We are almost there! Thanks to your spectacular efforts, we were able to successfully finish our in-person portion of the semester. I have never been as proud of our students as I have this fall. Your determination and resilience have repeatedly inspired me as, together, we have faced the challenges this pandemic has sent our way.
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.
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."
Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Students,
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.
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.
You have heard news about other universities, such as the University of North Carolina, shutting down residential classes. How can we avoid that here?
This will not be your typical welcome-back-to-campus letter. I will address a number of practical issues, like calendars, schedules, courses, and housing. But I need to talk to you right up front about what we will need from you in order to welcome you back to campus and to keep our campus open for the residential experience we all cherish.
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.
We miss you and are looking forward to welcoming you back to class online on Monday. Like the rest of our world and country, Bloomington has changed a lot since you left. I write today to give you critical information about Indiana University’s and the State of Indiana’s attempts to flatten the curve of the pandemic, and to provide important information about academics and how you can keep learning online.
I know you are all in shock about the rapid movement to a state of national emergency and a declared global pandemic in the short period since you left campus. Your lives have changed so dramatically so quickly, and your country is facing the largest crisis in your, or even my, lifetime.
