Bob Jones University President Steve Pettit announced today that BJU will begin a phased approach to de-escalate the COVID-19 protocols on its campus beginning tomorrow.
Since the beginning of February, BJU has experienced a 90% drop in its positivity rate among the campus community. As of Monday, March 1, BJU has three positive student cases and one positive faculty/staff case.
As the president mentioned to the campus community during his announcement, the COVID-19 Task Force, in conjunction with recommendations from the Health and Safety subcommittee, carefully reviewed the data from both symptomatic and asymptomatic testing as well as studies of our campus inoculation rate.
Additionally, the task force considered guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, state and local government guidelines and data on population health for the greater Greenville community.
BJU’s School of Health Professions faculty and the COVID Task Force developed a tool that functions as a Campus Traffic Light System (CTLS) that accounts for all these data sources and provides us a “stop,” “caution,” or “go” indicator for COVID-19 protocols. The CTLS will assist the task force in making necessary adjustments in real time based on the current data.
Based on our indicators, BJU is now at a green “go” level.
Effective tomorrow (Tues., March 2), masking will continue to be required to enter all public buildings but will be voluntary once students are seated. Masks will also be required to enter academic buildings but at the professor’s discretion, masks may be removed once class begins.
In keeping with state guidelines for restaurants, masks will be required to enter the Den and dining common but may be removed while seated. Masks will also need to be worn in the various campus retail establishments such as the Bruins Shop, the University Cleaners and Bellis Copy Center at all times.
The COVID Task Force will continue to meet several times throughout the week and to monitor levels and advise any changes in the CLTS indicator level. Additionally, active COVID cases are reported each Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon.