Updated Nov. 21, 2022
The information below summarizes current protocols for both students and employees and will be updated to reflect updates in protocols.
If you test positive for COVID-19 (regardless of vaccination status):
- Stay home or in your residence, apart from others, wear a mask in any shared spaces.
- Students should notify Health Services through the secure messaging patient portal.
- Employees should notify Human Resources at hr@spu.edu or 206-281-2809, as well as their direct supervisor.
- Isolate for five (5) full days from the first day your symptoms started (the first day of symptoms is day zero), or the date of your test if you had no symptoms.
- You may end isolation after five (5) days (on or after day 6) if you have had no fever for more than 24 hours and your symptoms are improving.
- Mask for five full days upon your return to campus after ending isolation.
If you have symptoms of COVID-19 — even mild — regardless of vaccination status:
- Stay home or in your residence, apart from others, wear a mask in any shared spaces.
- Get tested as soon as possible.
- If positive, see above.
- If negative, stay home until your symptoms have improved (no fever for more than 24 hours without medication and other symptoms are better).
- If your symptoms are not improving or new symptoms develop in the first few days — stay home and get tested again.
If you are a close contact* of a COVID-19 positive individual:
- All close contacts should be tested on Day 6 after last contact with positive case or sooner if any symptoms develop.
- Wear a mask for 10 days after last contact with positive case.
*You are considered a “close contact” when you have been within 6 feet of a person who tested positive for COVID-19, for a cumulative 15-minute exposure over a 24-hour period.
Support for students in isolation
If SPU places a student in isolation on campus, SPU staff will assist the student in moving to the isolation unit and will clean the vacated area. Students are expected to notify their professors of the expected duration of their isolation, as well as any close-contacts they may have had starting from two days prior to becoming ill through date of positive test. If SPU instructs residential students to isolate on campus, SPU staff will work with those students regarding their academic and living needs.
Community notification
The COVID-19 Dashboard identifies reports of individuals on campus who test positive for COVID-19, which may include students, employees, or guests. Due to confidentiality considerations, the webpage will not identify the name of any individual placed in isolation, and SPU administration will not publicly identify individuals or sections of residential facilities that are placed in isolation.
Rules for isolation
When students are in isolation on campus, they are required to remain in the isolation space at all times, absent medical need, emergency evacuation, or other exception permitted by Health Services or the Office of Residence Life.
Students in isolation are not permitted to have guests. Students who do not follow quarantine instructions may be removed from SPU housing.
Specific information about meals, laundry, and mail
Meals
Each student placed in isolation is eligible to order up to three meals a day to be delivered to the unit where the student is living. Students will use the GET app (the same app that links to the Falcon card for meal-plan management) to order the meals (full instructions are provided to students when they are placed in isolation). Meal orders through the GET app must be submitted by 6 p.m. each day in order to receive meals in the daily delivery, starting at 5 p.m. Available meals are dinner on the day of ordering, and breakfast and lunch for the following day. If a student requires emergency meals earlier in the day, the student can call the Isolation Services hotline at 206-286-6901 for assistance from 8 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
At the end of the isolation period, the Office of Housing and Meal Plans will bill for the meals that a student received by deducting meal swipes from the student’s meal plan. If a student does not have a meal plan or does not have sufficient meal swipes, deductions will be made to the student’s Dining Dollars, followed by Falcon Funds, at the rate of $10 per meal. If a student also does not have Dining Dollars or Falcon Funds, the Office of Housing and Meal Plans will add Falcon Funds to the student’s account to cover the balance owed for the meals ordered, charging the student’s Student Financial Services account.
Students should not let the meal cost keep them from ordering enough meals to be well-nourished during isolation. Students who think the cost of meals is prohibitive should use this application form to apply for meal assistance through “Swipe Out Hunger.”
- Problem with an order? Call 206-281-6901 to speak to the Isolation Services hotline.
- Problem with the GET app? Email falconcards@spu.edu.
- Questions about your meal plan or charges? Contact mealplans@spu.edu (Note: This inbox is checked Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.)
Laundry
If a student’s isolation unit does not have a washer/dryer, the student is eligible for one bag of laundry to be washed, dried, and folded, free of charge per week. Students must opt in to receive this service. To opt in, students should reply to the email the Office of University Services sends to isolated students each Monday of their isolation duration. That email will give instructions for how to receive a laundry bag for the first laundry order.
To receive laundry service in the weeks following the first order, students must continue to opt in by responding to the Monday email each week. Students who have a washer/dryer in their isolation unit are not eligible for this service. Questions about this laundry service should be sent to laundry@spu.edu (Note: The inbox is checked Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.).
Mail
Students placed in isolation on campus will have their mail, including all packages, delivered to their residential unit entrance once daily, starting at 5 p.m. Students do not need to do anything to opt-in to this service.
Questions about mailing should be sent to mailing@spu.edu (Note: The inbox is checked Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.).
Off-campus programs
The protocols outlined above apply to SPU’s operations at its Seattle campus. If SPU conducts off-campus programs for students (e.g., at Blakely Island Field Station or Camp Casey Conference Center), different isolation protocols may apply.