Campus Reopening Plans

This web page has been established to share updates on our plans for returning to campus, as well as updates on COVID-19 and new requirements or guidance that the University receives from state and local health departments.

Self-Reporting a Positive Case of COVID-19

If you have received a positive result for COVID-19 and were tested off-campus, please fill out the self-reporting form.

Capital University COVID-19 On-Campus Testing

Last updated: 4/17/21 
Note: The following data is for our Spring 2021 semester. For historical data, please see our Fall 2020 COVID-19 Testing Dashboard.

COVID-19 Updates and Communication

Cancellation of Vaccine Clinics
April 13, 2021

Due to federal recommendations issued this morning, the University has canceled the vaccine clinics scheduled for April 13 through 16.

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a statement at 7 a.m. today to pause use of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose COVID vaccine out of an abundance of caution.

The FDA and CDC will be investigating whether there is a link between the vaccine and a rare disorder involving blood clots that occurred in six individuals throughout the nation who received the J&J vaccine. All six cases occurred in women between the ages of 18-48, within two weeks of receiving the J&J vaccine. Approximately 7 million doses of this vaccine have been administered in the United States.

The FDA and CDC statement indicated that these adverse events appear to be extremely rare, and the pause in using the J&J vaccine is important to investigate and to make health care providers aware of this possibility and to plan for treatment.

Bexley Urgent Care is our partner in administering these clinics. Anyone who has received the J&J vaccine at Capital can contact them at 614-826-9266 if they have any questions or concerns about the vaccine or their reaction to it. You can also contact the COVID Response Team at COVIDResponse@capital.edu.

Campus Health and Safety Guidelines

The Center for Health and Wellness provides guidelines to protect student and employee health during the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluates protocols for testing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine, and student physical and mental health services. The guide, Phased Reopening Plan, provides comprehensive details.

Health and Wellness Testing

Monitoring and managing COVID-19 at the University is essential to creating a safe and healthy environment for our entire university community. Capital has developed a comprehensive health strategy, which utilizes diagnostic and surveillance testing, daily monitoring of symptoms, quarantine and isolation protocols, and contact tracing of close contacts for positive cases.

Review the Health and Wellness Testing Policy (PDF) - Updated 9/1/20

Academic Plans

If you have general questions about the health and safety issues related to COVID-19 and the University, we encourage you to email us at healthinfo@capital.edu. For questions about specific issues, contact:

• Academic Advising – advising@capital.edu or 614-236-6112
• Academic Success – academicsuccess@capital.edu or 614-236-6327
• Residential and Commuter Life – residencelife@capital.edu or commuterlife@capital.edu
• Center for Health and Wellness – chw@capital.edu or 614-236-6114
• Disability Services – disabilityservices@capital.edu or 614-236-6611
• Financial Aid – finaid@capital.edu or 614-236-6511
• Student Success – success@capital.edu or 614-236-6871

Student Life

 Housing

We have created a Resource Guide for Ensuring a Safe and Healthy Return to Campus Living (PDF). This document outlines the tenants of our plan to return to life in University housing. Those pieces are outlined below:

• Traditional residence halls will be occupied with decreased density.
• Neighborhood Housing (to include College Avenue Residence Hall) will remain at planned occupancy.
• Students who are not yet ready to return to campus living can complete the Housing Release Request form located at: https://capital.erezlife.com.
  • This will allow students to continue their coursework remotely, from their home address. (Please note, any exceptions to policy will only be made for Fall 2020, and will not include release from housing to seek local rental for those who do not meet our requirements for release.) 
   
• A limited number of rooms in traditional residence halls will be made available for students to live with roommates. Students wishing to live with a roommate should complete the “Request a Double” form at https://capital.erezlife.com.
• Room rates will be adjusted to ensure that no students will be penalized through the reassignment process. Rates can be found online: https://www.capital.edu/room-and-board-rates/.
• A detailed cleaning and disinfection plan has been developed for both prior to student move-in and during the academic year.
• Residential policy will be adjusted to comply with CDC and other recommendations.
• We plan a phased move-in for students living in the residence halls beginning September 11. Students who rely on the University as their primary residence may continue to do so. In-person classes are scheduled to begin no sooner than September 21. Students will also have the option to construct a fully remote semester. 
• For students planning to live on campus this fall, we will share information soon about refunding a prorated portion of your housing and room and board costs.
  
   

Dining

As we begin to cautiously reopen our dining facilities during these unprecedented times, we want to let you know what is being done to protect the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, guests and dining services team members.

