Safety Protocols and Wellness

Protect the Pack: Safety Protocols and Wellness

With the wide availability of vaccines and boosters, easy access to testing, and more treatment options, we continue to offer a variety of safety protocols to address COVID-19. COVID safety measures are continuing to have a positive impact in Minnesota. COVID-19 conditions continue to evolve. While we do not anticipate changes to our current safety protocols and plans, adjustments will be made if COVID conditions change drastically and threaten the safety of members of our campus and the community.

Campus Cleaning Plan

St. Cloud State continues to use enhanced cleaning protocols.   

Personal Health

All students and employees will be required to monitor their personal health for symptoms. The Husky Health Check, which is a list of symptoms to check for, is a good way to make sure individuals are monitoring their health as they  enter or  campus or access facilities. 

If a student or employee has any of the symptoms on the Husky Health Check list, they will be required to stay home to rest and recover rather than coming in person to class or work.    

The Husky Health Check is available on the Visitors page. It is a not a daily questionnaire as required at the start of the pandemic — it is a tool that should be part of one’s daily routine to determine whether they should access campus or stay home when feeling ill.  

As it relates to COVID-19, if anyone is experiencing symptoms on the Husky Health Check list, it is strongly recommended to get tested.

Space Capacity Limits and Physical Distancing

Space capacity limits and physical distancing requirements expired in May 2021 in response to the Governor’s announcements and MDH guidance. 

St. Cloud State continues to recommend staying at least one Husky (e.g., 3 feet) apart from each other. This is not, however, a mandatory physical distancing requirement, only a recommendation. 

Vaccine Attestations

For 2022-2023, St. Cloud State does not anticipate having any testing or vaccination attestation requirements for employees or students.   

 For students participating in clinical or internship experiences, partner organizations who provide these experiences may have their own testing or vaccination status attestation requirements, and these sites may require students to comply with these requirements in order to participate in these clinical or internship experiences. This may be especially true of healthcare settings. If students wish to participate in experiences at such sites, they will need to comply with the site’s testing or vaccination attestation requirements. St. Cloud State will not be administering testing or vaccination attestation processes for student compliance with site requirements — students will be responsible for complying with such requirements if they wish to participate in experiences at these sites.  

Testing

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) testing center on campus has now ended operations. MDH is now partnering with a community organization, the Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization (CAIRO), to offer free testing at their location. Please find information from MDH on this testing option below and view additional testing resources.

Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization (CAIRO)
3333 West Division Street, Suite 122A
St. Cloud, MN 56301
(320) 281-3232

Hours of Operation
     Weekdays: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
     Weekends: Closed

Testing Types
     Saliva (PCR)

Out-of-Pocket Cost
     No out-of-pocket cost

St. Cloud State Continues to not anticipate testing or vaccination requirements for students or student athletes for the 2022-2023 school year.

SCSU Medical Clinic offers different testing options including a rapid PCR test, or molecular test. Students can call or make an appointment via the website rather than just coming in to the office. Face-to-face and telecare appointments are available.
Online: myhealthservices.stcloudstate.edu
Telephone: (320) 308-3191

Order an at-home test at no cost
No-Cost COVID Testing For All Minnesotans (including all SCSU students)

Free federal tests for all homes in the U.S. (including all SCSU students)

Community Monitoring

St. Cloud State will monitor the COVID-19 community levels for Stearns and Hennepin Counties. These levels help gauge the risk posed by COVID in a community, including transmission rates and healthcare resource availability.

St. Cloud State will continue to provide safe and separate on-campus isolation and quarantine options for residential students who wish to remain on campus during a quarantine or isolation period.

Masking

If the COVID-19 community level shifts to a level of “high” for Stearns or Hennepin counties and remains at high for at least one week, St. Cloud State will recommend that all campus community members wear masks indoors. This will be a recommendation, and not a requirement. Anyone who would like to wear a mask on campus will continue to be supported in their decision to mask.
MDH only recommends that universities consider a campus-wide mask requirement if a county’s COVID-19 community level is at high and at least two other significant risk factors are present, which include such factors as institutional resources being nearly exhausted, contact tracing becoming impractical, and isolation spaces becoming full.

While it is unlikely that St. Cloud State will experience such high risk factors, if our counties do reach a high COVID-19 community level, St. Cloud State will closely monitor the situation on campus. If two or more significant additional risk factors do occur, St. Cloud State will determine whether an indoor mask requirement is necessary, with input from MDH and our own medical clinic professionals.

Masks will continue to be required for now in healthcare settings on campus, including the MDH testing center on campus, the SCSU Medical Clinic, and the Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic.

Anyone can wear a mask at any time on campus if they wish, and will be supported in that decision.

Events

St. Cloud State will only require event safety plans if Stearns County shifts to a high COVID-19 community level. If that occurs, event safety plans will be required for all events that don't meet the low-risk criteria below. If Stearns County is not in a high COVID-19 community level, no event safety plans will be required.

Low-risk events that do not require an event safety plan, even if Stearns County is in a high COVID-19 Community Level:

• Those that occur outdoors.
• Those that occur in groups that live together (this applies to residence hall students that occupy the same rooms or floor community) (masks are required when indoors and University guidelines dictate).
• Those in which people are routinely at least 3, and ideally 6 feet apart and there will be no singing or shouting. (Masks are required when indoors and University guidelines dictate).
• In person meetings of less than 25 people where there will be at least 3, and ideally 6, feet between meeting attendees.