Friends,

In just a few days, we will be in the remarkable position of looking back on students’ in-person portion of Haverford’s COVID-19 Fall semester. I thank every student—thank you!—for adopting the health and safety measures that kept you and your peers nearly COVID-free. I thank every staff and faculty member for your vigilance, care, hard work, and adaptability, and for supporting our students in their many adaptations to living in a global pandemic. It means the world to me that, together, in all our varied individual circumstances, we—students, staff, and faculty—were able to provide the opportunity of having students living and learning on campus. And you did this while simultaneously including students across the world who were living and learning remotely.

This is an accomplishment. I am grateful that we were able to make this happen. We all know it is not a static accomplishment. Like every aspect of our work, it requires continued investment and care to maintain going forward in the face of much that is beyond our control. Nevertheless, I wanted to take this moment to acknowledge this milestone that earlier in the year we were not sure we would reach.

I wish you all a safe, peaceful, and restorative break.

Sincerely,

Wendy

Wendy Raymond
President

Hello all,

Thank you for your questions surrounding Thanksgiving Break and, consequently, January move-in. As you know, Haverford will be concluding the fall semester remotely, and you are expected to leave campus for the Thanksgiving Break until January. Classes end on Friday, November 20th at 4pm - you will have until Tuesday, November 24th at 12pm to leave the residence halls. You do not need to make plans with Residential Life, you are free to leave anytime between those dates. If you plan to leave campus prior to November 20th, you do not need to make plans with Residential Life, but please notify Residential Life, your dean, AND Health Services. These notifications are for emergency and testing purposes. 

Please check/do the following before leaving for the break:

• Facilities will be removing the AC units over the break, please make sure the space around the unit is clear (move your bed, make a pathway, etc.). All questions about AC removal should be directed to hc-events@haverford.edu.
• Lock your door(s) behind you.
• Take all of your necessary belongings! This includes, but is not limited to: 
  • medication
  • license/passport/social security card/any legal documentation and/or proof of identity 
  • weather-appropriate clothing for the place you're going
  • academic materials (textbooks, notebooks, lab materials, etc.)
  • glasses/contacts
  • valuables/electronics
  • charging cables

No one will be allowed in the residence halls to retrieve forgotten items after the 24th, and items will not be mailed to students, so please make sure you have everything you need, and may potentially need, before you leave for the break.

All students who were not pre-approved to stay on campus over the Thanksgiving Break must be out of the residence halls by noon on Tuesday, November 24th. Please make your travel plans accordingly. Again, you or your family/friends do not need to make plans with Residential Life to leave, we simply ask that you continue to abide by the social distancing and masking guidelines in effect now, and that were in effect during move-in.

We understand that there are questions surrounding move-in in January. The College is diligently working to make these accommodations in accordance with the necessary, required testing that must be done when you return. Knowing that students would like to make travel arrangements as soon as possible for financial reasons, please be patient and we will distribute this information as quickly as we're able to do so. As it was in the fall, move-in will be staggered and start sometime after January 22nd - exact dates for move-in are to be determined, please do not make travel arrangements for the 22nd, or any other date following, until you receive the move-in email. Again, we will be in contact regarding January move-in, including the specific, staggered move-in dates, as soon as possible. Please continue to check your emails in the coming weeks for that additional information. 

Thank you for your understanding and patience, and take good care.

Nathan Diehl, Dean of Residential Life
Kristin Vitacco, Assistant Director of Housing

To the Bi-College Community: 

We write today to thank you all for a strong start to the fall semester and to share our academic calendar for the spring. 

Because of your care for our shared community, Bryn Mawr and Haverford have been able to offer the option of residential education during this extraordinary fall. That is no small accomplishment: many of our students feel better served by the space and supports of a residential experience, and many of our faculty chose in-person pedagogical components for students able to be on campus. Thank you for the concern you are showing one another, which makes this possible.

We know that you need to begin planning for spring 2021. Today, we can share a broad-stroke timeline for the spring semester, to be followed soon by more details. The Bi-Co Continuity Planning Group, a working group that includes faculty and staff from both institutions, has reviewed feedback from both campuses, and each college’s faculty discussed draft calendar proposals at their September meetings. To continue to follow current public health guidelines, which seem likely to be in effect this spring, the Group approved an extension of the Bi-College’s current educational approach along with the following key dates: 

• Friday, January 29: First Day of Class
• Friday, January 29 – Sunday, February 14: All Classes Remote
• Thursday, April 29: Last Day of Class
• Friday, April 30 – Saturday, May 8: Reading Days and Finals
• Saturday, May 15: Commencement

To allow for a controlled return and any necessary quarantines, we will stagger student move-in as we did this fall. To reduce travel during the semester, we will not have spring break this year, but we will encourage faculty to coordinate efforts to offer a lighter workload at some point during the semester. While there may not be a traditional spring break, there can be a moment for rest and restoration. In accordance with current guidelines, all final exams will be remote, and residential students who are not seniors will leave campus housing by Sunday, May 9. Due dates for submitting grades remain unchanged. 

This plan depends on the continued effectiveness of our preventive measures – checking symptoms, wearing masks, maintaining at least six feet of distance, washing hands and surfaces frequently, and taking note of any close contacts. We continue to monitor these as well as our symptomatic and asymptomatic test results, the positive test rates of our local environment, and available isolation space; evidence that we are protecting our shared community’s health continues to be a prerequisite for in-person classes and on-campus residency.

Additional details will be shared in the weeks ahead, and we encourage you to contact your supervisor, dean, or provost with questions and concerns that may help everyone to plan more efficiently and effectively. We are aware that departments have their own rhythms and that students will need to know specific move-in dates. These and other details will be coming soon, as we tailor this general timeline to meet individual and collective needs.

Again, we thank you for your excellent work and care for each other. We are very grateful to be part of this thoughtful and committed BiCo community. 

With best wishes, 

Kim Cassidy and Wendy Raymond

Friends,

As we enter our fourth week of classes, I would like to take a few minutes to say hello and offer some campus updates that illustrate the richness of our work and our community. In educating, learning, and taking action to create positive changes in the context of wrenching human crises that include the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Black racism, and global climate change, I see you—and together, us—as we raise our individual and collective best to teach, learn, discover, guide, mentor, build, repair, clean, pay bills, serve meals, and connect us at a distance and on campus. To live, love, struggle, question, listen, assist, support, and create. Thank you for your effort, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and tenacity. Thank you for being part of Haverford at this remarkable time.

With the semester underway, we have 980 students living and studying on campus, 121 students living off-campus and commuting to campus, and 210 studying remotely. Slightly over half of our courses are being offered fully remotely. More than 60% of our faculty are conducting at least some portion of their work with students in person, and 70% of our staff are regularly working on campus.

COVID-19 Update

Much of our successful start to the semester owes to the personal responsibility each of us has taken for our own health as it affects others—by masking, distancing, hand-washing, symptom checking, and contact journaling—which demonstrates the extent to which we can, as a community, work together to keep the virus in check. Thank you. Even if and when more COVID cases arise on campus, if we each maintain this level of commitment, we stand a good chance of continuing to minimize spread and being able to continue the semester together, on and off campus. 

From a COVID health perspective, our shared work continues to pay dividends in a remarkably low student-testing positivity rate of 0.2% after two positive results out of 1043 during last week's screening. Those two students and their very few close contacts are asymptomatic and isolating according to College guidelines. We have had two employee cases in recent weeks, both of which were detected promptly and led to home isolation with no known spread on campus. 

Thank you for getting your flu vaccine, because fewer influenza cases over the winter will expand healthcare providers’ capacities to focus on COVID-19 cases. More than 80% of students learning on campus have gotten the flu vaccine; students still needing it should be in touch with Health Services this week to set up a time. I thank our colleagues in Human Resources for offering a recent on-campus clinic where 160 staff and faculty members got the vaccine. I strongly urge all faculty and staff working on campus to get the flu vaccine, which is widely available at a range of retail stores and healthcare providers. I was happy to get mine a few weeks ago during a pharmacy visit; it took just 20 minutes of my time. 

I extend my deep appreciation for our shared commitment and sacrifice in the face of a challenge unlike what any of us have faced. We are learning that a vital element of a good plan is its flexibility. Since March, we have faced many hardships and uncertainties, and we have also discovered new ways of teaching, collaborating, and learning that will continue beyond this pandemic. We can be sure that, in the face of so many unknowns, more change lies ahead. We will work through those changes and challenges together.

Anti-Racism Actions Update:
In facing the pandemic of anti-Black racism, I remain grateful for anti-racist action underway that includes courses, mentoring, athletics recruiting, reading/discussion groups, and work by both the Haverford Corporation and Board of Managers. I am developing a draft Anti-Racism Action Plan to give focus and thrust to our work; we will be able to build upon its framework critically, collaboratively, iteratively, and progressively. As the College's chief diversity officer, I look forward to presenting the plan’s framework to you in a spirit of shared commitment and as a basis upon which all of us will formulate, lead, and/or participate in this essential work.

Many of us have made progress in anti-racist action particularly since a group of Black Haverford and Bryn Mawr students, Black Students Refusing Further Inaction (BSRFI) authored its June open letter, to which I responded earlier this summer. As noted in a later report to the group, specific steps have included:

• Hiring and retaining Black faculty. During the summer, I initiated conversations with then-Interim Provost Rob Manning, Provost Linda Strong-Leek, and multiple faculty members about ways we might develop a transparent faculty "extraordinary opportunity hiring” practice at Haverford. To date, such hiring has occurred at Haverford via an ad hoc process. The conversation now turns to whether we at Haverford would want to adopt a transparent and formal process for such opportunities. I developed and implemented such a process at a previous institution; Bryn Mawr and many other colleges have formal processes that take varied approaches. I believe that with faculty support, we could do the same at Haverford in a way that will work well for our commitment to hire and retain Black faculty and Indigenous and non-Black people of color.

• Expanding the curriculum in Africana Studies and developing a required Bi-Co course on Blackness and Unpacking Whiteness. Continuation of the multiple informal and formal conversations that are already underway about these curricular additions will lead to proposals from academic departments and consideration by the Educational Policy Committee. Haverford’s experience with a past graduation requirement for a course in Social Justice will be informative toward developing a new course that reaches students in their first or second year in the BiCo and distributes teaching responsibilities and course development opportunities in sustainable ways. Twenty-six faculty members responded to an invitation from Rob Manning and me to participate in groundwork for anti-racism action in academics; some of their work will be in these specific areas.

• Campus-wide professional development for staff and faculty in racial justice. This semester, a group of staff, faculty, and student collaborators from the Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CODE-Inclusion), led by Director of Human Resources Muriel Brisbon, will invite all employees to join a 21-Day Racial Equity challenge developed by Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. This team is excited to bring this program to us as an experiment, from which we will learn and continue to adapt toward continually better professional development opportunities that will lead to anti-racist outcomes for Haverford. 

  In addition, our colleagues in Institutional Advancement (IA) will bring several liberal arts colleges together to participate in DEI professional development focused on advancement work (alumni and parent relations; philanthropic support; foundation, corporate, and government relations), led by the Aspen Leadership Group. This series of three workshops will build cultural awareness and address implicit bias in order to create a culture of inclusion and to recruit and retain a diverse team. Complementing this work, IA conducted a donor landscape study with three peer liberal arts colleges that helped to identify how to make alumni volunteer and donor engagement most meaningful by race, ethnicity, gender, and generation. 

  Also this fall, the Office of Admission will receive intensive implicit bias training focused on the procedures and practices of the Haverford Admission application reading process. Led by Lawrence Alexander of Carney, Sandoe's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practice, this implicit bias training will deepen our understanding of how institutional priorities and needs can and should support institutional values, examine collective habits of mind and how we talk about students, and strengthen a culture of being able to call one another in.

• Financial support for faculty research and teaching that will engage students in the study of anti-racism, racial equity, and racial justice. A new funding source, The Presidential Endowed Fund for Anti-Racism, will advance faculty hiring, teaching, curricular development, scholarship, and creative work in areas of study that recognize and extend our understanding of contemporary and historical racism.

We are also launching multiple initiatives not necessarily identified in the BSRFI letter but which speak to our shared commitment to be an anti-racist institution, as a college where all our students can sense belonging and truly thrive:

• The Wintner-Love Fellows Fund will provide 5-10 paid summer research internships through the KINSC to students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields.

• The Philadelphia Justice and Equity Fellows Fund, offered through the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC), will provide academic and summer paid internships to Fords who will work with select partner organizations in Philadelphia on issues of justice and equity.

• The Presidential Fund for Anti-Racism Programs and the Presidential Fund for LGBTQIA Student Programs will each provide an annual and enduring budget to support Haverford’s ongoing efforts to be a more inclusive community where all students can thrive and belong. 

Details about these exciting new developments are now available on the College website. That's also where we have posted a link to a letter that expresses opposition to a new investigation by the federal Department of Education: their target is Princeton University, and the allegations involve "possible misrepresentations in its reports of adherence to federal non-discrimination law because its president publicly recognized that historic racism has been embedded in the institution over time." So far, nearly 100 college and university presidents—including me—have signed the letter; we aim to speak truth to power as we work to right centuries of wrongs. 

Progress on Many Fronts:

Despite COVID-19's many disruptions, there is much good news to report about a number of key initiatives. 

We received excellent news last week about our accreditation review, a required, formal process conducted every eight years by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). At Thursday’s all-campus Zoom meeting, the chair of our MSCHE-appointed review committee, Franklin and Marshall College President Barbara Altmann, informed us that the committee would be making a strong affirmative recommendation to MSCHE of Haverford’s compliance with all standards. The committee members’ many conversations over their 4-day virtual site visit, which accompanied their review of our self-study, led them to offer friendly, constructive suggestions for how we can make Haverford even better, but they will offer no formal requirements or recommendations for action—which is great news. 

Meanwhile, our website is filled with stories of faculty, staff, and student activity over the months since we were last together. The music building project is moving forward, with dramatic results visible at the site (located between Barclay Beach and the North Dorms). We remain optimistic for a Fall 2021 opening of what promises to be a home worthy of those who bring joy and inspiration to us all through their passion for the musical arts. News about faculty and student work resides in the 'Headlines' area of the College website, where the 'Haverford in the News' box includes links to newsmaking work of all kinds, including that of staff and alumni. A more comprehensive inventory of faculty accomplishments is compiled twice a year; in all the upheaval, you might have missed the Spring 2020 list, and the Fall 2020 compilation will be available soon. Thanks to all for enhancing our collective capacities and Haverford's reputation through your good works!

New Students and Colleagues:
It has been wonderful to welcome our first-year and transfer students to Haverford, both on campus and around the world. I imagine that your experiences this semester, like mine and everyone’s, have been overlaid with myriad emotions. I have heard from professors, classmates, deans, and new acquaintances how uplifted they feel as they get to know you through Zoom or under a campus tent, via email or in a classroom.

And it has been a parallel joy and privilege to welcome our new faculty and staff. Thank you for sharing your talents and aspirations with us. 

This summer, Haverford students and many staff have had the pleasure of getting to know and work with Interim Dean of the College Joyce Bylander. Following a distinguished career at Dickinson, Bucknell, and the College of Charleston, Joyce says she was compelled to return to work with college students during this global pandemic because she believes this generation of young people must and will be ready to meet unprecedented challenges in their lifetimes. She is helping us meet the challenge here at Haverford, and we are grateful for the capable and loving approach she brings to this important role. A nationwide search for her successor is just beginning.

A different nationwide search resulted in our hiring Linda Strong-Leek to be our provost; she arrived on campus last month. Linda spent nearly two decades in a number of roles at Berea College, in Kentucky, including professor of women’s and gender studies, provost, and chief diversity officer. Her Haverford appointment brings a professorship in African and Africana Studies and in Women’s and Gender Studies, and she looks forward to working with Africana colleagues and professors in intersecting academic areas about future curricular planning (in the context of a possible minor, retention, hiring, and a possible major).

