Congratulations on reaching the end of the academic year.
The virtual celebrations we held last week weren’t our traditional Commencement ceremonies, but they were something totally their own: meaningful, jubilant, and a wonderful way to bring our community together to honor the Class of 2020. We hope you’ll all join us in congratulating the graduates, and also in thanking all those who worked so hard to make the events successful. We look forward to presenting their degrees—in person—when we’re able to do so.
Now it is time to shift our full attention to the new academic year, and we’d like to share our plans, principles, and next steps with you.
First, to be very clear, our plan is to resume in-person instruction on all three of our campuses for a full fall semester.
We expect guidance from the state in the next few weeks, and we will reopen in compliance with all state and federal health and safety guidelines and pursuant to the recommendations of medical experts. That will likely include requirements for reducing density, ensuring social distance, and wearing face coverings. This is in line with
recommendations of the reopening task force
put together by CICU, the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in New York. Additionally, we are asking faculty to prepare to teach both in-person and remotely, so that we are prepared for all possibilities, including that some students may prefer not to return to campus immediately or that others might need to self-isolate for certain periods of time. Depending on guidance from the state, we may start the semester earlier than planned. But in all cases, education at Pace will continue.
Our priority as we move forward is the health and safety of everyone in our community. We will take all necessary measures to ensure that we are operating in a safe environment and complying with federal, state, and local safety guidelines. We’ll have policies in place for testing and tracing. We are equally committed to preserving the quality of the academic experience we offer and keeping our students on track to achieve their educational goals. Faculty are pursuing opportunities for additional training on remote teaching, so that we can continue to offer our courses with the same content and rigor remotely as we do in-person. Our student support offices have been delivering their services virtually. The Office of Residential Life and Housing is giving careful thought to how to maintain a vibrant campus community even in a changed world. The Facilities team is developing plans to increase cleaning frequency and manage the flow of people on campus to preserve distance. Across the University, we’ll be prepared come fall to teach, work, and serve our students, no matter what format is required.
There are many hard decisions still to be made about exactly what our return will look like. We know it will be different from before, and we also know we’ll remain true to our mission of
Opportunitas
.
It’s time for us to move into a new stage of planning.
For the last three months, our COVID-19 Task Force has ably led the University through a series of unprecedented decisions as we have responded to the extraordinary circumstances we're now living in. Working in concert with existing University structures and constituents, the Task Force and its subgroups have determined and enacted policies for our move to remote learning, living, and working, our cleaning and safety protocols, and much else. More recently, the Task Force has been working with other University bodies to consider options for our operations this summer and fall, and to lay the groundwork for the eventual reopening. I hope you’re as appreciative of their work as we are.
This week, we'll be adding a new subgroup to the Task Force, the Fall Reopening Community Group, composed of administrators, faculty, staff, and students representing the full breadth of the Pace Community.
The Fall Reopening Community Group will advise the full Task Force as it develops our Fall Reopening Plan over the coming weeks, ensuring that it both complies with state directives and reflects the needs of our full Pace Community. We expect the Fall Reopening Plan will be complete and ready to share with you in mid-June. Ultimately, the Board of Trustees will approve the plan.
These last few months have been challenging. The coming months will be very different than what has come before. But throughout this period, we’ve continually been inspired by the strength, resilience, and dedication of the Pace Community. Thank you, all of you, for everything you’ve done to keep our University thriving even in changed times. Thank you for what you’ll do to keep us moving forward. We’ll all keep working on these plans through the summer, we’ll keep working on enrollment and retention, and we’ll continue all the Town Calls, Community Briefings, and other virtual meetings to keep everyone up to date.
We both know that we’ll be back in the fall, as One Strong Pace, continuing to create opportunities for our students.
We look forward to sharing detailed plans with you soon.
