Dear UW-Green Bay Students, Faculty, and Staff,
Each morning at 7:30, I meet with campus leaders to discuss our COVID response and make sure we are taking every step we can to keep our campuses safe. Every metric we can look at shows that our students, faculty, and staff have done a remarkable job to this point of the semester in preventing the spread of the virus. As of this morning, our positivity rate is 1.17%, the capacity we have in campus housing to quarantine or isolate students that are COVID positive or symptomatic is only 13% full, and as of this week we have essentially doubled our capacity to test students to prevent an outbreak on campus. Despite the national rhetoric that college campuses have contributed to the rise in COVID cases across our state and country, we are far below the rates of positivity in our surrounding communities and that is due to everyone’s careful attention to safety.
However, it is important for us to remember that our campuses in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Marinette, and Sheboygan do not exist in a vacuum. We are fully integrated into our communities and our communities are struggling. It is essential that we redouble our efforts to stay safe and not contribute to the alarming positive rates we are seeing in our region. We also need to be accountable to each other. Even when you are on your own time, please stay safe. If you are doing things off hours that put you at risk, please isolate from work and campus.
I urge you to be safe, take proper precautions, don’t get complacent, wear a mask, wash your hands, and practice social distancing. If you have not already received the influenza vaccine (“flu shot”), please schedule that as soon as possible as cooler temperatures favor respiratory viruses.
I am so proud of our campuses for how responsibly we have handled the difficult circumstances of the fall. Thank you. Please keep safe, persist, and support each other. Our communities are relying on us to do so and turn the curve of the pandemic in the opposite direction.
With gratitude,
Michael Alexander
Chancellor