Message to Undergraduates: Getting Ready for Fall

To Our Undergraduates:

Between the housing lottery and fall course registration, many of you may be thinking about the next academic year.

So are we.

We cannot wait to have you back on campus in August. We want to see you on sidewalks and in classes, on Freiberger Field and in the Tink. Your presence always brings energy to the university, and inspires optimism among us all.

But given the disruption of this semester, you may be wary about what comes next.

Several states, including Ohio, plan to allow people to begin to return to work next month. A few others are lifting their orders this week. Yet the news also includes warnings about “second waves” of the coronavirus, and the inevitable renewal of restrictions for affected areas.

Is it too much to expect a typical semester, where major stresses involve academics instead of infections?

We hope not.

More, we are doing everything we can to help ensure that you have a full campus experience this fall.

As always, health and safety come first. But we will learn a great deal from bringing people back to work next month, and glean additional knowledge from housing students over the summer.

Our preparations for both are well underway. We are collaborating with hospital partners and others to secure supplies such as test kits, hand sanitizer, masks and more. We are looking at new approaches to class schedules, student activities and health services. And, rest assured, we have engaged infectious disease experts on our faculty to help inform key decisions.

Researchers warn that COVID-19 could be with us for some time to come. But we also have enormous faith in the collective efforts of scientists, health care providers and public health officials tackling this virus around the world. We see progress in our own laboratories, and in the exceptional efforts of other faculty and students.

We all want you to have a safe and healthy autumn here at Case Western Reserve. And between then and now, we will work tirelessly to make it happen.

We cannot wait to see you back on campus.

Barbara R. Snyder
President

Ben Vinson III
Provost and Executive Vice President