Same Campus but New Campus Life

In order to comply with the COVID-19 Fall 2021 entry protocols, all LSU students will need to provide one of the following items prior to arriving on campus for the Fall 2021 semester:

• Proof of a negative COVID-19 test result no more than 5 days prior to your arrival on campus
• Proof of COVID-19 vaccination
• Proof of a positive COVID-19 test result no more than 90 days prior to your arrival on campus

Any student who tests positive for COVID-19 during this process should report their positive test in LSU’s Daily Symptom Checker and should isolate at home according to LSU’s COVID-19 protocols.

To show compliance with LSU’s entry protocols, students must access the Fall 2021 COVID-19 Entry Test Verification Portal and upload appropriate documentation. Documentation should be complete, legible, and meet the time periods detailed above for test results. Students will receive a confirmation email, which they should keep and be prepared to show upon arrival to campus.

Even if students have already filled out LSU’s vaccine reporting survey, they still need to complete the verification portal, because the two systems ask for different information.

Students moving into on-campus residence halls and apartments must complete this process before move-in day. On-campus residents will be expected to show their confirmation e-mail to Residential Life staff at their time of arrival to proceed with their move-in.

Students, faculty, and staff, as well as all visitors, are required to wear a face covering (a “mask”) at all times, in any public area of the LSU Law Center or LSU campus. That is the policy of the LSU Law Center, and is currently a Louisiana state mandate by Proclamation of the Governor of Louisiana. This small measure will assist all of us in remaining safer by slowing the spread of COVID-19, which will make it more likely that we can remain in our classes in the building this year. In addition, as chief officer of the Law Center, Dean Lockridge has made it the policy of the Law Center to implement fully the use of face coverings in all public spaces in the Law Center.

Everyone should bring their own masks to campus. A limited number of disposable masks will be available at the main entrance during the opening week of the fall semester to assist in the transition back to school.

Courses have been assigned to the largest rooms possible to accommodate social distancing. Students should spread themselves out as much as possible in the classroom. Furniture in the student lounge remains rearranged and at reduced capacity to allow consumption of food and beverage (which is allowed in the student lounge only). The The Law Library has instituted different seating protocols as well as traffic flows and has installed plexiglass barriers in some areas. Some furniture has been removed from hallways and other public spaces. In sum, physical distancing will be observed in a variety of ways; in addition, as noted in another answer above, students, faculty, and staff, will wear a face covering over the nose, mouth, and chin.

Yes. Continuing the requirements of the last academic year, faculty, staff, and students will use the TIGER Check COVID-19 Monitoring System to help slow the spread and protect the campus community from this virus. The LSU community will be required to self-monitor their symptoms daily, and faculty, staff, and students will then respond to a daily symptom check request that will be sent via text message or can be accessed through a web-based application. The daily symptom checker requires respondents to take a one- to two-minute assessment of their symptoms. Once respondents have provided limited information, they will be provided with feedback.

Get more details about the TIGER Check COVID-19 Monitoring System.

LSU has published a COVID-19 Protocol Based on Testing, Reported Symptoms, and/or Exposure. IF you test positive or are in close contact with someone with COVID-19 you should not come to campus again until you have been in isolation or quarantine (as applicable) as directed in that protocol.

If you test positive or are required to quarantine after a close contact, you should do two things. First, you MUST fill out the LSU Law Center form to report your positive test or contact to Law Center administration. AFTER completing the Law Center form, you should email your professors and copy Associate Dean Carroll, providing the details of the isolation or quarantine period and requesting to view class recordings during isolation or quarantine to prevent you from falling behind. Note that viewing class recordings does NOT substitute as class attendance, and you remain subject to the Law Center’s attendance policy. If you exceed absences after a COVID isolation or quarantine period, you should address your situation with Associate Dean Carroll immediately.

Second, if you test positive OR you are exposed to someone with COVID-19, you are required to notify LSU. You should indicate that you have received a positive COVID-19 test result in the Daily Symptom Checker.

