To begin our spring semester with a safe and healthy campus environment for all, we made a decision to begin the semester with remote learning to allow all students, faculty and staff sufficient time to obtain a COVID-19 test upon return to campus. Classes in Providence began remotely on Monday, January 10, but transitioned back to in-person learning on Tuesday, January 18 (following the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on January 17).

Despite this delayed in-person start, students returning to campus were expected to move back into their dorms prior to the January 10 start of classes to ensure all members of the community could get tested.

Due to a higher positivity rate in North Carolina, the university made the decision to stagger reopening the Charlotte Campus for in-person learning a bit later than the Providence schedule.

Students, faculty, and staff who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 must continue to participate in mandatory surveillance testing on assigned testing days. Along with hand washing, physical distancing, the daily screening questionnaire, and face masks, this is a key way to keep our campus community healthy & safe. If you do become fully vaccinated, you will no longer be required to participate in sentinel testing.

You can - once you've taken an at-home test, here's what you should do:

• Take a picture of the test strip.
  • If there is room on your test strip, write your name and the date you took the test on it.
  • If there isn’t room on the test strip, write just the date you took the test on the test strip. Then write your name on a piece of paper and take a picture of both the test strip and the paper with your information on it in one photo.
• Submit your photo to Health Services via the Medicat Portal
  • Go to jwu.medicatconnect.com > Uploads > Select the photo of your test and information > 2019 Novel Coronavirus > Upload

If you are a student on the Providence Campus and your result is positive, call Health Services at 401-598-1104 or 401-598-1151. Health Services will instruct you on quarantine/isolation guidelines and assist you with any questions you may have. Positive or negative, you should also submit your result to the Rhode Island Department of Health by going to https://portal.ri.gov/gettested/s/selftest?language=en_US and filling out the required fields.

If you are a student on the Charlotte Campus and your result is positive, email Health Services (hcs.clt@jwu.edu) with your best contact information and any information about symptoms, course of illness, and contacts. Health Services will contact you by phone to provide instructions on quarantine/isolation guidelines and assist you with any questions you may have.

*This does not apply to JWU employees (student employees, faculty, staff) who are unvaccinated. They must continue to be tested on-campus or in another monitored testing situation. 

After careful consultation with government and public health officials, the university will require all students to receive COVID-19 booster shots six months following the final dose of their initial COVID-19 vaccine series.

Having our student population fully vaccinated with their booster shots will aid our efforts to provide a safer and more robust college experience for our entire JWU community. Moreover, students who are vaccinated will not need to adhere to the extensive quarantine protocols that have been in place. Through widespread vaccination, we can accelerate the return to a more traditional college experience, including seamless delivery of in-person courses, attending athletic games, more on-campus events and activities, and the resumption of our on-campus visitor and guest policy.

Students are required to upload their medical records verifying their COVID-19 vaccination into the Medicat Student Patient Portal. The university will not accept student vaccination records via email.

To upload medical records verifying COVID-19 vaccinations, visit jwu.medicatconnect.com and follow these steps:

• Enter your JWU log in
• Once the portal is open, click Upload
• Select 2019 Novel Coronavirus (Covid 19), NAA (Third Party) from the drop down menu
• To upload take a photo or screenshot of your vaccination card with your phone, email that to yourself, open your email up on your computer, then you can drag/drop or browse for the file that you would then upload to the portal.

JWU asks that students provide proof of their booster shot by no later than March 1, 2022, or within 30 days of becoming eligible for a booster shot if that comes after March 1. 

Students who have been granted an exemption from this requirement for medical or religious reasons will continue to be required to go through sentinel testing.