NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College athletic department announced changes to its fan policy for winter sports as the college continues to monitor the Omicron variant during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this week, the college announced that the vast majority of classes over Interim will be conducted remotely, meaning that most students will not be returning to campus for Interim. However, in-season student-athletes competing in varsity sports will be among the limited number of students on campus and teams will continue to compete during the month of January under the current plan.

All students, faculty, and staff who will be living, working, or attending classes on campus during Interim must participate in two rounds of baseline testing in January. Student-athletes will also be tested three times per week for the remainder of Interim and will be expected to follow all campus policies as they relate to masking.

Beginning the week of Dec. 27 and extending through the weekend of Feb. 5-6, a limited number of fans will be permitted to attend St. Olaf home events in the sports of men's and women's basketball, men's hockey and women's hockey, and men's and women's swimming and diving. Unfortunately, due to venue limitations and the large number of competing athletes, coaches, and officials, no fans will be permitted to attend the two home indoor track and field meets during January.

For events where fans are permitted, each student-athlete, coach, and manager from each competing team will be permitted two guests, with the limit being on the total number of fans at a venue, rather than a cap of two guests per student-athlete. Guest names will be submitted via a pass list in advance of the competition. Additionally, St. Olaf students who are on campus for Interim will be permitted to attend games. All fans will be required to wear a mask at all times per Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) policy.

This policy applies only to St. Olaf on-campus home events and does not apply to competitions at other institutions or competitions that occur at other sites (i.e. alpine and Nordic skiing). Any attendance policy for those competitions is at the discretion of the host institution or venue.

St. Olaf will revisit its fan policy after Interim with the hope that fans are able to attend home on-campus competitions following the weekend of Feb. 5-6.