Dear UMPI Community,

My thanks to all of our students, as well as members of our faculty and staff, who have participated in our past two rounds of asymptomatic corona-19 testing.  This baseline testing has confirmed the success of our Safe Return plans and, more importantly, illustrates your continuing dedication to our ethics of care as an UMPI community.

As of this second week of classes, over 13,000 tests were conducted throughout the University of Maine System.  Through these tests, universities identified 13 cases of infection that may have otherwise gone undetected.  Here at UMPI our known test results have not produced any positive cases of COVID-19.

Over the next few days, the University of Maine System, in consultation with campus testing leaders and University scientists, will finalize plans for Phase 3 surveillance and monitoring through Thanksgiving-break.  Sampling will be the primary means for determining the level of infection without our communities, which means the random testing of a percentage of students, faculty, and staff who participate in on-campus activities.  The results from these tests will help us to measure the impact of our strategies and determine any changes we might need to make to keep our campus safe.

We anticipate asking approximately ten percent of our on-campus student, staff, and faculty population to participate in random sampling that will occur every ten days until the Thanksgiving holiday.  We expect to be reaching out with testing invitations for the first round of sampling in the next few days.

Thank you all for your continued care and vigilance as we work to ensure a safe environment for everyone here at UMPI!

Ray