This year will also bring a search for a new vice president for Institutional Advancement, heading the division that stewards fundraising, alumni and parent relations, and the College's relationships with grantmaking foundations. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the departing VP, Ann Figueredo '84, whose loyalty to Haverford is equalled by her ability to persuade others to support the College: she managed the recent Lives That Speak comprehensive fundraising campaign, the largest in our history. Thank you, Ann! Deb Strecker, associate vice president for individual giving, will fill the interim VP-IA role beginning January 1.

Strategic Planning:
Despite the energy taken up by our continuous adaptation to the COVID-19 world and by the excruciating harm of anti-Black racism in the USA, we will continue to come together this semester to enliven our creative energies to think about Haverford’s future. I invite those in our community who wish to engage, are energized to engage, and anticipate being energized by such engagement to continue Strategic Planning conversations with me and with available members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. It won’t be an ordinary strategic planning process during this extraordinary time, but it is clear that our current challenges are also providing us a unique learning opportunity as we imagine an even more relevant and resilient liberal arts college for the future. Please stay tuned for opportunities to engage.

Campus Leadership Goals:
Every summer, the president and Senior Staff draft goals for the upcoming academic year. These are discussed with Board of Managers committee chairs and, once adopted, guide departmental planning across the College. They are by no means comprehensive, and each department is encouraged, expected, and enabled to identify and pursue goals particular to their role beyond those articulated at the leadership level. 

This year, we have identified three broad areas of focus:

• Deliver an excellent educational experience to our students during the disruption of the global COVID-19 pandemic, while stewarding the health, well-being, and safety of the student, faculty, and staff community with compassion and grace.

• Work actively and immediately toward becoming an anti-racist institution built on equitable principles, practices, norms, policies, and structures across students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

• Continue our community strategic planning process to help the College lift up and look out into our broader world and to leverage discoveries presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen our residential liberal arts education. 

I and others on the Senior Staff continue to do our best to use regular email communications and updates to the COVID Hub to allay fears, uncertainty, and confusion about how we are navigating life and learning. Yet communication even in non-stressful times can almost never be done well enough or often enough to suit everyone’s needs: it is a constant and an important challenge. Please continue to ask questions and offer your constructive suggestions to help me make sure you have the clarity you seek as we continue through unusual times. 

Peanut has offered a bright spot to many first-years and returning students as I walk with our beagle around the campus. A group of Peanut fans outside Barclay recently asked whether the bookstore could offer “Peanut merch.” I’m not sure, but I understand the appeal!

With gratitude,

Wendy

PS:  Are you planning to vote? I sure hope so! Check out this flyer for details about how to register and vote right here at the College. I encourage you to vote as if our future depends on it—because it does.

Friends:

At this time last week, the College moved from Level 1 in our BiCo Mitigation Plan to Level 2. We took this step in light of multiple instances of COVID-unsafe behavior over the course of last weekend by a minority of students who gathered unmasked, close together, and in some groups over the maximum allowed of 15 students. 

As promised, we have reviewed our collective situation over the past week and write with an update that includes a decision regarding whether a change from the current Level 2 status is warranted.

• Over the past week, a number of students have decided that they would prefer to live and study away, either at home or in off-campus housing. We thank these students for taking the time to reflect and act in a way consistent with our concern for oneself and others.
• Several other students have received one-time-only formal warnings in connection with unsafe behavior and have promised to adhere to the rules going forward, and we thank them for their constructive response.
• We have also heard numerous reports of students reminding other students about the need for us all to abide by the rules at all times, and we thank them for taking ownership of their role in community.
• Behaviors through the week and across the weekend almost completely adhered to Level 2 specifications. All reports of concerns were tended to by Campus Safety and/or the deans.

For these reasons, the College will be moving to Level 1 effective immediately, and until further notice. A few reminders of what Level 1 means:

• In-person learning continues as scheduled (indeed, it had not been affected by the change to Level 2).
• Students may once again leave their rooms and move about the campus as long as they adhere to our health and safety protocols regarding universal masking, social distancing, etc.
• Indoor or outdoor gatherings are allowed and limited to 15 people, distanced and masked, subject to any space-specific capacity limits.
• Students may leave campus if needed for local errands. A student needing overnight travel for family or emergency reasons must request permission from their dean.
• Student travel across the BiCo outside of class attendance is permitted, as is in-person socializing with Bryn Mawr students. A BMC or Haverford student (enrolled for in-person instruction) can visit another dorm as a guest of a resident. Students are limited to one guest per person at a time.
• Commuting students may visit campus during non-class times.
• The Library is once again open as a study space and for accessing library resources. Please note that the Library, outside of the Cafe, may not be used as a dining or lounge space.

Varsity athletic practices, modified for current conditions and only with coaching supervision, begin tomorrow, Monday, September 21st. This coming week, all students will be tested for COVID-19 in our next round of screening tests; please follow the instructions from Health Services. Last week, we began additional testing of high-risk populations of students via targeted screening tests. You can see our cumulative testing data, as well as those of Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College, and the local area on our dashboard. Please be reminded that we have thorough plans and protocols in place in the event that a student tests positive for COVID-19.

Thanks again to the overwhelming proportion of students and to the full staff and faculty  for doing your parts to minimize adding risk for all other members of the community. Truly, we can only succeed as individuals if we think—and act—in ways that put collective interests first. 

With appreciation,

Joyce Bylander, Dean of the College
Wendy Raymond, President

Friends,

We write in response to an eventful weekend that makes clear that many members of our student body are not committed fully to the health and safety measures that will mitigate against the risk of COVID-19 on campus.

Over the past 48 hours, numerous student social gatherings violated our limits of gathering sizes and our expectation of universal masking and physical distancing. 

Because of the risky behaviors of a minority of students that threaten the health and safety of our campus community, Haverford will be moving to Level 2 of the Bi-Co Mitigation Plan, effective 10 p.m. this evening. On Sunday, September 20, we will re-evaluate the situation in order to determine whether and when we can safely return to Level 1.

Specific parameters over our Level 2 timeframe, beginning today at 10pm ET, include:

• Students may not leave campus, except to attend in-person classes at Bryn Mawr. (If you are off the meal plan and need to get groceries for the week, you may ask your dean for permission to go tomorrow, Monday.)
• Students may leave their room only for classes, restroom, laundry, mail room, grab-n-go and take-out meals, and distanced outdoor gatherings in groups of 10 or fewer.
• Students may collect food delivered by local grocery stores and restaurants to Sharpless Triangle.
• Class modality is unchanged; courses meeting in-person will continue to do so, including across the BiCo. The Blue Bus will run for academic class times.
• There will be no student travel across the BiCo outside of class attendance; in-person socializing with Bryn Mawr students is not permitted.
• There will be no gatherings in any indoor spaces, including no guests in individual student rooms.
• Commuting students may come to campus for class times only and then must depart.
• Students may go to the library only to collect materials requested from library staff.
• Faculty and staff day-to-day practices are unchanged from Level 1.
• Athletics limitations remain unchanged from Level 1.
• Individual students already on Campus Quarantine for travel reasons must continue to abide by those rules, including attending class meetings remotely, through the conclusion of their individual Campus Quarantine period. 

Partying without masks and/or at close spacing is simply not viable this semester. Nor is sharing a meal or a cup of coffee without masking up immediately afterward, even when outdoors. Evidence abounds showing that talking while eating or drinking unmasked significantly spreads COVID-19; Temple University’s experiences and those of many other campuses show that small unmasked or non-distanced gatherings can be as dangerous as large.

We have come together on campus and across the world to make a semester-long investment in every student’s education. We have seen near-universal masking and distancing make it possible for a Customs Person with an autoimmune disorder to feel confident about being here, for your hallmate with asthma to take full advantage of this on-campus experience, and for Safety Officers, deans, faculty members, and Dining Services staff members to invest in your well-being despite being aged 65 or older. 

If you cannot live throughout this semester without partying or getting together without universal masking and distancing, it is time for you to look in the mirror and make immediate arrangements to head back home and study remotely. We will thank you for your self-reflection, honesty, and constructive action. We will provide and gain the results of a negative COVID-19 test prior to your departure from campus so that we can greatly reduce the likelihood of you bringing COVID-19 to your homes and home communities.

We recognize that the change to Level 2 will come as a disappointment to the many students, faculty, and staff who have been making responsible choices to keep themselves and their peers safe. It is our hope that we can use this opportunity to reset the expectations of those who have not made responsible choices, so that we can make the most of our opportunity to learn together in community this fall.

Sincerely,

Joyce Bylander, Dean of the College

Wendy Raymond, President

Friends,

I feel excited and optimistic about the semester ahead, in no small part due to the energy that our 238 first-year and returning students brought to campus yesterday and today. I thought you would enjoy these photos of our wonderful students masked and social distancing.

Thank you for making adaptations all day, every day, that disrupt COVID-19’s viral paths. The successes and setbacks of schools that opened ahead of us reinforce the central importance of universal masking and persistent social distancing.

Thank you for supporting one another in establishing new norms and habits as we all invest in our shared commitment to this educational experience. In one week, classes begin, uniting us near and far!

With gratitude,

Wendy

Friends:

Something wonderful is happening here on campus. For the first time since mid-January and the start of second semester, the number of students here at Haverford is increasing, almost daily. On Sunday, we welcomed more than 50 returning students, and nearly one hundred more will have arrived by this time next week. 

As you know, every student must submit a negative COVID-19 test result before arriving on campus, and every student is tested again when they get here. Thus far through this process, one student discovered, while still at home, that they were asymptomatic positive with COVID-19. That person will, as our protocol requires, stay home until past the point of contagion and then will be able to come to campus. All the results of on-campus testing have been negative thus far. 

I can tell you from my daily walks around campus that everyone I see is being diligent about wearing masks and observing social distance, which I deeply appreciate. Every moment is a chance for each of us who is on campus to make good choices for the benefit of all. I have tremendous confidence in you. 

I also share concerns with many of you, as we read reports of reckless and unsafe student behaviors of the past week on other campuses (not masking at social gatherings with people not physically distanced) that, in the COVID-19 pandemic, are unconscionable and dangerous. We are expecting a lot of all of us to make living and learning on campus possible. 

Daily Check-in. In addition to masking, observing social distance, and hand washing, essential components of healthy living during COVID-19—for students, faculty, and staff—involve remaining vigilant about signs of possible infection, and keeping track of people to whom we have been in close proximity ('contact journaling’). For the foreseeable future, then, our daily routine that already includes basics like 'brush teeth' must now include 'take temperature' and 'note contacts'. 

To help you develop this habit, we'll be emailing everyone, every day, with a reminder to do just that. The importance of this step cannot be overstated, so please be diligent about it.

Faculty and Staff Surveillance Testing for COVID-19. Thanks to the many faculty and staff slated to return to work on campus who have signed up for testing. We are expanding the number of test times, so please check the Daily Digest for information. Everyone who gets tested now will need to test again at each surveillance interval, which we anticipate will occur again in mid-September and then in October and November. Our surveillance approach is designed to be flexible and responsive to COVID-19 rates and trends, which is why we are not specifying precise timing at this point.

Student Surveillance Testing for COVID-19. Similarly, all students will test on a cadence like faculty and staff, with the frequency responsive to evolving conditions. We will also test all students before Thanksgiving break so that they make appropriate travel plans. Any student who tests positive for COVID-19 must remain in isolation housing while contagious and may only leave campus if picked up by a family member.

Data Dashboard and Communications. We will soon launch a web-based dashboard that tracks the number and results of COVID-19 tests administered to students and employees. As a general matter, out of respect for individual privacy, we will not be communicating with the campus about individual COVID-19 cases beyond reflecting any such test results on the dashboard. Rest assured that any individuals who might have had close contact with a COVID-positive community member will be contacted with instructions (which points to the importance of each one of us maintaining a thorough contact journal). 

Responding to COVID Rates in our College Community. The overall numbers in our dashboard will help guide our response to COVID-19, which is being managed by the senior leadership teams from both Haverford and Bryn Mawr in consultation with infectious disease experts. This group has developed a four-tier set of operating protocols regarding campus life and work, ranging from less- to more-restrictive based on a variety of factors including current COVID-19 positivity rates and trends. We will share these COVID response plans with you shortly. 

A Nuanced Notion of 'Quarantine'. Haverford's spacious campus and private, suburban setting enable varying degrees of personal separation in service of inhibiting transmission of COVID-19. Each type of separation—'campus quarantine', 'room quarantine', and 'isolation'—is marked by differentiated restrictions regarding everything from meals to mail pickup. We've produced a chart with all the details, but in brief, and as students have already heard:

• Campus Quarantine is for students who must quarantine due to Pennsylvania’s requirements regarding domestic travel. Students will have only limited access to campus facilities during their campus quarantine period and may not leave campus. 
• Room Quarantine is for students who traveled to campus from outside the U.S, have not submitted a negative COVID-19 test before coming to campus, or are an asymptomatic close contact of a positive COVID-19 case. During the room quarantine period, students may not leave their rooms other than to use their communal restroom (staggering use with hallmates). Meals will be delivered to all students in room quarantine, even if they are not enrolled in a campus meal plan.
• Isolation is for students who have tested positive for COVID-19, had close contact with a positive COVID-19 case and who are symptomatic while awaiting the result of a COVID-19 test, or have COVID-19 symptoms even with one negative COVID test result and are awaiting results of second COVID-19 test. Students in isolation will reside in a separate, designated campus housing facility with a separate restroom, and will only leave this space once cleared by Health Services. 

Feeling Anxious. Anxiety is a normal response to the uncertainties and risks we have all been living with. It's possible to be confident in the measures we are all taking to promote health and well-being and that we have set up extensively across campus, and simultaneously to feel uneasy about day-to-day life and what lies ahead. It is important that we acknowledge these feelings of our own and of others. Students can seek assistance via our Office of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), while faculty and staff have access to the Carebridge program. We need not sit alone with our anxieties. I encourage you all to be generous with care and compassion to yourselves and each other.

With the start of the school year only a few short weeks away, this will be the last weekly email of updates that I'll be sending for the time being. Through the semester, our colleagues in relevant roles across the College will be in touch with updates and instructions as circumstances require—as they would in any other year—and I will of course keep you apprised of any major developments. The main COVID-19 Hub website has been completely overhauled and every effort is being made to ensure that it remains up-to-date and useful. Please reach out to a colleague on the Communications team if there’s information you’d like to see there that you’re not finding. 

I have appreciated being able to keep in touch with you through the unprecedented spring and summer of 2020. Thank you—yes, I mean you—for all you are doing for everyone's benefit. I am counting on you to make good choices about our shared health and well-being. Thank you for including in your good choices the gifts of generosity, compassion, and empathy as we navigate this journey together. 

In the words of the masked Black Squirrel on the new Hub, "Be safe, friends!"

All my best,

Wendy

Friends:

Students start arriving on campus on Sunday! This initial group of Fords includes Customs leadership (Upper Class Advisors (UCAs), Customs People (CPs), and Customs Committee), as well as our ISRPs (International Student Resource People). 

Students’ staggered arrivals usher us into a new phase of recognizing one another from the eyes up, above our masks. (That interesting challenge has made me realize how much I previously looked at mouths, chins, and cheeks.) I look forward to greeting you on campus or via Zoom, soon. 

In the past few weeks, advisors, professors, and deans have told me how excited they have felt about the conversations they’ve had with students about courses, plans of study, and research projects. Faculty and staff colleagues have been working so hard and well this summer to prepare for new ways of learning and living at Haverford. Thank you to all of you for your adaptability, resourcefulness, and resilience, which I recognize is tempered by a good deal of uncertainty in this COVID-19 pandemic.

