In an email sent to the Pomona College community on Monday, Jan. 26, Dean Avis Hinkson announced multiple updates to the college’s COVID-19 policy in accordance with new guidelines issued by Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
The guidelines reflect updates to the recommended isolation period for asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals. Although students are still required to test if symptomatic and to isolate if that test is positive, they are now able to leave isolation on day two if they do not have a fever and have not used any fever-reducing medication for 24 hours.
Students who are asymptomatic are not required to be isolated, although all students are required to wear a mask in public for 10 days following a positive test.
The email also notified students that rapid test kits are available at Student Health Services (SHS) during regular business hours and at any time of day from the Campus Safety Office. However, PCR tests are no longer available from campus vending machines.
The implementation of these new policies on campus followed a recent increase in COVID-19 cases nationwide and in LA County.
According to Patricia Vest, Pomona’s senior director of communications, the college drafted these new guidelines after SHS briefed student deans about the new LA County Public Health Department guidelines.
“For years, Pomona’s approach has been to align with county public health guidance,” Vest said in an email to TSL. “In this case, Pomona’s senior leadership discussed the matter and determined that aligning with the county and state was an appropriate path.”
Although no other college received an email about an updated policy, SHS explained that the Claremont Colleges work very closely with each other when responding to COVID-19 issues and that there are usually only minor differences between their policies.
SHS further explained that these differences are largely a result of the varying needs and goals of each college.
“There are slight variations in implementation efforts across the consortium, mainly attributed to each campus’s unique culture and the home institution’s desire to best respond to the needs of its campus community,” SHS wrote in a statement sent to TSL.
SHS also said that campus policies almost always align with LA County’s guidelines, adding that there are sometimes exceptions based on the needs of the campus community. SHS suggested that, more often than not, COVID-19 policies at the 5Cs are stricter than they are off-campus.
“The campuses may exceed standards in some cases but remain in compliance with the provided guidance,” they said.
Stella Fang PO ’26, who has had COVID-19 twice while attending Pomona, stated that Pomona’s attempts to follow LA County Public Health’s Guidelines are thoughtful but do not make much sense in terms of public safety.
She also expressed that, in her experience, SHS has been inflexible and inconsistent with COVID-19 treatment.
“By the time I had been at Pomona, I had already had COVID[-19] for multiple days,” she said. “They were basing [the isolation] off of the day that I tested positive and that gestational period even though that gestational period was shorter for me because I had already had it.”
In her opinion, the most important thing for the college to do at this point is to have accessible tests. Without them, she believes the updates in Pomona’s COVID-19 guidelines will only lead to an uptick in cases.
“I think getting rid of their testing vending machines makes it really inconvenient for students to test,” she said. “It disincentivizes students from testing — now, the only site is at the campus security center, which is completely off-campus.”
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