August 24, 2020
Thanks again to everyone for getting us to today! I appreciate everyone’s good spirits and patience as we get classes going today. We had a smooth River Crossing move-in with a less than 1.5% positivity rate, which is well within the expected range. Positive students went home and will move in after they complete the appropriate isolation and recovery. Kudos to Scott Strittmatter, Tiffany German-Hall, Teri Dobrzykowski, Kari Frame and the whole team of staff and volunteers who ran an efficient operation over our four day move-in period – one of the best across all of IU! Thanks also to Keith Dawson, Terri Langel, Ryan Latimer, and Micah Spiece in the Registrar’s Office for working with facilities staff and all of the academic departments to make sure classrooms were set up and ready for safe in person instruction. I am also glad to share that our enrollment is now over 4,900!
I know we have had some technology hiccups and we are all still figuring out how to work and learn under these new conditions. Students are finding their way to classrooms, whether they be in person or online. Faculty and staff are getting reacquainted with campus and each other. Please be a little extra tolerant and flexible as we come back together. If you have a few extra minutes, step outside your office or walk around campus a bit this week to greet one another or to help a student. Stay vigilant with distancing, mask-wearing and sanitizing, too. Let’s all help one another with these requirements -- accept and give friendly reminders about keeping that mask covering your nose as well as your mouth and keeping it on inside any of our buildings, except when you are in your office by yourself with the door closed. If you see a place where a sign would be helpful, please let your supervisor know so facilities can assist. If you have any creative ideas on how to solve other problems or challenges that arise, don’t hesitate to speak up! We are in this together and we will get through it together. We are Titan Strong!