On Nov. 1, William Jewell College transitioned into Level A-1 of its Operation Resurgent Campus plan. This plan was introduced at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year as a way for the campus’s COVID-19 protocols to adapt to the constantly changing pandemic and its effects on our community.

The Jewell campus community is currently reporting an 86.6% vaccination rate and a 1.1% positivity rate for the 2021-22 school year. 

The high vaccination rate, low positivity rate and low on-campus instances of virus transmission this semester are some major contributing factors to the change in levels. By transitioning to Level A-1, the college is demonstrating that they meet the requirements outlined in the threat matrix of Operation Resurgent Campus. 

Another important cause for this transition is the fact that COVID-19 positivity rates in the surrounding Clay County and Kansas City Metro area have been declining as well. The recent approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 5 to 12 is expected to drive the number of new cases down even further.

Two significant changes are being made in the transition from Level A-2 to Level A-1. The first is that face masks are no longer required for vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals on campus. This does not apply to faculty who incorporated a mask requirement into their syllabus and the college reserves the right to require face masks at certain events or venues.

The second change is to the quarantine protocols for unvaccinated individuals. The previous protocol for unvaccinated individuals who were identified as close contact was immediate quarantine while vaccinated individuals had to wear a face mask for 14 days and test between three and five days. Under Level A-1, both vaccinated and unvaccinated will not need to be quarantined. Instead, they will need to wear a mask for 14 days and get tested between three and five days, unless they become symptomatic.  

All positive cases are still required to follow isolation procedures despite vaccination status. Detailed protocols can be found in the exposure matrix provided by the college as shown below and on Jewell’s Operation Resurgent Campus webpage.

In a May 25 email update, William Jewell College’s Operational Planning Team announced that the college will be implementing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the upcoming fall 2021 semester.

According to the email, all students, staff and faculty must submit proof of vaccination by August 1. Daniel Holt, author of the email and chairperson of the Operational Planning Team, further elaborated in the update that the early decision will allow unvaccinated students and employees just over two months to make necessary arrangements.

After receiving two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one dose of the Janssen vaccine, students will be directed to file a copy of the newly-updated Health History and Immunizations Form to the Student Health Center by the aforementioned date. In accordance with Jewell’s COVID-19 vaccine policy webpage, employees will follow an alternative procedure and must present their vaccination card to Human Resources via email.

However, as with all vaccination requirements, individuals will have the opportunity to exempt themselves due to medical, religious or personal reasons. Students can request an exemption directly on the Health History Form, but employees must file a statement of exemption to the Office of Human Resources. 

The email concludes that as policies and guidelines surrounding Jewell’s COVID-19 response are finalized this summer, the Operation Resurgent Campus webpage will be updated as needed – which will include details about an August vaccination clinic to assist students and employees who were unable to access the vaccine over the summer, frequently asked questions and updates to forms or schedules. Above all, the 2021-22 Operational Resurgent Campus guide will be posted, eventually replacing the 2020-21 Operation Safe Campus guide.

Jewell is one of the latest colleges to join a growing consensus of institutions across the nation that will require students and employees to be fully inoculated before the fall 2021 semester. Like other institutions, Jewell’s 2021-22 pandemic response is adapting to emphasize vaccination plans – with Operation Resurgent Campus’ threat levels notably being dependent on local and campus-wide vaccination rates.

Currently, only 31.6% of adults aged from 18 to 24 are fully vaccinated, the lowest of all adult age groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccination data trends. The increase in COVID-19 vaccine requirements among institutions of higher education, however, proposes an incentive for college-aged students to seek out vaccination. 

Overall, as local governments work to increase vaccine availability on schedule with President Joe Biden’s vaccination timeline, experts stated that they expect the United States will reach the herd immunity threshold (75 to 80% vaccinated) by the end of summer.

Information regarding Jewell’s policies and procedures for the upcoming academic year can be found at www.jewell.edu/coronavirus with ongoing updates and notifications expected to be released over the summer.

On May 17, William Jewell College transitioned from Level B of Operation Safe Campus (OSC) to Level A2 of Operation Resurgent Campus (ORC) following a satisfactory employee vaccination rate of above 84%, according to a mass email sent to students and employees.

