Vaccination is the best defense we have against COVID-19, and as we prepare to return to an on-campus academic year, it is vitally important for the safety of our campus community that as many of us as possible are vaccinated.

Please get vaccinated, and please report it. Unvaccinated people are at far greater risk of severe illness or death. Your life, and the lives of your colleagues, your students, your family and your friends depend on it.

As you are aware, we have mandated vaccination for our students, and the University continues to encourage all employees in the strongest possible terms to get vaccinated.

As of today, more than 80% of students and full time employees are vaccinated. That is good news, but our goal must be to get the whole campus as close to 100% vaccinated as possible.

Starting July 5th, we have required all new employees, and all individuals who have worked for the University previously and are being offered a new appointment, to provide proof of complete vaccination prior to their start date. Consistent with state law, they may request a waiver for medical or religious reasons.

For more information on how new hires should submit proof of vaccination or request an exemption, please visit this page on the Human Resources website.

Continuing employees who have been vaccinated should upload a copy of your vaccination card to the portal as soon as possible.

Starting Monday, August 16 employees who have not furnished the University with proof of complete vaccination will be required to adhere to the following protocols:

• Wear a mask at all times indoors, with no exceptions, and outdoors whenever it is not possible to remain 6 feet from other people
• Obtain a rapid test for COVID-19 twice weekly on non-consecutive days at the University’s testing center on campus
• Do Hawk Check every day, seven days a week, and accurately report any symptoms, exposures, positive test results and travel outside of the NJ region
• Do not come to the campus if Hawk Check tells you to stay away, and remain available for a phone call from Occupational Health, and
• Do not travel on University-related business other than locally within NJ and the immediate four-state region (NY, PA, CT, DE), and only with the prior written approval of the employee’s Dean or Vice President.

These protocols for unvaccinated employees are designed to help protect the health of every member of our campus community, while enabling the full functioning of the University, and they apply to all full-time and part-time unvaccinated employees.

Vaccination Clinics On Campus

The University has arranged with the Essex County Department of Health to provide all students and employees – and their families – with COVID-19 vaccinations at no cost. The clinics will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the following Mondays: Aug. 2, Aug. 9 and Aug. 16 in Lot 7, next to the Panzer Athletic Center.

All three approved vaccines will be available: the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot, and the two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. All three are options for anyone 18 and older, but only the Pfizer vaccine is approved for persons aged 12-17.

Appointments are requested, but walk-ins will be allowed. Bring your University ID, please. to make an appointment online.

Vaccination is our best defense against COVID-19, and the surest path for us to be able to provide the educational experience our students deserve. I am grateful to the large number of employees who have voluntarily shared their proof of vaccination with the University, and I ask those who have not done so to please, get vaccinated and report it through .

Sincerely,

President Cole

As you are aware, the first COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and have begun to be distributed in New Jersey. The state’s goal is to make the vaccine available for free to all adults who live or work in New Jersey or who attend a college or university in New Jersey, but the timeframe that will be necessary to achieve that goal is not yet clear. Unfortunately, the pace of vaccination appears to be moving far more slowly than we would have hoped, and the demand for vaccination greatly exceeds the available supply.

We are keeping a very close eye on vaccine distribution, and we will provide more information to the University community as it becomes available. The University is confident that there is more than sufficient scientific evidence that the two vaccines that have been approved for use in the U.S. are both safe and effective and that inoculating as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, is the best strategy for defeating the virus and ending this devastating pandemic. For that reason, the University will do whatever we can to make vaccination possible for the University community, but the current shortage of vaccines is posing a significant obstacle.

While we await resolution of that problem, there are two things you can do. First, if you have not already done so, please register on the . The system will assign you to a priority group and notify you when it is time for you to make an appointment to be vaccinated.

Second, please keep rigorously practicing all the precautions that science has shown to be effective in slowing the spread of the disease and that have been working well for the University community: wear your mask, keep a safe distance from others, stay home if you are sick, keep your hands clean, limit your travel, and remember to do . These are the tools that are available to us, and our University community has been quite diligent in following these precautions, which is a large part of why we have been able to continue many on-campus activities and have not seen the outbreaks that have happened on other campuses.

A number of people have asked if students and employees will be required to get vaccinated, once the vaccines are available. Federal and state law, as it currently stands, does not permit the University to require that students or employees get vaccinated, but I strongly urge you to do so as soon as you are eligible and have the chance. If and when the law changes, the University’s policy and requirements may also change.
Many of you have found convenient resources for testing, but if you need access to COVID-19 testing, one option for the Montclair State community is to use the Passaic County testing site on our campus. The site is open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in January in Lot 60. If you do use this testing site, please use 147 Clove Road, Little Falls, NJ 07424 as your address, so that our University Health Center will receive your results. As we head into the start of the spring term in February, there will be more information about the University’s testing program.

