March 12, 2021
Dear Boston University Students and Parents,
It has been a long year in Boston with COVID-19, but Boston University has fared well as we move toward the halfway point of the spring semester. To ensure that our students could continue to make academic progress, we implemented extraordinary measures. Our campuses reopened last fall with stringent public health protocols in place, including our best-in-class COVID-19 community testing program by which all members of our community who were present on campus were tested weekly and undergraduate students were tested twice per week. To date we have performed nearly 800,000 PCR tests to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Our systems have worked; we are now planning for what we hope will be a more normal semester next fall.
I am writing you to describe how we envision life and learning on campus starting in September. This vision is offered with significant caveats because there are still unknowns, many outside the control of the University.
As vaccine distribution increases, we are assuming that by fall all members of our community (students, staff, and faculty) who wish to be vaccinated against COVID-19, either will have already been vaccinated or can be vaccinated at Boston University, once they arrive in Boston before the start of the semester. We are also assuming that the diminished presence of the disease worldwide will allow for the resumption of international travel and the more routine issuance of student visas so that our international students may return.
The expected efficacy of the vaccines and comprehensive immunization will make possible the full return to learning in our classrooms, studios, and laboratories without the social distancing protocols that have been in use since last September. We do not plan to continue to offer our classes in the Learn from Anywhere (LfA) format except in some very specific graduate programs; these will be announced in the coming weeks.
Dear Boston University Students and Parents,
It has been a long year in Boston with COVID-19, but Boston University has fared well as we move toward the halfway point of the spring semester. To ensure that our students could continue to make academic progress, we implemented extraordinary measures. Our campuses reopened last fall with stringent public health protocols in place, including our best-in-class COVID-19 community testing program by which all members of our community who were present on campus were tested weekly and undergraduate students were tested twice per week. To date we have performed nearly 800,000 PCR tests to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Our systems have worked; we are now planning for what we hope will be a more normal semester next fall.
I am writing you to describe how we envision life and learning on campus starting in September. This vision is offered with significant caveats because there are still unknowns, many outside the control of the University.
As vaccine distribution increases, we are assuming that by fall all members of our community (students, staff, and faculty) who wish to be vaccinated against COVID-19, either will have already been vaccinated or can be vaccinated at Boston University, once they arrive in Boston before the start of the semester. We are also assuming that the diminished presence of the disease worldwide will allow for the resumption of international travel and the more routine issuance of student visas so that our international students may return.
The expected efficacy of the vaccines and comprehensive immunization will make possible the full return to learning in our classrooms, studios, and laboratories without the social distancing protocols that have been in use since last September. We do not plan to continue to offer our classes in the Learn from Anywhere (LfA) format except in some very specific graduate programs; these will be announced in the coming weeks.