Doane Community,
While we are very excited to welcome back students, faculty, and staff back on our campuses, we are also taking a very cautious approach to our operations, doing everything we can to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of our community is at the forefront.
Throughout the fall semester, COVID will present a number of challenges and unknown variables. In order to keep our community well informed on the current impact COVID is having on our campuses, we will have a risk dial for each campus -- Crete, Lincoln, and Omaha -- that will be updated online. While the risk dial will be updated weekly, the data seen on the risk dial dashboard, including the number of positive cases within the community, will be updated daily. An email message will be sent weekly when the risk dial is updated, giving an overview of the current status of the risk dials on our campuses.
A risk assessment team, composed of representatives from Health and Wellness, Human Resources, Academic Affairs, Residence Life and Education, and Facilities will regularly monitor the impact COVID is having on our community based on a variety of factors:
- Number of positive COVID cases among students, faculty, and staff
- Number of positive COVID cases in the county
- Significant exposures to someone who has tested positive
- Quarantine space available on campus (Crete)
- Student, Faculty, and Staff concern
- Availability of PPE/sanitation supplies
- COVID-19 behavioral compliance
- Local ordinances or other government mandates including CDC recommendations
These factors are subject to change as internal and external conditions warrant, but these are the current factors our risk assessment team will be monitoring to determine the status of our risk dials. Input from local health officials will also be sought out to make these updates. The dashboard will help us determine safe campus conditions related to academic offerings, athletics, and student activities, among other university operations.
As you can see online, our risk dial dashboard includes detailed descriptions of the different alert levels we will be using for our dial -- low (green), moderate (yellow), high (orange), and severe (red).
As an example, if the risk dial at one campus location had a status of severe, the campus location would be closed, academic instruction would be remote, and as many employees as possible would be working remotely. However, because our campuses are located in different counties, it is possible for one campus location to remain closed while another campus location remains open.
The current statuses of the risk dials on each campus are:
- Crete campus -- High (Orange)
- Lincoln campus -- Moderate (Yellow)
- Omaha campus -- Moderate (Yellow)
There are currently two confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 among students, faculty, and staff on the Crete campus with an additional three presumed positive cases. The number of individuals who have a high level of exposure to someone who is symptomatic or has tested positive is rising. This, combined with an assessment of the other risk factors listed above, led to the current risk assessment on the Crete campus as “high risk.”
Please continue to check your email and our COVID-19 webpage for updated information. Thank you for doing your part to help keep our community safe, it is greatly appreciated.