Gathering in the same room for the first in-person broadcast discussion of COVID-19 policies in many months, Provost David Kotz ’86 and Executive Vice President Rick Mills spoke about supporting in-person education while maintaining health and safety as Dartmouth lifts most mask and testing mandates.

In a Q&A recorded yesterday in Dartmouth Library’s Starr Studio, Kotz and Mills, who lead the COVID-19 response team, talk with Vice President for Communications Justin Anderson, stressing that although protocols have been relaxed, KN95 masks and take-home rapid antigen tests are widely available on campus for all.

They also urge community members to be considerate of those who may request that they mask up.

Mills says he understands that rising case counts and changes to the frequency of updates to the COVID-19 dashboard concern some in the community. The good news is that cases at Dartmouth have, for the most part, been mild. The team will continue to monitor the situation.

The consternation of some, “just reflects the struggle that we all have as humans navigating this pandemic, and the fact that what we thought we knew six months ago is no longer what we know today and trying to calibrate where we should be. It’s a completely understandable response, and I think we’re doing our best to navigate that,” Mills says.