Frequently Asked Questions

• Masks are encouraged but not required in all healthcare and clinical spaces except during sick visits, as well as other high-risk settings, effective May 11.
• Masks continue to be required based on CDC guidance for those who are experiencing symptoms, who have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 10 days or who have been exposed to COVID-19 within the past 10 days.
• KN95 and surgical masks are available on campus through UD’s Environmental Health and Safety Department, in the Perkins Student Center and Trabant University Center.

The University will provide initial KN95 masks to each person through the Environmental Health and Safety Department. 

• Students living in the residence halls will receive the masks through their residence halls. 
• Students living off-campus can pick up masks at the distribution points listed below.  
  Distribution points: Morris Library, Carpenter Sports Building, Perkins Student Center, Trabant University Center, STAR Health Science Complex (North entrance)
• On-campus employees will receive the masks through their departments. 

Individuals are free to wear masks they have procured as well. They are readily available online and in many local retailers. KN95 masks, while disposable, are designed to be worn multiple times safely; they can be used for a week before disposal, unless they are damaged or soiled.

Employee units should submit a single COVID Prevention Supply Order form per unit to the UD Office of Environmental Health and Safety to procure KN95 masks at the department level. KN95 masks are also readily available online and in many local retailers. 

For those who forgot their mask or their mask becomes unusable, single KN95 masks and surgical style masks are available at the following locations: 

• Morris Library
• Carpenter Sports Building
• Perkins Student Center
• Trabant University Center
• STAR Health Science Complex (North entrance)

More info on KN95s can be found on UD's Environmental Health & Safety website.

• If possible, wash or sanitize your hands immediately before and after putting your KN95 on and immediately before and after taking it off when planning to reuse it.
• Unfold your mask and flatten the metal nose clip.
• Place the mask over your face, with the bottom below your chin and the nosepiece up.
• Place the straps of the mask over each ear.
• Adjust the metal nose clip using fingers from both hands to mold the clip to the shape of your nose.
• Adjust fit as necessary to reduce air flow around the edges of the mask.
• Significant facial hair (more than 3-days growth) adversely affects the ability of the KN95 to form a tight seal around your face, and thus reduces the KN95’s effectiveness at protecting you from COVID-19. Therefore, parts of your face that come in contact with the KN95 should be free of significant facial hair.
• KN95s should not be worn in a lab setting with a potential for a fire hazard or work with pyrophorics.  EHS has flame-retardant fabric masks available for those who work with these materials.  If you wear a flame-retardant lab coat, you should be wearing a flame-retardant mask as well.
• If you wear glasses and find fogging to be a nuisance, ensure you have a proper seal at the nosepiece. You can also wash your lenses with soapy water and shake off the excess before putting on your mask (wipe off nose piece to minimize skin irritation).

More info on KN95s can be found on UD's Environmental Health & Safety website.

You should replace your KN95 when it:

• Becomes soiled

• No longer covers the nose and mouth

• Has stretched out or has damaged ties or straps

• Cannot stay on the face

• Has holes or tears in the fabric

A KN95 may be disposed of in the normal trash.

More info on KN95s can be found on UD's Environmental Health & Safety website.

Individuals, especially students living on campus, are strongly encouraged to get tested 24 hours before their arrival or return to campus. If you test positive, you must isolate for five days before coming to campus. 

In accordance with guidance from the CDC and Delaware Division of Public Health, individuals who test positive for COVID-19 are required to isolate for five full days, plus wear a mask for five additional days. Use the CDC’s Isolation Calendar Calculator for assistance. 

• Students who test positive for COVID-19 at any point during the semester should upload their test results to the UD Health Portal and follow the isolation guidelines. Students in the residence halls will be expected to isolate at their home residence. 

• Employees who test positive for COVID-19 should follow the isolation guidelines above. 

Individuals who are exposed to someone with COVID-19 no longer need to quarantine, based on new CDC guidance. All individuals with a COVID-19 exposure, regardless of vaccination status, must wear a mask for 10 days, get tested five days after exposure, and monitor for symptoms for 10 days. 

Students who feel sick may contact Student Health Services. 

Staff and students are also encouraged to continue utilizing the university-provided rapid antigen tests. There is no cost for these tests and they are readily available at designated locations on campus.

As of June 5, 2023, students will no longer be required to receive the COVID-19 primary vaccine and boosters. UD strongly recommends that all students, faculty, and staff remain up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccination as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Particularly, all students, faculty, and staff are highly encouraged to receive a bivalent COVID-19 booster.

Individuals who are immunocompromised should consult their healthcare provider for vaccine recommendations.

COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are available for students at Student Health Services. Information about COVID-19 vaccine sites near campus is available at vaccines.gov.

Individuals who are immunocompromised should consult their healthcare provider for recommendations.

