February 11 message from President Kolison

Dear Fredonia community: 

I hope you have settled into the new semester, and that you are staying warm during this stretch of cold weather.

I would like to thank all of you, students and employees, for your participation in weekly surveillance testing, which started on Monday. During the first two days this week we conducted over 1,100 surveillance tests. 

You should be receiving emails ahead of your scheduled testing day. However, there have been a few minor technical bugs regarding the emails that we are working to resolve. So we appreciate your patience. I want to thank Information Technology Services (ITS) and Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) for their efforts in developing this advance notification process. Remember, your surveillance testing day will change each week, so be sure to check the weekly testing schedule.

You can track the positive COVID-19 cases at Fredonia and throughout SUNY on the COVID-19 dashboard. You’ll notice that SUNY has added more detailed information on the dashboard this semester, including employee data. As I reported to you previously, SUNY notified all campuses that the number of positive cases that count toward the “pause” number begins with the start of weekly surveillance testing, which for Fredonia meant February 8. 

Students, as you may have heard, Fredonia is expanding teleworking opportunities to more employees to reduce the population density on campus.  It is our hope that this will help reduce risk of transmission of COVID-19 on campus. I want to assure you that this is being done in a way to ensure that we continue to fulfill our mission as a residential campus.  The services that you obtain from offices on campus will not be diminished by this decision.  All offices will remain open to provide needed services.

Let me close by reminding all students about the policies in place regarding residence halls. Masks need to be worn anytime you are outside of your dorm room, including in any common spaces. Your cooperation is expected and appreciated. Please do all you can to resist “COVID fatigue” and continue following the policies in place. Those policies guided us successfully through the fall semester, and remain the key to our success in the spring semester.

I will send another update next Thursday, or sooner if needed. Have a great weekend.

Very truly yours,
Dr. K.

Stephen H. Kolison, Jr., Ph.D.
President