Anti-Racism Action. In spite of the countless hours we are all devoting to preparedness, the mission-driven work of the College continues. Central to this is our collective work toward an anti-racist Haverford where our BIPOC students, faculty, and staff may thrive and share equally in the promise of individual growth and intellectual exploration. As our current chief diversity officer, I am leading the effort to create a comprehensive, broadly held, and institution-wide plan to implement and expand anti-racism actions and policies. To be successful, this urgent work must establish abiding change. I welcome your partnership, offer my thanks to those of you already steeped in this action, and invite you to let me know about your anti-racism contributions.  

I would like to highlight a few examples of anti-racism action such as co-curricular efforts organized by and through our Center For Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC). This has included student internships and projects with organizations specializing in decarceration and restorative justice work, such as Abolitionist Law Center and Amistad Law Project. Many Haverford students are active in the area of decarceration through their participation in the Free People Strike, an effort to urge Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf to follow through on his order to release certain prisoners threatened by the spread of COVID-19 in the commonwealth's prison system. Students in the Athletes of Color Coalition (AOCC) and Black Students Refusing Further Inaction (BSRFI) continue their effective work in multiple arenas. As I begin my second year at Haverford, I have an expanded sense of how the College contributes to preparing our students, and vice versa, to bring about a more just and peaceful world by applying awareness, knowledge, and understanding to action.

COVID-19 Preparations. Over the past week, many have expressed interest in learning more about specific steps we are taking with respect to COVID-19 and community well-being. I'd like to take a few moments to pass along the latest developments in this area.

Part of our detailed preparation for this semester includes a consulting relationship with Main Line Health, which operates nearby Bryn Mawr Hospital and is a regional leader in health care. Their public health experts toured the Haverford campus and buildings this week as we walked them through our plans and many of the facilities. Here are a few highlights that will give you a sense of what the semester will feel like on campus:

Spaces:

• Spaces have been cleaned and sanitized. Enhanced cleaning protocols are in place for high-touch points and for restrooms and classrooms.
• Single rooms have been set up for all returning students.
• Classrooms have been 'de-densified' to hold no more than 25 students in our largest spaces, with most classrooms less populated than that, while our room reservation system has been updated with reduced capacity limits that will enable sufficient social distancing within each space.  
• Our Dining Services setup and serving-space plan was reviewed and has been finalized.
• Electrostatic sanitizers will be deployed each morning in classrooms and restrooms. These misters put a small charge to the sanitizing liquid so that it clings to surfaces, top and bottom, and sanitizes as it evaporates.
• Classrooms and restrooms will be cleaned twice daily.

HVAC/Air Handling: 

• HVAC systems have been flushed and the cooling water chemically treated.
• Restroom ventilation systems have been tested and tuned to meet air-changing standards.
• Legionella testing was completed and came back negative.
• Ducted HVAC systems filters have been replaced with MERV14 filters; fan coil unit filters have been replaced with pleated filters.
• Chase Hall and the Gest building, which have older ducted air systems, will have new HEPA filters in those classrooms being used this fall.

Water Systems:

• Building water systems have been flushed.
• Water fountain "bubblers" have been disabled and we have added 20 additional no-touch bottle-fill stations. 

Protecting one another:

• Plexiglass shields are being installed at various service points across campus, such as the Coop, Dining Center, Campus Safety, Mail Room, IITS Help Desk, and in lab spaces where necessary.
• Hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes will be available at building entrances, in classrooms, in restrooms, in office spaces and common areas. 
• Signage across campus will remind us of the five cornerstones of healthy and required behavior on campus:
  • Self-monitoring for symptoms
  • Mask-wearing
  • Maintaining proper social distance
  • Hand-washing
  • Keeping a contact journal of our “close contacts” (within 6’ for 10 or more minutes)

New Coronavirus Web Hub. Over the course of the pandemic, we have all benefited from having an informational COVID-19 Hub on the website that aggregates relevant information from across campus. Today, we launched a completely new site—same URL, so your bookmark still works—that should make it easier to find what you're looking for. Many thanks to our web team for this terrific new home for our COVID-19 information and resources, which has a short URL that's easy to remember: hav.to/besafe.

It's important to keep in mind that changing circumstances over the coming weeks and months may require changes in our responses. This is an unchanging truth of living in the COVID-19 pandemic. I thank you for your adaptability, and I hope that it will continue to grow in all of us. I am grateful that we will once again be learning and growing together. 

With gratitude,

Wendy

Friends,

It’s August, and we are on the cusp of an academic year that promises to be unlike any that has gone before. Thank you for your individual and shared commitment, as students, faculty, or staff, to students’ educations and our mutual well-being. You and I will make this possible because each of us returning to campus will strictly live by our five pillars of data-driven health practices: universal face masking, 6-foot physical distancing, daily symptom monitoring, frequent hand washing, and keeping a faithful contact journal. Many of us will be following these evidence-driven COVID-19 mitigation practices away from campus as we teach, learn, or work remotely. Some of us, including about 80% of our students, will do this on our beautiful campus. 

This is a time of high emotion. Anxiety and fear are normal human responses to the real uncertainties all around. Acknowledging our own apprehensions and questions—and those of the people around us—is important; it will allow us to support each other through this challenging period. Identifying such questions has also been part of our thorough preparations for both on-site and remote learning. The “Ask Wendy” button has generated 376 questions thus far, and our summer all-staff/faculty meetings and student town hall meetings have generated scores more. Thank you for contributing constructively to our path forward. 

Our plans strive to take into account each of us as individuals even as every individual commits to doing what's best for all. In the words of a 'wear a mask!' poster I recently saw, "We, Not Me: You do it for others, and they do it for you."

And yet, with all that said, and as we discovered in March, things can change at any time. So we must be as flexible as we are vigilant.  

Students will hear from Dean Bylander tomorrow about many logistical details. We will share that student update with faculty and staff to keep everyone in the loop about students’ processes. 

I'd like to close by paraphrasing remarks that Dean Bylander made during yesterday's all-staff/faculty meetup. Joyce is an experienced and beloved educator and mentor of college students, and she has already earned deep appreciation for her intensive work here at Haverford. Her words reveal the reason she chose to join Haverford during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

My job is to help students understand what will be required to meet the challenges of the 21st century. This moment is a dress rehearsal for other enormous challenges ahead. Wherever students are, the pandemic is there. I want students to be ready to lead in this world, to help people meet and overcome challenges—not to be torn apart by them, but to re-create community in a socially distant yet interconnected world. This is a defining moment for all of us; I hope that together we will meet this moment.

I am grateful that we will soon come together, with all our excitement and trepidation, to continue our collective journey in learning and discovery. Whether I see you on my screen or in person, I look forward to it!

With gratitude,  

Wendy

We will soon turn our calendars to August and be only a couple of weeks away from the first students returning to Haverford. I have missed you all, and I am looking forward to welcoming everyone back in person or via Zoom! To date approximately 80% of students have indicated that they intend to return to campus for the fall.

Last week I reviewed with you the factors guiding our decision to resume on-campus learning. As we track the course of the virus and the range of decisions colleges and universities are making, I know many of you are wondering: are we really coming back? Is it safe? And for how long? In fact, I know from your queries to me and other colleagues that you’re wondering many things, and so I’m going to try to address some of the big topics in the form of an FAQ for students, with the intent that this will be helpful to staff, faculty, and families as well.

Are we really coming back?

As we’ve said all along (well, since our June 8 announcement), yes, we are coming back to campus! And of course, the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic and our local conditions could cause that to change at any time before or after we return to campus, as we have noted all along. We have been transparent with you from the start, and we will continue to do so. I assure you that there is no “other shoe waiting to drop”—a phrase that we have heard from students who have voiced concerns that I am hiding something from you. I am not. But as we all can observe, COVID-19 cases in the US continue to rise, in large part due to people not wearing masks, not maintaining social distance, and engaging in highly risky, not-smart behaviors such as going to bars, clubs, and other tightly-packed spaces. Our plans for the fall are thoughtful and thorough, and, still, there are factors beyond our control to which we must respond for the sake of everyone’s health and safety.

The campus is already buzzing in many ways, as we have continued to house dozens of students, and as staff members prepare housing, classrooms, the Dining Center, and so much more, for our changed conditions. These gradual adaptations on campus are giving us experience with the practices of universal masking, keeping 6 feet of physical distance, symptom monitoring, regular hand washing and no face touching, and contact journaling. I hope you have adopted all of these practices yourself. I take my temperature daily and have adopted advice that struck a chord: to act as if I am pre-symptomatic with COVID-19, as I make choices and bring intention to how I impact others.

How safe is it to return to campus?

Haverford’s invitation for students to come back is conditioned on our confidence that we can do so safely, and it includes our open invitation to students to opt instead to learn from a distance. We derive some experience in campus living and working, having housed about 10% of our students uninterrupted since March, with no positive COVID cases among them. (They, and the staff around them, took considerable care, and it mattered.) Still, as is the case worldwide, we believe COVID on campus is not a matter of if but when, and how often and how many will be impacted, and so we are focused on our preventive plans that will minimize spread of the virus. These plans rely on all community members participating fully in our health safety measures: universal masking, distancing, hand washing, symptom-checking, and contact journaling, as well as minimizing travel off campus. Whether students are living on campus, off campus, or commuting, we expect you, like our staff and faculty, to be part of the shared responsibility for maintaining the health and well-being of the whole community.

We continue to receive expert health guidance consistent with the advice our peer colleges are getting, while each college is implementing that advice in the context of their own particular institutional context. At Haverford, our plan for a safe return to campus includes a combination of characteristics that differentiate us from institutions that have chosen to switch to all-remote learning: housing stock dominated by singles, small student population, our location, our physical plant, access to testing and healthcare, our ethos of care for the community, and that we have given all students the choice to learn either at a distance or on campus, and given all faculty the option to teach remotely and/or on campus. We can count on COVID-19 circumstances to impact us in the months ahead, which is why we are offering the option of remote coursework to any students or faculty who prefer that route.

Should I consider learning remotely instead of coming back to campus?

I understand that some students and families are taking a fresh look at learning remotely this fall, as COVID-19 cases rise in the US across the summer, and multiple other colleges and universities move to all-remote learning. Now is a time for me to be direct in inviting any students, who wish for any reason to learn remotely rather than on campus, simply to let us know that’s what you’d like to do. All you need to do is email your dean. In particular, if you have any doubts about your full ability to maintain the public health behaviors we expect, then I invite you to opt to learn remotely. I have every confidence in our professors’ abilities to offer an outstanding liberal arts education under all the circumstances we are in: they are brilliant, adaptive, and dedicated teachers and scholars. As we know, our faculty are preparing excellent courses for our mixture of remote and on-campus learners, and our deans, other staff, and faculty across the campus—many of whom will themselves work remotely—are preparing to support student-staff-faculty community building for all who are learning, teaching, and working remotely. At the same time, we are excited to welcome back all students who wish to learn in community together, under safe circumstances that are both delimited—for our health and safety—and expansive—for our learning and relationships.

For how long will we be back? Do you really think we’ll be on campus until Thanksgiving?

It is our intention to have you on campus for as long as it is safe for us to do so. We all know it is possible that on-campus or regional COVID-19 conditions will worsen midstream and force us to move fully remote again. We have experience doing this once, and we know it could happen again. We will do all we can to avert that outcome to the extent it is in our hands. And let me underscore our hands, because the extent to which we all—you, our faculty, and our staff—stay healthy will be foundational to our semester occurring in physical proximity. As we have learned over recent months, steps we all can take will meaningfully reduce the chance of COVID-19 infection, which will go a long way to allowing us to stay together through the fall. Rest assured the College will do all it can to live up to its principles, and we invite you to join us in common cause.

Will I have to quarantine when I return to campus?

It depends on your situation. We will follow all applicable directives including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which continue to evolve as to which geographic areas come with what quarantine requirements, and what those requirements will mean on our campus. If students from flagged states have tested negative before and after campus arrival, “quarantine” may simply mean staying on campus and attending classes remotely for the duration of the prescribed quarantine. Because these external parameters are subject to change, we will communicate with you as we get closer to your arrival about who’s affected and how. Let me just acknowledge that nobody wants to be stuck in their campus room for an extended period of time as soon as they arrive, and we will do all we can to balance community health and safety with your social and emotional well-being—it is all important to us.

Do I really have to be tested for COVID before I come back?

Yes! It’s easy to order your Pixel test, or you may opt to get tested through your own healthcare provider. Just be sure to upload your negative results to the HaverHealth Portal before you arrive on campus. Otherwise we have to assume you might be contagious and you will need to go immediately into quarantine. Details appeared in earlier guidance from Health Services.

Will I still enjoy campus life?

Dean Bylander and her student life team have been in touch with you about the many changes you will experience this fall: many courses remote, dining mostly outside of the DC, no large gatherings, no intercollegiate athletic competition, masks on, hands washed, daily health self-monitoring, minimizing contact with others. This will be nothing like a normal semester. We must acknowledge that, and we can grieve that loss. We are going to do what we can to build community and keep people healthy and connected in improvised ways. You will find numerous tents on campus to provide outdoor gathering spaces rain or shine, day or night. We will set up a huge outdoor screen for a film each Friday and Saturday night that weather allows. And various plans for other fun supplies and events are afoot, including bingo, trivia, food trucks, lawn lunches with the deans, and a Dean’s Office-Fords Against Boredom (FAB) partnership for socially-distanced speed-friending sessions.

You and your peers have posed many related questions: can we have parties and gatherings? Can my significant other who lives off campus come visit me? Can I travel? Can I work a job? These are probably the kinds of questions you and your loved ones have already wrestled with since March. The stakes are just as high when you are back on campus, if not higher, because our community health and our semester together rests on all of us making safe decisions. What has been unsafe around the world will be unsafe at Haverford. Our interim policies and protocols will guide you in making reasonable decisions about the questions on your mind. You might need to talk some of them through with your dean, which is recommended! Bottom line, we are going to ask you to avoid unnecessary risks that put your health and our community’s in jeopardy. That means not doing some things that you might have done under better circumstances.

What if I’m not sure I love the sound of that?

If that sounds hard, I applaud you for your self-reflection, realism, and honesty! We want everyone to go into the fall semester with an accurate sense of what’s ahead, and to consider their own inclination and ability to adapt to these changed circumstances. If you think this semester on campus sounds too different, or difficult, or that the limitations are too onerous, studying remotely is a fine option—and we will be glad to have you back on campus next semester or beyond. If you think your education is enough improved by being on campus that you are willing to join the on-campus community and all that entails, without reservations, committed to the health and well-being of those around you as well as your own, then I look forward to welcoming you back in a few weeks. It will be a semester literally like no other in Haverford’s history. Either way, I am confident that the agility and resilience that you develop as the generation that lived through COVID-19 in college will serve you well for a lifetime.

Take care,

Wendy

Friends,

As we continue to make our individual and collective ways into and through twin pandemics, I thank you once again for all you are investing in coming together in September to teach and learn at Haverford. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni fill my days with spirited ideas, perspectives, questions, and solutions. And I know that is the tip of the proverbial iceberg, for you are each engaged in so much more than I know about! Thank you for all you are doing and for keeping in touch.  

Anti-Racism action plan. Our ongoing work in anti-racism includes actions and action planning that are happening in large and small ways across faculty, staff, students, alumni, the Board of Managers, and the Corporation of Haverford College. As I stated in my response to the open letter from Black Students Refusing Further Inaction (BSRFI), we are seizing this historic moment in order to dismantle the consequences of systemic racism and come to terms with the legacy of racism at Haverford and its impact on generations of Black students, other students of color, and Black faculty and staff. I appreciate our students and alumni, including our Athletes of Color Coalition, who have used social media or direct outreach to share their painful experiences of being Black at Haverford in order to engage me (and you) in self-reflection and to contribute to real, positive change. My Senior Staff colleagues and I, with input from many, are building an anti-racism action plan, with implementation to follow. When will the process be complete? At one level, the answer needs to be “never”, for anti-racism work is everlasting. With much common ground and commitment, we will make significant progress in both our action plan and communication about it before courses begin on September 8.

