I have only been president of Edgewood College for a couple of weeks, and the chances are pretty good that you and I have not yet met. While I am new to Edgewood College, I am not new to higher education, and I know what everyone went through during the spring semester under the Safer-at-Home order that essentially shut down the State of Wisconsin. When this unprecedented order from the Governor required us to convert our entire curriculum to an online format in a matter of days, the faculty and staff rallied to make it happen, and they deserve our sincerest thanks for that. You students deserve our thanks too, for the flexibility and patience you showed during the months of March, April, and May. In the end, we all came together to make sure that your educational needs were met and progress toward your goals was maintained.

One thing we learned is that we, as a community, really want to be together in-person rather than at home getting our education online. So, that is what we’re going to do this fall. The challenge for us is to bring us back together while doing everything we reasonably can to keep our students, faculty and staff safe. A task force working on our reopening plans for fall has been developing protocols for safety on campus that we’re all going to have to follow until a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 is developed. I’ll describe those expectations below, but first, let me get right to the things most of you are wondering about: semester calendar, class schedule, and course modality.

The following decisions have been made about fall reopening:

Calendar

• Classes will begin Wednesday, August 19, as originally scheduled.
• The last day for class meetings will be November 24, the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. Faculty and staff offices will remain open well into December as originally scheduled, but no classes will meet in-person after Thanksgiving.
• Final exams or projects will be conducted remotely and will be completed by Friday, December 11.
• There will be no long weekends during the fall semester. The semester will include 14 Mondays, 14 Tuesdays, 14 Wednesdays, 14 Thursdays, and 14 Fridays for class meetings, and two weeks for remote final experiences. There is no Fall Break for 2020.

Schedule

• The schedule will conform to the original schedule of courses, with courses lasting the full length of the semester (unless normally scheduled for a shorter time). Most students will not need to re-register for classes, although some locations may change to allow for social distancing. You'll be notified of any changes to your schedule.

Modality

• All courses normally taught in-person and face-to-face will be delivered in a “high-flex” format. This means that students will have the ability to participate either in-person or remotely for all meetings of all course sections. For the purpose of social distancing, students may be required to attend some class meetings remotely.
• Faculty may teach in-person or remotely, and may schedule their particular course meetings accordingly.
• Students may choose to take all of their courses remotely if they are concerned about the spread of COVID-19 to themselves or to someone they live with. Instructors will make every effort to make the remote experience similar to the in-person experience.
• Courses will have meeting times and content commensurate with the number of credits for which they are scheduled.
• All courses normally scheduled to meet in a face-to-face format will include regularly scheduled synchronous meetings, even if the faculty member is teaching remotely. (That is, these courses will not be delivered in an asynchronous fully-online format.)
• Laboratory safety protocols will adhere at a minimum to those of non-lab classes.
• Performance, ensembles, and other courses or experiences where rapid expulsion of breath in an enclosed space is anticipated and the wearing of masks is not feasible may require additional safety protocols, to be developed on a case-by-case basis.
• Off-campus clinical experiences will be arranged by the academic departments requiring them, adhering to College safety protocols to the extent possible.
• Courses will be scheduled so as to permit six-foot social distancing. This means some classes may split the class so that some students meet in-person and the rest meet remotely, with the students alternating from meeting to meeting.
• Grading will be standard format (i.e., A, B, C, etc.).
• Considerations about athletics, residence life, dining, and other non-curricular matters are being handled by the appropriate areas of the College, and you will receive information about those things throughout the summer.
• An underlying assumption to everything we do this fall is that students will be held harmless from any changes made to the curriculum for fall 2020. This means that the College will assess no additional fees if cost of delivery is increased (for example, if additional lab or art supplies are needed). Further, if a course is canceled during the fall due to safety concerns, and because of that cancelation a student is short of credits needed to graduate or lacks a graduation requirement in May 2021, that requirement will be waived for that student.

As mentioned earlier, in order to do everything we can to keep all of our community as safe as possible, the Edgewood College community will adhere to a number of safety protocols during the fall semester as a way of minimizing risk of the spread of COVID-19. These protocols are based on guidelines provided by Dane County.

As is true today, all persons returning to campus agree to adhere to safety protocols established by the College. These will include:

• All persons are required to wear a mask covering their nose and mouth while in indoor spaces in the presence of others.
• All persons will use disinfectant wipes to clean shared public work spaces prior to use.
• All persons will take reasonable precautions to avoid contracting COVID-19 at all times.
• All persons agree to avoid public places and minimize interpersonal contacts if they have symptoms of any illness.
• If and when health officials dictate, all persons agree to be tested for COVID-19 if selected at random or selected because of the onset of symptoms.
• All persons returning to campus agree to allow the College to use and share relevant medical and other personal information if they test positive for COVID-19, permitting the College to share the information as needed in order to effectively reduce the spread of the virus.
• All teaching and other indoor public spaces will be arranged physically, and scheduled, so as to allow for so-called “social distancing” of six feet.
• Faculty and staff may choose to continue to work remotely.
• Students may choose to learn remotely.
• Other protocols to be determined.
• Other steps currently being considered by the task force include travel disclosure of all returning students, providing for temperature monitoring, providing COVID-19 testing on campus, new hygiene protocols in residence halls, and others.

General Expectations

• Every reasonable effort will be made to accommodate students who miss classes for health reasons. Students experiencing symptom of any illness SHOULD NOT attend class in person.
• The College will make every reasonable effort to assure that students have access to technology to support the delivery of high-flex courses.
• A webpage dedicated to COVID-19-related issues and the opening of campus this fall is online, and is updated regularly. Please make yourself familiar with it.
• All faculty and staff will make a special effort to be available to students, even if working remotely. It is likely that many instructors will hold scheduled and appointment office hours virtually.
• Everyone will be cooperative and flexible as we work together to support one another and give our students the best balance of learning and safety.

Fall of 2020 will bring back the in-person experience that is such an important part of Edgewood College. It is important to recognize, though, that we are not yet back to “normal.” Until a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 is discovered, we will need to adjust to smaller gatherings, wearing masks, more vigilant cleaning, and generally looking out for one another. Fortunately for us at Edgewood College, community is one of our core values and so we are better prepared to come together as a community to beat this thing than most other schools. I recognize that we have a lot of work to do, and I know that this community is up to the challenge.

Communication will be important, and I hope everyone will keep the communication channels open. You will be hearing from me and from others at the College throughout the summer. If you have any immediate questions that we may assist you with, please reach out to my colleague Dr. Heather Harbach, V.P. for Student Development/Dean of Students at deanofstudents@edgewood.edu.

You will be notified if there are any changes to the schedule you have already registered for. We will continue to provide specific information to new students, returning students, residential students, and fall student athletes. In the meantime, enjoy your summer and stay healthy.

Cor ad cor loquitur.