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Spring 2021 Semester: Updates & Evolving Approach
Dear Students, Faculty, Staff:
A few key elements of the spring semester are coming into clearer focus:
- The Spring 2021 course schedule is now available on Self-Service, and priority registration begins next Monday, November 9.
- Later today, undergraduate students will receive a separate email outlining our now-expanded on-campus housing plans for Spring 2021 and providing details about how and when to apply for housing. (Information about the opportunity for undergraduate students to apply for a limited number of spots allowing non-resident students to commute to campus in the spring is forthcoming later this month.)
- An initial list of optional, in-person supplemental programming opportunities for Spring 2021 is available here. Many of these opportunities are experiential learning activities connected to specific spring courses.
Our commitment remains to increase on-campus engagement as much as we can while maintaining the health and safety of all students, faculty, and staff. While we understand that COVID-19 cases continue to surge globally, nationally, and regionally, we are committed to planning proactively for incremental reopening as conditions allow. Our expanding COVID-19 testing capacities make it possible for us to regularly test everyone approved to live, study, or work on campus. We are confident in Arcadia community members’ willingness to follow health and safety guidelines. Based on conditions on the ground, we will rigorously monitor and regulate the number of undergraduates living on campus, graduate and undergraduate students commuting to campus, and faculty/staff regularly working on campus.
Given these conditions, we expect to add to our on-campus engagement plans so long as we can do so safely. While the Spring 2021 course schedule currently available on Self-Service indicates that all undergraduate and non-clinical graduate instruction will be fully online, in the days and weeks ahead, we expect a limited number of courses to adopt All-Modes Ready approaches (where students living on campus and approved commuters also in the COVID-19 testing regime attend in person while other students attend remotely). Similarly, we expect that the list of optional, in-person supplemental programming opportunities to grow in the weeks ahead.
Thank you for your patience and persistence as our plans for the Spring 2021 semester evolve in response to the vital goals of increasing on-campus engagement and maintaining the health and safety of all students, faculty, and staff.
Sincerely,
Jeff Rutenbeck
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs