Updated November 19, 2021

It has been a rewarding fall semester as our entire Claremont McKenna College community returned to a fully residential campus.

We successfully resumed our immersive in-person experience, including seminars and tutorials with faculty and staff; competitive athletics on playing fields and at Roberts Pavilion; expanded outdoor dining options; an intellectually, socially engaging Athenaeum program featuring special speakers for our yearlong 75th Anniversary; and so much more.

Our determined efforts speak for themselves. During the fall semester, we have regularly shared testing data, information about COVID-19 cases identified in our campus community, and the consistently very low campus positivity rate. In fact, there have been several weeks with no new cases identified, allowing us to report a 0.0% positivity rate.

A few important updates and reminders:

• We have launched a newly developed Dashboard to allow students, faculty, staff, families, and the broader Claremont community to access a full, accurate, and timely view of our COVID-19 data. This tool shares testing data for the prior week (Monday through Sunday), including the total number of tests administered within the CMC community to date, the current positivity rate, and the total number of negative and positive test results.
• We continue to encourage all faculty and staff to obtain a weekly COVID test, both prior to and after any travel or holiday plans, to further promote health and safety on our campus. Faculty and staff may now receive COVID surveillance tests at McKenna Auditorium. Any employee seeking a surveillance test (i.e. having neither symptoms nor a recent COVID exposure) can simply walk up to either location—McKenna or the HHB clinic at The Children’s School campus—with no appointment necessary. Except for modified holiday testing hours previously announced to the community, surveillance testing for employees is offered Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at both locations.
• All vaccinated students will continue to test weekly until public health conditions improve. Students who qualified for a vaccine exemption will continue to test twice weekly.
• Symptomatic persons or those who have been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case should contact HHB to arrange an appointment for diagnostic testing.
• We continue to emphasize that vaccination is the best, most effective way to protect our community from severe effects of COVID-19 and all known variants. Please read more about our Vaccine Imperative, current data on the effectiveness and safety of vaccines, and campus resources here.
• We expect everyone on campus to adhere to our various safety guidelines, such as social distancing when possible, increasing hand sanitization, and wearing a face covering as required in all indoor spaces, per Los Angeles County.

We will continue to track the County’s guidance for higher education. Policies and protocols may be adjusted, and our full return plan will reflect any changes. You can also stay current with County updates through the Department of Public Health’s website.

Thank you to everyone for a successful return to campus. This is our shared responsibility throughout the academic year, and it is essential that we all protect one another as we continue to live with the reality of COVID transmission.