Safety and sanitation have always been a hallmark of our dining services; however, in the wake of this global pandemic, we recognize that it has never been more critical for us to rise to the occasion and challenge ourselves as we meet the uncertainty and evolving demands of this "new normal." We are happy to partner with our dining services provider, Aladdin, to meet and exceed all federal, state and local health and safety requirements. To that end, we are:

• Creating additional space in the Main Dining Room and One Main Café by relocating and removing some tables and chairs
• Installing barriers between booths
• Converting all self-service stations to served (with the exception of drink stations, which are allowed by regulation to be self-service)
• Requiring all dining services team members to wear masks and gloves and be trained in appropriate sanitary measures
• Having team members provide flatware, plates and cups to customers
• Providing salt, pepper and condiments in individual packets
• Serving a full, rotating menu, with soft-serve ice cream being the only item to not be available
• Providing to-go containers for those choosing to eat elsewhere
• Continuing to offer the allergen-friendly kitchen
• Installing floor signs to provide guidance for physical distancing
• Using a separate entrance and exit in the Main Dining Room to reduce congestion
• Sanitizing tables, chairs and counters more frequently
• Installing Plexiglas barriers at points-of-sale

Any questions about Dining Services should be directed to liz.hernandez@aladdinfood.com.

Athletics

The OAC and its President’s Council has voted to postpone all fall sport competition until after January 1, 2021. This impacts football, volleyball, cross country, soccer, tennis, golf and basketball. Schedules are currently being constructed for fall sports to take place simultaneously with regularly-scheduled spring sports. 

» OAC Announces Restructuring of 2020-21 Athletic Season (full story)

All athletes will not be participating in any team-related activities for 14 days upon their arrival at campus. After the 14 day period there will be three phases of resocialization in Athletics using population density as a criterion. The phases are outlined below:

• Avoid socializing in groups of more than 10 people
• Close common areas where people are likely to congregate and interact
• Vulnerable student-athletes, athletic health care providers, coaches and athletics personnel
• Should continue to shelter in place – vulnerable population includes individuals with serious underlying conditions such
• As chronic lung disease, diabetes, obesity, asthma, and immune-compromised conditions
• No university sponsored travel

• Groups may increase to 50 people
• Vulnerable individuals should continue to shelter in place
• Weight room may open with physical distancing and sanitization protocols
• Locker rooms will remain closed at this time
• No university sponsored travel

• Re-evaluate protocol based on state government recommendations – Resume full practice activities without group size restrictions
• Vulnerable individuals can resume in-person interactions, but with distancing
• Weight room and locker rooms will be open, but with proper physical distancing and sanitization
• University sponsored travel may resume with proper physical distancing

For the full guidelines, including the Infectious Disease Transmission Mitigation Protocol, please review the Guidelines for Resocialization here.

TRAINING
The NCAA has passed temporary legislation that allows for 114 days of permissible contact between student-athletes and their team’s coaching staff in preparation for the Spring 2021 season. Athletes are permitted to have unlimited permissible contact with Athletics’ strength and conditioning staff. All training must coincide with NCAA, Franklin County and Capital University COVID-19 health standards.

FAQs
Capital FAQ
OAC FAQ

Working on Campus

Our plans to reopen all three campuses and return to in-person classroom learning where possible continue to evolve, but we felt it was important to share the Return to the Workplace Plan (PDF) at this time so you have the new safety precautions and protocols for faculty, staff and students.

These documents were developed following guidance from state and local health authorities and recommendations from the University’s emergency response team, and include information about: 

• Shared responsibilities for keeping every member of the Capital community safe, such as physical distancing, hand hygiene, appropriate face coverings, and symptoms tracking.
• Phased steps for reopening.
• Phased steps for the return of students and employees, including staffing options.
• Classrooms and other spaces, including: limited density in indoor areas; limited elevator capacity; control of the flow of traffic into and inside buildings, and directional stairways; and enhanced facility cleaning protocols.
• Continued use of virtual collaboration tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx and Slack.
• University travel.

The Return to the Workplace Plan will guide us as we finalize staffing for the fall semester.  After reviewing that document, if you believe you need to request a modification for your return to the workplace, please do so as soon as possible.  For faculty teaching fall semester, we ask that you make your requests as soon as possible.  Modifications can be requested by filing a COVID-19 Request for Workplace Modification form.

Facilities Management COVID-19 Readiness Plan 

Capital University’s Office of Facilities Management, in collaboration with WFF Facility Services, has created a detailed Campus Facilities Readiness Plan to integrate the realities of fluctuating space usage and attendance alongside the pressing needs for an enhanced cleaning and overall facilities approach. We will work as a team to present the clearest path forward to address the concerns of faculty, staff, students, alumni, visitors and families, creating safe environments that support Capital’s living and learning communities. Safety requirements and community perception require increased attention to facilities services. By integrating cleaning and building operations tasks, each campus can mitigate the dangers of COVID-19. Reducing the threat while enhancing community wellbeing is the goal of Capital University’s Office of Facilities Management.

