March 7, 2022 

Dear Campus Community:

After ongoing consultation with VCPH and our Environmental Health & Safety team, and in accordance with updated CDC, CDPH, and Cal/OSHA guidance, the indoor mask requirement at CSUCI and its affiliated locations (Channel Islands Boating Center, Santa Rosa Island Research Station, and Goleta instructional site) will be suspended effective Monday, March 14. This decision is based on the principles that have guided our campus response throughout the pandemic: 1) utilizing available data to inform decisions; and 2) exceeding baseline public health recommendations.

Local, state, and federal public health agencies agree that indoor masking mandates can be lifted when a county is in the “medium” or “low” incidence and risk levels. To have our public health agencies in full alignment is such a welcome development, indicating shared clarity on the status of the pandemic that we had not yet seen. This congruence supports confidence in decision making and in decisions made. Ventura County has been at the “low” COVID-19 level since March 1, using the CDC’s updated metrics and COVID-19 County Check. Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Counties are also at “low” status. Our March 14 date aligns well with CDPH’s guidance that K-12 suspend their mask requirement after March 11.

We still strongly recommend that masks continue to be worn indoors, and we will expect unquestioned support for each person’s choice - as caution is still necessary for those members of our campus community who are in a high-risk category for severe disease or if they live with someone who is immunocompromised or young children who are not eligible to be vaccinated. Masks will still be available on the campus.

CSUCI will continue to enforce our vaccination requirement, and those who have an approved exemption will still be required to test weekly. On-campus testing will continue to be available to all employees and students throughout the semester. Centralized campus reporting, associated data collection, and contact tracing protocols will continue to be in effect, as well.

Additionally, we are in the process of updating the University’s Event Guidelines and Protocols to coincide with this updated mask information and will provide the new event guidelines to the campus very soon.

If there is one lesson that we’ve learned throughout the course of this pandemic is that conditions are fluid and can change rapidly. As such, we will continue to monitor key data points with diligence and continue with our ongoing consultation with VCPH to proactively adapt to changing conditions as deemed necessary. If you have questions, please reach out to csuci.news@csuci.edu.

Sincerely,
Richard Yao, Ph.D.
President

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