COVID-19 Planning. Colleges and universities nationwide are releasing—and, in some cases, revising—their plans for the fall semester. Many have a plan, much like ours, to offer both in-person courses and remote-only courses. Some others are moving to all-remote instruction (with few, if any, students living on-campus) after having previously announced a semester similar to what we envision for Haverford.

While every college and university has its own reasons for its chosen path, I thought it would be worthwhile to identify key considerations that influence this decision-making across the nation, and how we at Haverford regard them during this summer of intense and detailed planning: 

• Size of student population. As you likely know, Haverford is among the smaller colleges, both in our academic peer group and in this geographic region. When it comes to COVID-19, the number of students impacts a campus across multiple registers, beginning with the absolute number of potential infections and the resulting accommodations and contingencies that are required in the event of an outbreak. In short, a smaller size provides flexibility and a reduced impact on everything from housing to food to learning environments.
• Housing options. Haverford has always had an atypically large number of singles in our residence halls, and we have expanded their number by reconfiguring units in the Haverford College Apartments (HCA). As a result, and based upon the results of our recent survey of student plans, we are able to house every student in a single in order to prioritize their health and safety.
• Facilities for quarantine, if necessary. The College is setting aside quarantine spaces that will equal approximately 5% of on-campus enrollment. Each quarantine space, which has an individual bathroom and bedroom, will be for a single student for the length of the required quarantine. These dedicated quarantine units will be available to COVID-positive students and to students who were in contact with COVID-positive students, pending a negative COVID test result. Dining Services will deliver meals to students in quarantine. 
• Classroom experience. Haverford faculty members and students have the option of participating online or in person, with faculty committed to teaching every student who enrolls, regardless of modality. So even if all but one member of a course attend in-person, that faculty member will provide an online experience for the sole remote student. That represents a huge commitment to teaching and learning, and offers a foundational flexibility that would be extremely helpful in the event of changing circumstances for any student, or the possibility of external circumstances that result in students again moving away from campus (e.g. a new government directive barring colleges and universities from continuing in residence, regional public health conditions).
• Screening and testing. The College has invested in our internal testing and screening capacities and in partnerships with third-party healthcare providers. We have expanded Health Services staffing in order to provide testing as students arrive and then throughout the semester. These capabilities will allow us to monitor COVID-19 prevalence within the overall asymptomatic student population and provide testing for symptomatic students so they may learn quickly whether common symptoms of illness are from COVID-19 or a cold, flu, or other illness.
• Ongoing consultation with experts. Haverford is fortunate to be in direct communication with infectious disease and public health experts in the Philadelphia region and within our alumni who are generously contributing to the work of the College's COVID-19 Health Protocols Group and Senior Staff.
• Regional conditions. We remain in close contact with local public health officials and health care providers to ensure that our reopening plans reflect current best practice and that key partners have the ability to meet the foreseeable healthcare needs of our campus community. Should COVID rates and trends in the greater Philadelphia area change alarmingly, as they have elsewhere in the country, we will be prepared to pivot away from our current plans for an on-campus semester.
• Campus culture. "Trust, concern, and respect" is foundational to Haverfordians' sense of self in community. Our campus is inclined by nature and habit of mind to think of others as we make choices for ourselves. Yet even as we stress, again, the importance of face masks, social distancing, hand-washing, and awareness of early symptoms, I also want students in particular to know that we acknowledge the enormity of the challenge we all face in coming to campus. We are social beings and togetherness matters; I feel deeply the absence of life in close proximity to students and colleagues; this is going to be hard. Prior to the pandemic, I didn't think I could become more impressed and appreciative of our students than I already was. But you quickly showed me what it means to be our best selves at the worst of times. And I am inclined to think that you will rise to even greater heights as the term begins, and you show the world how to live, love, and matter for the betterment of all.
• Continuing adaptation. As the summer progresses and we continue to adapt to COVID-19, a few of the changes we’ve made for the benefit of health and safety have disrupted some students’ housing or curricular plans. Receiving information that requires unwelcome change can result in feelings of sadness, grief, anger, and disappointment, even if the change makes intellectual sense. I regret that we again find ourselves dealing with loss: loss of being able to live in a double with a beloved friend, loss of being able to hold a full group of friends together in a housing unit, and loss of some curricular planning due to changes in our course schedule. And yet as we absorb these losses, I hope that we will each experience all kinds of gains as we come together across the miles, whether we return to campus or connect at a distance.

Haverford bookstore. The Haverford College bookstore is now open for business as a member of the Barnes & Noble College bookstore family. Our friends Lydia Whitelaw and Stefanie Delaney continue to manage and staff the shop, which is now literally the best of both bookstore worlds: the B&N network puts more than two million titles from 6,000 publishers at readers' fingertips; meanwhile, we all can enjoy the flexibility and convenience of an in-store experience right here on campus. Check it out at www.HaverfordBookstore.com.

A new role for an old friend. Ann Figueredo '84 is one of our most loyal and active alums. She graduated from Haverford in 1984 and returned to campus a dozen years ago to work in our Office of Institutional Advancement (IA), which stewards fundraising and alumni relations activities. Ann rose through the ranks and has led the division as vice president of institutional advancement since 2014; among her many and inspiring accomplishments was the record-setting 'Lives That Speak' fundraising campaign. Over the past year, Ann led an outstanding fundraising effort in support of key priorities including financial aid, LIFTFAR, and other diversity, equity, inclusion, and thriving areas. It is with profoundly mixed feelings that I share the news that Ann is moving on to the next chapter in her work life and will be stepping down from her position at year's end. Her interim successor will be our colleague, Assistant Vice President of Individual Giving Deb Strecker; a national search for a permanent successor begins this fall. Few have done more for Haverford than Ann, and though she will no longer be on staff, as a Ford for life she'll remain connected—and contributing to our mission—for years to come. Thank you, Ann!

I hope you and your loved ones are able to stay healthy and safe. You all are much on my mind, whether I am working on my laptop, eating lunch on the porch at 1 College Circle, or getting caught in a hot and humid downpour while walking the Nature Trail (as happened this morning). The campus looks gorgeous and sends you its green summer embrace.

With gratitude,

Wendy

Friends:

I hope this finds you and yours doing well. 

As we continue to prepare for a semester that will include both on-campus and remote learning, I have invited Rob Manning, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and our interim provost, to guest author this week’s update. As our chief academic officer, Rob is collaborating with our faculty and many other partners across campus to craft inspiring, inclusive, challenging, and rewarding curricular experiences for all.

Wendy

Dear Friends and Colleagues, 

I’m glad to have this opportunity to share with you more about our academic plans for the fall semester.

College discussions this week shifted noticeably, to finer-grained details as launch approaches. In my home, my daughter (12) is marking the moment by spending some of her daily YouTube time with her mask on, building her mask-stamina for her own return-to-school in September.  In College working groups, you see this sort of refinement process over and over. A few examples:

• The Classroom committee has finalized our list of Fall 2020 classrooms (21 in number, including one that will be housed in what I've heard called a "triple-wide trailer").  That committee is now shifting attention to furniture configurations to accommodate different teaching approaches (such as chairs-in-rows or seminar-style discussions) and detailed classroom protocols (including avoiding shared chalk/markers, exit/entry timing, and wiping down desks or keyboards).
• Rooms that are too small to be classrooms are being assessed for various uses, including peer tutoring, office/student hours, and collaboration spaces.  We are also working to facilitate use of outdoor spaces, e.g., through the addition of three new tents where we can gather safely for dining or other interactions. The Classroom and Operations committees are laying the groundwork on these projects, but really it is work that will be done by all of us once we return, working together to find creative uses for our many appealing indoor and outdoor spaces, great assets for Haverford at this moment.
• The Provost's Office continues to work with faculty and departments/programs to make adjustments needed to create an excellent educational experience in 2020-21, including reviewing requests for additional technology or TA hours to support revised teaching plans. There have been a wide variety of pedagogy workshops this summer, including ongoing efforts by IITS ("Online Teaching Best Practices") and the Teaching-Learning Institute (TLI; "Summer Pedagogy Partnerships").
• We are on the verge of a registration-fest, with returning students' re-registration opening July 20, first-year students' registration opening August 6, and plans being developed for a third registration period in late August, when students can make adjustments according to the results of lotteries or their evolving preferences. During each of these periods, in addition to course information available electronically through Bionic, Moodle, and departmental course webpages, academic advisors are available to work with students to consider their options.
• A new working group was recently convened to map out the first two weeks of September (the first week of classes, and the week that precedes it), to develop a structure that will allow students to continue to learn about courses and make final adjustments to their schedules through the add/drop system.

Many of the projects above are collaborations involving many different campus constituencies, but, as it happens, many of these particular items that are crystallizing at this moment have Jim Keane (Registrar, and Associate Dean of the College) leading the effort. We all owe Jim many thanks for helping us get these many and subtle logistical details settled in time for fall classes to begin.

-Rob

Friends,

I want to be sure you have heard the breaking news that a ruling in federal district court today means that all international students at Haverford and across the nation will be able to continue or begin their studies whether remotely or on campus. This is wonderful news for us all! You likely know that Haverford and many other colleges and universities filed amicus briefs in a lawsuit that Harvard and MIT brought to block last week’s ill-advised federal policy, and today’s hearing of that case has set aright our way forward.

Haverford students and alumni from around the world contribute inestimably to the quality of the liberal arts education we gain in community and to the ways our inclusive collaborations change the world for the better. I am so grateful that our international students can, once again, safely immerse themselves in the educations that we so passionately wish to provide.

Many of our international students will still face challenges in obtaining visas in a timely fashion. We remain steadfast in support of our students through every hurdle ahead.

Please take care. We are living through such challenging times, together.

All my best,

Wendy

Dear Students:

As many of you know, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a new set of rules regarding visa-holding students pursuing degree programs at U.S. colleges and universities during fall semester 2020. Drafted without invitation for comment, this directive comes as we are formulating plans for how the semester will unfold here at Haverford, and as you are deciding how to proceed in light of the pandemic and its effects.

We want you to know that we have been engaging with this unwelcome news from the moment we received it. With help from legal advisors who represent the College, peer institutions, and our advocates in Washington, D.C. who represent the interests of schools like Haverford, we are committed to charting a path forward that will minimize disruption, risk, and fear for our international students and all of us. With our plans for hybrid course delivery in the fall, the College is well positioned to adapt to many kinds of changing circumstances, including these. We will keep you apprised of our progress as we endeavor to do all we can to support our international students.

Haverford has long fought for the rights of international students in the U.S. We aren't about to stop now.

Wendy Raymond
President

Joyce Bylander
Interim Dean of the College

Rob Manning
Acting Provost

We are experiencing a year of unprecedented change here at Haverford as we prepare to resume on-campus learning for fall semester 2020-21. This summary and overview of what to expect is derived from a comprehensive set of guidelines prepared by the Dean's Office, the registrar, and the provost. Though written with students in mind, faculty, staff, and families will also need this information. Additional detail can be found on the College website's Coronavirus Hub. Going forward, the Hub, rather than email, will be our principal source for information about academic procedures and campus operations.

Read the full message

Friends,

It has been an eventful time for our community, and I hope you all are able to take time over the coming days to rest and restore yourselves.

Plans for Fall Semester. With thanks to the great efforts of the faculty, staff, and students engaged in continuity planning, our operational plan for the fall semester is now public and is summarized here. New details have been added to the accordion dropdowns on our Coronavirus Hub.

Highlights include:

• Calendar, including the schedule for move-in;
• Learning strategies, including our rationale for remote- and in-person class experiences;
• Changes to day-to-day operations, such as dining;
• Measures designed to keep us safe, including guidance regarding face coverings, contact journaling, and contingency plans in the event of illness. 

Going forward, we will not rely on email to announce incremental additions and modifications to the plan. Please regard the Hub as your go-to resource for the latest and most accurate information.

Anti-Racism Work at Haverford. As you may know, a number of Haverford and Bryn Mawr students and a recent alum sent an impactful Open Letter to Bryn Mawr College President Kim Cassidy and me. The letter’s co-authors and over 2500 signatories seek my—and our—labor and leadership to make meaningful systemic and structural changes that will expand Black student flourishing and bring us closer to eliminating anti-Black racism in the Bi-Co. Its authors asked Kim and me to respond in kind within two weeks, which we have done. I regard my response as one step in our constructive, shared work, work that I am confident has the potential to yield significant—and I hope enduring—actions toward building an anti-racist Haverford and Bi-Co. I will be inviting many of you specifically into this work, and thanking those of you who have long been doing this work. Please do not await my invitation to begin.

Admission and Social Media. Community members on social media yesterday may be aware that a student recently admitted to Haverford had created abhorrent racist and homophobic social media content. The College learned of this issue a few weeks ago, immediately launched an investigation, and subsequently rescinded the student’s offer of admission. Some community members have asked why the College did not make an explicit announcement on social media about its actions in light of yesterday’s social media activity. I would like to take this opportunity to share why.

I acknowledge and deeply regret the harm done to many people by this individual’s action. His short affiliation with Haverford heightened the pain for many of us. I further regret that this person’s admission to Haverford, now rescinded, caused a great deal of anguish and anger for those who, before learning that we had revoked our offer of admission, assumed (incorrectly) that we had not taken action. I was able to communicate about our action in emails to individuals who inquired, and I am able to tell you about it in this campus email. But such information is not something that the College or I will offer through social media. It was important to me that observers on social media understand that the College was aware of the horrific posts and had already and appropriately responded. However, the specific admission decision about the specific individual is not a matter for me to share with the larger world, based on a principle of grace that I try to bring even in the most challenging of situations. Thich Nhat Hanh has influenced me deeply toward this way of living, through his capacity for compassion and loving-kindness. Even while we may condemn the behaviors we have witnessed, I think there is room for “calling in” and for “calling out,” even in the face of such violations of our community standards. In this case, I hope you see integrity in swift and decisive anti-racist action, even while I understand that some found our public words, rooted in the principles above, insufficient. 

I wish you a restorative long weekend. I will write again in two weeks, taking next week “off.”

Take care,

Wendy

Friends -

Conversations this past week have been packed with learning–about anti-racism and racism across Haverford now and in the past, about how best to reassemble on campus in August, and about resources being shared for building exciting courses for the fall. I thrive on learning from others here about their experiences at Haverford and beyond, now and decades ago. (And I often wish I could join our students in their courses!)

We are rightly impatient for changes in structures, policies, practices, and systems that will make Haverford an equitable place for all. I join you in that impatience and I join you in the work. Please also join me in recognizing those among us who have long been doing the work of anti-racism and the work of inclusion through curricula, teaching, mentoring, research, community engagement, and activism. My Senior Staff colleagues and I pledge to do this work in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, alumni, the Board of Managers, the Corporation of Haverford College, and people worldwide as we design and take constructive action.

Haverford and Social Justice Movements.  I am grateful to the many students and alumni who have recently written to me about a number of compelling social justice issues and campaigns. One is rooted in concern for the health of incarcerated individuals during the pandemic; others relate to providing financial support in various ways for Black Americans and allies who have been protesting racial injustice and police brutality. There is so much important work being undertaken in the world right now.

Community members sometimes ask me how the College can help. I am guided by the principle that at Haverford we use institutional funding or other resources to advance social justice and anti-racism within and through our own educational mission. From time to time, public policy issues arise that directly affect the College, such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, such that the Board or president is compelled to advocate with governmental decision-makers using an institutional “voice.” Because of our status as a not-for-profit institution whose purpose is to educate undergraduate students, such cases are limited to issues that fall within the scope of Haverford’s educational mission.

