
A new start date and a new booster requirement appear to be the big items of note.
On Wednesday, January 5, Marquette University announced some changes for the spring semester due to skyrocketing COVID-19 cases as a result of the omicron variant.
Let’s just get straight to it:
- Spring semester for undergraduate, graduate, and law school will start on Monday, January 24 instead of Tuesday, January 18th.
- Students living in the residence halls will be allowed to move in on January 22nd and 23rd.
- COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are now required for all students and strongly recommended for faculty and staff.
- The testing for those employees who are not vaccinated and the students who have been exempted previously will increase in frequency.
- The facemask requirement for inside all Marquette buildings has been extended until further notice.
- Effective January 18, Marquette will abide by the CDC guidelines for quarantine and isolation for when students test positive for COVID-19.
Given the booster timeline guidelines, I’m not sure that delaying the start of the spring semester by a week is wildly necessary. Even if you waited as long as possible to get vaccinated before the university’s deadline back in the summer, you would be eligible for a booster shot already, so waiting an extra week doesn’t make all that much sense to make sure everyone has been boosted. After all, the campus community is 93% vaccinated already.
Of course, I’m also not anything close to a epidemiologist, even if I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so perhaps there’s a very good reason for it.
If you are a student or employee and you are already boosted, you can upload your info to the MU Medical Clinic portal whenever you want.