Welcome back to campus! We know that many of you may have questions about the University’s approach to COVID-19 and other health precautions as we begin the spring semester. While there are no major changes to our health protocols and policies at this time, I wanted to provide some key reminders as we begin gathering for in-person classes once again:

Masking: Wearing masks is strongly recommended for all Brown community members when indoors with large numbers of people, regardless of vaccination status, including on the Brown University shuttle.

Please note: Instructors may require students to wear masks in their classrooms and in meetings.

Testing: If you develop symptoms upon your return to campus, self-testing for COVID-19 will be instrumental in identifying and minimizing potential spread.

For policies related specifically to our academic instructional approach, please reference the “Approach to Academic Instruction for Fall 2022” letter sent in August (https://brown.edu/go/2022update) and posted on the University’s Healthy Brown website (healthy.brown.edu) for the Fall 2022 semester. These policies remain in place for the Spring 2023 semester.

In addition, the provost’s website hosts up-to-date FAQs related to in-person instruction (https://brown.edu/go/faq2023). As I shared in my welcome communication to the campus in Today@Brown on Tuesday, Brown’s approach to public health continues to be based on expert guidance from public health and medical professionals as well as current health guidelines.

As always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions at provost@brown.edu. I hope everyone has a healthy, safe and productive semester.

Sincerely,

Larry Larson
Interim Provost