Good luck with year-end endeavors

Dear students, colleagues and friends,

The end of the semester is right around the corner, and I know you are all busily preparing for final projects, papers, exams, commencement and other year-end activities. I wish you all the very best of luck — you worked hard all year and I know you will finish strong.

As I mentioned last week, we have made the decision to continue our Protect Yourself, Protect Others program in spring. This means we will continue to require vaccinations or weekly testing, masks in many indoor areas, use of the daily health screening app, and more.

We also strongly encourage everyone who has been vaccinated to receive the booster. Vaccines and boosters are available on campus during our Dec. 17 clinic in Finch Fieldhouse or by appointment through the University Health Services Clinic in Foust Hall, and also are available through the Central Michigan District Health Department and most area pharmacies.

These simple precautions also are effective beyond CMU's campus boundaries. As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Michigan, vaccines, boosters and masks can help to prevent virus spread throughout the community. We want everyone to enjoy a happy and healthy winter break, so please do all you can to remain safe!

Even fully vaccinated people can carry the virus, so we strongly encourage everyone to be tested for COVID-19 before returning to campus. If you are traveling internationally over the break, we recommend you also be tested at least three times during the week of your return

Testing is one of the strongest tools we have to monitor and mitigate the spread of the virus within our community. For that reason, we encourage everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to be tested weekly for the first two weeks you are on campus. This will help us ensure a safe start to the spring semester.

Many pharmacies and medical centers now offer free COVID-19 tests — find and schedule your test on the Michigan.gov COVID-19 testing site. We also have expanded our capacity to offer free testing on campus beginning Jan. 3, and you can now schedule your COVID-19 test through the health screening app.

Thank you for all you are doing to keep your classmates, friends and colleagues safe.

In just over a week, we will congratulate more than 2,000 CMU graduates at commencement. They pursued their goals and dreams with grit and determination through nearly two years of a global pandemic — they have truly exemplified what it means to have a Fired-Up attitude and to set the leadership standard. I invite everyone to join me in sharing well-wishes and support for our graduates by using #CmichGraduation on your favorite social media channels in the week ahead. They are well-deserving of our praise!

Thank you for another great semester. Good luck and be well,

Bob Davies, Ph.D.

President

Central Michigan University