Colleagues,
As you know, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has announced that our region, Region 6, has moved from Tier 3 mitigations to Tier 1. See IDPH Tier 1 guidance here.
Because we are currently repopulating the campus for the Spring 2021 Academic Semester, conducting return testing and we expect to see the highly contagious B117 variant entering our community, the university will continue using our current Tier 3 Resurgent Mitigations guidance and not implement any event changes based on the new IDPH guidelines for the next several weeks. The Chancellor has also sent this massmail message today announcing essential activities only for all students until Monday, Feb. 8.
The target date for possibly lifting the event guidance is also Feb. 8 but it could be sooner or later depending on what the data show about virus spread. Please continue to plan but know that we will not be able to approve any events or confirm any future reservations until this decision is made. I will communicate any updates.
Sincerely,
Michael T. DeLorenzo
Senior Associate Chancellor for Administration and Operations