Dear Brown Community Members,

I am pleased to inform the Brown community that effective Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021, the Campus Activity Status will be at a modified Level 2. The University has established a system for what levels of activity are permissible on campus under prevailing health conditions at any given time, and a change in activity level affects all who study, work and live at Brown.

We are describing this as a modified Level 2 as there will be some important differences from the Level 2 experience of last fall. At this early stage in the term, we are prioritizing academic activities while leaving other restrictions in place. The most significant change from current operations is to allow classes of 19 or fewer students to begin in-person instruction. As we get further into the term and if public health conditions permit, additional activities will be permitted. The full lists of newly permitted activities and the restrictions that remain in place are below.

Individual and collective choices — including mask wearing, hand washing, symptom monitoring, social distancing, seeking medical advice when sick and active participation in the routine testing program — have enabled us to take this step. If we all work together and maintain these practices, we will ensure a safe and healthy spring term with an increasingly broader range of permissible activities.

Please be sure to read both the newly permitted activities, and also the ongoing restrictions on student activities, dining, socializing, and out-of-state travel that remain limited because of public health guidance.

HIGHLIGHTS OF NEWLY PERMITTED ACTIVITIES:

• Undergraduate and graduate classes of 19 students or less can meet in-person as of Jan. 27, 2021.

• Libraries are open starting January 27, and undergraduate, graduate and medical students can reserve study space seating using the LibCal Seat Booking tool. Books and other materials ordered through Josiah continue to be available through contactless circulation, with pickup at the Rockefeller Library lobby.

• The Kasper Multipurpose Room is available for student use as a reservable study space. The space may also be used to relax in, read, and other low-volume, seated activities. The space includes whiteboards and power for group collaboration or single-use. Reservations can be made using the LibCal Seat Booking tool.

• Limited University-sponsored and University-organized in-person events approved by senior officers and hosted by staff may take place, preferably outdoors, with mask wearing and social distancing.

• All community members are strongly encouraged to exercise outdoors, both on- and off-campus, and to take advantage of getting outside as much as possible while following health protocols. While the Nelson Fitness Center is not yet open and organized athletic activities for varsity athletes are not yet allowed, we hope to be able to offer those opportunities in the coming weeks. In the meantime, walking and running with masks and socially distanced from others are great ways to get some exercise and get to know the City of Providence and surrounding areas, including the East Bay Bike Path.

• Undergraduate students living on campus or in Brown-leased properties away from the physical campus may socialize in groups of no more than five students (who also live on campus), preferably outdoors and with a mask. Undergraduate students living in residence halls and Brown-leased properties have not yet had adequate time to establish stable pods and as a result should continue to wear masks when in any group unless you are outdoors and able to easily, continuously and measurably maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet.

• Students (undergraduate, graduate and medical) living off-campus and who have firmly established pods – a stable group of five people or less, or the number of their immediate room, suite or apartment mates – may dine and socialize in those pods without a mask, but should be especially careful to wear a mask outside of their pod and avoid crossing pods without a mask and social distancing. A pod refers to immediate household groups – co-workers or research colleagues are not a pod.

The full details of the range of activities that are now permissible under the modified Level 2 can be found on the Campus Activity Status webpage on Healthy.Brown.edu.

ONGOING LIMITATIONS AND HEALTH PROTOCOLS:

Continued vigilance on everyone’s part will be critical to staying in the modified Level 2, including making well-informed personal decisions based on accurate public health guidance about managing risk and trade-offs as new variables, such as in-person classes for undergraduates, get introduced.

All community members must continue to follow this guidance:

• Student organization events, activities and meetings will continue to be virtual.

• Brown community members should continue to avoid in-person restaurant dining and refrain from going to bars or other settings with crowds where social distancing and/or mask-wearing is not taking place.

• Restrictions on out-of-state travel remain in place.

• Students with the location of study “remote, outside of the Providence area” should not visit the Providence area because they are not enrolled in Brown’s testing program.

• Visitors and guests are not currently allowed on campus, except as specifically approved in departmental Return to Campus and/or Return to Research plans.

• Masks and social distancing remain among the most important health and safety measures we can take as individuals and a community. Everyone should wear a mask or face covering in line with the University’s COVID-19 Campus Safety Policy.

Routine testing and daily symptom tracking is still mandatory for students, faculty and staff who do not have a remote status, as outlined in the COVID-19 Campus Safety Policy and, for students, the Student Commitment to COVID-19 Community Health and Safety Requirements, to which all non-remote students agreed before beginning the Spring semester. Testing frequency requirements for students, faculty and staff – either twice or once per week, as assigned – remain the same in modified Level 2.

Following CDC best practices, Brown continues to require a quarantine period of 14 days for any student, faculty or staff member who may have been exposed to COVID-19. While some local health departments have chosen to adopt shorter quarantine periods, the 14-day timeframe continues to align with the underlying science regarding length of infectious period or risk of spread. For more information on this specific policy, please see the related FAQ under the Test Results section of the Testing and Tracing FAQs page.

I and other members of the Covid-19 Campus Activity Level Review Team continue to meet at least twice a week to review health data and public and campus health conditions to advise on changes to the activities permitted under the campus activity levels. Moving to a modified Level 2 is a positive and important milestone, and all members of the Brown community should take pride in doing so.

We look forward to continuing to work together to maintain a safe and healthy campus in the weeks and months ahead.

Sincerely,

Russell C. Carey
Executive Vice President, Planning and Policy