Recommendations from Student Life

Last Updated August 19, 2022

During the pandemic, Moody students and staff have approached this season with grace and vigor, supporting one another as we continue to live on mission and equip men and women to proclaim the gospel. We will continue to update our protocols for on-campus students and staff, as we continue in our commitment to provide students and employees with a safe and healthy learning and work environment.

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Table of Contents:

Our Community Commitment

Chicago Campus

Michigan Campus

Spokane Campus

Our Community Commitment

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In developing our COVID-19 mitigation protocols, we have used guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago, our growing experience over the past years, and our trust in God’s guidance through continued prayer. We will closely monitor the emerging research, as well as public health guidance, and revisit our COVID mitigation protocols as changes are warranted.

It is important to understand that the Moody Bible Institute’s COVID mitigation protocols:

• Are not an expression of political belief by the Institute.
• Are not flowing out of a spirit of fear. We continue to move forward in prayer and trust that it is God who will watch over us and keep us safe.
• Are not intended to marginalize students who are unable to or have chosen not to be vaccinated.

The expectations outlined below and in our FAQ align with the guidance given by the CDC, and they comply with an executive order issued by the governor of Illinois and public health order issued by the city of Chicago.

If you have questions or concerns related to COVID-19 matters, please direct your email accordingly:

• Students, please email covidstudentlife@moody.edu
• Employees, please email hresources@moody.edu
• Faculty, please email doug.murphy@moody.edu

Chicago Campus Student Intentions Form

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Chicago Campus Housing Intentions & Preferences Form

Do you plan to be on-campus? Let us know how you will be attending classes before the semester starts. We want to plan well to support our student body, as students continue to live on-campus or commute and study through the Hyflex format off-campus. All students are required to fill out the Housing Intentions Form.

Fill out the Form

Chicago Campus Vaccination Policy

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Moody Bible Institute will continue to encourage its students, staff, and faculty to get the Covid-19 vaccine, yet we will continue to give the responsibility of decision making whether to get vaccinated to each individual within our community.

Chicago Campus Sick Student Protocol

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Moody Bible Institute is a place that generates social engagement with many different people, and given how prevalent the virus is, it can be difficult to identify the source and place of infection. Often someone contracts the virus off campus. In addition, the latest CDC guidance recommends limiting contact tracing to hospitals and high-risk group-living situations such as nursing homes. As a result, Moody Bible Institute will discontinue on-campus COVID-19 reporting and contact tracing.

Those who test positive for COVID-19 should visit the CDC’s website for the most up-to-date instructions on quarantine, isolation and safety measures.

For students living on-campus who test positive for COVID-19, the following is our sick student care Protocol:

1. Positive students will be required to quarantine in their room, off campus, or at home for five days (if quarantining in your room and a roommate is present, it is expected that you mask as much as possible for the safety of your roommate) and mask for additional five days as prescribed by the CDC.
2. Students should contact their RA and people on their floor to arrange a meal drop-off schedule.  Friends from the floor may go to the SDR and bring a meal back to the quarantining student.
3. Students with moderate to severe cases of Covid-19 should contact Health Service so that we can determine how to best provide support and also should seek medical attention.  On the fifth day after symptoms began, there is still moderate to severe symptoms, students will continue to quarantine for 10 days.
4. Sick students will be expected to initiate contact with the people that they have been in contact with since a day before the onset of symptoms.

 

Close Contact Protocol (Roommates and others exposed to someone with Covid)

1. Sick students who test positive for Covid are responsible for contacting those who have been in contact with since the day before the onset of symptoms.
2. Close contacts (including roommates), per CDC guidance, are not required to quarantine, but rather must wear a mask for 10 days and test through a local pharmacy or Care provider on day five after exposure.
3. If symptoms develop, or if a close contact tests positive, they will quarantine as directed through the Sick Student Care Protocol.

 

Roommates of Sick Students

1. Because the quarantine of sick students will occur within the student’s own residence hall room, Dryer Hall is no longer open to house sick students.
2. Roommates of sick students should mask as much as possible in their room for their own health safety.
3. Roommates of students who are high risk or do not feel comfortable with a symptomatic student quarantining in their room should contact the Dean of Student Care and Concern about other living options during the quarantine period.
4. Other living alternatives a roommate of a symptomatic student may choose include
   1. Staying in the room of a friend on the floor
   2. Staying at a friend’s place off campus.
   3. Moving back home.
   4. Moving into a hotel room.

 

Any roommates choosing to the above should contact his/her RA and the Dean of Student Care and Concern to inform them of your alternative living arrangement.

Chicago Campus Testing

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Testing will be provided for Chicago residential students through Health Service for those who are symptomatic. Tests may be obtained by going to the Chicago Health Service Office on ASC 2 (molecular rapid test by medical staff or antigen self-test kits to be available through ResLife front desks on weekends).

Due to the increased accessibility to at-home tests and the State of Illinois rescinding the testing mandate, Moody Bible Institute will not offer on-campus testing through Northwestern Medicine on Culbertson 1, and community members will no longer be required to test weekly.

If you begin to feel sick, use the CDC’s self-checker and get tested as soon as possible.

Chicago Campus Mask Policy

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Wearing a mask indoors is encouraged but not required. The Centers for Disease Control have issued a masking recommendation based on the level of community spread. Moody will continue to monitor the community spread in Chicago and Cook County and align its masking with CDC recommendations for community levels of spread. Individual students, staff and faculty can choose to wear a CDC-recommended high quality mask, regardless of the community level of spread. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, Moody Bible Institute invested in installing more hand sanitizer stations throughout campus. This improvement will remain in place for the academic year.

The MBI community should also be mindful and wash their hands often, cover their coughs and sneezes, disinfect high-touch surfaces, and monitor their health daily, staying home if they feel unwell.

Thank you for continuing to respect one another as we seek to provide a more normal residential experience while still keeping our community healthy. It remains important for everyone at Moody to monitor yourself for COVID-19 symptoms, test when you feel sick and stay home to avoid exposing others if you are sick. The Institute will continue to monitor the situation, review guidelines from Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the CDC, consult with on-campus stakeholders, and make adjustments as needed.

Spokane Campus

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Visit the State of Washington website for updates at https://coronavirus.wa.gov/.

CDC guidelines, along with state and county guidelines, will continue to be monitored