Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we will have special health and safety procedures in place for the 2021 face-to-face courses:

• If vaccines are readily available by May 2021, all students, faculty and employees at IUGFS will be required to provide proof of having received a vaccine or a positive antibody test that makes the vaccine unnecessary;
• Anybody who is feeling sick or has a fever the week before a course starts will not be allowed to attend the course;
• IUGFS will be a relatively “closed campus” to minimize interaction between people in the courses and the general public. We will absolutely strive to minimize interaction between the people associated with the courses and the general public for the first two weeks of the courses.  We will then reassess the risks of more interaction depending on what is happening at IUGFS and in the surrounding communities;
• Dormitories and dining facilities will be set up for proper social distancing while sleeping and eating. Face masks may be required while in vehicles and classroom settings.  Social distancing procedures will be implemented in all other locations, including the field.
• We will designate two of the dormitory buildings as infirmaries, one male and one female, where anybody who is sick will need to be isolated. Depending on the circumstances immediately prior to the start of the IUGFS courses we may decide to have a full-time nurse present at the field station;
• We will reassess and revise these health and safety measures closer the start of the face-to-face courses. They may get more or less strict depending on the overall situation in the US, SW Montana and the locations course participants are coming from.