CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) INFORMATION
To ensure the health and safety of our community, Trinity Florida continues to closely monitor the surge of the COVID-19 Delta variant. We will provide timely and useful information as it becomes available.
TIU-Florida has established a COVID-19 Taskforce to guide and monitor safety protocols for Trinity Florida classrooms, offices, and events. University protocols will follow the best advice of health care officials and the Centers for Disease Control, with special attention to the CDC’s guidance for colleges and universities:
CDC: How to Protect Yourself and Others
CDC: Guidance for Institutions of Higher Education
Effective August 19, 2021, Trinity updated its classroom and office protocols for the 2021–2022 academic year. We will keep these protocols in place only as long as necessary.
Current Classroom and Office Protocols:
With proper safety precautions in place and in accordance with COVID-19 Task Force recommendations, TIU-Florida has opened classrooms and also makes remote learning available due to health concerns.
In the classrooms of TIU-Florida and during university-sponsored events, all students, faculty, and staff are required to wear face masks in accordance with CDC guidelines, until further notice. This policy includes those who are fully vaccinated.
Everyone must wear CDC-recommended face masks covering the mouth and nose and maintain a distance of six feet from other members of the community, according to CDC guidelines:
CDC Selection and Care of Masks
TIU-Florida will accommodate those who are unable to return to the classrooms or offices because of illness, medical necessity, or health concerns for themselves or their families.
All students, faculty, and staff have the responsibility to avoid community transmission.Any student, staff, or faculty member who experiences symptoms of viral infection should not come to the offices or classrooms but should self-isolate and consult medical professionals regarding testing and treatment.
Symptoms of COVID-19 may include fever, coughing, shortness of breath, muscle aches, headaches, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, among other indicators. Consult the CDC guidelines: CDC – Symptoms and Self-Checker.
If any member of the TIU-Florida community has a confirmed case of COVID-19, they should contact TIU-Florida immediately so that other members of the community can be informed, contact tracing can be established, and work and classroom spaces can be disinfected.
If you are experiencing symptoms, after contacting your primary care physician, please notify Trinity’s Health Services through the Student COVID-19 Screening Form or the Employee COVID-19 Screening Form.
TIU-Florida will assist with contact tracing, and immediately inform members of the community who have come in contact with the infected person, while maintaining the privacy of the infected person.
AUGUST 19, 2021: COVID POLICY UPDATE
Dear Trinity Community,
In the State of Florida, over 42,000 residents have died from Covid-19 out of a total of 3 million people infected with the disease. Recently, the positivity rate (the percentage of those tested whose results were positive) was 14.5% in Miami-Dade and 21% in Broward. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists both Miami-Dade and Broward Counties as locations of “High” level community transmission.
At Trinity Florida, we are committed to following the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as a Christian university, to heed the evidence-based findings and recommendations of healthcare professionals.
Because of our love for every member of the community, TIU-Florida is committed to the safety of students, faculty, staff, and visitors. Love compels us to seek and support the welfare of each person in the Trinity family. At the same time, TIU-Florida is committed to the fulfillment of the mission of the University to “educate men and women to engage in God’s redemptive work in the world by cultivating academic excellence, Christian faithfulness, and lifelong learning.” Trinity Florida seeks to fulfill that mission in the context of loving community.
In light of this, TIU-Florida strongly encourages every member of the community to become vaccinated. Vaccine-hesitant persons should consult with their healthcare professional and read the CDC information about vaccine safety and efficacy.
CDC: Key Things to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines
TIU-Florida highly recommends attending classes in person whenever that option is available. For those who are unable to attend class in person because of health concerns, the professors will make courses available online via Zoom and will support class instruction with Trinity Florida’s learning management system, Canvas. All classes will be synchronous—both in-person and online class sessions will be live and not on-demand.
And remember, not all carriers of the coronavirus are symptomatic. Even fully vaccinated persons can be carriers of the disease who can, in turn, infect others. If an unvaccinated member of the Trinity Florida community has been exposed to the coronavirus, they should self-quarantine and seek to be tested.
If you are experiencing symptoms, after contacting your primary care physician, please notify Trinity’s Health Services through the Student COVID-19 Screening Form or the Employee COVID-19 Screening Form.
At Trinity Florida, we desire each person in our community to be committed to abiding by these policies and caring for their neighbors by acting responsibly to protect the health and well-being of others (fellow students, staff, faculty, and guests).
The COVID-19 Taskforce will monitor the spread of the coronavirus, periodically review recommendations from healthcare officials, and modify these protocols as necessary.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have.
In Christ,
COVID-19 Taskforce