The May 14 email – delivered on the Friday preceding the college’s transition date – stated that students and employees can expect to begin the 2021-22 academic year in Level A2 of Operation Resurgent Campus. With most students off-campus for the summer, the immediate changes to guidelines would most impact employees finishing up work beyond May 17.

Among the new guidelines, the email states: 

• “All employees are expected to return to work on campus. If an employee has a need to continue remote work, they should request an accommodation from Human Resources as well as supervisory approval, unless otherwise stated on the employee job description.
• Facial coverings are not required in outdoor settings.
• Facial coverings are not required indoors for vaccinated individuals, but non-vaccinated individuals are advised to wear facial coverings per CDC guidelines or until the current Clay County order expires. Facial coverings are encouraged for any who deem it appropriate for personal well-being.
• Recognize social distancing as/when posted.”

The decision to transition to ORC follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s controversial May 13 update to facial covering recommendations for fully vaccinated persons. Also succeeding the CDC’s update, Clay County expired its facial covering mandate in an announcement on May 14, leaving the decision to continue implementing precautions up to individual businesses and organizations. 

Independent of the CDC update, the email reasons that transmission risk for individuals on campus this summer will be minimal:

“The decision to reduce these restrictions is a result of the College achieving herd immunity on a micro level. During the summer months, the majority of individuals on campus will be vaccinated, thus the risk of transmission on campus is lower.”

Additionally, further changes to guidelines will be heavily dependent on national, local and campus-wide circumstances over the summer and into fall. To transition from Level A2 to Level A1 of ORC, Jewell must “confirm that enough students are vaccinated to sustain local jurisdiction immunity expectations,” the email states. 

Specifically, in accordance with ORC’s current risk-assessment structure, the college may only graduate from Level A2 to Level A1 once at least 40% of students are fully vaccinated, along with at least 50% of all on-campus persons. As of May 20, over half (50.7%) of Missouri adults have received at least one dose of a multi-dose COVID-19 vaccine – either Pfizer or Moderna – and 42.5% of Missouri adults are fully vaccinated, according to an approximate, interactive data report by Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Meanwhile, 31.1% of Clay County residents have initiated the vaccination process and 26.9% are fully vaccinated. 

Despite a national estimation by CDC showing a continuous decline in transmission of the virus in upcoming weeks, the resulting expiration of precautionary guidelines has some healthcare workers worried. National Nurses United, the largest union and professional association for nurses in the United States, published a 17-page document in response to the CDC’s update, stating their disapproval for some of the data used to reach such a decision.

“The studies cited by the CDC in this brief provide an incomplete picture of vaccine efficacy,” the association wrote with concern about recent virus variants. “Important questions remain unanswered about the longevity of vaccine protection, efficacy of vaccines against mild and asymptomatic [COVID-19], and impact of variants of concern that are more transmissible and that are or may become resistant to vaccine protection.

With the virus still very present in the United States, and even now reaching a crisis point in India, the situation is subject to change over time; heeding the uniqueness of the pandemic, Jewell’s ORC email update concludes:

“As a reminder, the College’s response to the pandemic will remain fluid for the next several months as our country reopens. Should the country and/or our community experience an unexpected and unfortunate setback resulting in an increase in incidence rates, the College may implement protocols in OSC Level B.”

*This article was updated on 28 May 2021 to include a link to Operation Resurgent Campus’s webpage at https://www.jewell.edu/operation-resurgent-campus.

With vaccine eligibility extended to some 880,000 Missourians under activation of Phase 2 of Missouri’s COVID-19 Vaccination Plan, William Jewell College partnered with Cobblestone Family Health to host a vaccination clinic for members of the local community and newly eligible Jewell employees March 29.

In total, volunteers from Jewell, Cobblestone Family Health, Liberty Hospital and the Liberty Fire Department administered 466 doses of the Moderna vaccine during the 10-hour event in the Mabee Center.

Jewell nursing alum and doctorate nurse practitioner at Cobblestone Family Health Dr. Sadia Ali supplied the doses for the clinic. According to Leesa McBroom, chair and professor of nursing at Jewell, Ali was notified last-minute that she would receive several hundred doses on March 23 and had only 10 days to administer them, which prompted her to contact Jewell.