Students can contact the Center for Counseling & Student Development at (302) 831-2141 or (302) 831-1001 for after-hours emergencies. Faculty and staff may contact the Employee Assistance Program within Human Resources at (302) 831-2171 and/or their health care provider. 

Yes, hand sanitizer dispensers are strategically located at entrances and exits across the campus, and in other high-traffic areas.

The Delaware Division of Public Health will no longer conduct routine contact tracing of individuals who test positive for COVID-19 unless there is a significant threat to others. The University will cooperate and may assist the Division of Public Health as needed. It is recommended that positive cases conduct their own contact tracing by informing close contacts of exposure. The identity of positive cases should continue to remain confidential unless self-identified. 

If you receive a call from (302) 446-4262, or your caller ID says “DE PUBLICHEALTH”, that is a representative from the Delaware Contact Tracing Program calling to give you important information about your health. Please answer the call and take the time to speak with the contact tracers.

An individual who has been within 6 feet for a total of 15 minutes or more within 2 days prior to illness onset of a COVID-19 positive individual, regardless of masking status. 

If a student is ill or must stay home due to isolation restrictions, the student should contact the instructor to work out an arrangement to make up the work. Instructors need to provide assistance to help students keep up with the content of the course. For example, UDIT has enabled all centrally scheduled classrooms to connect to Zoom, including a connection point for an instructor’s laptop to the in-room document camera. Instructors in centrally scheduled classrooms will be able to make Zoom recordings of their class session to post in Canvas or request UD Capture service for their classes.

To ensure compliance with FERPA, Zoom recordings that include the names or images of students in the class should only be shared with students enrolled in the same section of the class. UD Capture does not record student images, only an instructor’s laptop or document camera and audio in the room. As a courtesy, please notify students that your course is being recorded. As an alternative to providing recordings of lectures, instructors could provide copies of their PowerPoint slides and lecture notes.

UD Student Centers, the Library and some classrooms are available either by reserving a space online or by dropping in. 

The Student Centers have spaces available either by reserving space via their website or using available common spaces. Common spaces in Perkins Student Center are the Scrounge, East Lounge, West Lounge, lower-level seating, concourse seating, 3rd-floor conference table. Common spaces in Trabant are Daughterty Hall, Trabant Lounge, 2nd-floor seating, the food court and lower-level seating.

The Morris Library, using the Reserve a Seat form.

Students may take more than 2 UD online courses per semester without submitting a waiver. https://catalog.udel.edu/content.php?catoid=29&navoid=3555#online-course-enrollment-rules

Standard grading and academic policies are in place.

Yes. Faculty members will be available for office hours. Some faculty will hold in-person office hours for students to meet with them.  Others will hold virtual office hours for their students. Some may have a mixture of in-person and virtual office hours. Whether office hours are in-person or virtual, the office hours are provided as a time when students can ask questions and get help from their instructors. 

During your time as a Blue Hen, you may be presented with the opportunity to enroll in online or hybrid classes. 

Synchronous classes are facilitated online, but you still meet “live” with your instructor and classmates during the designated times in your class schedule. Asynchronous classes are facilitated online without a scheduled meeting time with your instructor and classmates. Asynchronous learning allows you to engage with the course materials during times that are most convenient for your schedule. 

In Courses Search, online courses are designated as “ONLINE” in the location details. Synchronous online courses will display the days and times the class will meet; asynchronous classes are designated as “ASYN” in the day details. In WebReg, you will see “ONLINE” in the schedule field if the course is online. Those that are synchronous will have specific days and times listed as well. Those that are asynchronous will state “ASYN ONLINE.” Once registered, synchronous courses will appear in the calendar view. Asynchronous courses will only appear in the list of courses and not on the calendar view.  

Students who need accommodations due to underlying medical conditions or disabilities must work with the Office of Disability Support Services.

Study abroad programs are still being held. Students who are currently abroad should continue to adhere to the travel policies in place at the beginning of their international travel program.

For the most up to date information about study abroad programs and policies, visit the Study Abroad webpage and Study Abroad COVID FAQ webpage.

Yes, students may take up to two consecutive semesters but you must apply for the leave of absence each semester separately. For more information, visit: http://www1.udel.edu/registrar/policies-procedures/withdr-la-timeoff.html. 

All undergraduate students who apply for admission for Fall 2023 will be considered without submitting SAT or ACT scores. UD graduate programs have a decentralized admissions process, so individual graduate programs have their own admissions and test requirements. All program admissions requirements are available on each individual Graduate Program details webpage, under “Program Admission Requirements”. Please contact the Program contact listed on this webpage to follow up about any testing requirement questions.