Simultaneously, each of us as citizens may be guided by our consciences about the worthy causes and organizations we each wish to support, whether through our voice, our labor, or a financial contribution. That is certainly the case for me, and multiple emails from students and alumni spurred my own personal actions. When I act as president I do so to advance Haverford’s mission, and in my personal life, like so many of you, I support an array of causes that speak to my passions and personal commitments to the extent I am able. I am heartened by the important citizen activism occurring right now and am glad to see how many Haverford community members are finding ways to make a difference in communities near and far.

Plan For The Fall Semester. I know that students and families are eager to learn more about the resumption of on-campus learning this fall. On July 1–next Wednesday–I will share an extensive summary of what to expect during this next chapter of life and work at Haverford. Simultaneously, Interim Dean of the College Joyce Bylander will be communicating about campus life and the health and safety protocols that will be in place for the coming year. This information will also be available via the Coronavirus Hub at that time. Please continue to use the Submit A Question link at the top of the Hub if topics remain unaddressed; if you are wondering about something, others probably are, too. So taking a moment to flag an issue will likely be helpful to many of your friends and colleagues.

Go Green. Our campus transition to 'Yellow' in Pennsylvania’s system for classifying activity during the pandemic has gone very smoothly. As you likely know, that change affected only a small number of Haverford staff members, who have since returned to campus to begin preparations for reopening. Governor Wolf has announced that both Delaware and Montgomery Counties will go Green tomorrow, June 26. 

In Green, the state gives colleges and universities wide latitude in establishing work- and living-space policies and practices. Given that our remote work is going well, we continue to undertake a slow and thoughtful return of staff and faculty to campus. Most of us at Haverford will continue to work remotely, while academic departments plan their course offerings for the fall and administrative departments complete formulation of their Return-to-Work protocols. With those protocols in place and articulated, we expect a further, controlled increase in on-campus activity over time. Staff can look for details from their supervisors.

I offer the friendly reminder than any staff members who anticipate being instructed to return to work on campus in August and who have concerns about doing so should email Donna Hawkins in the Office of Human Resources (dhawkins@haverford.edu) or hc-hr@haverford.edu for confidential guidance. This guidance and regular updates can be found on our Coronavirus Hub.

As those in many parts of our country are discovering, healthy living during this pandemic depends on our disciplined adoption of public health best practices, for as long as necessary. We are mobilizing our culture of caring by universally adopting behaviors that respect each other’s well-being.  At Haverford, we will minimize viral transmission through the combined impacts of our five pillars of health and safety:

• universal face covering
• physical distancing 
• hand-washing 
• daily self-monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms (e.g., fever, muscle pains), and 
• contact journaling. 

As we look forward to developing our elevated campus culture of care, we learned more about COVID-19 “contacts” this week when the Tri-Co presidents and colleagues met with four Haverford alumni who are generously serving as informal medical and public health advisors. From the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Cleveland Clinic, and the Philadelphia Health Commissioner, we were reminded that the current evidence-based definition of a high-risk contact for COVID-19 transmission is spending 15 minutes or more unmasked and within 6 feet of an infected individual. These infectious disease and public health experts further noted that we would not include 1-2-hour classes or meetings as close contacts with classmates or co-workers if all people wear face coverings and stay 6 feet apart in a well-ventilated space. We will continue to work with these and other health advisors to adapt our practices and plans, as the world’s understanding of COVID-19 expands over the weeks and months ahead. 

I look forward to working with you to ensure our success!

With gratitude,

Wendy

Friends,

I begin with gratitude for the myriad ways you are making Haverford a better place - even during June, which is not usually such an intense time of year here! It is a joy to experience the energy of the few returning staff members as they ready our beloved campus for the start of classes on September 8. I feel uplifted by the creativity and focus of professors redesigning their courses during a summer like no other, with research and rhythms generally out of whack. And I feel inspired by our students, who are carving paths forward for themselves and for the College.

In this vein, yesterday a group of Black students at Haverford and Bryn Mawr sent “An Open Letter to the Bi-College Community” to Bryn Mawr President Kim Cassidy and me; they also shared it with many of you. This group of thirteen student co-authors, supported by hundreds of co-signatories, generously spent time and talent to detail current and long-standing concerns as well as recommendations to remedy racist and discriminatory systems within the BiCo. Kim and I have responded to the students and will continue to engage in this work and conversation. We thank those of you who are working in a multitude of ways, like these students, to advance our progress in anti-racism via necessary structural changes, such as in our curricula and our hiring practices. As these students note, “Although the battle against white supremacy is systemic and cannot be won overnight, we cannot afford to settle for expressions of care. The responses from our colleges must be oriented toward long-term change.”

Tomorrow is Juneteenth, marking the anniversary of Union General Gordon Granger’s arrival in Galveston to announce enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order freeing all enslaved people in the United States and which had taken effect elsewhere almost two and one-half years earlier. Tomorrow’s re.ACT conversation by Zoom from 11:00-noon EST (reACT Zoom Link), scheduled to mark Juneteenth, will focus on areas of concern raised in the open letter about the Office of Multicultural Affairs’ support of Black students. Please join staff members Theresa Tensuan and Ben Hughes to share questions, concerns, and ideas aimed at shaping concrete actions.

Over 70 faculty and staff members plan to participate in one or more days of the Academics for Black Survival and Wellness Conference, a national series of remote workshops that intentionally begins on Juneteenth. This week-long set of professional development opportunities “...was organized by a group of Black counseling psychologists and their colleagues who practice Black allyship. Guided by a Black feminist frame, we hope to foster accountability and growth for non-Black people and enhance healing and wellness for Black people.”

Fall preparations

Faculty are preparing for their fall courses, with assistance from colleagues in IITS, Libraries, the Registrar’s Office, and across campus. Various course formats will be offered to meet students’ needs, including in-person, hybrid, and remote classroom learning. Academic advising will occur over the summer to help our incoming first year-students learn about the curriculum and choose their courses before they arrive on campus. Major and sophomore advising will also happen during the summer, so that we are supporting all students as they navigate this new array of course modalities as well as changes in course scheduling necessitated by our need to stay at least 6 feet apart in classrooms (and wearing our face coverings!).

Later in the summer, we will provide detailed information about all kinds of aspects of our Fall planning. For now, please rest assured that hundreds of people are working on our safe and energizing return to campus.

Counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have been moving slowly but steadily from Red to Yellow and then to Green. The College's Operating Planning Group, with approximately 20 members chaired by Mitch Wein and Jesse Lytle, has been diligently working through and anticipating each of these potential changes. The College has taken and will continue to utilize a staged return to work, prioritizing health and safety of the community. As we work through the summer, even the movement to Green may not signal a significant shift in on-campus practices, as much of the work can still be completed remotely. Supervisors will communicate directly regarding any adjustments related to Green in all departments where some modest changes may occur in the near term. Please continue to review the COVID-19 hub for a full list of all updates, policies, and practices.

DACA News (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)

Today the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision that provides good news for the approximately 700,000 DACA individuals throughout the nation, including Haverford students and alumni. Because of our deep investments in our students’ lives, Haverford and hundreds of other colleges and universities have long supported the DACA program. You can read about Haverford's history of DACA support here.

Board of Managers Report

At last Friday’s Board of Managers meeting, the Board approved a base-case budget that we will implement for FY 2020-21. This budget is predicated on our current plans for the Fall semester. Through the efforts of many, the base-case budget incorporates our goal to avoid all furloughs for Haverford employees and does not include any pay or salary reductions for any employee (except for those for Senior Staff, which went into effect on May 1). In addition, through the summer we have been able to offer re-assigned positions for all applicable employees with full continuation of pay, and with no furloughs.

The Board also reviewed a level of adjustment that may be needed if our gross revenue declines meaningfully; Mitch Wein and Fran Blase have shared with staff and faculty the potential results of various models for such scenarios. The future is uncertain today because of COVID-19, and yet our planning remains thoughtful, comprehensive, concerned about all community members, and ready for the unexpected.

I wish you a good night, or good morning, and send all good wishes for enjoying the longest day of the year - or the shortest, for our students in the southern hemisphere!

Take care,

Wendy

Friends:

I hope that you are finding pathways to well-being each day, even as the Earth feels like it is somehow spinning more rapidly than usual. Here at Haverford, it has been a treat to welcome a few members of staff back to campus for the first time since March. I continue to work remotely from 1 College Circle, and it’s been wonderful to see colleagues for the first time in a long time when Peanut and I get out for a walk.

I trust you read the letter that Bryn Mawr College President Kim Cassidy and I sent to both communities on Monday announcing the academic calendar for Fall 2020. I am excited to anticipate the start of classes on September 8! Many of us will return to campus, while those of us who need to teach, learn, and work remotely will continue to do so. I offer my deep gratitude to our colleagues and students involved in this intense BiCo planning. We hit our August 1 planning deadline on June 8! That has been a big relief. More details will follow throughout the summer, as our planning groups continue their excellent work.

Working Under 'Yellow.' Last Friday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf revised our regional COVID-19 status from 'Red' to 'Yellow.' This has meant a careful return to campus work for only a small number of staff members. The campus (including the Nature Trail) remains closed except for residents and those on approved College business. Please continue to regard remote work as a way for all of us to contribute to the ongoing success we're having in the fight against COVID-19. I send each of you my thanks for all you are doing for yourselves, your families, and all of humanity. Our planning groups are now turning their attention to the anticipated 'Green' phase and how a return to campus learning can be accomplished safely and effectively.

No Furloughs. Our colleagues in the Finance & Administration division have devoted countless hours to the question of how we might reassign staff members whose job responsibilities do not align with the summer work plan. They also developed the six-week 'Summer Sabbatical' program, which more than two dozen staff members will be taking advantage of. Having taken those steps, I'm pleased to announce that the College has no plans to furlough any employees this summer. Thank you for your patience and good faith during this necessarily lengthy process. The terrific outcome is that we have continued and will continue to pay all employees without interruption through the summer, and that means a lot to all of us.

Special Board Meeting. Haverford's Board of Managers will spend this Friday (tomorrow) in a special virtual session, turning to several agenda items it deferred to allow more time to understand our current environment and possible paths forward. Chief among these is the approval of the FY2020-21 operating budget, which the Board typically approves in April. As always, the Board and I will report out from Friday’s meeting with all the relevant details of their deliberations and actions.

Summer in Dining Services. The DC closes for the summer beginning Sunday evening, with the Coop open for business Monday morning, June 15, seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The modified Coop menu will serve take-out only. Students who purchased a summer meal plan will be able to use those meal swipes at the Coop.

I send you the joy of watching a set of five goslings reach near-adulthood over these past weeks in and around the Duck Pond, the beauty of the setting sun over our athletics fields, and the songs of our backyard house finches, robins, and cardinals, who remind me that 5:30am is a fine time (for some among us) to awaken. :)

Take care,

Wendy Raymond
President

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff of Bryn Mawr and Haverford,

Given the close academic and co-curricular collaboration of our two colleges, Bryn Mawr and Haverford are committed to planning together for the coming academic year to ensure an excellent liberal arts education while maintaining a safe and healthy environment for all. We write today to share our joint decisions about the academic calendar for the fall semester. To support community members’ planning, additional details will follow in the coming weeks about the fall and the rest of the academic year as we make progress in our various planning processes.

The planning process has been led by several groups at each college and by a Bi-College Continuity Planning Group, all of which have explored many options and considered ideas, concerns, and questions offered by faculty, students, and staff. We have consulted infectious disease specialists and medical system leaders from Johns Hopkins University, the Mayo Clinic, the University of Pennsylvania, and Jefferson Health Systems to ensure that we have the most current evidence-based thinking on operating safely. We will continue to consult to ensure we are following best practices. Each college has also created campus operations teams to assess everything from airflow in classrooms to food service to dorm density and cleaning, guided by the standards set for colleges and universities by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Based on this research, discussion, and consultation, Bryn Mawr and Haverford will resume in-person instruction for the fall semester, barring any upsurge of COVID-19 infection or government limitation. The fall academic calendar will:

• start on Tuesday, September 8, 2020
• follow a regular semester system
• be based on in-person classes, for those who elect to return to campus, through Friday, November 20
• not have a fall break, but the Thanksgiving break will be extended to include the full week of Thanksgiving and run from Saturday, November 21 - Sunday, November 29;
• hold the final 10 days of classes (Nov. 30 - Dec. 11) remotely, as well as the exam period concluding on Dec. 18;
• offer classes across an expanded weekly schedule (e.g., some evening and weekend classes).

We have made the decision to eliminate fall break and complete the last two weeks remotely to minimize travel back and forth from campus. Students will be expected to leave for Thanksgiving break on or around Friday, November 20 and will not be able to return until second semester. Those students who cannot return home at the Thanksgiving break will be able to remain on campus, with the Dean’s permission.

Students should not make travel plans at present, as we expect to stagger arrivals to avoid large numbers of students and families moving in simultaneously. Look for additional information in the coming weeks.

We are aware that some students and some faculty and staff with underlying health conditions will not be able to return to campus in the fall. We are currently working with faculty members at both colleges to determine options for remote learning and teaching for those who require this accommodation. Students who choose not to return to campus will have the opportunity to take classes remotely, although not all courses will be offered in remote format.

Given that we will need to spread classes across a longer day to reduce density in buildings, and that changes in instructional modality will prompt some adjustment to the array of courses available to students this year, we expect that students will need to re-register for courses.

The calendar for the spring 2021 semester has not yet been set so that we can continue to learn and adapt to evolving circumstances.

Health and safety will continue to be our primary concern. In the words of one of the medical experts we consulted, universal mask wearing will be our “vaccine,” supported by social distancing, handwashing, symptom checking, and contact journaling. Adopting these practices will be required of all community members and guests to our campuses. We believe these changes in behavior are possible because of the deep value all of us place on community, and our shared understanding of our responsibility to one another and the wider world.

We will provide updates in the coming weeks that provide more information about courses, scheduling, pre-semester orientation activities, co-curricular activities, athletics, and safety measures.

We are excited to be able to tell you about our joint academic calendar and to relieve any question about whether we will return to campus in the Fall. We look forward to welcoming you back to Bryn Mawr and Haverford at the end of the summer.

Best,

Kim Cassidy and Wendy Raymond

Friends:

In the midst of this intense time for our nation and intense time for our world, on Saturday we celebrated our seniors in style! Our speakers’ beautiful tributes to our Class of 2020 included these words from Professor Shu-Wen Wang:

We’ve learned from your empathy and commitment to serving others, even in the face of the ugly xenophobia, health inequities, and closed-mindedness that have been inflamed and exacerbated by our global health crisis. And we have learned from your responses over the recent days and weeks and months as we grieve yet again the needless violent deaths of too many Black Americans and recognize the anguish of communities of color suffering from deeply rooted systems of oppression. Indeed, our current environment is characterized by multiple crises, and yet we know that we all share a vision of this world that is worth fighting for.

Indeed, we share a vision of this world that is worth fighting for! And I see that unfold in such inspiring ways through our distinctive approaches. Thank you to those who have already joined me in conversation about anti-racism, an essential component of our shared vision. I have received many constructive and impassioned suggestions as well as offers of assistance toward the work ahead. Thank you to all who have opened yourselves up to this important conversation.

Return to on-campus work begins for some staff and faculty

Barring a last-minute revision of plans, tomorrow our campus will be in the Yellow phase of pandemic recovery. We will thus be in a position to modify ever so slightly how we’ve been operating.That is good news, because it means the start of a very gradual repopulation of campus toward our expectation of returning to campus for the Fall semester.

For most of us, the move to Yellow will not bring significant change to our worklife. Staff, faculty, and students should plan on continuing to work remotely unless you are notified otherwise; details regarding policies and procedures during this new phase have been posted to a new section of the coronavirus hub under “Faculty and Staff” called “Returning to Work.” This section also includes details about taking vacation and other forms of time off.

