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Rockefeller University

This message was sent to the Rockefeller community from the Office of the Executive Vice President on March 11, 2022 at 6:06 p.m.
Subject: COVID-19 policy updates

Dear members of the Rockefeller community,

Rockefeller’s Research Restart Committee met this afternoon to discuss the University’s COVID policies in the context of current COVID case numbers and clinical manifestations among members of our community, policies of our peer institutions and changes in city, state, and federal guidelines. The consensus of the committee was to recommend that the University further relax requirements for face covering for RU personnel.*

[*RU personnel includes RU employees and students, HHMI employees, and full-time contracted staff working in Plant Operations and CBC.]

Beginning on Monday, March 14, face covering for RU personnel is optional both indoors and outside on campus, with the following exceptions:

  • Attending lectures, seminars, or presentations in Caspary and Carson Auditoriums
  • Patient care areas
  • Child and Family Center facilities

Although the broader requirement is being relaxed, Heads of Laboratory and Heads of Departments do have the option to require face covering during indoor meetings of their staff. We expect lab groups and departments to strive to achieve a consensus about mask-wearing during group meetings. We continue to strongly encourage everyone to keep a mask on hand for circumstances in which it is prudent to don one.

For non-RU personnel (e.g., service personnel, visitors), face covering is required in ALL indoor areas of campus and is optional in outdoor areas. The primary rationale for the indoor mask requirement is that such personnel are not subject to the campus testing policy.

We ask everyone to respect the choices that individuals will make about their own masking in University settings. We expect that some members of our community will choose to continue masking in meetings and other indoor settings, for example. We recognize the continued protection afforded to individuals by face coverings, and the particular value of masking for those who are immunocompromised or otherwise medically vulnerable, and there are those who will simply prefer to be more conservative about wearing a mask. While masking will now be optional, tolerance and compassion remain mandatory.

The committee also discussed the policies about social visitors, Tri-I personnel, and family members being granted routine access to campus and decided to defer changes to those policies at this time. They will continue to be reviewed at subsequent meetings. Requests for campus access for business purposes will continue to made by submitting a request for approval to restart@rockefeller.edu.

If you have any questions, please send an email to restart@rockefeller.edu.

Please take care of yourselves and each other,

Tim

Timothy P. O’Connor, Executive Vice President

The Rockefeller University