Sincerely,
President Cole

With the following exceptions:

Residence Halls and Dining Services

• The main information booth, University Police, The Village at Little Falls, Clove Road Apartments, and Russ Hall (resident rooms only) will be open and staffed during the entire period, but qualified student residents remaining on campus must make prior arrangements with their respective community director.
• Except as noted above, all residence halls will close at 11 a.m. on Monday, December 21, and reopen at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 17.
• The Red Hawk Diner will close at 3 p.m. on Thursday, December 24 and reopen at 7:00 a.m. on Monday, January 4.  From January 5 through the remainder of the winter break, the Diner will follow a schedule of 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on weekdays and 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the weekend.  The Diner will close at 12 midnight on Sunday, January 17 and resume 24-hour operation at 7:00 a.m. on Monday, January 18.
• Blanton and Freeman Dining Halls will close after an extended breakfast from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Monday, December 21 and reopen for dinner on Sunday, January 17.
• Hours of operation for all other food service locations will be posted at each unit and displayed on the

Health Center, Recreation Center, Student Center, and the University Bookstore

• The University Health Center will close at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 24 and reopen at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, January 4.  From Monday, January 4 through Friday, January 22, business hours will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.  The Health Center will be closed on Monday, January 18 for the Martin Luther King holiday.  Regular hours will resume on Monday, January 25.
• The Student Recreation Center will be on Winter Hours starting Friday, December 18.  It will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the weekend.  The Recreation Center will close at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 24, but the pool and gymnasium will remain open for scheduled rentals and events.  The Recreation Center will reopen on Monday, January 4 at 6:00 a.m. and follow and abbreviated schedule until classes begin.  It will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the weekend.  The Recreation Center will resume normal operating hours on Tuesday, January 19.
• The Student Center and Student Center Annex will close at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 24, and reopen on Monday, January 4.
• The University Bookstore will close at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 24 and reopen at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, January 4.

Sprague Library, Computer Centers, and Information Technology Services

• Sprague Library will close at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 24.  The Library will be open the following week only on Tuesday, December 29 and Wednesday, December 30 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  The Library will reopen at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, January 4, and be open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until classes begin on Tuesday, January 19. 24/7 hours will resume when classes resume.
• Access to the Library’s electronic resources (databases, e-journals, e-books, and interlibrary borrowing request forms, for example) and the online catalog is available at all times, even when the Library is closed, via the Library website. Reference and research assistance is available in person and by phone (973-655-4291) when the Library is open.  Requests for assistance via e-mail at Ask A Librarian will be answered on the same day if the Library is open, or the next day the Library is open if a request is made on a day when it is closed.
• The Technology Solutions Center on the fifth floor of University Hall will close at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 24 and reopen at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, January 4.  During that period, Center staff will be monitoring and answering voice-mail messages left at the University Help Desk (973-655-7971) except on the following dates: December 24 (after 4:30 p.m.), December 25, December 31, and January 1.
• To provide support for Winter Sessions classes, the Information Technology Division is providing online instructional support from December 26 through January 1 (inclusive).
  • For support, faculty, staff, and students may e-mail winterhelp@montclair.edu or contact Ms. Fei Gao directly at 973-261-4214 between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
  • People using Elluminate and needing technical support should call 1-866-388-8674 and select option #1. The University has contracted with Elluminate to provide 24/7 day support, including during the holidays.
• The Public Computing Laboratory facilities will be available as follows:
  • The Information Commons Computer Lab on the fifth floor of University Hall will close at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 24 and reopen at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, January 4.  The Computing Laboratory will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday through Friday for the period of January 4 through January 15.
  • Laptop Lending at the Circulation Desk in Sprague Library will conform to the Library’s operating schedule.
  • The Student Interactive Multimedia (SIM) Lab on the second floor of the Sprague Library will close at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, December 18 and reopen at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 19.
  • The Surf-n-Print Depot located on the first floor of the Student Center will close at 10:00 p.m. on Friday, December 18 and reopen at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, January 4.  The Depot will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday during the period of January 4 through January 14.
• The Technology Solutions Center will perform maintenance and firmware upgrades on the campus’s Internet edge routers and the enterprise networking and switch gear between Tuesday, December 29 and Thursday, December 31.  These maintenance activities will produce service interruptions and degraded performance for periods of 15 to 45 minutes throughout the day.
• With the exception of the planned service interruptions outlined above, any significant problems with the University’s hardware and software systems will be announced on the Montclair State homepage and University list services and be a message on the Technology Solutions Center telephone line, ext. 7971.

General Access to the Campus

To maintain the security of the campus during the winter closing, employees may have access to their offices only in the unusual circumstance that their supervisors require them to perform a specific job duty during that period or, in the case of faculty, to pursue ongoing research or other faculty responsibilities.  The employee or a dean must inform University Police via msupolice@montclair.edu as soon as the need to be on campus is known, specifying the purpose, date(s), and time(s) that access is required.  Upon arrival and departure, the employee must sign in and out at the University Police building.

The names of students who are engaged in research that requires their presence during the winter closing must be submitted in advance to University Police via msupolice@montclair.edu by a faculty mentor or dean.  The submission must indicate that no safety hazards are posed by the student’s presence in the laboratory and/or office.  Upon arrival and departure, the student must sign in and out at the University Police building.  Students may also have access to buildings if they are accompanied by a faculty member or administrator who has followed the procedures from the building.  All employees and students must have a key and/or access code to gain entry to the specific room requested. University Police will be responsible for opening the exterior door of the building as needed.

Please note that most building temperatures will be lowered from 68 degrees to 65 degrees to conserve energy.