Temple University is asking students who leave Philadelphia over fall break to not return to the city until the spring semester begins on Jan. 19, 2021, wrote Mark Denys, director of Student Health Services, in an email to students Friday evening.
Any student who plans to return to Temple’s campus before Jan. 19 is expected to comply with city and state requirements for travelers, according to the announcement. These requirements include getting tested for COVID-19 in the three days before returning to Philadelphia and quarantining until a negative result is received.
Students returning to campus must upload their negative COVID-19 test result to Temple’s student health portal or quarantine for 14 days after arriving to Philadelphia before returning to campus.
Failure to follow these guidelines could be counted as a violation of the Student Code of Conduct, which could result in losing access to buildings on campus or other sanctions, according to the announcement.
“Let me be clear — these are not recommendations, they are requirements of the commonwealth,” Denys wrote in the announcement.
Temple will only offer COVID-19 testing on campus for students who are symptomatic or have been in close contact with a positive case from Nov. 30 until the start of the spring semester, according to the announcement.
The announcement came one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged people to not travel for Thanksgiving as COVID-19 cases across the nation surge, with the death toll topping 250,000.
Temple ended in-person instruction Friday, and courses will be taught virtually for the remainder of the semester to prevent students from spreading COVID-19 in the Temple community as they travel for fall break, The Temple News reported.
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