One Emerson: Halloween, Decorating Contest, and Thanks

Hi,

Three scary things this Halloween:

• COVID case numbers have gone up significantly over the past few weeks, not just around the country and world, but here in Massachusetts and Boston. The number of positive COVID test results in Massachusetts over the past week have been higher than they’ve been since early May.
• It’s getting colder and darker, so we’re spending more time indoors, where respiratory droplets are more confined and physical distancing is more challenging.
• People (everywhere) are experiencing pandemic fatigue and may be starting to get careless with safety guidelines … and it’s also that point in the term where a lot of us here are tired and stressed.

The combination of those things is a potential perfect storm for the coronavirus. So while I love Halloween as much as many of you, please stay safe and do not get lax about face coverings, physical distancing, and hand hygiene now.

As a reminder, the City of Boston has specifically asked that people not gather for Halloween.

Another (spooky) motivation…

The CDC recently expanded its definition of a “close contact” for the purposes of contact tracing. That means more people may have to quarantine after exposure to a COVID-positive person. And that means that someone who is exposed to the virus over the next week or so may be at risk for not being able to go home for Thanksgiving because they are doing their two-week quarantine here.

If you don’t want to be quarantining over the long weekend, don’t risk it!

Halloween Decorating Contest!

The Campus Life Student Outreach Team is sponsoring a Halloween Door Decorating Contest. If you don’t have a door you can use, a decorated room, corner, or nook is also fair game (especially for off-campus students).

Submit a pic or two of your decoration creation by this Monday, November 2, at 9:00 am, to be considered for one of our gift card prizes. Consideration will be given to both on-campus and off-campus students. We’ll highlight the winning rooms on the Campus Life Instagram.

An Invitation and Raffle

The students behind the “Keep Positive, Stay Negative” posters have asked me to share the below. While they communicate a little differently than I would, I have appreciated the gist of their messages and am sharing this on their behalf:

New IG for Emerson Campus Life

Find these emails long? Wish we communicated more via social media?

We’ve just launched a Campus Life Instagram account specifically for students: @emersoncampuslife. The College’s main IG account does a great job of communicating with its various audiences – students, prospective students, families, employees, alums, Board members, donors, the world at large.

This new IG is just for you, our students, both so that we can share info, services, and resources, and so we can highlight you, your orgs, and all the cool stuff that’s happening around campus. We’re just getting started, but envision it as the account students will follow for critical info and for seeing the life of the campus reflected back at you.

Follow us there … and maybe you won’t have to read these long emails.

And a Halloween Thank You

President Pelton and Emerson’s Board of Trustees have sponsored a small gift of candy to thank you for being so great about staying safe and keeping our COVID numbers low so far. Halloween sprites are delivering a bag to each res hall room or suite, and off-campus students can pick one up in 172 Tremont, Room 102, TODAY from 10:00 am-2:00 pm or in the Campus Life suite at Walker 411 today or early next week (while supplies last!).

These last two months have undoubtedly been very hard, but as a community we have done better than many predicted. That is a direct result of everyone doing their part and doing the difficult work of adapting to this “new normal,” for which I am very grateful.

Jim Hoppe,
Vice President and Dean for Campus Life