Voluntary Return of Classes to Campus
Dear Faculty Member:
From the beginning, we have consistently stated that we will be guided by science
and the latest health guidelines in deciding how we can continue our classes and work
safely. Poor turn around times in test results and community spread in Shelby County
compelled us to limit on-ground instruction at the beginning of this semester as the
first stage in our phased return. Fortunately, tests are now readily available for
our students, faculty and staff, testing result times have markedly improved and the
rate of infection in Shelby County has noticeably decreased, with current trends sustained
for the past three weeks. Most importantly, our experience with the students, faculty
and staff on our campus since March and again since the beginning of this semester
have shown that our efforts to maintain a safe environment for our work and learning
are demonstrating some early signs of success.
We will continue to monitor each of those trends carefully, but the positive trajectory
at the moment makes it reasonable to explore the possibility of voluntarily returning
more of our classes to hybrid or fully face-to-face meetings in the next phase of
re-opening. Our current target date would be September 14. If you would like to return
some or all your class meetings to our campus and can do so within the current safety
guidelines regarding class size, please let your chair or dean know.
We will be asking the colleges to send us a list of classes that would like to return
in this next phase of re-opening by the end of this week with the information about
the rooms, meeting times and class sizes. This will be a phased and gradual return.
We are not yet sure that we will be able to accommodate all requests in this next
phase, but we will do our best to accommodate as many as possible. We will then monitor
the success of this next phase and the conditions in the community and then move to
the next phase in a couple of weeks after that if things continue to go well.
Please be assured that the return of classes will be voluntary this semester. We will
continue to monitor key safety indicators and make any necessary adjustments to enable
as much face-to-face teaching as we can while still maintaining the safety of our
students, faculty and staff as our highest priority.
Regards,
Dr. Tom Nenon
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost