COVID-19 Safe Campus Guide, Fall 2021

Each of us in the OWU community has a great responsibility. If we follow campus guidelines and act with care and empathy, we can create a campus environment where OWU students, faculty, and staff can work, study, live, learn, and interact in ways that fulfill our educational mission and protect the health, safety, and well-being of us all.

We look forward to a robust, in-person academic year, and we ask everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to help ensure the health of the campus community.

Both Ohio Wesleyan students and employees are required to be vaccinated or to apply and be approved for an exemption based on medical, disability, or religious reasons. Overall, a full 98% of our students and 94% of employees are full or partially vaccinated as of Aug. 26.

Currently, Ohio Wesleyan is operating under the following campus safety plans and protocols, which are subject to change at any time based on the latest public health information:

• All campus guests (regardless of vaccination status) and all unvaccinated students and employees must wear facial coverings indoors at all times.
• Everyone must wear facial coverings when indoors in public areas on the central and academic campus (all locations east of Washington Street), regardless of vaccination status. This includes Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, academic buildings, campus offices, classrooms, laboratories, libraries, studios, and public dining areas, such as The Marketplace and Bishop Café & Grille. In these dining areas, everyone should wear a mask except when actively eating or drinking.
• When needing to be masked, everyone should wear medical or cotton facial coverings that include a strap around the ears and fully cover the nose, mouth, and chin. One-ply “gaiters,” or neck coverings that are pulled up over the mouth and nose, typically do not provide the same level of protection and should be avoided.
• Vaccinated students do not need to wear masks when "at home" – when they are inside either their campus residences or Smith Dining Hall, where few outsiders have access. Unvaccinated students should mask at all times, except in their private bedrooms. For now, no overnight visitors (non-students) are permitted.
• While Delaware County remains designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an area of “substantial or high transmission,” the NCAA is mandating that all unvaccinated athletes be tested weekly for the coronavirus, and Ohio Wesleyan is testing all other unvaccinated students weekly as well. Results will be added each Monday to the online COVID-19 Testing Dashboard. Unvaccinated employees also are required to be tested weekly.

Please note: Ohio Wesleyan supports anyone’s decision to wear a mask in any setting on campus.

For more information, please read our Testing, Quarantine, and Isolation Protocols and our FAQs, or email covid19@owu.edu with questions.