We have created a planning document to leverage our industry experience, changing regulations and shared best practices. The following steps represent our path forward to respond and adapt to the challenges of COVID-19.

• Level 1- Response Services refers to when there is possible COVID-19 exposure and/or proactive planning stage.
• Level 2- Response Services refer to when there is a probable COVID-19 contamination while testing occurs or during an outbreak at another section of campus
• Level 3- Response Services refer to when there is a confirmed contamination 

Read the full details of our readiness plan

University Events

Virtual events should continue to be conducted when feasible as the health and safety of our community remain our top priority.  If an event will take place in person, appropriate measures, such as physical distancing, must be utilized.  Events should include registration or attendee lists that include participant contact information to facilitate contact tracing if needed.

Events may be held at a limited number of venues, provided the events comply with building reopening requirements and all rules mandated by the University, and state and local governments. All events must adhere to these requirements as a basis for minimal acceptable practices.

Visitor Policy

Welcome to Capital University. We are looking forward to seeing you soon. The health and safety of our University community and our visitors are our top priority during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we approach the reopening of our campuses, we have outlined the safety and precautionary measures we are taking. As we all know, this has been, and will continue to be, a rapidly changing situation. Our guidelines today are based on current conditions, but we may need to alter them as the situation and/or guidance from experts changes.

VISITOR SAFETY MEASURES

Currently Capital is open to employees and essential visitors, such as contractors, and admissions and athletic recruiting visits. (Rules for coming to campus for athletic events will follow separate athletic policies, which are being developed as we prepare for fall sports.)

We ask that you follow our safety guidelines so that we may protect your health and that of our faculty, staff and students. Those guidelines include:

• Everyone is required to wear a face covering whenever you are inside buildings, when entering and exiting buildings, and whenever you are in the presence of others and cannot properly maintain adequate physical distancing (i.e., at least six feet).
• Please maintain physical distance from others while you are on campus. We have spaced out some furniture, meeting rooms and open spaces, marked seating and have added markings in areas where individuals may be waiting for services.
• We ask that you do not come to campus if you are exhibiting any COVID-19 symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, sore throat, loss of taste/smell).
• Hand sanitizer is available at the entrances to every building for your use.

ADMISSIONS AND ATHLETIC RECRUITING VISITS

• If you are visiting campus for an admissions or athletics recruiting visit, please only bring two guests (for a maximum of 3 people).
• To provide a safe visit experience for you and our staff, we kindly ask that when you enter the Admission Center, if you have more than one in your party, please ask guests to wait in the lobby as you, the student, check in with the Admissions Office.

RESIDENCE HALLS

• When the residence halls reopen, only individuals living in each hall will be permitted in that hall.
• No more than 2 non-students will be permitted to assist residential students at move-in or move-out.

UNIVERSITY SAFETY MEASURES

We would also like to make you aware of additional safety measures we have implemented on our University campuses:

• Additional daily cleanings and deep cleanings of buildings are being done by our housekeeping service.
• Plexiglass shields have been installed for front office employees.
• We will be adding directional markings for certain areas on campus to help with one-way traffic flow.
• COVID-19 safety and informational training will be provided for all employees and students.
• Employees have been asked to monitor their health and to not report to work if they are exhibiting any COVID-19 symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, sore throat, loss of taste/smell).

Thank you for your help in making our return to campus safe and comfortable. Please let us know if you have any concerns about visiting our campus. We want to be respectful and considerate of our visitors while safeguarding the health of our community.

VIRTUAL CONNECTION TO CAPITAL

When you are not able to come to campus or when access to campus is limited, our virtual campus is still available! We can be reached by phone and email.

Bexley campus directory
Seminary directory
Law School directory

Many student services contacts are found here: https://www.capital.edu/current-students/

Virtual admission visits are scheduled here: https://www.capital.edu/admission/schedule-a-visit/

We are ready to respond to questions, process requests and applications, and provide support for existing and future students. Please stay in touch.

Capital University COVID-19 On-Campus Testing Fall 2020

Last updated: 12/10/20 
Note: This is an archive of all data from the Fall 2020 semester. Current numbers can be found here.

Self-Reporting a Positive Case of COVID-19

If you have received a positive result for COVID-19 and were tested off-campus, please fill out the self-reporting form.