As the summer term has just started with all residential programs being taught fully online for the full term, we are planning for resuming in-person classes in the fall semester. As Father John previously announced, this is a complex operation with extensive new protocols including testing, contact tracing, social distancing, accommodations for those in high risk groups, and other measures to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff.

The undergraduate program will follow the fall schedule set by the University, with a start date of August 10, continuing without any fall break and concluding the week of Thanksgiving. The condensed schedule will allow the University to keep students on campus for the full fall semester and minimize their traveling (with heightened risk of new exposures to COVID-19). 

However, this early start presented problems for our graduate programs, several of which don’t end their summer term classes until August 14. I’m pleased to announce that provost-elect Marie Lynn Miranda approved our request for an alternate schedule for our residential graduate programs—the MBA, MSA, MSM MSBA and MNA. These programs, along with the EMNA program, will start the fall semester on August 17 and include two seven-week mods, no fall break but with a weeklong interterm. Like the undergraduate programs, we plan to conclude during the week of Thanksgiving. 

There are many details still to be worked out and determined, including the impact of the schedule changes to our executive degree programs on campus and in Chicago. We also are considering the best way to transition our faculty and staff members to working on campus. I will make further announcements as decisions are made.

I appreciate the thoughtful input provided by our associate deans, chairs, and academic and program directors as we negotiate these challenges. Although it’s been a time of uncertainty and disruption, the positive attitude across the Mendoza community has been remarkable. As always, please contact me, the associate deans, the chairs or Kara Palmer if you have any suggestions, concerns or questions.

I also encourage you to read Father John’s excellent op-ed published in The New York Times today. He describes Aristotle’s definition of courage as the mean between rashness and timidity, and reminds us: “Perhaps what we most need now, alongside science, is that kind of courage and the practical wisdom it requires.”

In Notre Dame,

Martijn