Published: Oct. 29, 2020

Through the fall semester, campus officials are providing weekly updates, including dashboard stats and items of note on positive cases, isolation, contact tracing, mitigation measures and more.

Buff Pass to replace daily health form

  • CU Boulder students, faculty and staff have begun receiving invitations to transition from the current Daily Health Questionnaire to Buff Pass. All invitations will be sent by Monday, Nov. 2.
  • Designed to simplify and improve the health questionnaire experience—and  tested by members of the CU Boulder campus community—Buff Pass is a confidential, mobile-friendly and easy-to-use daily health check-in system.
  • Invitations are going to students, faculty and staff by email.
  • Students, faculty and staff will complete their Buff Pass every day they plan to be on campus.

Updates on Boulder County Public Health orders

Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) announced on Oct. 27 that the county remains in the less restrictive baseline level of the public health order on gatherings for 18-to-22-year-olds. While the current order for 18-to-22-year-olds remains at the baseline level, the number of cases in the general population is increasing and could bring additional restrictions.

What this means for all 18-to-22-year-olds in the city of Boulder:

  • This means people in this age group are permitted to be in personal social gatherings of up to 10 people—the same limit for all age groups in the county.
  • BCPH will no longer review this health order weekly. The health order remains in place until at least Dec. 15 and any changes to permitted gatherings for 18-to-22-year-olds will be communicated as needed.
  • Residents of collegiate group homes that are under stricter stay-at-home orders must still comply with their specific orders and mitigation plans. More information on the county’s public health orders and tracking is available on the Boulder County website.

While the current health order permits this age group to be in personal social gatherings of up to 10 people, there are two significant updates since last week that impact everyone in Boulder County:

  1. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) issued an order on Friday, Oct. 23, limiting the number of households that can be in a personal social gathering. The limit is two households at a time.

  2. Boulder County is seeing an increase in cases in the general population and may move on the state’s dial from the current status of Safer at Home Level 2 to Safer at Home Level 3, which would increase restrictions on certain activities, reduce building capacity limits and more. BCPH sent a news release on Monday, Oct. 26, notifying the community of this possibility

Exposure notification service available in Colorado

  • The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has launched its statewide COVID-19 exposure notification system, in partnership with Google and Apple. 
  • When users enable the service, their smartphones share anonymous tokens with other users through the phones’ Bluetooth technology. If another user tests positive for COVID-19 within a 14-day period and chooses to upload their results, users at risk of infection will receive an alert of potential exposure.
  • Tokens are not associated with any phone number, name, location or IP address and they change every 15 minutes to add an extra layer of anonymity.
  • Learn more about CO Exposure Notifications at the Add Your Phone webpage. 

COVID-19 testing

  • All students, faculty and staff can participate in the campus monitoring program for COVID-19. Read more about locations and times. This is a free program available to students, faculty and staff.
  • On-campus residents are required to participate in monitoring, as are certain employees. 
    • Those who complete their weekly COVID-19 monitoring test will be entered for a chance to win $100. Three prizes will be given each week.
    • In October, on-campus residents who live in a residence hall or apartment building with the highest level of monitoring test participation will also have a chance to win one of three $50 CU Book Store gift cards. 
    • On-campus residents who do not participate in monitoring could be subject to student conduct sanctions.
  • Students should contact the Public Health Clinic at Wardenburg to schedule a diagnostic test if they:
    • Have a monitoring test that indicates the possibility of COVID-19.
    • Are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
    • Have had a known exposure to a person with COVID-19 (recommendation is to wait to test until five to seven days after exposure).

Public Health Clinic open Saturdays through Nov. 21

  • The Public Health Clinic at Wardenburg will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays from Oct. 31 to Nov. 21. 
    • Public Health Clinic services are available for students who may be ill or experiencing symptoms of the flu or COVID-19, including COVID-19 testing. Schedule an appointment for COVID-19 testing online or by calling 303-492-5432.
    • Other Medical Services departments, including the pharmacy and primary care, will remain closed on weekends.

