Need to Know: Final Reopening Issue
SPECIAL ISSUE: Andrews University Reopens for In-Person Instruction
August 17, 2020
Greetings, Andrews University friends,
We are sharing this final Need to Know newsletter for the summer at the specific moment we’ve spent the summer praying and intensely preparing for—the arrival of students on our Berrien Springs campus.
We can’t wait to experience the power and blessings that come from an Andrews University community gathered together. We believe this united community is an essential way to fulfill our God-centered desire to educate and inspire World Changers for a changing world.
Specifically, our New Student Orientation formally begins this week with students joining us from throughout the United States and the world, and by next Monday, August 24, our fall semester of in-person studies for all of our Berrien Springs campus begins. Our guest and remote students will also begin their studies on the same date.
As you’ve read in these newsletters, and through other Andrews University communication and website updates throughout the summer, our preparations have included a series of careful and significant steps to help Andrews University best prepare for a safe return to in-person operations.
As we begin this new semester, we want to connect you with our published, searchable and detailed Framework for Reopening. We’d also like to invite you again to review our reopening website, which includes some videos that confirm our plans and commitments in this new school year.
As you’ve been hearing, central to our reopening plan is a shared Community Covenant of Care that acknowledges that our personal rights and preferences, especially in the context of this pandemic, are secondary to God’s call for each one of us to care for the wellbeing of others.
As we gather together again in Berrien Springs for this new school year, we make both a personal and a University commitment to that calling—seeking to have a healthy campus that is fully committed to Safety, Inclusivity and Community.
Complete Framework for Reopening now available online
As we noted earlier, this past week we published an online and searchable version of our complete Framework for Reopening.
The reopening plan contains six key components:
Additionally, a section on Facility Use provides the details and expectations for use of buildings and space used by our University community throughout our Berrien Springs campus.
Additional resources on our “World Changers for a changing world” website
We want to again invite you to review our overall “World Changers for a changing world” website, which continues to be the best single source of consistently updated information about resumption of in-person instruction and reopening of our Berrien Springs campus this month.
In addition to the complete Framework for Reopening resource, you’ll find other relevant information, including:
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A link to the Community Covenant of Care, a commitment made by our faculty, staff and students as this new year begins
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An updated calendar of key dates for fall semester
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A new Back to Campus video, highlighting Andrews University’s commitments, hopes and prayers for this new school year
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A video from our Residence Life team
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A video library of informational webinars from earlier this summer, including sessions for undergraduate students and parents, graduate students, international students and a session on residence hall life
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Special information for international students, including the latest details on U.S. government guidelines and regulations
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An additional series of welcome videos from administrators, faculty, staff and students
As each one of us here at Andrews University has taken steps to effectively respond to and meet the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to be grateful for your interest, your questions, your support and your prayers.
Once again, we’re grateful to now be at a moment that we’ve hoped, prepared and prayed for, the resumption of in-person instruction for the 2020–2021 school year.
Even as this journey begins, we also remain committed to continuing to take the right, and even difficult, steps needed to help provide safety and protection for our Andrews University community.
As has been the case since March, when remote instruction began for Andrews University, we may not always be able to understand in advance what those careful and significant steps will look like. But we can be, and are, committed to strategically and prayerfully responding for the safety and care of our Andrews University community.
Since 1874, when our University first opened its doors to students, what we do is a challenging, important and sacred trust for each of our students, faculty, staff, administrators and the communities that surround us. We commit to God’s calling and purpose, even and especially in challenging times like these.
Welcome to this new school year, and thank you for your continued prayers and active interest for these days ahead.
Andrea Luxton
President
Christon Arthur
Provost
PR
pr@andrews.edu
