We will also use this as an opportunity to weave into the conversations many of the questions we have been hearing. The deadline for student training has been extended to Friday, Aug. 28. Dear William & Mary Faculty, Staff & Students. It will be updated on the, Week of August 3 Continuing students can make changes to their schedule based on updated course offerings and modalities. It is critical that you avoid interactions with others, maintaining at least 6 feet of physical distance and wearing your face covering. These categories will be added in Banner as class attributes by July 15. The correct time frame is between 36-72 hours of receipt of the test kit by the lab. I wish you all the best as you finish your classes and exams and prepare for a well-deserved break in just a few weeks. We anticipate bringing sophomores, juniors and seniors back to campus in early September. Residence halls will not reopen this semester. The Commencement Committee will send additional, detailed communications in the coming weeks to degree candidates and families. In an email to you Aug. 21, Dean of Students Marjorie Thomas reiterated the importance of the Healthy Together Community Commitment. The use of remote proctoring does not diminish, in any way, the Honor Code or students pledge to uphold it. On June 12, 2020 William & Mary released its planning process for the coming semester the Path Forward: Fall 2020. Additionally, we will have the capability of scheduling meetings with students remotely via phone or Zoom. Other measures being taken to mitigate risks as students and employees return to campus this fall will be discussed at a community Town Hall scheduled for July 20. This includes events sponsored by any recognized student organization and other affiliated groups. And I see this same resilience in my students this week.. Cognitively: studying together speeds and deepens learning in myriad ways. Back-to-School Quotes for Teachers 21. Based on these discussions, I write to share the following answers to the most frequently asked questions. Affirmation of the Healthy Together Community Commitment is required for anyone who will be living, learning, and working on campus this fall. Testing is an important part of the multiple strategies W&M uses to safeguard the health of students and employees by reducing transmission on campus. Remember that we are in this together -- all W&M offices are "open" and we are here for you., Virginia M. Ambler, PhDVice President for Student AffairsWilliam & Mary. Please note that these will once again be COVID-19 PCR nasal swab tests, the same as Round 2 of testing and current prevalence testing. forced to try different methods to see what worked best for them and for their students. Recognizing that the health landscape continues to evolve, a robust testing effort allows us to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 on campus among students and employees, and to track campus trends relative to those locally, within Virginia and nationally. In the weeks since the beginning of the pandemic, campus leadership has been engaged in two main efforts emergency management and adaptation adjusting academic, administrative and staff operations to safeguard the health of the community in an ongoing way. Group Gatherings. $3.50. Completion of the training program must occur by Monday, Aug. 24. All that is needed is a computer with the Chrome browser, a working webcam & microphone, and a stable Internet connection. With added pandemic pressure, grades are bound to slip. The universitys Path Forward: Fall 2020 lays out our commitment to highly engaged and close connections between teachers and students; that commitment underpins the effort to return to in-person experiences as appropriate under pandemic conditions. We are managing returning student room change requests as we can. We have always enforced violations of our codes affecting the university community, from the nations oldest student-led honor system to the universitys conduct system. The COVID-19 pandemic creates a unique challenge for our students, their families, faculty and staff as we strive to meet our educational mission. Teacher motivation is closely linked to student motivation, and teachers who are motivated to teach can trigger students' motivation to learn. Please take a moment to review FAQs about the transition from fall to spring semester. Please share any quotes that inspire you in the comments below. By providing as much transparency as possible, I hope to sharpen our focus on what matters most and to ease some of the uncertainty we all feel. Faculty members may not opt for face shields in lieu of masks. Parents of all students who are determined to be close contacts of a case of COVID-19 in the school. "They reached out, said, You know we're feeling that our students aren't feeling connected to school. I am enormously grateful for the W&M communitys commitment to these three goals over the past eight months and we must remain vigilant. William & Mary is proud of you, and we look forward to coming together to celebrate you. Face coverings must be used when interaction with others precludes physical distancing, such as conferring with colleagues, advising students, etc. We want to try to do something," he recalled. If you are unable to