Princeton delays campus return; requires boosters for undergrads
NEW JERSEY - As coronavirus cases rapidly spike, Princeton University has decided to delay undergraduate students' return to campus and bring them back on a staggered schedule. Undergrads may come back to campus no earlier than Jan. 14, 2022, one week later than originally scheduled.
"Updated modeling suggests that staggering undergraduates' return over ten days from January 14 – 23 will help flatten the curve of the campus positivity rate, which will allow the University to better respond to the increase in positive cases we anticipate when students come back to campus," Princeton officials told students in a letter, which the university posted publicly online.
Princeton told undergraduates that they must register their return plans and show a negative COVID test as soon as possible after returning.
"You must receive a negative test result before attending your first in-person class or campus activity," Dean Jill Dolan and Vice President W. Rochelle Calhoun wrote in the letter.
Princeton is also requiring all undergraduates to get a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine no later than either Jan. 31 or 30 days after they become eligible.
"Although all of us are exhausted and frustrated by the ongoing COVID pandemic, we must continue to do everything we can to protect the health and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff," Dolan and Calhoun wrote. "Your compliance with these protocols will allow us to continue the residential, in-person Princeton teaching, learning, and co-curricular experience we all cherish."
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