December 15, 2020
Addressing the Caregiving Crisis
In the midst of a global pandemic that grows more deadly by the day, we are facing a crisis of care. In its breadth and scope, it has been unprecedented.
Faculty and Staff Communications
December 7, 2020
Thank you for your outstanding work
I write to thank you all, on behalf of our students in particular, for the outstanding work you have done during this past semester.
October 14, 2020
Staying #IUStrong
I write to express my profound gratitude to our students, staff, and faculty for the significant work, diligence, and sacrifice that have allowed us to cross the midpoint of our semester. Kudos to all of you for your resilience.
September 22, 2020
On Mitigation Testing
At this stage in the COVID-19 pandemic, we hear certain words and phrases with so much regularity -- "unprecedented," "6 feet apart," "superspreader event" -- that our brains can start to tune them out. Here's one that we as a campus simply cannot afford to ignore: "mitigation testing."
September 8, 2020
On Gratitude
Indiana University Bloomington is a miracle in ordinary times. These are not ordinary times, and as we begin our third week, I write, on behalf of President McRobbie, our trustees, and myself, to thank the entire IU Bloomington community for the “millions of things [that have] come together” to reanimate our community.
August 21, 2020
New City Executive Order
Will we keep the pandemic under control in Bloomington or not?
That’s an urgent question, as tens of thousands of new and returning students join city residents and the Indiana University community in Bloomington. Our behavior over the next days and weeks will determine the answer.
August 17, 2020
Pandemic Mitigation Steps at IU Bloomington Changes to Campus Recreational Sports
With a week to go until the beginning of the semester, I write to thank everyone on the campus for the extraordinary work that getting to this fall has entailed. You and our students have been receiving ongoing information about COVID mitigation every Friday by email for the past month, at the fall2020.iu.edu website, and through a series of webinars that have spanned the summer. Since the beginning, our focus has been on meeting the unique challenges presented by bringing students from across the country and around the world to campus during a global pandemic.
June 26, 2020
Changes to Campus Recreational Sports
In order to keep our campus safe, we will need to lower the number of people in the recreational sports facilities, including the Student Recreational Sports Center, Garrett Fieldhouse, Woodlawn Field and Track, Woodlawn Tennis Courts, SRSC Tennis Courts and the Sembower Recreational Sports Field Complex.
June 15, 2020
Updates on Fall 2020
I write with a series of updates for our faculty and staff. When I wrote several weeks ago, I noted both how critical the university’s work is to our country and the difficulty of trying to fulfill our mission of teaching, research, and service in the disassembled state that we have been in.
June 12, 2020
Faculty Town Hall
Viewers with an IU login can wacth the archived video of the June 12 faculty town hall with Provost Robel. This town hall was co-sponsored by the Bloomingtion Faculty Council.
May 27, 2020
Never Daunted
We took our campus apart in March. Now we begin to put it back together. Can we do so in a way that honors the academic values of Indiana University: honest debate, transparent discussion, critical thought, ethical behavior, and a belief in the power of education? In a pandemic that has become dishearteningly partisan, can we develop a vocabulary to discuss what is at stake and consider the actual alternatives we have? We must.
May 1, 2020
Reopening Campus
President McRobbie wrote this week to describe the university structure through which Indiana University will determine how to return to its campuses in light of the public health challenges we face. I write today to describe how the Bloomington campus is approaching this issue, and how our campus structure articulates with the university structure.
March 26, 2020
Flatten the Curve and Carry On
On Monday, we begin teaching again. I am supremely grateful to every person who is teaching this semester for the tremendous thought you are giving to how to do this as well as we can, from all of the myriad of ways we engage in instruction. I write to update you on a number of developments since my last message.
March 16, 2020
Brave New World
Let me begin by thanking you for your grace and professionalism in the face of the anxiety and uncertaity caused by this national emergency and global pandemic. I know we are all shocked at how quickly this has unfolded, and we are grieving for a lot, including the loss of personal contact with our students and colleagues.