Instructors will not be informed of their students’ positive COVID-19 test results or vaccination statuses, according to a Friday update on the Duke Flexible Teaching website.
“Vaccination information is being gathered and managed by Student Health for all students (undergraduate, graduate, professional, inter-institutional),” the update reads. It explains that like all health records, vaccination status is confidential and cannot be shared with anyone, including faculty members.
Faculty and staff are also prohibited from requesting vaccination information from students.
COVID-19 test results are also considered health records, so instructors will not be notified if students in their classes test positive. If a student or professor is deemed a “close contact” of someone with the COVID-19 virus, a contact tracer will call that individual with instructions for next steps to take.
If a contact-traced individual is fully vaccinated, they will be required to undergo surveillance testing, according to the update. If an unvaccinated individual is determined to be a “close contact,” they will be sent to quarantine for 10 days.
Masks are required in all Duke-owned buildings, and as of Friday, more than 90% of students and employees [had] been fully vaccinated. Furthermore, the University’s surveillance testing program has been used as a “national model,” the update notes.
Duke recommends that instructors with immunocompromised or unvaccinated family members consider options including participating in voluntary surveillance testing, double masking, holding office hours virtually or outdoors and meeting with department chairs to “discuss alternative methods for holding faculty meetings and other gatherings.”
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Madeleine Berger is a Trinity senior and an editor at large of The Chronicle's 119th volume.