Marquette Announces COVID-19 Changes For Spring Semester

On Wednesday, January 5, Marquette University announced some changes for the spring semester due to skyrocketing COVID-19 cases as a result of the omicron variant.

Let’s just get straight to it:

1. Spring semester for undergraduate, graduate, and law school will start on Monday, January 24 instead of Tuesday, January 18th.
2. Students living in the residence halls will be allowed to move in on January 22nd and 23rd.
3. COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are now required for all students and strongly recommended for faculty and staff.
4. The testing for those employees who are not vaccinated and the students who have been exempted previously will increase in frequency.
5. The facemask requirement for inside all Marquette buildings has been extended until further notice.
6. Effective January 18, Marquette will abide by the CDC guidelines for quarantine and isolation for when students test positive for COVID-19.
7. [Added on 1/10/22] There have been days added to the spring semester, which will now conclude on Tuesday, May 10. Finals will be administered between Wednesday, May 11 and Tuesday, May 17.

Given the booster timeline guidelines, I’m not sure that delaying the start of the spring semester by a week is wildly necessary. Even if you waited as long as possible to get vaccinated before the university’s deadline back in the summer, you would be eligible for a booster shot already, so waiting an extra week doesn’t make all that much sense to make sure everyone has been boosted. After all, the campus community is 93% vaccinated already.

Of course, I’m also not anything close to an epidemiologist, even if I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so perhaps there’s a very good reason for it.

If you are a student or employee and you are already boosted, you can upload your info to the MU Medical Clinic portal whenever you want.