A number of staff members have responded to the Summer Sabbatical offer and our friends in the Office of Human Resources are consulting with supervisors as I write; look for final decisions by early next week. Thank you for your continued good work at this most challenging time!

Move-out. Our orderly process for student move-out from the residence halls begins on Friday. We are confident that the plan and its timetable respects health and safety guidelines. However, a plan only succeeds if we all buy into it. So when you are on campus, please wear a face covering at all times and respect social distancing.

Planning for fall. Those of you who attended either of the student or staff/faculty meetups this week are now familiar with our current thinking about the fall semester: we expect to return to campus, and details about the rhythm of the semester will be communicated next week!

Questions and answers. It’s great that many of you are taking advantage of the Submit a Question link on the hub, and you asked so many questions at our Zoom meetings this week that I couldn’t get to them all. Please see some Q and A below my signature.

Take care, stay safe, and enjoy these lengthening days of June.

In gratitude,
Wendy

Q. Where can we find information about who is in what planning group?

A. The Coronavirus Hub has a section on Stewarding the Haverford Response.

Q. Will the College issue face coverings to staff and faculty?

A. Community members are strongly encouraged to provide their own reusable cloth mask or face covering. If someone is not able to do so, the College will provide up to five reusable cloth masks or up to five non-medical disposable face masks.

Q. Will the gym be open soon or when classes start?

A. We will follow applicable guidance from the Commonwealth, which currently dictates that gyms may not open under Yellow. Even under Green, we would reopen the GIAC or parts thereof only if and when we are satisfied that we have in place safeguards for healthy use built on our pillars of universal masking, distancing, handwashing, self-monitoring, and contact journaling.

Q. We offer classes with labs, studios, or other experiential settings in which students and teachers gather around objects of concern (tools, experiments, cameras, canvases) sometimes in tight spaces (darkrooms & editing labs). Social distancing isn’t an option in such circumstances. How should faculty and students work together in these circumstances?

A. This is a real challenge for us and all of our peer colleges. ‘Group E’ of our Academic Continuity group, led by Jon Wilson and Laura McGrane, has been spearheading discussions about how we will adapt here at Haverford.

Q. If Montgomery County remains in the yellow phase, will the college still move forward for in-person classes in the Fall?

A. In-person instruction has thus far been allowed only under Green status. To date, Haverford’s two counties, Delaware and Montgomery, have moved through the Red-Yellow-Green scheme in unison. In a possible situation in which one county’s status differed from the other’s, we will be given specific guidance from the PA Department of Education.

Q. I've read info from the PA Dept of Health that buildings that have been closed down during COVID-19 must have appropriate steps taken to prevent Legionnaires Disease. Is the College aware of this and taking the appropriate steps to flush out the buildings systems? Thank you!

A. Facilities will be conducting a thorough cleaning and sanitizing of campus buildings following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which address these and other risks.

Q. Are there any coronavirus cases on campus?

A. There has only been one positive COVID-19 case on campus, earlier this spring. That employee immediately self-isolated off campus and made a full recovery; the College traced all possible contacts at that time and notified those individuals, who also self-isolated off campus until they were cleared to return.

Friends,

I reach out to connect with you via words of invitation so that we can, together and individually, connect via action.

I offer this invitation during a month of grief, fury, and fear across the nation about the killings of Black Americans George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, which come juxtaposed upon our increasing clarity of the disproportionately harmful impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color in the United States. These killings are part of the growing list of killings of Black Americans that involve police or flawed law enforcement processes; these COVID-19 health disparities are part of systemic racial injustices in the US that include employment, health, public education, incarceration, and civil rights.

To our Black students, staff, and faculty and to all our students and colleagues of color: I join you in grief, anger, and outrage while acknowledging—and decrying—that you bear the undue burdens of lives at risk and collective trauma when structures meant to provide civil and health protections fail.

To those of you in the White majority at Haverford College, I seek to inspire and invite us all, and to inspire Haverford College, to grow our intellectual, social, and emotional intelligence about racism, inequality, and inequities - racism and inequities in America and racism and inequities in our own ways of knowing and being. We White members of this community need to take responsibility for doing this work. I invite all of us not yet on this path to join our students, faculty, staff, and alumni who already actively practice anti-racism, recognizing that the goal of anti-racism sits firmly in the educational mission and values of Haverford College, including the Quaker value of equality.

For those not familiar with the term “anti-racist,” I invite you to see yourself in it and in our aspiration. I have compiled a set of resources below that is by no means complete but may provide a start. Please expand upon this; I welcome all suggestions.

Thank you to those of you who are moving us toward this anti-racist aspiration, and for the many who have done so across Haverford’s history. In particular, I applaud our students and alumni, who often lead by alerting us to the ways and extents to which we must change—often whole cloth—in order to teach, mentor, and be in community inclusively. This generally requires persistence and risk, debts that we will owe perhaps forever, unless we might be able to pay them forward by the positive impacts of our anti-racist future.

We have learned so much in a few months about a scourge previously unknown to humans – COVID-19. What are our reasons for allowing the scourge of racism to continue? Let us all apply our capacities to learn, create, adapt, discover, and thrive to becoming an anti-racist institution. For if not at Haverford, where?

Words are important, and words are not enough. I hope you will accept my invitation to action.

Yours,
Wendy

Resources:

Being Anti-Racist, from the National Museum of African American History and Culture

An Antiracist Reading List, by Ibram X. Kendi

Anti-Racism Resources for White People and Parents

Friends,

Seniors! I’m so looking forward to celebrating you at 1pm on Saturday!

Everyone else - I hope you will join me for our joyous virtual ceremony to honor members of the Class of 2020 and their achievements, as we inaugurate their bright futures as Haverford alums! Myriad awards and honors for our seniors will be revealed online Saturday morning. Please add your own individual or group’s well wishes, today or tomorrow, with a brief video at https://flipgrid.com/haverford2020. Peanut and I had fun doing our part, and I laughed and cried over the love already there.

Retrieving student belongings. Next week, students will begin to retrieve their belongings from campus residences, either to take home or put into storage. In order to participate, you must sign up for an assigned date and time by Monday, June 1 via the form on the student service portal. Details are available on the ‘Move Out/Store Belongings’ dropdown on the coronavirus hub.

Chances to learn about planning for the fall. On Monday, June 1, at 11am EDT I invite all students to join me and some of your fellow students, faculty, and staff involved in continuity planning to discuss developing plans for next year. On June 3 at 9:30am all staff and faculty are invited to a community webinar. Faculty will have an additional open meeting on June 4 at 7pm. Stay tuned for separate invitations to these Zoom meetings.

Transition to ‘Yellow’. On June 5, our region is slated to enter the ‘Yellow’ phase of Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 response. When our campus turns ‘Yellow,’ only a small fraction of College staff will resume on-campus work. Our focus during this period—however long it might last—will be on readying our physical campus and its operations for the eventual return of most of our students, faculty and staff. We will repair, clean, and sanitize buildings. We will upgrade classroom technology and modify our spaces to support physical distancing. Guided by the CDC and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we will put in place protocols and policies to support everyone’s health and safety. Over the course of the summer, as allowed, we will slowly bring back to campus more of the staff and faculty who will perform this essential work, evaluating and improving our ability to maintain a healthy, safe environment each step of the way.

Fall planning. Three campus committees are charting the path forward. Faculty, staff, and students on the Academic Continuity Advisory Group are considering curricular options, while the Operations Planning Group is readying the practical elements of what living and working at Haverford will mean. All work is proceeding in close coordination with our partners at Bryn Mawr College through the BiCo Continuity Planning Group.

We continue to be guided by our four overarching principles:

• we will provide an excellent liberal arts education;
• we will ensure the health, safety, and well-being of students, faculty, and staff;
• we will contribute to the greater good;
• we will steward Haverford as a perpetual institution.

As we sketch out plans for the next academic year, we are focusing on:

• An academic calendar that minimizes the need or opportunity to leave and return from breaks.
• Teaching modalities that enable both in-person and remote instruction, anticipating that some students, faculty, and staff who can work remotely may opt to remain away from campus.
• Adaptations to our residential program to allow students to safely live, study, dine, and build community.
• Adaptations to workspaces that will similarly allow faculty and staff to do their work safely and participate in community life, modified as it must be.
• Heightened and realistic expectations for community members to adhere to public health protocols.

Start healthy campus habits now. This measured approach to life and work—incrementally, with the utmost care and intentionality—highlights our need to begin developing good habits that will allow us to come back safely in the fall. Doing our best to contribute to others’ well-being is a top priority. It is critical that all of us living and working on campus follow health and safety procedures at all times, now and onward:

• wear a mask when not in your own residence, even if you don’t think you will encounter anyone;
• observe physical distancing of at least six feet when in any sort of group;
• contact your medical providers if you feel unwell; and
• keep a journal of where you go and who you’ve been near, to increase the accuracy and speed of contact tracing should the need arise.

Starting now, if each of us begins building these habits, we will be ready to safeguard one another effectively when we resume on-campus learning in just three short months.

For students, returning to campus for your belongings provides an opportunity for you to test your skills at COVID-19 resistance. Please regard this limited engagement with campus—and one another—as a chance to experience, in advance, how we will work together to create a supportive and safe environment.

We are fortunate in so many ways. With our Honor Code and our best efforts to build a community of trust, concern, and respect, we have such advantages relative to other educational and work settings. I appreciate this more than words can convey.

I hope your summer starts off well. I hope that you will keep in touch on social media, by email, and at the all-student and all-staff/faculty virtual meetups we’ll have. I also want our planning committees to have the benefit of your ideas and insights as we move forward together, so if you use the ‘Submit A Question’ feature at the top of the hub page, I’ll make sure to pass it on.

Let me know what photos you long to see of campus, and I’ll do my best to post on Instagram!

Take care,
Wendy

Friends,

This semester, now nearly complete, has touched so many emotions: inspiration, disappointment, confusion, relief, loss, love. It has been a time to reflect and plan for our uncertain future, a time to count blessings and go the extra mile to make a positive difference for others. And to think that it has barely been two months since we detoured onto this COVID-19 journey! Thank you for your companionship on this unexpected and continuing passage. I cannot imagine a finer set of fellow travelers.

I want to share details of the processes through which we continue to lay the groundwork for the upcoming academic year. For ease of navigating, you will find the following topics below my signature:

Summer and Preparing for Reopening

Upcoming Community Conversations

Summer Sabbatical Program for Staff

Comings and Goings: Dean of the College, Ombuds, Provost

But first, I would like to send special greetings to our graduating seniors!

Commencement: Our online celebration of accomplishment takes place next Saturday, May 30, at 1 p.m. EDT. Note that I don’t call this a virtual ‘commencement’; that very real event will come, in 2021—a time for us to gather again for an in-person commencement experience worthy of this wonderful group. Many of our seniors will have already received a not-at-all-virtual care package from the College, and I invite you and your families to share photos and memories across social media using #celebrateHaverford20. We all salute your achievements and applaud your new status as Haverford alumni. Congratulations!

Dave and I had a wonderful time on Saturday welcoming on-campus seniors and friends to our lawn, replete with the tradition of taking photos in front of the hot-pink azalea at 1 College Circle. Last night, I celebrated with our Chesick Scholars; last week I laughed and applauded during the Senior Scholar-Athlete awards ceremony. It’s been fun to supply short videos and watch so many others, as we all lift up our admiration for the Class of 2020.

With gratitude,
Wendy

Summer and Preparing for Reopening: About one hundred of the students who have remained here during the remote-learning period of second semester will likely stay on. And thanks to the generosity of their fellow students, who ‘passed the hat’ in order to round-up unused meal swipes, each now has 15 swipes in their accounts as the College looks into ways to extend our support beyond that.

Simultaneously, faculty and staff colleagues continue the good and hard work of running the College from near and far, while collaborating with student leaders to evaluate many possible paths forward for our return to campus for 2020-21. With our close partnership and integrated curriculum, Haverford and Bryn Mawr will make a joint decision about the calendar and structure of the next academic year. Here at Haverford, a pair of advisory groups—academic and operational—are creating and assessing possible approaches to living and learning come fall semester at Haverford. That final notion—‘at Haverford’—is a central, guiding aspect of this work, for what might work for another college may not be appropriate for us.

And while that last sentence contains the words “might” and “may”, I’ll conclude this short discussion of our planning process with stronger language: I am certain that we will find the right path for Haverford. We have great, creative minds directly focused on this, with many more ready to provide feedback and guidance. And, ultimately, it will be up to all of us—well, except you seniors!—to make it work. I have absolute confidence in our community’s ability to adopt and implement thoughtful, creative, and worthy solutions.

Upcoming Community Conversations: I look forward to hosting “all-staff and -faculty” zoom meetups on the first Wednesday of the summer months (9:30-10:30 a.m. EDT on June 3, July 1, and August 5) at which we will discuss emerging plans and proposals, and—as always—engage around ideas and areas of concern. Please use the special web form to raise topics for possible inclusion in meeting agendas.

On June 1 at 11 a.m. EDT, students will also have a chance for a virtual meetup with campus colleagues and me to discuss the development of plans for the fall. I’ll be happy to share some of our current thinking and look forward to your advice and questions. Stay tuned for an invitation with details.

Summer Sabbatical Program for Staff: Today, our friends in the Office of Human Resources shared a new ‘Summer Sabbatical’ program which provides staff with an opportunity to detach from their work at the College in order to capture some personal or down-time for six weeks from mid-June to the end of July. The College is providing this summer sabbatical program with pay at 50% while preserving benefits, such as health care. Please refer to the program details which are available at the COVID-19 hub as well as via an email sent to all staff from Human Resources. This program is entirely voluntary, and we will endeavor to accommodate as many requests for participation as possible.

Comings and Goings

Dean of the College: As you now know, we are delighted to welcome Joyce Bylander to Haverford as interim dean of the College. She takes over for Martha Denney, about whom former dean Steve Watter has noted that 11 years at the helm of the Dean’s Office makes Martha the longest-serving dean in the last half-century at least! Her commitment to colleagues, students, and the well-being of all in our community demonstrates her humanity, grace, and faith in the power of a liberal arts education to change lives, and our world. Thanks, Martha, for contributing so many lasting, positive impacts as dean!

Ombuds: Steve Watter himself, who returned from retirement to serve as our pilot ombuds, is also moving on this summer, to take up a new role with the Lenfest Scholars Foundation. Steve did our community great service in developing the Ombuds Office through a year-plus experiment during which he was a resource to faculty, staff, and students. In our current context, we will not immediately seek a successor ombuds. Please join me in thanking Steve, again, for his contributions to Haverford.

Provost: We soon will say a sort-of-goodbye to Fran Blase, who will return to teaching in the Department of Chemistry following five years as our provost. At our most recent faculty meeting, we were delighted to welcome former president and long-serving English Department faculty member Kim Benston! Kim, who appointed Fran to the provost role, said he knew she would “bring passion for the liberal arts and the relationship between the faculty and the student in the drama, the great quest, of inquiry and learning.” He further pointed out that she would bring “great personal attributes, impeccable integrity, lively sense of humor, and warm generosity of spirit she brings to everything she does.” I can certainly attest to that! I am so grateful that Fran agreed to stay on an extra year through the presidential transition, and I will miss her great colleagueship. Thanks, Fran, and we know our students and Chemistry colleagues are eager to have you back.

Looking forward, I share the excellent news that we will welcome a new provost to Haverford this summer! Our offer has been accepted, our process is near completion, and our new colleague will join us in August. Next week I will be able to tell you who it is, once the new provost’s institution and we have coordinated the timing of our public announcements. Thank you to every person who participated in this national search. It was an intensive and collaborative endeavor which, much to my delight, proceeded and concluded with enormous success even without any in-person interactions.

