It’s Deja Vu All Over Again
It was about 18 months ago that the college decided to go fully remote as a result of the COVID crisis. That was not an easy decision at that time but the senior leadership and an expanded group of administrative staff who formed the operation team came to that conclusion and quickly started pivoting to the various action items that would make remote learning successful.
As the year developed, we started gaining confidence that the fall of 2021 is likely to be a different semester than the last year and therefore preparations were underway to make this an on campus experience for everyone. However, as we approached the beginning of summer it became very clear that the fall is not going to be what we all thought it was going to be.
The Delta variant was becoming more pervasive in the United States than anyone had imagined and it was becoming a major factor in us having to decide what to do next. The college instituted mandatory submission of proof of vaccination for all the students and all the faculty and staff who will be on campus on a regular basis. Because we were going to have all on campus classes and all students on campus the college also decided to recall the remote work policy for administrative staff. However the senior administration had developed a plan that accommodated up to 2 days a week of remote work for administrative staff to whom that applies.