to test for a range of other illnesses, such as influenza, strep, etc., to help you recover as quickly as possible.

Students who receive positive test results during Fall Break must follow isolation protocols and should contact their Block 4 professor to discuss the need for support, adaptation, or assistance with the course.

Screening/Asymptomatic Testing
Asymptomatic testing is available prior to Fall Break at Boettcher Wednesday (8 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m.). Starting on November 29, Screening/Asymptomatic testing will be administered by eMed. Please remember to follow the instructions in the email you received from noreply@navica.abbot to download the Navica app and connect your account to be ready to start testing with eMed after Fall Break.

Think you may have been exposed to the Coronavirus?

Wear a mask when around others;
If you’re asymptomatic, make an appointment for testing 5-7 days after the exposure, see guidance above;
If symptomatic, note the provider hours above and call to make an appointment;
Contact the COVID Response Coordinator, (719) 413-9588, who will follow up as soon as possible.

All students staying on campus during Fall Break will have access to campus dining options, virtual activities and to-go kits, small-scale on-campus programming, and other supports. Every day, students in isolation will get a check from a COVID coordinator, and daily meal/mail/prescription delivery continues over Fall Break. Students on campus will also have access to virtual and to-go activities from Campus Activities during the break.

You can view college COVID-19 vaccination rates, testing, and exposure data on the CC COVID-19 dashboard. Our COVID-19 risk mitigation information is available here.

Regardless of your plans, please take care of yourself, as well as those around you. Many resources are available to you over this extended break and the Office of Campus Activities has put together this Fall Break Digest with information, events, and activities planned for those on-campus.

We wish you a healthy and restful break.

Sincerely,

Andrea Bruder
Chief Public Health Advisor to the President

Mateo Muñoz
Chair, COVID-19 Policy and Implementation Committee

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Asymptomatic COVID-19 Screening Testing for Students Through eMed

Starting after Fall Break, our COVID-19 asymptomatic screening testing program will be administered by eMed, a telehealth provider.

The Student Health Center, located in the Yalich Student Services Center, will continue providing tests for symptomatic COVID-19 testing, follow-up testing to positive antigen tests, and testing after exposure.

All students will take a COVID test at the end of Fall Break. The data from this baseline testing will inform frequency of testing moving forward.

Later today, Nov. 16, all students will receive an email from noreply@navica.abbott (sent to your CC email account). Follow the instructions in the email to download the Navica app, create an account, and enter the Connect Code to connect your account to Colorado College. Once you have connected your account, you are ready to participate in testing. Create your account and connect to Colorado College by Monday, Nov. 22. If you haven’t received the email invitation, please check your junk email folder, and contact us at covid19@coloradocollege.edu as needed.

Prior to the beginning of Block 4, all students, except for those who have received a positive COVID-19 test result in the 90 days prior, will receive an email from covid19@coloradocollege.edu prompting them to pick up a BinaxNow test kit. BinaxNow test kits will be available at the Tutt Library circulation desk beginning
Monday, Nov. 29,at 8 a.m. You must bring and swipe your Gold Card to pick up a test kit. Students with exemptions who test twice weekly may pick up two test kits at a time each week.

For the initial testing after Fall Break, students residing in Mathias, South, and Loomis Halls should pick up their test kit at their hall’s front desk beginning Monday, Nov. 29, during desk hours.

Students will self-administer the test, e.g., in their room, supervised by eMed through a telehealth session. Our email communication will include detailed instructions. Students, please do not open the test kit before being prompted to do so during the telehealth session to make sure your test is recorded and counts toward the testing requirement. Please watch this short video to learn more about how to start your telehealth session and administer the test. Detailed information and FAQs about eMed testing are available here and at the bottom of this message.

We will send a separate email regarding COVID-19 testing for faculty and staff soon.

Thank you for your participation in our testing program. Please reach out to us with any questions: covid19@coloradocollege.edu.

Sincerely,

Andrea Bruder
Chief Public Health Advisor to the President

Mateo Muñoz
Chair, COVID-19 Policy and Implementation Committee

eMed FAQs

What kind of test does CC use for screening testing?
The BinaxNow COVID-19 Ag Card is an antigen test. The sample is an anterior nasal swab. Antigen tests (not to be confused with antibody tests) detect COVID-19 infections very reliably during the infectious period, making them an excellent tool for screening testing. Their tendency not to pick up prior infections after recovery will help to reduce isolation needs. Because some false positive results are to be expected, all positive antigen test results are followed up by a molecular test at the Student Health Center located in the Yalich Student Services Center.

How is the test administered?
Students self-administer the test, supervised by a telehealth provider, eMed.

How will I receive my test results?
You will receive your test results via the Navica app as well as via email.

What happens if I receive a positive BinaxNow test result through eMed?
If you’ve received a positive test result, put on your mask (unless you are in your room by yourself with the door closed) and stay away from others. Our COVID-19 response  coordinator  will call you and discuss next steps. Students will need to schedule a follow-up test at the Student Health Center to confirm the test result. Do NOT go to the Student Health Center before speaking with a COVID-19 response team member. All positive test results will be followed up with a molecular test at the Student Health Center, located in the Yalich Student Services Center. Please stay near your phone.

If the follow-up test is positive, the COVID-19 Response Team  will help you with isolation housing needs, meal and mail delivery, prescriptions, and other needs.
Students should contact their professor to discuss their needs for support, adaptation, or assistance with class.
If the follow-up test is negative, you have no symptoms, and there’s been no known exposure, you will not need to isolate.

Will testing still be available at Boettcher?
No. However, the Student Health Center, located in the Yalich Student Services Center, will continue providing tests for symptomatic COVID-19 testing, testing after exposure, and follow-up testing to positive antigen tests.

What should I do if I have symptoms?
If you experience symptoms of COVID-19, please stay home. Students should contact the Student Health Center (719) 389-6384 to make an appointment with a provider who will help with testing and treatment needs. Provider appointments are available seven days a week (see schedule below). Students should also contact their professor to discuss their needs for support, adaptation, or assistance with class.

Student Health Center, Yalich Student Services Center:
Monday-Friday: 8 a.m.-noon and 1-7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Can I use these test results for travel, attending events, etc.?
Yes. Simply show your test result on the Navica app.

Who has access to the test results?
Each student has access to their own test results via the Navica app; eMed reports the test results to the county health department (required) and CC. At CC, the Testing Team, the Student Health Center, and the COVID-19 Response Team have access to the test results.

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