Fall 2022 COVID-19 guidance for students

Dear students,

With the new academic year just around the corner, I am writing with news about our fall 2022 COVID-19 guidance for students. Here’s a quick summary:

• Many aspects of campus life have returned to normal and many requirements have eased over the past few months.
• As cases and variants make clear, though, COVID has not gone away. Routine public health requirements can minimize its spread.

This includes pre-arrival and arrival testing and indoor-masking requirements in classrooms, in healthcare facilities, on Marguerite buses, and in residential common spaces. More information is provided below, and a summary is posted on our student COVID-19 website.

Fall 2022 COVID-19 guidance

Pre-arrival testing. Students should take a PCR or rapid test 48 hours or less before their arrival on campus. Anyone testing positive should not travel and instead send a copy of their positive test result to the “COVID Medical Care Team” through the Vaden patient portal (vadenpatient.stanford.edu) and isolate in place for 10 days. If travel disruptions present a financial hardship, any students can contact the Financial Aid Office by emailing financialaid@stanford.edu or calling 650-723-3058 during business hours. Graduate and professional students in particular will be asked to submit an Emergency Grant in Aid application.

Move-in day. Family members or guests may assist students moving into residences, with indoor-masking mandatory for everyone, both in rooms and common spaces.

• In a change from recent years, students living in undergraduate housing do not need to make appointments for a date and time to check in.
• Students living in graduate housing – including undergraduates assigned to graduate housing – must select a date and time for check in.
• Details will be emailed to students from Residential & Dining Enterprises and Approaching Stanford for frosh and transfers.

Arrival testing. New arrivals are required to complete COVID-19 tests on Day 0 (the day they arrive on campus) and Day 5. Rapid and Color test kits will be provided at no cost at check-in tables during move-in (Color is a lab test with results in 24-72 hours; students register for Color here, using their primary Stanford email address). Students should use Color for arrival testing unless they have tested positive for COVID in the past 90 days, in which case they should take a rapid test.

Testing during fall quarter. Surveillance testing is no longer required for unvaccinated or vaccinated students (the testing requirement for vaccinated students was lifted in April 2022). Color testing will continue to be available for students and students’ spouses/partners living in R&DE-assigned housing. Additionally, students can pick up four rapid antigen test kits each month (the pick-up location is the Arrillaga Family Dining Commons).

Isolation space. Students who test positive for COVID will isolate in their residences. Alternative temporary housing may be available for roommates, based on student medical needs or registered accommodations through the Office of Accessible Education.

Face coverings. Indoor masking will be required in residential common spaces, rather than a restricted-activity period as we had last year. We will monitor conditions and re-evaluate this requirement after the beginning of the quarter. Masks will continue to be required in classrooms, except while speaking; in healthcare facilities; and on Marguerite buses.

Vaccinations. All students are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. The deadline for students to upload COVID-19 vaccination documentation has passed. If any students missed the deadline, Vaden Health Services will place a hold on their Axess accounts and they will be prevented from registering for fall quarter classes. Questions regarding individual circumstances may be submitted here.

Additional health & safety information, including monkeypox

We will continue to monitor conditions in our region, follow state and local public health requirements, and adjust campus protocols as appropriate.

We are happy that so many activities are again in person and in full swing. Our campus community is highly vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, which helps reduce the risk of serious illness and hospitalization.

Although the focus of this letter has been our COVID-19 protocols, we acknowledge that the United States has declared monkeypox a public health emergency. We ask students take preventive measures to help protect our community against monkeypox, and note that the isolation period for people who become infected with this virus is two to four weeks. Our public health experts are actively monitoring the situation. Here’s more information.

In closing, we would like to thank returning students for all they have done to keep our campus as healthy and safe as possible, and we would like to welcome new students and families heading to Stanford for the first time this fall. If you have any personal questions after reading this message, please reach out to us here.

Sincerely,

Susie Brubaker-Cole
Vice Provost for Student Affairs