Update to Students
Dear Students,
I glanced at my calendar today and could hardly believe we're almost in August. Time is funny that way. At various times the hours have flowed like cold maple syrup, but then, when you take a moment to breathe, the totality of days since all this began seem to have flown.
In the interest of time, I'll keep this brief for now, as you'll be hearing from me again at the end of the week. To recap what's to come over the next two weeks:
*'24s and incoming transfers: You should have received the new student Residential Life Profile form last week. Whether or not you are planning to be on campus this year for any approved on-campus term, please complete and return the file as soon as possible for our records, and please be sure to meet the deadlines coming up on your pre-arrival checklist for the DartCard ID, the Academic Interest Form, and the D-pay system.
*All students: You will receive notifications about your approved on-campus terms and next steps this Friday, the 31st. The Registrar will post fall-term course offerings on Friday as well, including course delivery modes. If you are planning to take courses this fall, whether remotely or from here as an on-campus term, you will be able to start considering your options. The course election period will be August 3 - 11 for continuing students, and will occur on September 11th for new students as part of the Orientation process. See the fall term registration schedule at https://www.dartmouth.edu/reg/registration/reg_sched.html. As always, the undergraduate deans will be available by appointment and during daily open hours (see https://students.dartmouth.edu/undergraduate-deans/about/student-drop-hours) for general advising. You can schedule a Zoom or phone appointment with your dean by using your dean's Calendly link, calling the office at 603-646-2243 or by emailing us at undergraduate.deans.office@dartmouth.edu.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'd like to return to a very important topic -- perhaps the most important topic given the current circumstances. Despite early reports that COVID-19 doesn't seriously impact young adults, we have all learned that no one is immune. There are numerous recent national news stories with examples of serious impacts among young people, including the most well conditioned among us. US women's rowing team members, as featured in the New York Times this past Friday, "think that young, healthy people need to take the coronavirus more seriously. They learned the hard way." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/sports/olympics/coronavirus-us-rowing-olympics.html. Despite their age and their world-class peak physical conditions, these elite rowers who contracted the disease describe "being in agony", and unable to move or breathe. They describe experiencing complications for more than forty days. Many have yet to return to full capacity. Their message: "take precautions extremely seriously."
We are taking precautions seriously. We want you to be able to be here. We are doing all we can to prepare to make that possible. We know you have lots of questions about what that will be like. Most of those answers depend, in part, on conditions closer to what will be your arrival. For those of you who learn on Friday that you are approved for fall enrollment on-campus, we will have detailed information ready the week of August 16th. Please bear with us. We know you are anxious to know more. And for all of you, please recognize that conditions five, eight and ten months from now may change. Over the six weeks between August 1st and the beginning of fall term, we will be focusing on preparing for fall arrival and the start of classes on September 14th. We will know more as fall progresses about public health conditions and what we can anticipate for winter and spring.
I know that you're all tired of being asked to wait. As I've mentioned previously, learning to live with ambiguity is one of the hardest things for us all. But right now, conditions around the country seem to be changing daily. Our goal is to be the least restrictive as we can while putting the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and community members first - but the details of what that will mean when you return this fall is dependent on the virus's progression and our collective ability to adhere to essential public health guidelines.
You'll hear from me again on Friday. For now, have a good week.
All my best,
Dean Lively