President Murray Provides Planning Update for Fall Semester
In a memorandum to students and parents on Thursday, President Dennis J. Murray reaffirmed the college’s commitment to fully opening for the fall semester and shared an overview of potential health and safety protocols.
“While we do not yet know all the details of these protocols, we must plan for them to include testing, social distancing, contact tracing, and the use of face coverings in some settings,” Murray said. “We will also continue our enhanced disinfection practices for all common and high-traffic areas on campus.”
Amidst ongoing concerns about COVID-19, Marist College continues to prepare for a return to campus complete with open “dining facilities, residence halls, and campus-based instruction.” Murray said that administrative offices will begin to open, hopefully, in the next few weeks, following state and county guidance and adhering to appropriate safety measures. Physicians on the Marist staff continue to be involved in the process, as well as state officials and members of the New York Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board.
On the administrative side, Thomas Wermuth, the vice president for Academic Affairs, will manage academic planning while Executive Vice President Geoffrey Brackett will oversee preparations for campus life and operations. College campuses face particular challenges for reopening, which Murray acknowledged.
“We are now in the process of addressing those challenges and developing our plans for the fall,” Murray said. He previously shared that the college continues to evaluate dozens of potential scenarios for reopening.
The geography and general structure of a college campus not only lends itself to constant interaction –– it is designed specifically to foster those exchanges. Research from professors at Cornell University discovered that the average student shares class with 4% of the student body, but they are connected to 87% of the student population by two steps and 98% by three steps.
This recent memorandum from the president comes as a number of colleges share their proposed strategies for reopening. Earlier this week, the University of Notre Dame announced its plan to welcome students to campus two weeks earlier than planned in order to complete the semester by Thanksgiving, ahead of the anticipated second wave. The California state university system, by contrast, will opt for an entirely online semester.
While Marist has yet to announce firm plans for the fall semester, Murray promised further and regular communication as well as continued transparency, emphasizing the principal concern of student safety and health.
“No matter how the current situation evolves, you can trust that Marist will be ready to provide outstanding learning opportunities to all students. I know that we are in an uncertain environment, but Marist is fiscally stable, and we have weathered many other serious global emergencies, including 9/11, the SARS pandemic, and the 2008 economic crisis,” Murray said.
For many students, the transition to online learning midway through the semester brought personal and academic disruptions. Seniors said a premature goodbye to their undergraduate experience, and underclassmen now wonder what the future of their academic career holds. Murray recognized the distress endured in the past weeks.
“I know that missing out on campus life was profoundly disappointing for our students, and this transition brought many challenges for all of us. But in true Marist fashion, our students, faculty, and staff met these challenges with resilience and resolve,” Murray said. “In my 40 years as President, I have never been prouder to be a part of the Marist family than I have been these past months.