While the delivery of courses may be different, the University is committed to maintaining the high quality of instruction that students expect from UD to earn their degree. UD’s distinguished faculty continue to teach these courses, and the course curricula continue to prioritize the learning outcomes that faculty have established. In fact, the cost for online instruction is actually higher, reflecting the expense of computer equipment, software, instructional technology expertise and other needs. UD has invested significantly in education technology over the summer to ensure that students can continue their academic progress and graduate on time; those higher costs are not being passed on to students.

The University’s in-state tuition rate is lower due to the financial support provided by Delaware taxpayers. UD receives an annual operating appropriation from the state of Delaware, most of which is used to reduce the cost of tuition for Delaware-resident students. This is an investment that the state is making in the University every year to support resident students. This is the same tuition model that is used by publicly supported universities nationwide.

The differential fee reflects the significant investment that the University has made and continues to make in faculty expertise, enhanced technology and other resources in those disciplines to optimize student outcomes. Students in those programs continue to benefit from those investments, both during their time at UD and in the labor market after graduation.

Yes, residence halls are open and operating at full capacity.

The University does not require post-travel testing or quarantine. 

Shuttle buses are operating at full capacity. All riders are required to wear masks. Please use the DoubleMap bus tracker to track all active buses. http://udshuttle.doublemap.com/map

Guided and self-guided tours are now available through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Both have limited capacity and require registration—found at udel.edu/visitUD. Virtual tours are also available on the Visit UD page.

Students in residence halls are encouraged to isolate at their home residence. Those who are unable to return home will isolate at an identified space at their on-campus residence; effective June 5, 2023, no isolation housing will be available to students. 

If the University is required to close due to a COVID outbreak resulting in the closing of the residence halls, necessary account adjustments will be made at that time.

Residential Dining Halls Pencader Dining Hall, CR (Caesar Rodney Fresh Food Company) and Russell Dining Hall are open featuring dine in or to go options.  Our retail locations include Trabant Food Court, Perkins Student Center and coffee shops and P.O.D. markets are open across campus.  Our retail locations use the Grubhub mobile ordering, so download the app and link your UD One Card before placing your first retail order on campus.  Visit www.udel.edu/dining to find locations, hours of operations, menus, meal plan information, health & wellness, sustainability, contact information, dining FAQs and more.  To stay up to date on you can follow us on instagram @DiningUD.

To help you make a decision on dining options across campus, you can view the occupancy of the Caesar Rodney Fresh Food Company online and Pencader Dining Hall online, as well as near their main entrances. Dining Services has partnered with Density, a real-time people counting solution, to provide this information to the campus community.

All students living in a traditional on-campus residence hall will be required to purchase one of the available on-campus Weekly meal plans and were automatically assigned and billed for the 14 Weekly plan. Students can choose to keep the 14 Weekly or change their plan to another Weekly meal plan. Students who will be living off campus or in University Courtyard, One Easton and family housing are not required to purchase a meal plan, but still have the option to sign up for one. Meal plan add-ons for all meal plan holders will also be available from off-campus partners’ Good Uncle, for food delivery on and off campus, and Home Chef, for cook-at-home meal kits. To learn more about meal plans, you can visit www.udel.edu/dining/mealplans.

Dining Services will have several safe solutions available. Our chefs and registered dietitian are trained and eager to assist with any concerns you may have. You should connect with Debbi Miller, R.D., L.D.N., by email at dml@udel.edu to learn more about the dining options that fit your needs.

Yes, the Student Centers are fully operational.

More information is available at https://sites.udel.edu/usc/. 

Faculty and staff are highly encouraged to be up-to-date on vaccinations, including the bivalent booster. 

No, the policy will not change. Supervisors are encouraged to work with their employees to identify flexible work arrangements as needed. 

UD travel for research, scholarship and creative activities have resumed. 

Students and faculty who are currently abroad should continue to adhere to the travel policies in place at the beginning of their international travel program.

On May 21, 2021, UD launched Phase 4 of research operations. Phase 4 allows for all on-campus research to be permitted, including undergraduate research, computational research, in-person human subjects research, and extension/outreach activities. No application is required.  Please note that shuttered buildings/facilities need to be approved for reopening before personnel can enter.

UD is committed to supporting its employees’ overall health and wellbeing and provides all employees and their families a number of benefits to meet the diverse needs.  Consult the resources below to assist in the adjustment to working from home, returning to work, tele-health options, as well as cope with the broader realities of the pandemic, create new family experiences and maintain optimal emotional wellbeing.  

• Working at UD
• UD Health Telehealth Options
• Employee Health and Wellbeing Offerings
  • Customized Department Programs
  • Fit for Life and Virtual Fitness Programs
  • Purposeful Mobile App
• UD Mental Health Resources
• Employee Assistance Program/Health Advocate

Email Wellbeing@udel.edu or call 302-831-8388 to learn more about any of the programs and services offered above.