Be Safe for Us All This Weekend

October 30, 2020

UMS Colleagues and Students,

Halloween is tomorrow.

By Monday, we’ll have reached the three-quarter point of our planned in-person instruction and work this fall semester before Thanksgiving, and so far, we’ve had one of the safest fall semesters in higher education in the country.

But we’re also familiar with the phrase “COVID fatigue” -- indeed, we should acknowledge that this is hard work. It may never feel normal to mask, socially distance, and avoid even small group gatherings of friends and extended family in our residences. Especially when it feels like there’s no end in sight. Especially when COVID cases are climbing everywhere in the country, even in Maine, even when, at the moment, the UMS community appears to remain safe from COVID.

While our UMS case counts and prevalence rates continue to be extraordinarily low, community transmission is now the reality in Maine. And it’s occurring statewide, according to Dr. Nirav Shah, our plain-spoken, science-focused Director of the Maine CDC. While Dr. Shah has complimented Maine higher education’s work with our ongoing testing, isolation of positives, and contact tracing and quarantining (along with masking and social distancing), he also noted the grave risk in a briefing yesterday that rising community spread represents to Maine’s college and university campuses and the communities in which they exist.

I cannot emphasize that concern enough as we enter this Halloween weekend and return next week for just three more weeks of in-person classes and work.

We’ve asked a lot of you this semester. And you’ve responded with tremendous resilience and dedication to public health and safety. You’ve participated in our testing, worn masks, physically distanced, and followed our limits on group sizes and travel. Your diligence and respect for each other has kept us safe together. Thank you.

Please stay close to campus or home this weekend. Please be sure that masking up for Halloween includes an approved face covering. And please avoid group gatherings outside of your close family and connections who you know to be free from COVID exposure.

Together we’ve set the standard for coming and staying together safely. Let’s stick to it and finish strong so we can all go home at Thanksgiving free of infection and proud of what we have accomplished this semester.

Halloween should and can be fun. For once in this pandemic, enjoy wearing a mask. But please be safe for us all this weekend.

Sincerely,

Chancellor

University of Maine System