New locations and times for monitoring testing program

  • Beginning Monday, Nov. 2, three of the monitoring testing program sites will be replaced by new sites. The last day of operations for the Folsom Field Gate 7, CU Events Center and Williams Village North sites will be Friday, Oct. 30. The new sites will be at Kittredge Central room S163, the ticket windows at the south end of Folsom Field near Gate 4 and Porter Biosciences room B131.
  • Testing at all monitoring sites occurs Monday through Friday, except during university holidays.
  • Monitoring testing sites and hours for residence hall students and employees required to participate in monitoring due to their job duties, as of Monday, Nov. 2, will be:
  • Walkup monitoring testing sites and hours for off-campus students and all other faculty and staff who wish to participate remain the same and include:
  • Expanded hours: From Nov. 16 to Nov. 25, hours at the UMC (8 a.m. to 3 p.m.), Folsom Field (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Porter Biosciences (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) sites will expand to accommodate the increased needs of students checking out of the residence halls for the semester and traveling. On-campus students will receive additional information.

Isolation space

  • As of the morning of Thursday, Oct. 30, the university had five beds in use of the 555 beds available for on-campus residents in need of isolation space. 

Testing sites off campus

  • The state of Colorado is currently providing a free community testing site in Boulder, available through Nov. 8. More information is on Boulder County Public Health’s website.
  • Residents do not have to have symptoms to be tested.
  • Boulder County Public Health, Boulder Community Health, diagnostic testing developer Biodesix, Inc., and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment launched an effort to expand access to free COVID-19 testing for underserved and at-risk population groups across Boulder County.

Weekly COVID-19 update sessions

  • Every Tuesday at noon, campus leaders host a live COVID-19 update for faculty, staff, students and Buff families. Each update begins with opening remarks and then time is reserved for viewers to ask questions. These presentations are recorded and available to view online. These sessions are scheduled to continue until Nov. 17.
  • CU is also participating in the city’s weekly community update on Thursdays at 10:15 a.m. More information about the city’s weekly updates is on the city’s website.

Spring 2021

  • The spring 2021 semester will start on Jan. 14. The campus will continue to offer in-person and remote courses with key updates to address a number of lessons learned this fall.
  • Operational updates announced Oct. 22 for the spring term address academic calendar dates, academic instruction modes, expanded on-campus social programming, residence life and isolation spaces, public health guidelines, the launch of a new and improved daily health check-in experience, and enhancements to our student engagement and support model.
  • In an effort to curb the spread of travel-related COVID-19 infections in our and other communities, the university has made the difficult decision of opting out of scheduling a traditional weeklong spring break in 2021.
    • In lieu of the traditional five-day spring break, the semester will start three days later than previously scheduled and there will be two wellness days off for students on Feb. 17 and March 25.

Enforcement

  • The COVID-19-ready dashboard displays information regarding students who have been, or are currently, under investigation based on reports of public health order violations. The investigation data is updated once per week. 
  • As of Wednesday, Oct. 28:
    • 454 students have received educational interventions.
    • 31 students are on an active interim exclusion from campus, pending the adjudication of a conduct hearing.
    • 90 students have received the disciplinary status of probation.
    • 32 students are on an active interim suspension, pending the adjudication of a conduct hearing.

Whom to contact:

  • For campus technology issues or concerns, call the Office of Information Technology at 303-735-4357 (5-HELP).
  • For health questions, contact your health care provider or Medical Services at 303-492-5101 (24/7 nurse line available for students) for advice and recommendations.
  • For mental health questions or concerns, call Counseling and Psychiatric Services at 303-492-2277 (24/7 support available for students).
  • If you are experiencing trauma related to a crime or relationship, please call the Office of Victim Assistance at 303-492-8855 (24/7 support available for all students, faculty and staff).
  • For faculty and staff, call the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program at 303-492-3020.
  • For families, New Student & Family Programs will be happy to assist you. Call or text 303-492-4431 or email families@colorado.edu
  • For employment and payroll questions, call Human Resources at 303-492-6475.
  • Have additional questions about how COVID-19 affects your studies or work with CU Boulder? Use LiveChat at www.colorado.edu/covid-19, call the central hotline at 303-492-8478, or submit your question via the ask a question form.
  • For students who need assistance or who may be in crisis, please contact Students of Concern at 303-492-7348, SSCM@colorado.edu, or visit the Students of Concern Team webpage.