WaMPS has been working on thinking about what access needs look like in order to fully support our communities. Reinholz & Ridgeway have a quote discussing access needs:
“A core issue at the heart of disability justice is the notion of access. A space can be considered accessible if it provides individuals with everything that they need to fully participate in the space or activity (Sins Invalid, 2019). [emphasis added] Commonly, accessibility is thought of in terms of ASL interpretation, wheelchair accessibility, or screen reader compatibility. Other access needs might include an opportunity to stand up and stretch (rather than stay seated for hours at a time), access to gender-neutral restrooms, eating during a meeting, accessible language, breaks between meetings, having participants raise their hands before speaking, or adequate childcare support.”
- Reinholz & Ridgeway, 2021, pg 3
For our Events & Weekly Gathering Spaces (WGS), we ask the participants take the following actions:
Participants will NOT attend events if they are feeling COVID symptoms.
A list of fully symptoms can be found here:https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html
If you are experiencing the following (shown in list below), please seek medical attention immediately.WaMPS highly encourages masks at our events, but does not require them.
WaMPS encourages participants to please use the sanitization tools that we will provide at our events such at
Hand sanitizer
Proper food handling measures (e.g., food tongs, gloves, etc.)
In the event that someone tests positive for COVID who attended these spaces, we ask you to follow this protocol:
If a participant tests positive for COVID or learns about a first-degree exposure of COVID to said participant, we hope that you fill out our anonymous survey.
Only the WaMPS President will have access to the response(s) of the survey, and they will first start using this information to cross-check the attendance of the space
Once the WaMPS President confirms the participant was at the event/WGS, the President will follow a protocol to determine the best course of action based on the following criteria:
If the following criteria have been met, the WaMPS President will email all participants to inform them of their exposure. No personal information will be shared.
Afterwards, the anonymous survey response will be discarded from the database so to ensure personal identifying information from this form will not be shared with the participants, organizers, and other WaMPS officers.
We highly suggest and request that after the 5 days of self isolation, the participant wears a mask if attending a WaMPS event or WGS during the 5 days following isolation.
For our Events/Weekly Gathering Spaces, our officers will be providing the following:
Face Masks
Hand sanitizer
Proper food handling utensils
These spaces will be designed to be hybrid if possible and to the best of our abilities
You may also read our full WaMPS COVID Policies here. We have aligned our COVID policies with MSU guidelines as a student organization on this campus. These MSU guidelines can be found here:
MSU Guidelines: https://msu.edu/together-we-will/covid19-guidance/
MSU COVID FAQs: https://msu.edu/together-we-will/faqs/?utm_source=community-letter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=students
In addition, the WaMPS officers believe that the best guidelines are informed by current scientific research. While we recognize that MSU guidelines may not always be aligned with most up-to-date knowledge, as a Registered Student Organization (RSO) we are committed to honoring MSU guidelines. Please be aware that our policies may be altered to account for access needs changing as COVID variants change and the Ingham county risk level change.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns about our COVID policies, please feel free to reach out to us through any of these means: email any WaMPS officer OR fill out the suggestion box.