Decide if you are going to remain on campus or isolate at home (if possible). We encourage students to consider returning home to complete their isolation. If you are unable to return home for any reason (e.g., distance, cost, health of individuals at home, housing insecurity, safety concerns, etc.), we will support your isolation on campus.

Isolation: Stay in your Room or Request Isolation Space

If you have tested positive, you need to isolate. Review the CDC guidelines for isolation after testing positive, including when you can end isolation. During this period, it is important that you do not leave your room, apartment, or house except for an emergency or to seek medical care (or required testing). If you must leave your room, wear a well-fitting mask or face covering while you are out.

If you are isolating in a shared suite/house, you should remain in your room unless you need to use the suite facilities (kitchen, bathroom, etc.), and be sure to maintain physical distance and wear a mask or face covering when you do. Do not leave to exercise, go shopping, or even take a walk.

Residential students who test positive for COVID-19 can isolate in their own room/suite without the need to relocate to a temporary housing assignment. However, if there are any concerns from roommates, suitemates, or the individual who tests positive, we can make accommodations for students to temporarily relocate if space is available. This information will be provided to students who test positive when they fill out the COVID-19 Reporting Form.

Contact Tracing

If you test positive, it is your responsibility to identify and communicate with individuals who have spent 15 minutes or more with you over a 24-hour period and were within 6 feet of you up to two days before your first symptom(s) developed. You can advise them to follow the instructions for quarantining found within CDC guidelines for individuals exposed to COVID-19. Contact tracing helps others get tested or quarantine as they could begin infecting others.

Help Protect Others

Avoid contact with others in your room, suite, or house, as much as possible. You and your roommates should not invite visitors over until your isolation period is over.

Limit the use of sharing personal household items like cups, towels, and utensils.

Take steps to improve ventilation in your housing by opening the windows, if possible and safe to do so. (Some residence halls do not allow for the windows to be open due to HVAC operations.)

Food

You are responsible for obtaining your own meals during your isolation period. The following are available options:

• Order through a food or grocery delivery service (e.g., DoorDash, GrubHub, Instacart, individual grocery store deliveries, or through a friend or family member). You will be able to leave your housing briefly with a well-fitting mask or face covering to pick up your food in the lobby of your building or the entrance of your residence hall.
• If you are on a meal plan, you can order a meal pick up or meal delivery from Dining Services online. You must complete the COVID-19 Reporting Form in order to access the form to request meal service.
  
  • The meal pick up option allows a friend to pick up a meal that you have ordered online from Dining Services.
  • The meal delivery option provides a delivery of a meal you have ordered online from Dining Services.
  • For residence halls, fraternity houses, Jones Hall, or Lincoln Park Apartments, deliveries are made to a main lobby or common entrance. For other apartments, townhouses, or houses, deliveries are made to your front door.

IMPORTANT: You must immediately return to your room after picking up your delivery.

Mail/Packages

If you receive any packages while in isolation, ask a friend to pick it up for you. Be sure to contact mailservices@evansville.edu to give your authorization to your friend to pick up your package.

Facilities

If an urgent problem occurs during your isolation (e.g., your toilet is overflowing, the heat isn't working), or you notice that something in your room needs to be fixed, and it cannot wait until your isolation period is complete, please contact residencelife@evansville.edu and we will help address the situation.

Cleaning

Follow CDC recommendations on the best way to clean high touch areas (light switches, door knobs, counters, bathroom, kitchen, etc.) in order to reduce the potential spread of the virus.

We understand you may have questions about living with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. It’s important to remember that residential students who become sick with many different illnesses, such as the flu, a cold, mono, a stomach virus, usually remain in shared rooms/suites with their roommates while recovering. Due to highly effective vaccines, mutations in the virus that are associated with milder illness, and higher population-level immunity, college students are rarely getting severely ill from COVID-19. Colleges are well-positioned to consider an isolate-in-place protocol under which residential students who test positive can isolate in their own room/suite/house without the requirement to relocate to a temporary housing assignment.

However, if there are any concerns from roommates, suitemates, or individual students who test positive, we can make accommodations for students who test positive to temporarily relocate if space is available. This information will be provided to students who test positive when they fill out the COVID-19 Reporting Form. If roommates or suitemates are concerned about their peer who tested positive, and they do not agree to the isolate-in-place method, contact Residence Life through the Quarantine Request Form for assistance in finding a space for the residential student who tested positive or has symptoms.