move out completely now, we will offer another window in May to come back and collect your belongings. In accordance with the governors directive, access to residence halls for pick-up of personal items left over spring break is temporarily suspended while the campus and campus offices are closed to the public. Traveling to Williamsburg does not require a student to reset the quarantine clock upon arrival, as long as they quarantined for the appropriate time and practiced transmission prevention during travel. Yet it is within our control to limit the spread of this virus. Graduate schools will be in direct contact with students by the end of October regarding spring break days and other academic calendar considerations. At W&M, faculty and staff in partnership with student affairs and with student leaders can build upon the very qualities that set W&M apart. Entry will be restricted to these doors. A. Milne. We are making decisions in a phased, evidence-based way and understand that flexibility is essential to remaining responsive to changing public health contexts. As we move forward, we are committed to ensuring the standards of excellence that distinguish a William & Mary education. We strongly discourage all personal travel, domestic or international, and may require employees who do travel to self-quarantine upon return. "You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." A. That was the emotional visual trigger for what we were missing too, she explained. Well be providing each of you with a date for your test, and then youll schedule the time of day. I feel great pride in our communitys shared commitment to this effort, despite the sacrifices that it has entailed. Your support for our students, faculty and staff is more important now than ever, as we navigate uncharted territory. In June we will have more details to share about ways we can prepare for the upcoming academic year. Copyright 2021. The spring course schedule will include in-person, blended and fully-remote sections, as the fall semester did. May 2020 planning for fall 2020 and beyond. That is all. A Weekend for Commencement Celebration: October 9-11, 2020 Please hold the long weekend of October 9-11, 2020 as this years Commencement Weekend in Williamsburg. Large student gatherings of any kind both on- and off-campusare not permitted. With the above in mind, I am writing today with updates about the Spring 2021 academic calendar. We recognize the stress this uncertainty places on students, families, faculty, staff and the communities we belong to. While many students are complying with the rules and regulations set forth in our Healthy Together Community Commitment,too many are not. Buy that oversized $30 pack of UNO that is literally impossible to shuffle just so you can say you own it. Five coordinated teams will focus on short-term solutions for mission-critical areas of the university: curricular flexibility, operational resilience, how we might de-densify campus spaces, how we might expand career pathways for graduating seniors and recent alumni. Under those circumstances, you may designate someone else to return for your critically-needed belongings by emailing, Only one person may enter the residence hall, They will be escorted at a distance of 6-8 feet by a staff member, The Peninsula Health Department call center at 757-594-7069, The Southside Health Department call center at 757-683-2745. We must remain vigilant so that we can move quickly to identify positive cases and potential exposures. Looking forward, the Plan Ahead initiative will allow us to pivot to a post-pandemic future in a way that both capitalizes on lessons learned and makes W&M more nimble.Normally, during this part of the academic year, we have the opportunity to acknowledge those who are graduating, being promoted or awarded tenure, and those who are retiring. Social class juniors, seniors, and graduate students may request housing contract release without penalty. As we end the year, its not traditional, and its hard that way too, she added. For more information, email vamrc@vdh.virginia.gov. To that end, the university has developed a series of training videos to teach the community about COVID-19 and how to protect ourselves and others in a campus environment. With the exception ofOctober 19, when well start at 9:00 AM, testing will be available for students from 7:30 a.m. 4:00p.m.each day. Teachers hope students create art in any way that matters to them. Ralph Northam announced new restrictions on private and public gatherings in the Hampton Roads region and Peninsula, which includes Williamsburg. Pandemic conditions require William & Mary to adapt how we teach, learn and work in order to mitigate health risks for our community. Your source for entertainment news, celebrities, celeb news, and celebrity gossip. We recognize that these decisions have weighty consequences personal, financial and more. 2) They support research in . Many of these institutions took different approaches to testing, campus density and/or required conduct. Our mission calls us to convene together, and we have all explicitly committed to supporting that mission in this time. Not only are there variations in. Thank you for your patience and support as we move through these challenging days together.