Wendy Raymond
President

Friends,

Thank you. Thank you for all you have attempted in these most unusual times. Thank you for all the ways you have persisted, all the vulnerabilities you chose to face, and all the learning you have achieved. Thank you for encouraging and supporting one another. Thank you for your energy and optimism, even through our shared grief and fears.

Thank you for inviting me into this wondrous place and community called Haverford. When I joined you last summer, little did any of us know that we would be on this kind of journey together. I couldn't have chosen better partners for the ride. You—students, staff, and faculty (equal in my admiration!!)—have my utmost respect, my ongoing gratitude, and my continuing enthusiasm for all you do and are. Thank you.

As students finish exams and theses, faculty continue with grading, and staff move essential projects forward, I am pleased to offer a few campus updates. Below my signature, you will find answers to a few common questions that have come my way recently.

Commencement. Please join me in celebrating the Class of 2020 on May 30, with live video beginning at 1:00 p.m. EDT! The live-stream will run about a half hour, accompanied by terrific website additions that celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of the amazing Class of 2020. More information (along with invitations to submit congratulatory messages) will follow later this week. I look forward to welcoming the class and their families back to campus for an in-person Commencement in 2021, once it is safe and possible to do so.

Information for families. Many students’ family members have expressed interest in keeping up with relevant news from Haverford through the COVID crisis. Students, feel free to let your loved ones know that a new info hub [this page] now contains our messages to students coming from me and various campus colleagues.

Return-to-Work: As we wrap up the spring semester, many of our faculty, staff, and students have turned their attention to summer and next year. The first step of any large-scale return to campus will come after the COVID-19 case level in Montgomery and Delaware counties reaches “green” status, as defined by Governor Wolf. Our new Operations Planning Group is developing plans for a safe and methodical return of staff and faculty to campus. These plans will necessarily include changes in how we work together on campus in order to provide for community health and safety. If individual circumstances require it, and work can be conducted remotely, we will continue to allow employees to telecommute even after the campus has reopened.

Planning for 2020-21. We continue to plan for the 2020-21 academic year, expecting that we will resume on-campus instruction in the fall. Simultaneously, our Academic Continuity Advisory Group is exploring alternative plans should on-campus learning not be possible in September. I feel encouraged and energized about possibilities developing through these student-faculty-staff conversations, such as a later start to the semester, or a remote beginning of instruction and community-building (should the course of the COVID virus or restrictions by Pennsylvania regulations preclude a campus return in late August). The group is also creatively rethinking—along with Bryn Mawr counterparts—the educational experience based on what we’ve learned this spring about working remotely, including the importance of small class sizes, and the advantages of spreading student course loads over the academic calendar to make workloads more manageable. The Academic Continuity group will reach out to all students in early June in an effort to begin a collaborative reimagination of the 2020-21 academic year that will accommodate the realities and uncertainties of our COVID world.

Public Health Expertise and Support: In making return-to-work plans as well as preparing for the fall, Haverford and the Tri-Co have engaged alumni and regional experts in public health. An ad hoc advisory council led by Dr. Robert Bollinger ‘79 of Johns Hopkins University will advise the Tri-Co’s implementation of campus health and safety protocols. Simultaneously, the Tri-Co has been invited into conversation with colleagues from our Quaker Consortium partner, the University of Pennsylvania, and its world-class medical school, as all our schools prepare for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing.

I offer my hearty and heartfelt congratulations to all our students, faculty, and staff whose semesterly work will conclude tomorrow! Hooray! I hope you will catch your breath, give yourself a break, and take time for self-care.

Sincerely,

Wendy

Q&A

What are the revised dates and deadlines for the end of the semester?
Final exams/papers are due tomorrow, Friday, May 15, for all students. Students can see other academic dates and details here. Faculty should remember to submit their grades by noon, Friday, May 22.

How is Haverford affected by Governor Wolf’s recent June 4 “red” time frame for southeastern PA?
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has extended the stay-at-home order through June 4 for our region of the Commonwealth. This timeline is guiding our path forward regarding a wide range of return-to-work matters. Much is subject to change in the current environment, but we should not expect a general return-to-work on campus until Montgomery and Delaware Counties are both “green,” which is likely no sooner–and perhaps much later–than two weeks after achieving “yellow” status, which is slated not to occur before June 5. Therefore our working assumption is that most employees will not return to campus before the second half of June at the earliest, except for those staff members who continue to report to campus to support a critical need. We will continue to update the campus as we learn more about the status of our counties and we prepare Haverford-specific plans for returning to work. As always, please refer to the Haverford College website hub for COVID-19 materials and policy updates.

What is the revised policy on employee vacation rollover for the summer of 2020?
Due to the numerous disruptions of and effects on so many facets of our lives caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the College is creating an exception to the vacation rollover policy for this academic year. Employees unable to use their allocated vacation time before June 30, 2020 may be in direct contact with their supervisor and/or senior staff member to request a vacation rollover. The College has authorized that up to five (5) days of unused vacation can be rolled forward, to be used through August 31, 2020. You must submit the request to your supervisor or senior staff member for the (up to) five unused vacation days prior to June 15, 2020. See the Employee Scheduling and Pay section of the COVID website hub.

As the College considers summer furloughs, is there a focus on non-exempt positions in particular?
No, we are systematically analyzing all positions and are minimizing the number of furloughs in a variety of ways. Should any employees be furloughed for a portion of the summer, they will retain their healthcare benefits and be able to apply for unemployment benefits; the latter would allow recipients to receive additional financial support through CARES funding.

What will happen with athletics next year?
It is too soon to say what kinds of athletic opportunities Haverford or any college will be able to offer next year. As with all our decisions, we will be guided by our foundational principles around safeguarding the safety and wellbeing of our community. The Centennial Conference, the NCAA, and member institutions are working together to chart a path forward based on our plans for the academic calendar and program. The NCAA offers its perspectives here about resocializing college sports.

Friends:

You’ve almost made it to the end of the semester! Thank you for all you’ve invested in getting this far. Good luck on exams and theses, on teaching and grading! On continuing to offer delicious food in the DC to carry our on-campus students through!

The end of the spring semester is always an emotional time: a time of high stress and high hopes, of dread, anticipation, love, loss, exhaustion, and exhilaration. Every spring! And now we have experienced this normally-intense time through a pandemic. Through all this, you continue to inspire me. I feel inspired in new ways, every day, by every one of you and by the community we make.

I know all too well what this reality has cost us, even as many among us have moved forward gamely. I want to acknowledge that I see your struggles. And I see them in the context of pain you have endured and that may last, and of positive change you may not yet recognize, and muscles you may not yet feel.

I invite us all to hold each other in the light and to make our connections felt across the distances. Despite our physical separation, we remain a community in which friendship binds us in each other’s joys, disappointments, and hard-won accomplishments.

Commencement Update. I hear many emotions—happiness and pride counterpointed by disappointment and grief—expressed by our seniors, and by the faculty, staff, family, and friends who have supported them on their Haverford journeys. Our seniors deserve a true celebration, and my heart breaks that it cannot take place this year in its traditional form. I’m pleased to share that our resourceful Commencement Committee of students, staff, and faculty has framed a plan for a celebratory virtual event on Saturday, May 30, informed by the more than 280 seniors who shared their thoughts via a recent survey. In advance, we will be shipping Commencement packages to each graduate with their diploma, cap, tassel, and other mementos. The Committee will announce further details as they become available. Please know that we remain eager to invite our seniors back to campus for a celebration in 2021 that we can embrace as a more fulfilling Commencement, incorporating treasured Senior Week traditions.

Planning for Fall Semester. Many of us will soon turn our attention to academic year 2020-21. As you know, we expect to return to campus together if we can do so safely, while also planning for potential alternatives. Several working groups of faculty, students, and staff are creating and considering options for academic and campus life: a BiCo Continuity Planning Group to move us forward in partnership with Bryn Mawr, a Presidential Advisory Group on Academic Continuity, and a new Operations Planning Group. We are drawing on a range of expertise from public health to digital pedagogies, with the understanding that even a complete academic year on campus will need to be different than it has been in the past. It is too soon to share any of the ideas that these groups are already discussing, for their work is only just beginning. But early ideas give me much confidence in our ability to imagine these paths forward and in our shared commitment to responsible action.

In that spirit, I’d like to thank all the faculty and staff who came together in virtual meetings in recent days to discuss financial planning around this pandemic. Your many questions help guide our thinking. So please note the new ‘Submit a Question’ link at the top of the coronavirus hub, which is the best way to let me know what is on your mind—so we can try to address it in future meetings or email updates. I have received a number of recurring questions over recent days, and you’ll find versions of these queries posed and addressed below this message.

We will get through this together because we are going through it together. We Fords—students, faculty, staff, alumni, families, friends—stick together, while we also continue to question our assumptions, ask questions of one another, and learn through seemingly impenetrable layers of complexity and not-knowing. Whatever may come, we know from experience how collaboration opens minds and doors. And our shared contributions and work today will lead us to the better, shared, days that await.

Thanks for all you do! Take care.

In gratitude,
Wendy

Q&A

What is the current policy around accessing campus and the Nature Trail?

In light of current public health concerns and for the health and wellbeing of students and families residing on campus, Haverford College has taken the unfortunate but necessary step of closing the campus and Nature Trail to all non-campus-residents. As Governor Tom Wolf has emphasized in ordering the temporary shutdown of all non-life-sustaining business activity, social distancing is our strongest weapon against the virus.

That’s why access to campus is limited to campus residents, life-sustaining Haverford College employees coming to work, and approved vendors. All individuals on campus must wear a mask or facial covering at all times unless in their own campus residence.

COVID-19 can and will be overcome, but only if we all do our part to thwart its spread. Thanks for your cooperation. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to campus—including the countless friends and neighbors for whom the Trail (in particular) is a treasured aspect of local life—when the COVID-19 danger has passed.

When will campus reopen?

Whether for work or recreation, reopening our campus is guided by Governor Tom Wolf’s ‘Process to Reopen Pennsylvania’. The state is conceiving of the journey ahead as governed by a series of metaphorical red-yellow-green traffic lights. These differing levels of access and engagement span all aspects of life, from business activity to social gatherings, and are organized geographically. (The Inquirer has published a helpful Q&A about the restrictions.) Currently, we are in a ‘red’ condition, with our eyes set on moving to ‘yellow’ (as some parts of the state will be as of tomorrow, May 8). Here at Haverford, the College’s current plan calls for us to continue working remotely until both Delaware and Montgomery Counties, are in a ‘green’ mode, though some individuals who are not in life-sustaining roles at the College may indeed be able to return to campus work while we are under ‘yellow’ conditions.

What if I have concerns about coming back to work on campus?

All faculty and staff should address concerns about returning to work to Human Resources by emailing or phoning Donna Hawkins (610-896-1241). All supervisors are encouraged to collaborate on solutions that work for everyone, whether our circumstances are red, yellow, or green. For example, we know and understand that with so many camp cancellations, those who have children at home are facing tremendous challenges this summer; for them, a ‘green’ light is not necessarily a return to normalcy and, in some ways, will create new problems.

What if I have been unable to do my job remotely because of the nature of the work?

The College has continued to pay base salary to any employees who have been unable to work because their jobs depend on being present on campus. Continuation of pay has been extended through Sunday, May 31, as we work as a community to minimize furloughing for June and July. Our friends in Human Resources and the Office of the Controller are working tirelessly to reconfigure and reallocate work assignments and, in so doing, retain staffing levels. Our goal is simple: keep as many people as possible working through the summer. Please see the updated section on Employee Scheduling & Pay on the coronavirus hub for more information.

Friends:

Today, I offer thanks for:
Pinwheel Day,
Wendy’s Wirtual Worner,
Commencement planning,
Fall planning, and
Academic Continuity Presidential Advisory Group, and
The end of the semester!

I loved my first Pinwheel Day! Thanks for sharing the fun through your tweets and Instagram posts. A Philadelphia Inquirer photographer, Jose Moreno, came to campus early on a brilliantly sunny morning to share our tradition with the wider world.

Tomorrow is my last Wendy’s (Wirtual) Worner, 4-5pm ET. Peanut gets to join in the fun, now that I work from home. Students - please check your inbox for the Zoom address, and check in for a few minutes to say hello or stay the full time to enjoy the company.

The Commencement Committee, which includes seniors Kate Silber, Emily Shutman, Brittany Robinson, Harika Dabbara, and Luke Aylward, is hard at work planning our celebrations of seniors’ accomplishments in and out of the classroom throughout their time at Haverford. The committee is pursuing two separate opportunities for recognizing and honoring the Class of 2020: virtual celebrations this spring, and an in-person event in 2021.

Because academic deadlines have been extended for seniors this spring, virtual commencement activities will occur later in May than our original “Commencement date” of May 16. This later date will allow us to determine our customary honors and prizes, so richly deserved. The Commencement Committee will soon send surveys to seniors and their families to gain input about various aspects of our upcoming virtual Commencement.

After those plans are finalized, the committee will turn its attention to planning an in-person celebration in 2021, when it is safe to return to campus. Though we are heartbroken not to be able to celebrate together on campus this spring, we look forward to our future virtual and on-campus celebrations.

As I mentioned in last week’s message, we are starting to think ahead to the fall and a range of possible scenarios. It remains our expectation that we will begin the fall semester together on campus, provided it is safe to do so, and together we will plan for any adaptations we might need. For example, we will need to anticipate appropriate accommodations for students, faculty, and staff who might face heightened health risks and thus not be able to participate in the same manner they would have prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, we will prepare for the possibility that we will need to start the fall in a remote mode, or to be able to switch from on-campus to remote learning if circumstances change. Additional permutations we will explore include changes to the academic calendar, or what to do if we are able to host some—but not all—of the student body on campus.

These decisions of course will impact all of us. Our combined energies and talents together shape Haverford’s vibrant learning environment, and my colleagues and I have begun some early conversations with the faculty-led Academic Continuity Presidential Advisory Group. I expect collaborations will fan out from there. As our continuity planning takes shape, in concert with our counterparts at Bryn Mawr College, it will draw in faculty, staff, and students through the many shared-governance structures and practices we already know well, including Students’ Council and our many standing committees. I ask your patience over the near term as we iterate this process to imagine different possible future versions of Haverfordian and BiCo life. It will draw on our very best, multidimensional, rigorous, creative, humane, liberal-arts-infused thinking—and there is no community better suited to this work than ours!

To our students: good luck with the end of the wackiest semester you have ever experienced! I thank you for all that you have invested in yourselves, your courses, and one another.

To our faculty and staff, good luck with your own end-of-semester work. I thank you for all you have poured into educating and supporting our students, yourselves, and our communities. As a reminder all staff and faculty colleagues are invited to Monday’s 9:15 All-Staff Meeting via Zoom: https://haverford.zoom.us/j/98532508743, at which I’ll be glad to take your questions and continue discussions from yesterday.

With gratitude,
Wendy

Friends:

As our final week of classes approaches, we near the end of a journey we never thought we’d take: learning together while apart. Students continue toward the finish line with hard, smart, and creative work, while continually adjusting to disorienting circumstances. Closer to campus, our faculty and staff are equally committed to teaching and supporting all our students. Thank you for all of it.

In continuing to update you on a number of topics related to the global COVID-19 pandemic, I find myself returning to our mission and values, They guide every step of our decision-making, manifesting themselves in four principles:

1. We will provide our students an excellent liberal arts education.
2. We will safeguard the health and well-being of Haverford students, faculty, and staff.
3. We will contribute to the greater good.
4. We will steward the College as a perpetual institution that has a responsibility to future generations of students as well as today’s.

Decisions taken with such guidance are serving us well as we navigate the current challenges, and they inform a number of elements of policy and operations that I’d like to present here in a Q&A format. In the spirit of that approach, I invite you to reach out to me with questions you would like to see addressed in upcoming weekly messages. We will post (and continue to build) the resulting FAQ, which will reside in our redesigned online coronavirus hub.

