To the Temple community,

This week, the city of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health released new guidance regarding COVID-19 safety protocols. Over the next couple of days, university leadership will meet with city officials to determine how the new guidelines should be applied to institutions of higher education.

Specifically, the new guidelines call for the removal of the city’s indoor mask mandate, though that is more complicated at Temple University for several reasons including that many of our students have been traveling this week for spring break.

Out of an abundance of caution, the university will still require the use of masks inside buildings when we return to campus next week. We will continue to monitor both case counts and positivity rates following our return to campus, and then will re-evaluate mask requirements. The university will pull from a number of resources in making its decision including advice regarding best health practices from the president's health advisory group. Please stay tuned for updates in the days to come.

Thank you again for all that you do to help keep our Temple and Philadelphia communities safe. I wish you well as spring break comes to a close.

Sincerely,

Mark Denys
Senior Director, Health Services