View the TIGER Check COVID-19 Monitoring System.

View the COVID-19 Protocol.

Definition of Close Contact:

• You were within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more.
• You provided care at home to someone who is sick with COVID-19.
• You had direct physical contact with the person (hugged or kissed them).
• You shared eating or drinking utensils.
• They sneezed, coughed, or somehow got respiratory droplets on you.

Yes, you do. This is part of what must happen for this community to continue to operate. The information will not be further disclosed to others.

Review the campus guidance, which explains what individuals on campus are required to do if they test positive—whether faculty, staff, or students. We are, of course, limited in how we can manage public health and safety by individual cooperation with our policies—meaning if a student does not disclose a positive test, we will not know and cannot react. Your classmates, your faculty, and all of the staff are relying on each of you to disclose a positive diagnosis if it occurs.

Unvaccinated individuals will quarantine for 10 days after a close contact, unless they receive a positive test, at which point they will move to isolation. Vaccinated individuals should physically distance, mask and test at the time of notification of exposure and 5-7 days later, as per the recommendations of the Louisiana Department of Health. If testing is not done, individuals must quarantine for 10 days.

In general, “close contact” requires being within 6 feet of someone (which includes being in the same car, for example). And in most cases, it requires that distance be maintained for more than 15 minutes—although it also includes direct or near-direct contact (hugging, kissing, sharing eating or drinking utensils, and being directly sneezed/coughed on with droplets making contact with you).

Persons sitting next directly next to you in any in-person class—in any direction—will be your close contacts here at the Law Center (immediately neighboring you in any direction).

As a result of the required process of disclosing a positive diagnosis to LSU through the automated system, “close contacts” will also be requested—the persons to be identified through this process should only be persons associated with LSU, not family members or friends unaffiliated with LSU. LSU will not be notifying non-LSU community members for whom it has no contact information. See LSU’s COVID-19 protocols for more information.

Although LSU is implementing a broad range of health and safety measures to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within the campus community, it is impossible to guarantee that there will not be an increase in the infection rate. For that reason, we might at some point have to modify our current plans, whether for a significant outbreak or in the event that new federal, state, or local regulations require us to modify our plans. Barring a significant and widespread outbreak, vaccination, testing, isolation, and quarantine protocols that are being implemented to help mitigate the spread of the virus will be enacted as planned.

We rely on everyone who returns to campus to follow all protocols at all times. The plans we have put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 in our community rely on all members of our community complying with the practices we are implementing.

If a student does not wear a mask to class, the faculty member will dismiss the student from class to retrieve a mask from the student’s car, locker, or (if available) the vending machine. In some cases, the faculty member may be able to refer the student to another location in the building where a disposable mask is available. If the student refuses to wear a mask properly or at all or to leave the classroom, the faculty member is instructed to call the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs immediately before proceeding with class. The Assistant Dean will come to the classroom to speak with the noncompliant student. If necessary, the Assistant Dean will then call LSU Police to remove the student from class.

Note that the LSU Law faculty also revised the Code of Student Professional Responsibility. In addition to the fact that “student misconduct” is not limited by the enumerated items, a new item “p.” has been added to create a clear violation of the Code for “Knowingly and intentionally failing or refusing to comply with any LSU Law Center policy relating to the public health of students, faculty, or employees of the LSU Law Center.” Students not complying with Law Center policies related to public health will face disciplinary proceedings.

High capacity in-room HEPA filtration units are being added to each classroom. Classrooms, the library, and the student lounge, will be stocked with individual sanitizing wipes for students to use on desk & table surfaces and chair arms before and after use, and hand sanitizer will also be readily available. All faculty and staff will be engaging in the same daily self-screening measures as students, and they are subject to the same general public health measures as students.

The Student Health Center is available to all full-time Law students. This is part of the student health fee you have paid.

