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July 10, 2020

Dear Colleagues:

As we close the first full week of July, I wanted to take a step back and thank you for the hard work you have been doing this summer to ensure our students, faculty, and staff can return to campus safely this fall. I have been amazed at the collaborations among different offices, units, and individuals, and you continue to make me proud to be a part of our  CU Boulder community.

Since we currently are working through the logistics related to classroom space and in-person/remote teaching and learning, I also wanted to take the time to send a brief reminder of our collective commitments to our students. As we have discussed since early June, our Roadmap to Fall 2020 was built upon a hybrid experience for our students comprising both in-person learning and remote/online modalities. To that end, I would like to remind everyone that moving entire courses of study or degree programs at the department or college level exclusively to online was not and is not an option, and that every student must be given the opportunity to engage in face-to-face learning.

If units refuse to teach in person, this simply deflects the burden of this vital mode of instruction onto fellow faculty members and onto department chairs who are working hard to logistically support and plan our hybrid model. While the precise mix and individual decisions of what courses and which faculty teach in which modality remain departmental and local decisions, opting out of in-person instruction altogether is not an option within our Road Map.

This commitment to face-to-face instruction has been made more urgent by the recent announcement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the potential impact of that guidance on our international students. While this guidance is disturbing (and rightly so) to many in our community, our commitment to ensuring that all of our students receive face-to-face instruction through each academic department is our best guarantee of minimizing, or eliminating altogether, any impacts on our international students.

Finally, let me say I recognize the fear and uncertainty that are present for all of us in our work together preparing for Fall. I want each of you to know that I remain confident that the science-based, comprehensive approaches we are taking to reduce the risks of spreading the virus will protect our faculty, staff, students and local community members and allow us to continue our important public mission at an absolutely vital moment in the life of our university and the communities we serve.

Thank you again for all you do for each other and for CU Boulder.

Russ

Russell Moore, Provost
University of Colorado Boulder