URI recently updated its COVID-19 event policies, now requiring proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test. PHOTO CREDIT: Siobhan Richards.
The University of Rhode Island COVID-19 Task Force has updated the COVID-19 policies again, stating that both outside guests, employees and students will have to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test in order to attend large campus events.
According to Samuel Adams, the director of emergency management and the assistant director of public safety, the biggest change that happened in September was changing the requirement for proof of vaccination for large indoor events to also allow for a recent negative COVID-19 test.
This policy applies not only to students and employees but also to visitors. Adams said that a large event is defined as an event that has over 250 attendees and is at more than 35 percent venue capacity.
“Two-hundred fifty people in the [Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences] auditorium versus 250 people in the Ryan Center are two totally different things, so it has to be both criteria for it to be a large campus event,” Adams said.
According to Adams, this decision was prompted mainly to allow outside guests into the community, while keeping students and employees safe.
He said that bringing the public into URI venues without any requirements defeats the purpose of trying to create a safe community, since faculty and students are required to either be vaccinated or get tested weekly. The updated policy requires outside guests to follow similar guidelines as URI community members.
“The thought process was making sure that we’re being consistent and protecting our community,” Adams said.
Adams said that the University has a very specific campus community, so it’s important to keep that community safe when bringing in outside guests.
Dave Lavallee, the assistant director of external communications at URI, said that it is important to be as consistent and as clear as possible about these changes and to keep community members up to date on the policies put into place.
“Since the COVID-19 task force was formed at the beginning of the pandemic, there’s really been an effort to update things as quickly as we can as conditions change,” Lavallee said. “We’ve been doing that with this event’s policy, vaccine mandates and testing requirements.”
Adams said that checks for visitors’ vaccination cards or negative tests will be done at the door for large indoor events. Students will be required to show their student IDs for entry since proof of vaccination or weekly testing is required for them. Adams said that the hosts and managers for any given event will be responsible for conducting these checks.
As far as contract tracing goes, Adams said that there have been some changes in the way this is done since the state no longer requires it and URI has changed its process for contact tracing as well.
“If there was a concert at the Ryan Center and there was an outbreak associated with it, they’re not going to go through the roster of everybody who bought tickets and contact them,” Adams said. “It’s going to be a lot more selective and about trying to figure out where the person was sitting and who was with them, or they would put out a notice saying there had been an outbreak.”
Positive cases and outbreaks have become frequent enough that it’s not realistic to chase down all those individuals at the event, according to Adams. He said the main goal with all of these policies is to “make it as easy to comply as possible.”
“I believe that if you want people to follow rules, you need to make rules that are conducive to people’s participation,” Adams said.