President's Message: COVID-19 Transition

Two years ago this week, SLCC joined Utah’s other colleges and universities in taking swift and decisive action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. At that time, the college established a COVID-19 Task Force to guide our transition to online learning. The impact of the pandemic lasted far longer than predicted and throughout this time, SLCC has relied on the task force to keep the college safe under constantly changing conditions. We are extremely grateful to our task force members, all of whom readily took on extra work and responsibilities in order to keep everyone at SLCC healthy and well. 

 

As cases decline and as Utah moves into a “steady state” for handling the pandemic, we are adjusting some of our COVID-19 protocols and shifting our focus from an emergency response to an ongoing commitment to public health. Beginning April 1, the following changes will take effect: 

• SLCC’s COVID-19 Task Force will scale back its activities, but the group will continue to monitor the virus’ impact on SLCC. Kathie Campbell, who has led our COVID-19 Task Force for more than a year, will step away from this role and transfer her duties to Christina McWhinnie from our Employee Wellness team. We deeply appreciate Kathie and all she has done during what has been a very challenging and unpredictable time. 
• Responsibility for the COVID-19 email and hotline will transfer from Samantha Faupula to Clay Olilla. Clay can be reached at 801-957-2029 or at COVID-19@slcc.edu. Many thanks to Samantha and her kind devotion to SLCC’s students, faculty and staff.
• COVID-19 emergency pay for employees will be discontinued. Supervisors are encouraged to properly support employees who become ill or if they are caring for a family member who is ill. 
• Except for certain groups, SLCC will no longer provide on-campus testing. We encourage you to take advantage of the free, at-home tests available at COVIDtests.gov. 
• On-campus signage encouraging the use of face coverings will be removed, but SLCC will continue to be a “mask friendly” environment. Masks will be available at all faculty support centers as well as at all Student Services/Information Desks.

For the immediate future, SLCC will maintain our enhanced cleaning protocols, and sanitizing wipes will continue to be available at our faculty support centers. Contact tracing at the college will also continue, and anyone who tests positive for the virus will need to fill out our COVID-19 Self Report Form. Finally, SLCC’s COVID-19 website will be maintained as a reference for students, faculty and staff and will continue to offer details regarding on-campus case counts. 

 

We are also staying with our student COVID-19 vaccination requirement during the Summer and Fall semesters. All students must be up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations or declare an exemption in order to register for classes. For more information, see our Frequently Asked Questions page. 

 

I offer my heartfelt thanks for your patience, understanding and willingness in keeping the college a safe place for learning during these past two years. Please know that if the situation regarding the virus changes, we will be prepared to respond immediately and appropriately. We have grown immensely as an institution and as individuals during the past two years, and I know that together we are ready to seize the many great opportunities that await us in the coming days.