March 19, 2020 Update

Daily Update from Dean Lively

Dear Undergraduate Students:

You saw the Task Force update this morning, so you know that the State of New Hampshire confirmed last night that an undergraduate living locally off-campus has tested positive.

That student is off-campus locally in self-isolation, and that student's closest contacts are self-quarantining locally off-campus. State of New Hampshire public health officials are finishing their contacts investigation this afternoon. We are also beginning to get reports of undergraduates who have tested positive in other locations around the country.

As you have heard repeatedly, we are doing everything we can to reduce the spread and pace of transmission here on campus. We are communicating directly with the small number of people who are still here and will continue to do so. Most of you are elsewhere, and the most important messages for today are these:

1) You are not immune. Your age cohort can be the source of transmission for others, and there are increasing reports of serious infection for millennials. Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that of the 508 patients known to have been hospitalized in the U.S., 38% were between 20 and 54. In the article linked below, the New York times notes that the CDC report indicates that 20 percent of the hospitalized patients and 12 percent of the intensive care patients were between the ages of 20 and 44. A state department official and member of the national coronavirus task force is appealing to your generation "to stop socializing in groups and to take care to protect themselves and others". For your sake and for the sake of your peers, friends, families, neighbors and communities, please take this seriously. These two links may be of interest.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/health/coronavirus-young-people.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/19/younger-adults-are-large-percentage-coronavirus-hospitalizations-united-states-according-new-cdc-data/

2) We are hearing in a variety of ways that some of you may be planning to return to Hanover to live in off-campus apartments for spring term. The Town of Hanover is asking that "no Dartmouth undergraduate students who are currently away from Hanover on Spring Break plan to return to live in Hanover." The Town wants to "absolutely minimize the chances of further transmission, either from within the community or as a result of students returning to the Upper Valley." We have forwarded a message to students living off-campus at the request of Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin, which closes with this: "Please, this is the time to return to your families after Spring Break and not plan to enjoy springtime in Hanover."

ACADEMIC PLANNING UPDATE

The list of spring course offerings will be posted on Friday, March 27th. It will go up earlier if it's ready, but you should assume that Friday will be the day to review course options.

DPLAN CHANGE PROCESS UPDATE

As conveyed yesterday, '23s and others wishing to convert to an L should submit a request to the Registrar's office at registrar@dartmouth.edu, with a short explanation of the reason for the request.

We are now asking any student who wants to request any change in their D-plan for spring term (and hasn't already done so), to submit a request to the registrar's office at registrar@dartmouth.edu, as soon as possible.

The registrar's office will let you know if your request is approved sometime next week.

NEW: DISABILITIES ACCOMMODATION QUESTIONS

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) is actively partnering with course designers and other colleagues to enhance the accessibility of online learning platforms. Resources are available to support all SAS students' accommodations in online courses, just as they are for on-campus courses. SAS staff are currently and will remain available to students via email, phone, and Zoom, which includes the ability to schedule (remote) appointments. They will also continue to coordinate with faculty and staff members to ensure continuity of services.

A captioned version of the Town Hall video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1TY65kY41Y . A transcript will be posted on the College website soon. Please follow updates at https://news.dartmouth.edu/covid.

NEW: HINMAN AND SHIPPING

Hinman is receiving a high volume of packages for spring term. If you have orders pending for delivery to Hanover and you are not here, please cancel them immediately. We will include how we will handle packages that have already arrived in our message tomorrow about the process for addressing the belongings you left behind.

For now, this is what we have. I'll be back in touch as soon as we have more updates.

Best,

Dean Lively