Nearly 2,000 Aggies “pledge” to protect USU
Utah State University introduced a “Protection Pledge” for its students and faculty to sign. The pledge states they will protect one another when it comes to COVID-19 symptoms and cases on campus.
James Morales, vice president for Student Affairs, said as of Aug. 29, the pledge had 1,962 signatures.1,729 student signatures, 111 faculty signatures and 122 staff signatures.
Morales said the driving factor behind the pledge was the concept of “we’re all in this together.”
By signing the pledge, students, faculty and staff promise to protect themselves, others and the USU community. Toward the end of the pledge, there is a link to a questionnaire for those who test positive for COVID-19.
Morales said the questionnaire is critically important to identifying individual cases and positively responding and providing support to the community members.
“The questionnaire alerts our emergency management operations that there is an active case,” he said. “We have a COVID care team that will reach out to the student to provide support as they may be struggling in their isolation to complete courses or access courses remotely.”
Morales added that dining services will mobilize to provide them with food if needed. USU Housing and Residence Life will help them manage their relationships with their roommates.
According to Morales, the university also needs to do case containment on any situation dealing with roommates to try and curve the spread to anyone who comes in contact with the infected person.
“We’re only going to be as successful as every individual who supports and commits to these guidelines,” Morales said. “That’s true of any community. Its success hinges on the individual members. Let’s make sure the individuals of the USU community understand making a commitment means living, acting and behaving according to the guidelines we’ve committed to.”
Morales said the objective is to stay in person and not have to completely move to online learning.
“We’ve been hearing since spring and over the summer from students that they want to be in person. That rests on all of us being serious and abiding by the COVID-19 guidelines,” he said.
Morales said the pledge was created by a team of students and administration over Zoom.
“We’ve reached out to students through social media channels and other communications raising awareness about the pledge and its importance. We’ve done the same with our faculty and staff and encouraged everyone to make that commitment,” he said.
Morales said more reminders about the pledge will be sent out to the USU community in accordance with USU Marketing and Student Affairs.