Goucher's decision to put safety first
Dear Gophers -
Several students and parents have written to me to ask why Goucher College joined
with the two other Landmark conference colleges and opted out of participating in
winter season conference athletic competition. So, I thought I would outline for everyone
the reasons for this decision. The Landmark Conference presidents meet regularly to
arrive at decisions that collectively represent the best interests of the Conference
as a whole while respecting each institution’s autonomy and need to make decisions
that are right for their campus.
For Goucher, our decision came down to two factors: safety and practicality.
First, the graph below might help to illustrate the magnitude of change we have seen
nationwide since last semester when on July 31, we made the decision to go virtual
in the fall and as of January 6 when we reaffirmed the decision to remain online at
this time for the spring:
Goucher College currently enrolls students from 39 different states, including 61%
of our students coming from outside the state of Maryland. Consequently, any decision
to bring students back to campus would be asking potentially infected students to
travel cross-country in the midst of a pandemic. Locally Maryland’s positivity rate
remains above 8.5%, and because of the unfortunate events that transpired in our nation’s
capital last week and the impending inauguration this next week, local public health
officials are expecting that positivity rate to increase markedly in DC and Maryland
over the next few weeks.
Last fall, we adopted a benchmark that has been established by the CDC requiring
the state and county 7-day positivity rates to be below 5% before we would bring anyone
back to campus. We’re currently sitting at 8.77%, and Pennsylvania, where the majority
of Landmark conference schools are located, currently sits at 13.88%.
Faced with this situation, we ultimately decided that, at this time, bringing our
students back to campus and permitting athletic competition to proceed would be irresponsible.
Several of our Landmark conference college peers came to the same conclusion. We all
realize the situation is very fluid. A month from now, the situation might be very
different. Consequently, the Landmark Conference presidents have agreed to meet once
again on February 10 to make a determination about the spring athletic season.
The second reason we decided to opt-out of competition play was practicality. Quite
frankly, engaging in Landmark conference athletic competition at this time would be
close to impossible and divert resources and attention away from our core mission
as an educational institution. Because of the high positivity rates in some Pennsylvania
counties, all Maryland residents — including Goucher student-athletes — would be subject
to Pennsylvania Health Department restrictions, including in some cases a 10-day quarantine
period. Additionally, the Landmark conference presidents agreed that any of the schools
who made the decision to proceed and play could also drop out of conference play at
any time if the positivity rate on their campuses and/or surrounding community increased
to an unacceptable level. This would make it virtually impossible to arrange for a
schedule where we could guarantee our student-athletes they could compete against
the Landmark conference schools located in Pennsylvania.
Given this level of logistical complexity, the additional one hundred thousand dollars
that would be required to implement frequent, three-times-a-week testing for a small
percentage of the total study body, and the need to arrange for additional medical
staff, housing, quarantine and isolation protocols, we decided that it was not in
the best interests of our students, coaches, and staff.
I also had to consider the safety of our faculty and our staff, many of whom are
older and at a much higher risk of serious complications from the virus. Unfortunately,
the rollout of the vaccine in Maryland has proceeded at a much slower pace than had
been originally forecast by public health officials back in December, so without this
additional protection, I would put everyone — residential life staff, food service
staff, coaches, etc. — at extreme risk. All of these factors ultimately contributed
to our decision to opt-out of winter season athletic competition.
I realize that this decision has been a major disappointment for our student-athletes
and many parents. We all want our students back on campus and to resume athletic competition
as soon as possible. We will continue to explore multiple ways to do that. Our provost
is currently discussing several creative ideas with our faculty, and we plan on making
further announcements via email and in a town hall meeting on January 25.
Meanwhile, I want to thank everyone in the Goucher community — our students, our
faculty, our staff, and our parents — for pulling together amidst this pandemic, and
I look forward to welcoming everyone back to campus as soon as it is safe to do so.
- Kent
Kent Devereaux, President