Happy New Year to our Rhody community. We are looking forward to the start of the new semester and having our community back together for a productive semester while maintaining and enhancing the health and safety protocols we have in place. As you prepare to return to campus, we want to share with you the new guidelines for our return this semester as well as remind you of the existing health and safety guidelines. These are an important part of our ability to bring students back to campus in a safe manner.
Before you return to campus or the URI community
All students returning to on-campus or off-campus housing should make every effort to have a COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to arrival and provide a copy of your results to URI Health Services.
How to provide your results to URI Health Services
- Log in to the patient portal.
- Click on the COVID-19 tab at the top of the page.
- Enter your test date and whether your result was negative or positive, then submit.
- Go back up to your test (order) date and select file.
- Browse your files to select the documentation of your COVID-19 test result (jpeg,pdf), then upload.
- You can also log into the patient portal from a mobile device and take a photo of your test result to upload.
Do not come to campus or the community if you:
- Tested positive, you do not feel well, or you are displaying symptoms.
- Stay home and contact Health Services immediately.
Mandatory Surveillance Testing
All URI students who will be taking in person classes and/or coming to campus will ALSO be required to participate in testing upon return to campus, off-campus housing, or if living at home within the state.
For on-campus students, including those in Greek housing and IEP House/TI
Please visit the testing center located in the Memorial Union Atrium prior to moving into your residence hall/Greek house. Once you have completed your move-in testing you will be allowed access to your residence hall. If you arrive after the testing center has closed, you will be expected to test the next day the center opens. View the updated testing schedule.
For off-campus students:
Please visit the testing center upon your return to off-campus housing. If you arrive before Jan. 18, please visit the Memorial Union Atrium to complete your required testing. If you plan to arrive between Jan. 18 and 22, please visit the testing center located at Keaney Gymnasium. View the updated testing schedule.
Test results will be emailed to you within 48 hours from CareEvolve. Students should not participate in surveillance testing if they have any symptoms, they should contact Health Services at 401-874-2246 for symptomatic testing at Health Services.
Travel Quarantine
All URI students, both on and off campus, are required to complete a 10-day quarantine if arriving from a domestic location and a 14-day quarantine if arriving from abroad upon arrival to campus or their off-campus residence. Quarantine means that you (and your roommates, if applicable) should remain in your residence as much as possible.
For on-campus students
- Guests who do not live in the same hall are not allowed in your residence hall and you should not leave campus.
- You may go outdoors while keeping proper physical distance and wearing a face covering to obtain food from Dining Services, participate in COVID-19 testing, do laundry, and to obtain medical care if needed.
- Consider ordering all of your educational materials online from the Campus Store prior to arrival, to ensure they will be packaged and ready for pick-up at a designated location.
- Students should have received a message from Housing and Residential Life with instructions to sign up for their move-in date/time. If you need further assistance with housing, please contact URI Housing. Students should plan to arrive on campus by Jan. 22 to be able to complete their 10-day quarantine prior to the start of face-to-face classes on Feb. 1 (classes begin remotely Jan. 26).
For off-campus students
- Quarantine means that you (and your housemates) must remain at your residence and only go out for essential services (supermarket, medical appointments).
- Guests are not allowed and you should not leave to go home.
- You may go outdoors while keeping proper physical distance and wearing a face covering to obtain essential services such as COVID-19 testing, medical care, and pick up prescriptions and groceries if they’re not able to be delivered.
- Consider ordering all of your educational materials online from the Campus Store prior to arrival, to ensure they will be packaged and ready for pick-up at a designated location.
- Students should plan to arrive at their off-campus residence by Jan. 22 to be able to complete their 10-day quarantine prior to the start of face-to-face classes on Feb. 1 (classes begin remotely Jan. 26).
Required Bi-weekly Surveillance Testing for COVID-19
URI will increase the surveillance COVID-19 testing for the semester. All students attending face-to-face classes or studying remotely but living in Rhode Island will be required to test every other week at the Memorial Union, Kingston Campus, or the Providence Campus, Shepard Building. Students living outside of the state and not coming to campus will be exempt from testing. There is no fee/cost for testing. This is intended to identify asymptomatic students who are unaware they are infectious and to limit outbreaks. We will be sending further instructions about how to register for your bi-weekly testing in e-Campus shortly.
Students who have tested positive within the last 90 days will NOT be required to participate in the surveillance testing and should provide those results to Health Services via the patient portal if testing was conducted off campus. Please follow the instructions above titled How to provide your results to URI Health Services to upload your positive test results in the patient portal. If you tested positive at an on-campus test site, you do not need to upload your test results. After 90 days from a positive test result, students will be required to participate in bi-weekly surveillance testing.
COVID-19 Vaccine
We are awaiting updated information from the Rhode Island Department of Health regarding the availability of vaccines for our community. We will share more information as it becomes available. Presently, the vaccine will not be mandatory for students.
#Rhodytogether
Thank you for your commitment to making the spring semester successful! All of us, working together, will help keep our community safe and healthy. Please treat each other with respect, follow the health and safety guidelines, and reach out if you need assistance.