Message from the President:

In a few short weeks we will be together again, as well as welcoming new employees and cadets to our academy, to which I’m truly looking forward. While we did exceptional work last year as a dispersed community, we know we are better at what we do when we live and learn on campus. The early days of our return to a full in-person learning mode may be more challenging than we had hoped. The persistence of the COVID-19 virus Delta variant means that we will begin our academic year with some extra caution. We will continue working hard to make our campus safe for everyone so we can deliver on our educational mission together.

The guiding objectives we adopted when we first faced the COVID-19 crisis in February of 2020 remain unchanged:

• The health and safety of the community is paramount
• Preserve the educational mission as much as possible consistent with our first principle
• Adapt to the changing external environment through continued assessment

As you know, all faculty, staff, and cadets are now required by the CSU to be vaccinated, the best defense against contracting and spreading COVID-19 and its variants. Currently, we have a 97% vaccination rate among all cadets who have reported. That number will go up. Our faculty and staff have a 96% vaccination rate for those who have verified and attested, another good indicator that we are well armed against the variant. Cadets who do not verify their vaccination status or do not have an approved accommodation by the August 31^st deadline, are subject to disenrollment. While the CSU’s vaccination policy takes effect immediately, represented employees will not be subject to disciplinary action while the CSU is in the meet and confer process with its labor unions. Thank you for responding to the call for vaccination – you are leading by example.

We also know that masks are an excellent defense against viral transmission. Effective August 22^nd, we will require all members of our campus community and approved visitors to wear a mask indoors in all campus facilities until further notice. Campus community members who have verified their vaccination status may remove their masks in outdoor settings. Unvaccinated and unverified campus community members, along with all approved visitors, must wear a mask at all times, indoors and outside. There will be exceptions to the mask requirement in certain situations, including individual residential hall rooms (unless requested by either roommate), personal offices, or in settings where it may pose a health and safety risk. Please see your manager, Academic Dean, or Dean of Cadets if you have questions or need guidance. Those who desire an N-95 mask will be provided with a proper fit testing as requested through the Environment Health and Safety Department (x1076).

Keeping abreast of any evidence of infection is key, therefore we will be requiring all unvaccinated or unverified community members to be tested weekly and will be alerting the community (as we did during the last academic year) if we find positive cases. We will continue to follow the CDC guidance on isolation and quarantine requirements for all positive cases.

I appreciate that some of you may be nervous about returning to campus. I want to reassure you that we will always make the health and well-being of our campus community the number one priority. Many of our campus colleagues have worked in-person on campus throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, diligently, to protect the health and safety of our community. We have had no confirmed COVID-19 transmissions on campus since June 2020, and our two training cruises this summer have been COVID-19 free. As the Delta variant is more easily transmissible to the unvaccinated and unmasked populations, we will all need to work hard to keep it at bay as we repopulate Cal Maritime. I have great confidence in our community’s ability to continue to navigate this challenge, even as we are frustrated by its longevity.

As always, we continue to work alongside our health and safety, medical and epidemiology experts to ensure that we have the most up to date information from our County Public Health Department and the CDC. We will continue to reassess and adapt as needed. Laborare Pugnare Parati Sumus...”to work, to fight, we are ready,” our Cal Maritime motto, seems appropriate as we slowly emerge from a global pandemic.

I am immensely grateful to you all for your perseverance through trying times and look ahead with tremendous optimism to a return to normalcy very soon. Please continue to check: www.csum.edu/alert/covid-19/ for COVID-19 updates and resources.

Don’t forget to verify your vaccination by August 31^st!

Yours in Service, TC

 

Resources

1. ALL: Complete the latest COVID training located through Brightspace (https://csum.brightspace.com/). This includes slides, a quiz, and certification. Log in using your single sign-on, read the announcement, then click “content” and click the blue link below the download button to review slides. Once completed with the slides, click “Quizzes” from the menu, click on the COVID quiz, and start. This will take you through the quiz and certification.
2. FACULTY/STAFF: Complete a Vaccination verification by August 31. Login to Peoplesoft (https://cmshr.csum.edu/psp/HMAPRD/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/h/?tab=DEFAULT), and under employee self-service, select the bottom right panel named CSU COVID19 Self Certification.
3. CADETS: Complete a Vaccination verification by August 31st. Please send proof of your vaccination to the Student Health Center: by fax at #707-654-1171 or email a scanned copy to healthcenter@csum.edu. 
4. ALL: Wear a mask while indoors! And complete the DAILY COVID-19 symptom check at https://www.csum.edu/alert/covid-19/covid-check.html.

The above information and much more are available at https://www.csum.edu/alert/covid-19/