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Residential Living

Modified Protocols

Modified residential life protocols are dependent on student vaccination rate.

Private Rooms

Private rooms have been assigned, to the greatest extent possible.

Common Use Areas

Considerations for particular common use areas.

Building Modifications

Physical modifications have been made to residential spaces to help keep you safe.

Move-in Procedures

New move-in times and procedures to lower density.

Physical Modifications to Living Spaces

Signage

Create and post age-appropriate safety signage and graphics.

Drinking Fountains

Replace drinking fountains with/restrict fountains to bottle filling stations.

Socially-Distanced Spaces

Ensure common spaces allow for adequate distancing.

Optimize Traffic Patterns

Establish one-way or separated traffic flow patterns, designated entrances and exits.

Hand Hygiene Stations

Install hand sanitizing stations at building entrances/exits and common use spaces.

Barriers / Partitions

Install physical barriers to protect front desk staff who will interact with residents / visitors.

Common use areas

Laundry Rooms

  • Restrict number of people allowed at one time.
  • Provide gloves/wipes/cleaning supplies to clean buttons, knobs, other high-touch objects.
  • Install hand washing / sanitation stations.
  • Clean daily.

Shared Kitchens

  • Restrict number of people allowed at one time.
  • Do not share dishes, glasses, utensils, etc. Provide single-use items when appropriate.
  • Provide hand soap and detergent.
  • Clean daily.

Shared Bathrooms

  • Clean at least twice daily (morning and evening) or after high-use periods.
  • Empty trash regularly.
  • Avoid placing items (e.g. toothbrushes) directly on surfaces.
  • Encourage the use of totes for personal items to limit contact of items with bathroom surfaces.

Questions

Why is MSSD not allowing flexibility for commuter students?

We cherish our commuter students’ presence on campus. For safety reasons, we need to limit and create safer ways for commuter and dorm students to interact. We are allowing interactions in classrooms, during athletic practices and games, and during lunch in the cafeteria – all with social distancing. If we increase the number of interactions, it will come with an increased risk of COVID exposure. Increasing the number of contact points increases the complexity of any contact tracing efforts in the event we do have a positive case, so we are looking to reduce both risk of contact and increase our ability to protect everyone. We are mindfully balancing the need for student interactions with overall community safety.

Why does Gallaudet seem much more flexible in terms of student interaction?

Gallaudet students are vaccinated as a requirement for in-person attendance, with allowances for religious or medical exceptions. We still have a good number of unvaccinated students at MSSD, which means we must be more restrictive with our interactions in order to protect every member of our community.

Many staff and teachers come in and out -- why allow them to do so, but not our dorm students to go home on weekends?

Staff and teachers have already been fully cleared and are either fully vaccinated or have religious or medical exemptions. The exemption rate campus wide is very low – less than 3%. All staff and teachers are held accountable for following campus safety protocols and are committed to following CDC guidelines to protect all members of the Clerc Center community. Our employees are bound by rules and guidelines for community safety, and are held accountable for any violations.
Our dorm safety culture needs to be run similar to a household. Visitors, like teachers and staff, are required to be masked full time, without exception. Teachers and staff are not allowed to be in high-risk settings where students need to be maskless. There are exceptions to the mask-on rule for dorm residents in specific activities, and a number of those activities will be done in closer proximity to each other. If we allow students to go home, they will engage in unmasked activity in their home (taking care of personal hygiene and at mealtime, etc.) which increases the risk of transmission, both at home and in the dorm, if a student is found to have been exposed to and is carrying the virus at any other time or location. Our policies and practices are all designed to maintain the integrity of the dorm as a household.
We believe our families are also committed to a culture of community safety, but unfortunately we do not have a way to monitor or enforce safety measures or behaviors with families like we can with our staff and teachers. In order to achieve the maximum level of safety, we must operate with limits that support student safety, which includes limiting interactions outside of the school environment. This combination of restrictions on both students and teachers and staff is designed with this safety in mind.
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