To: The Wellesley College Community
Cc: Families of Wellesley College Students
From: President Paula A. Johnson and Andrew Shennan, Provost and Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56 Dean of the College
Re: Planning for the Fall, and Summer Programs Information
Date: March 10, 2021
As we approach the midpoint of term 3, we are encouraged by the accelerating pace of vaccination efforts as well as the federal government’s timeline for when we can expect vaccine doses to be available for every adult. In light of these positive developments, we believe the Wellesley community can look forward to the fall and to the 2021–22 academic year with guarded but substantial optimism. As the College begins planning for next year, we are at this point anticipating being able to welcome all students back to campus in the fall. Assuming that we are able to achieve near total vaccination of our community, these are our expectations for the fall:
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Students will be able to return to pre-pandemic housing arrangements, including double and triple occupancy rooms in dormitories.
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The academic calendar will return to a fall and spring semester, and the academic year will begin the Wednesday* after Labor Day.
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All classes will be held in person and will reflect the daily course schedule (time blocks) we had in 2019.
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Mask-wearing and asymptomatic testing may still be necessary and some physical distancing may be required as we navigate the repopulation of our campus.
Course registration for fall classes will occur this spring, and we look forward to sharing specific dates before the end of term 3.
We will continue to follow the public health guidance, and we will inform the community if we need to adjust our plans in any significant way.
Ad Hoc Planning Group
As we prepare to fully repopulate our campus and return to our normal academic calendar, we have created an Ad Hoc Planning Group. This group, which includes several members of the faculty and administrative staff as well as a student representative, will advise relevant committees and offices about the transitions that lie ahead of us, including sequencing administrative processes such as registration and housing selection; identifying ways to best support faculty, students, and staff as we all adjust to a different campus and work environment; and advising senior leadership on contingency plans, should conditions in the fall be more challenging than we currently project.
Future of Work
We are expecting that faculty and much of our staff will return to on-campus activity this fall. At the same time, we recognize that some of the innovations the pandemic has forced upon us have been welcomed and that we should explore incorporating them in our long-term operations. For example, in some respects remote work may have enhanced participation in an inclusive community and promoted employee wellness, and newly streamlined and transparent processes may have provided increased efficiency. We are grateful to Megan Núñez, dean of faculty affairs, and Sarah Staley, director of talent management and development, for leading an important initiative to scrutinize our experience over the past year and ensure that we learn from it.
Summer Programs
Summer courses will be offered remotely during a single seven-week term, from June 7 to July 23. The Science Center Summer Research Program plans to offer both on-campus and remote research options for students this year, which will enable limited laboratory-based research to resume, while computational and other non-laboratory work will remain largely remote. The Social Science Summer Research Program will be offered in a remote format.
Students are strongly encouraged to pursue virtual internships to minimize health and safety risks. The stipend for Wellesley-funded internships will be the same for both virtual and in-person opportunities.To receive College internship funding from any department for a partially or fully in-person experience (in the United States or abroad), students must complete a petition process no later than April 12. The campus community will receive further details regarding this process next week from Career Education. Students can also pursue alumnae-led Hive internship projects, in which students from all class years (including 2021 graduates) participate in two- to four-week virtual “micro-internships” with an alum or employer. Career Education will provide further details in term 4.
This week marks one year since the College announced the pivot to remote instruction. On Friday at 11:45 a.m., we will acknowledge this moment with a Carillon concert. Please join us to remember those in our extended community and around the world who have lost lives and experienced hardship during the pandemic, and to reflect on the remarkable ways our community has come together during this challenging time. While the pandemic is ongoing, we are tremendously encouraged that the vaccine will make it possible for us all to be together on campus this fall.
*When this announcement was original sent, classes were going to start on Tuesday. On 4/30/21, we updated the day to Wednesday, per the Academic Calendar.