A follow-up clinic will be held April 27 to administer secondary vaccine doses for those who attended the March 29 event, as well as initial doses for populations now eligible under Phase 3 of Missouri’s vaccination plan as of April 9.

Further vaccination events for students, staff and faculty have yet to be planned. However, due to limited vaccine availability in the area, future events may be held with similar spontaneity as the March 29 clinic, according to Daniel Holt, associate vice president for institutional strategy.

“Conversations with multiple organizations to hold a clinic for our students is ongoing, and while things are progressing, nothing definitive can be shared as of yet,” Holt said. “The [March 29] clinic occurred very rapidly because Cobblestone was unsure they would have the vaccine until it arrived, then had limited time to use it. Until the vaccine is more readily available for planning purposes, the short notice, while not desired, is necessary. We hope that we can have multiple opportunities for students in the future with ample notice to accommodate class and activity schedules.”

Jewell will finish the spring semester under Operation Safe Campus as students and employees of the college continue to receive vaccinations through local providers and mass vaccination events.

The Operational Planning Team hopes to have the guidelines for fall 2021 planned by early summer, adjusting them as needed.

“Unlike last summer, we hope to conclude the majority of our work by June 1,” Holt said. “However, we anticipate things being very fluid for the next several months. President Biden has stated he hopes things are becoming normal by July 4, and we want to be mindful that our planning in April is adaptable for what the CDC guidance might be in July. While we want to have our Jewell expectations for the fall known by June 1, we will likely use the summer months to adjust to any new developments as appropriate.”

With a significant increase in vaccination rates expected by fall, Jewell will enter the second phase of its COVID-19 response, Operation Resurgent Campus (ORC). Similar to OSC, ORC uses a risk-level assessment system to guide campus-wide policies, although more emphasis is put upon vaccination rates within both the Jewell and local community.

After at least 75% of employees have been fully vaccinated and campus transmission rates are low, Jewell will graduate Level B of OSC to Level A2 of ORC. After at least 40% of students and at least 50% of the entire campus community have been fully vaccinated, alongside low campus and community transmission rates, Jewell will proceed to Level A1.

When the local community reaches vaccine saturation, again with low campus and community transmission rates, Jewell will move to Level A, the last tier of the system. At Level A, Jewell intends to resume education as it was before the pandemic while introducing sustainable solutions to mitigate respiratory viruses and support the long-term health of students and employees.

Holt stated in a March 29 ORC email that the Operational Planning Team anticipates the college will move to Level A2 between May 17 and June 1 as vaccine availability increases. Despite the expectation that the pandemic will be less severe by the fall, some preventative guidelines may still be necessary during the 2021-22 academic year. Notably, recommendations for face coverings and mandatory testing before re-entry each semester.

“The biggest thing the Jewell community should know about Operation Resurgent is that vaccination cannot be our only method of mitigation,” Holt said. “Some things we have done this year will likely stick around a while longer… This means more testing in August and January even though we expect the majority of our community to be vaccinated. We also need to be comfortable seeing people continuing to wear facial coverings, vaccinated or not.”

Levels A2 and A1 follow current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines regarding optional face coverings among small groups of fully-vaccinated individuals. Additionally, Holt cites a CDC statement, published in March, that recommends institutions continue to test for COVID-19 upon re-entry each semester regardless of individual and community circumstances.

While the Operational Planning Team is expecting to employ a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the 2021-22 academic year, an official decision may not be reached for another few weeks. 

“The vaccine is essential for us to maintain a safe environment for our students, faculty and staff,” Holt said. “A formal announcement has not been made because the vaccine is currently in emergency use authorization and, to this point, not everyone has had access to the vaccine. The latter will be changing very soon which will likely lead to an announcement sooner rather than later.”

Several institutions of higher education have already published an intent to require COVID-19 vaccination including Brown University, Cornell University, Duke University and the University of Notre Dame, with more colleges and universities following suit each day.

Students, staff and faculty can expect on-going adjustments to Jewell’s 2021-22 COVID-19 guidelines as local and national recommendations are updated.

*This article was updated on 28 May 2021 to include a link to Operation Resurgent Campus’s webpage at https://www.jewell.edu/operation-resurgent-campus.