What are the COVID-19 policies within the residence halls?

• Masks: Residents are required to wear a cloth face covering that extends over your mouth and nose any time that you are outside of your room, including when using the bathroom. The exception to this is when a resident is using the shower or brushing their teeth.
  • Accomodations: If you need an accommodation, you can contact CU Boulder’s Disability Services at dsinfo@colorado.edu or 303-492-8671 for medical accommodations or the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) for religious accommodations at cureport@colorado.edu or 303-492-2127.

• Social distancing: Residents are expected to practice social distancing (meaning that you are 6-12 feet away from other people) whenever you are inside the residence hall.

• Visitor policy: 
  • A visitor is defined as another person who lives in the same residence hall as you do. For example, if you live in Sewall Hall, then a visitor would be another resident who lives in Sewall Hall.  
  • You must get your roommate’s permission before inviting a visitor into the room; visitors cannot stay in your room if you are not there with them.
  • You and your visitor must wear a mask at all times, even when you are within your private room.
  • Room capacity– no more than double the room occupancy is allowed, meaning that a single room can have up to two people within the room at one time and a standard double room can have up to four people within the room at one time.

• Guest policy: 
  • A guest is defined as a person who does not live in the same residence hall as you. For example, a resident in Sewall Hall is considered a guest at Darley North Hall. 
  • Guests are not allowed in resident rooms, nor in the hallways, study rooms or lounges associated with the floor that residents are living on.
  • Guests are allowed in the lobby area of the building as long as they are wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and are accompanied by a resident of the building.

• Staying overnight: No overnight visitors or guests are currently allowed within residence halls.

• Lobby occupancy: No more than 10 people are allowed within an area at one time, including the lobbies.
  
• Daily Health Form: All faculty, staff and students who comes to campus, including students who live in the residence halls, are required to fill out a daily health form that inquires if you are feeling any symptoms of COVID-19.

• Weekly screening test: Residents who live on-campus are required to take a saliva-based, RT-PCR monitoring test at a testing location near their residence hall. Residents should have received an email with a designated day to take their test. Residents can sign up for an appointment online and will be contacted afterwards via email only if the test indicates the student should take a diagnostic test.
  
  • A diagnostic test can be taken at the Public Health Clinic (PHC) at Wardenburg Health Center.

• All residents are expected by CU Boulder to follow the public health guidelines both on- and off-campus. This includes not attending parties or gatherings that exceed more than 10 people, and new violations and sanctions for students caught hosting or attending such gatherings were recently announced in an administrative eMemo.

Potential consequences: 

• The consequences for not completing the weekly screening test were described in an email sent by “Student COVID-19 Monitoring” on Sept. 7, 2020: “If you do not participate you are in violation of your housing contract. Failure to participate can lead to additional consequences.” 
  • This email also stated that students who complete their weekly test “will be entered for a chance to win $100” and there will be three prizes each week.

• Resident Advisors (RA’s) are required to report any COVID-19 violations they see within and immediately surrounding the residence halls and to formally document what happened and who was involved. That report is then sent to the office of Student Conduct & Conflict Resolution at CU Boulder for review. Click here for more information on the student conduct process.

• Click here to listen to Crystal Lay, the director of residence life at CU Boulder, explain how faculty and staff are taking an educational approach to COVID-19 policies.