Website: lsu.edu/shc

Service Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Medical Clinic Phone: 225-578-6716

Free COVID-19 testing is available on campus. Click here for more information on locations and hours of operation.

Free COVID-19 vaccinations are also available on campus. Click here for more information on location and hours of operations.

The Student Health Center is offering telehealth in all areas and other services onsite, by appointment (In order to ensure proper screening and limit exposure, the Medical Clinic is not accepting walk-ins at this time.) Students without appointments should call one of the units as soon as a health issue arises. Contact information and other details can be found the LSU Student Health Center website.

Effective May 10, 2021, the LSU Student Health Center (SHC) has partnered with LSU Healthcare Network and is now “in-network” with most major US-based insurance plans, including Louisiana Medicaid. Students are now able to conveniently use their insurance benefits at the SHC. Detailed billing information can be found here.

A COVID-19 vaccination will always be free, regardless of your insurance status.

Coverage for treatment for illness by private insurance will vary by insurance plan, treatment received, etc.

Remember that although we have only one entrance that is open—the East Plaza sliding doors—you may exit the building through any exterior door. Please feel free to exit out the nearest door after your classes are over for the morning or the afternoon—no need to traverse the building to exit the sliding doors.

No. We are committed to providing the same high-quality education you chose when you selected the LSU Law Center for your education, and you still have the high-quality faculty you would have had if 100% of your courses had been able to be in-person courses. In addition, whether this is your first, second, or third year with us—the degree toward which you are working remains that of the state’s flagship Law Center. We do not sacrifice quality because of the pandemic.

Tuition and fees were announced and fee bills posted and paid with knowledge of the Law Center’s plans for Fall 2021, as well as with knowledge of the uncertain situation in which we all find ourselves due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The costs of a legal education are primarily human-resource costs; those costs that are not fixed are growing with increased technology use or with the need for additional measures to provide for the safer use of the library and other public spaces, including to provide the limited number of in-person courses we can provide with lowered occupancy levels in place due to COVID-19. While our costs have been rising in recent years, including due to the pandemic, we have—knowing that costs are important to our students—worked hard to keep our tuition low. In fact, the tuition at the LSU Law Center has remained the same for the past several years.

Even though some of you may have periods of remote instruction this academic year, we will still maintain support services for you, including research assistance in the library, career services support, academic advising for 2Ls and 3Ls upon time for registration, student affairs, our advocacy programs, faculty in-person and online office hours, and much more. We also will still maintain the buildings and facilities and will still pay the faculty who are delivering instruction and the employees who are providing all these services to you. Your tuition and fees make this possible.

We realize that costs are an important issue to everyone—especially right now when all of us are feeling the effects of the pandemic. We continue to pledge to do everything we can to keep our costs down and our quality high.

For information on financial aid, visit: https://www.lsu.edu/financialaid/index.php.

The Law Library is open during the fall 2021 semester. Law Library hours are available here.

The Law Library has put in place several policies to help limit transmission of the virus. Please be mindful of these policies, which must be followed whenever you are using the Law Library.

1. Masks are required in the Law Library at all times.
2. Individual seating in the library has been marked at six-foot intervals. Since our chairs are largely on rollers, we ask that you maintain this distance to ensure that your classmates remain safe.
3. Please do not move chairs from their designated location to other locations.
4. Eating is prohibited in the library. Drinking is allowed in covered spill-proof or capped containers. Eating and drinking are allowed in the Student Lounge on the second floor of the Law Center across from CC’s, and in outdoor spaces.
5. Group Study Rooms are available for use. You must have at least two people in your group to use a study room, and at least two people must be present at the time of checking out the room and present in the room during the reservation period. Two members of the study group must leave a current student ID to check out a study room key, and they must return the key at the end of the period for which they have reserved the room.
6. The Law Library will provide reference services remotely. If you need assistance with research or finding materials, please email (lawreference@lsu.edu), call (225-578-4042), or contact us via chat using this page.