What are the plans for the fall semester? We expect on-campus learning to resume for the fall semester. We cannot yet predict how the fall will play out at Haverford until the world knows more about how COVID-19 will affect public health. Our goal is to bring everyone back to campus to a safe learning and living environment.

When will we know whether we will be back on campus in the fall? In the event that we will not be able to begin classes at our customary point in late August/early September, as we currently anticipate, we will notify the community no later than August 1.

What will happen if we are unable to begin the fall semester on Haverford’s campus as planned? While we hope to be together in person this fall, we are also actively and creatively developing a range of contingency plans, in tight coordination with Bryn Mawr College. This includes considering modifications to the calendar, a blend of virtual and in-person learning, and ways to apply our longstanding educational strengths within remote learning experiences should exigencies require them. While no decisions have been made to move to remote learning in the future, we are guided by the goal of designing a program that maintains the high quality and personal nature of a Haverford education.

Can a current student take a leave of absence in the fall? Yes, we do not plan to alter the current process for requesting voluntary leaves for students in good standing.

Can a prospective student defer enrollment? We will allow requests for deferral of enrollment through August 31, 2020. To make such a request, please reach out to Jess Lord, Vice President & Dean of Admission and Financial Aid.

Will fees be adjusted depending upon whether we are on campus or remote for the fall semester? In the event that significant portions of the semester must be conducted remotely, we will pro-rate applicable charges including room and board.

Who–and through what sort of groups and committees–is involved with decision-making in response to COVID-19?

• Haverford Emergency Response Team (HERT) (standing)
  • Membership: Department heads and colleagues overseeing College operations
  • Duties: manage emergency response issues in real time; raise policy questions to Senior Staff.

• Senior Staff (standing)
  • Membership: See https://www.haverford.edu/president/governance/senior-staff
  • Duties: Support the development and implementation of plans at the divisional level and advise the president on institutional policy decisions.

• BiCo Continuity Planning Group (revised / ad-hoc)
  • Membership: Presidents, provosts, deans, chief financial officers, chief information officers, and chiefs of staff plus 2-3 faculty members from each campus
  • Duties: Ensure BiCo alignment of planning efforts on each campus, andco-development of plans as needed to ensure continuity of our shared academic program. Recommend administrative decisions to presidents and curricular decisions to HC and BMC faculty.

• Presidential Advisory Group on Academic Continuity (new / ad-hoc)
  • Membership: Faculty, students appointed by Students’ Council, and presidentially-appointed staff in relevant areas
  • Duties: Begin envisioning and developing potential academic plans for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, including considering academic calendar changes to maximize possibilities for on-campus learning when public health conditions allow our safe assembly on campus.

• Operations Planning Group (new)
  • Membership: TBD
  • Duties: Develop, recommend, and ultimately implement operational and administrative continuity plans in support of the academic mission. Coordinate with Presidential Advisory Group, BiCo Group, HERT, and advise the president and Senior Staff on institutional policy questions.

Have there been any COVID-19 cases on campus? To our knowledge, there has been only one confirmed case of COVID-19: an employee present on campus. Due to our rigorous health and safety protocols, we believe that it is highly unlikely that anyone else was exposed. All members of the community who we believe could conceivably have been in proximity to the employee have been notified. To our knowledge, no other staff member, faculty member, or student has been diagnosed with COVID-19.

How and when will current students get the belongings they left on campus? Currently, Pennsylvania, and thus our Haverford campus, remains under stay-at-home orders through May 8, with the Philadelphia region being told to expect that date to be extended. Thus for public health and safety reasons, no students will be allowed to return to campus to retrieve belongings until June 1. We are considering several alternative options, including ways that belongings can be packed and shipped. Students will receive another survey this week asking for their input on various options.

I hope the answers to these questions–and, indeed, the questions themselves–are helpful as you plan for the coming months. I acknowledge and share the frustration that a number of major issues, which depend on information not yet known by humankind, cannot yet be conclusively resolved. Feel free to reach out via our Q&A web form in the event that you have been unable to find answers in the hub or through the customary channels such as your dean, advisor, department head, and/or supervisor. As a reminder, I will also be holding a webinar update for all faculty and staff, 9:30-10:30AM on Wednesday, April 29, at this link: https://haverford.zoom.us/j/99142309433.

Tomorrow I welcome our Board of Managers to a Zoom-fest in lieu of their annual on-campus spring meetings. Like so much of what we are experiencing at the moment, it will unfold as never before and teach us much that we didn’t anticipate learning.

And the same can be said about so much of the Haverford experience of the moment. This is the same Haverford we have known and loved for so long and in so many ways, even as it presents in unfamiliar ways at the moment. This public health crisis will pass; Haverford will endure; we, and the College, will be changed...upon the foundations of our abiding mission and values. It is up to us, together, to learn, to adapt, to reimagine–and to find new ways to support the communities we serve.

In order to do all of this, please be gentle with yourself. I know that the stresses at the end of a semester are considerable. Please spend a moment finding pleasure in a new discovery or a familiar touchstone. Connect with a friend. Or make a pinwheel. I thank you for sharing yourself–your questions, your fears, your quirks, your talents–with me and with others in our Haverford community, who care so much.

Take care,
Wendy

Friends:

In the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, we talked a lot about the principles that should guide our community through the unknown: our focus on community health and well-being, on our academic excellence, on contributing to the greater good, and on stewarding Haverford’s resources as a perpetual institution. I was moved today when I saw Students’ Council living out Haverfordian values with their announcement that they will reallocate up to $300,000 of their 2019-20 budget toward LIFTFAR (Low-Income and First-in-Their-Families Assistance and Resources). This infusion of funds will allow LIFTFAR to support many more students who previously might not have fallen under its auspices, and to provide different categories of financial support to students. I offer my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Students’ Council for their trust in their staff colleagues to work together for the common good, for their concern for Haverford students in need, and their respect for the Haverford community and the shared commitment we have all made to support each other through this challenging time.

There has also been strong support of our students through our alumni, who created a $250,000 challenge match two weeks ago to raise money for LIFTFAR and financial aid. The challenge will run through the end of the semester (May 17, 2020) and has already raised nearly $70,000 for LIFTFAR, in addition to funds for financial aid and unrestricted current support.

That sort of support for Haverford underscores our community’s faith and allegiance to the principles of a Haverford education, in whatever form it may take. As we wrap up the first month of our remote-learning journey, all of us are acquiring hard-won knowledge about what we have been able to create together, and how well it’s working–or, in some respects, not working. To help us all learn more, today Students’ Council launched a survey designed to learn about the distinctive challenges students are experiencing because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the kinds of support students would appreciate now and through the fall. I look forward to joining the next Students’ Council meeting on Monday to explore how we can respond promptly and effectively to the survey’s findings.

I appreciate the work that so many of you have been doing to resolve how we will move forward together, and I know we are all eager for clarity regarding many different questions. In my efforts to communicate fully and in a timely manner, I look forward to creating an FAQ document to provide answers to questions you have raised, even if the answer might be, “We cannot know that yet.” I will soon review our emerging plans with the Board of Managers at their April 24 all-virtual meeting, where I will be joined by my senior staff colleagues as well as staff, faculty, and student representatives to the Board. With our plans refined thanks to the Board’s insights, we will then be in a position to communicate the details to all faculty, students, and staff, including at an all-staff-and-faculty meeting at 9:30AM on April 29–a “first” for Haverford. Thank you for both your hard work and patience!

As we work to finalize the path forward for so many aspects of the Haverford experience that have been disrupted by the pandemic and the necessary response to it, I do have news with respect to summer programming. Like others before it, the summer of 2020 had been planned chock full of opportunities for students. Nearly all of those plans have changed–with some outstanding virtual internship, research, and employment opportunities replacing previously on-site experiences–as detailed in a new memo about Haverford Student Summer Internships, Research Assistantships, and Employment from Dean of the College Martha Denney and Provost Fran Blase.

Another area of considerable focus is Commencement. We are all tremendously disappointed that we will not be able to host this annual celebration in May. ‘Heartbroken’ is the operative word. Even though little is unfolding this spring as we would have preferred or initially envisioned, we continue to adapt so that we may wholeheartedly celebrate the achievements of the Class of 2020 and the support of their friends, families, and communities.

To that end, the Commencement Committee is working on two approaches. The first involves possible dates in 2021 to reconvene the class and invite their loved ones to campus for a rescheduled Commencement and, if possible, include an opportunity for Senior Week-style fun in the days leading up to such an in-person celebration. In the meantime, without being able to gather physically, we are planning a virtual celebration after the close of the current spring semester to recognize the Class of 2020’s accomplishments and the granting of degrees–but just to reassure, let me restate that we don’t expect that to be a substitute for the in-person experience we all want and hope to have in 2021!

Another springtime tradition is also going to unfold differently this year: Pinwheel Day! Though the exact date of the Secret Squirrels’ annual rite of spring is kept secret, I am told it always seems to happen in April. The Squirrels will not let the current circumstances prevent us all from celebrating their day, so please keep an eye on social media channels–and students, watch your snail mail for a little advance ‘reading’ material that will help make this year’s event both memorable and joyous.

Please be gentle with yourself. You are working hard, and in isolation from so much that you love and miss. I stand in support of you all! And I look forward to seeing your pinwheel :)

With gratitude,
Wendy

Friends:

I hope the past week has been a safe and productive one for you all, even with the challenges created by being physically apart. As I look across our community, I am so impressed by the hard work everyone is investing in our shared endeavors, while I remain aware of and concerned about the hurdles we are encountering in doing this hard work.

I admire your resourcefulness and resilience; I empathize with the struggles these changed circumstances have imposed. Community conversation and consensus-centered processes–hallmarks of the Haverford approach–are unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and I'm inspired by your creative application of these strategies in the face of our current circumstances: elevated levels of care for students disproportionately burdened by disconnection in our new circumstances, academic department Zoom “lounges” for students to gather casually, synchronous in-class learning by students across the globe who told their professors that meeting as a group via Zoom at 1:30am local time was far better than asynchronous learning, other professors adapting to asynchronous learning because that is what suited their students best. One professor arranged for pizza delivery for all their advisees during the same lunch hour so they could dine and chat together; the Office of Student Engagement has set up mechanisms for students to contact one another to arrange to have lunch together while maintaining safe physical distances. With all of us re-building community from afar, or building community from scratch, screen-to-screen, these creative approaches address varied situations to bring us together.

My appreciation and gratitude goes out to all of you.

I’d like to share a few updates.

• The College is beginning a three-year trial of going “test optional” for admission.

• Strategic Planning continues! Hundreds of ideas gathered in community charrettes are being distilled into potential strategic goals by the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, and these will soon be shared with you for feedback and revision.

• Earlier this week, professors Carola Binder, Darin Hayton, Rachel Hoang, Judy Owen, Giri Parameswaran, and Anna West led an improvised virtual symposium about the Covid-19 pandemic from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Hundreds of community members joined them for a thoughtful and stimulating exploration of the issues that are shaping our new shared reality.

• Some summer camps normally held on campus have cancelled plans to be at Haverford this year due to Covid-19 concerns. We are in the process of determining whether any on-campus student research and work opportunities will be possible, and we will update you about this on or after April 22.

• Our MakerSpace resources have become part of the local COVID-19 response. With leadership from Kent Watson in VCAM, we have provided personal protective equipment (PPE) to first responders, and made available our sewing machines for community members interested in producing masks, and even our 3-D printers to a local group that is fabricating face shields.

• The global Haverford community is doing their part, too. A group of current parents in China shipped the College a donation of additional face masks to ensure we have sufficient supply to meet the needs of our residential community, especially now that we have transitioned to more rigorous face-covering practices for students, faculty, and staff on campus.

Like all of our higher education peers, we are eager to bring the Haverford community back to campus as soon as it is safe to do so. We also recognize that we need to continue to live with considerable uncertainty, such as with the currently unknowable future of the state of public health and economic environment. At Haverford, we are fortunate to be able to do this planning work from a position of strength. I am embedded in these contingency planning conversations with campus leadership, the Board of Managers, Tri-Co presidents Kim Cassidy and Val Smith, and other national higher education leaders. I will keep you all apprised of this work, and I will invite more of you into the conversation as it progresses. I look forward to engaging our collective best thinking in the weeks and months ahead, for it is that coming together - even at a distance- that characterizes Haverford’s way forward.

In case you might enjoy some notes from my own experiences of late, please read below my signature.

With gratitude,
Wendy

A pause for the lighter side, all made possible because of Haverford community members:

I hosted a fun and for me, wonderful, happy hour with faculty last Friday via Zoom (such great faculty!).

I enjoy spending a few minutes on Instagram each day to appreciate the beautiful campus photos @haverquarantied and @haverfordcollegearboretum, and the at-a-distance fun @haverfordwsoccer, @hcfords_wlax, and @hcfh_squirrels. Please send me what gives you a smile, because I seek all the smiles I can get!

And some meaningful experiences that uplifted me:

I enjoy learning from staff and faculty members about their experiences; last week, that included engaging with Jeff Gladney in Dining Services about how our DC’s operations continue to support our students. I also like to set aside 10 minutes to watch a new “Fords on the Front Lines” interview.

A Haverford student invited me into an “email collective for an uplifting exchange,” through which a Haverford staff colleague shared Mary Oliver’s prose poem, Don’t Hesitate. I share it with you in the hope that receiving it might boost your spirits and offer reflection, as it did for me.

Don't Hesitate

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don't hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that's often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Friends:

As we close our second full week of remote learning, I feel deep admiration, respect, and gratitude for all you are doing–for one another, for Haverford, and for our world. First- and second-hand, through Zoom meetings, phone conversations, email exchanges, and social media posts, I see the positive differences you are making, even as you face profound challenges in day-to-day life. What seemed unimaginable a month ago is now embedded in how we live and work and build community. I am inspired by your adaptability, creativity, and resilience. Dave, Peanut, and I are so grateful to be here, and with you.

The Haverford community–whether on campus or at home–has responded quickly and proactively to public health and social distancing guidelines, and I would continue to urge us to model that kind of responsible behavior in all of our networks and communities. Gov. Wolf’s stay-at-home order includes Haverford College, and it extends through April 30. Staying at home except to gather food and health supplies and to get outdoor exercise is our best current hope for containing the virus, and people’s adherence makes a difference. Even though this means few workers are on campus–only those providing life-sustaining efforts–all our employees continue to be paid whether they are working from home or unable to work from home. This is a lonely and disorienting time for almost all of us, including the 132 students currently living on campus. I thank you for your efforts to reach out in mutual support.

Our physical separation from one another and our immersion in remote learning has intensified our understanding of the preciousness of our work and relationships. One faculty member said that “class is like a structuring lifeline.” Another professor poignantly described how glimpses of one another’s bedrooms, family members, pets, and surroundings have forged unanticipated new bonds. I’m eager to learn about the varied ways in which students and faculty continue to explore what is, in any mode of delivery, a rich and robust curriculum. You will find a few such conversations in a growing gallery of video clips (also linked from the College homepage), which includes interviews with faculty members Ben Le, Paulina Ochoa, and Tetsuya Sato. This week, we also added the first in a series of alum-to-alum interviews, called “Fords on the Front Lines,” that showcases friends leading the way through this crisis. I encourage you to check them out.

Last week, 260 staff members joined an All-Staff meeting via a Zoom webinar–an all-time record attendance. I hope that those of you who attended the Friday session found it helpful and informative. I have new respect for TV news anchors, for the experience of connecting with people by staring into a camera is no substitute for seeing you in person!

That said, I thoroughly enjoy seeing groups of you and individuals on my screen in my home office at One College Circle. A group of students surprised me last night with a spontaneous invitation to Zoom, and my spirits soared! We chatted, Peanut joined in, and I posted a selfie with them on Instagram @prezraymond. Peanut and I continue our social media efforts to share our Arboretum’s springtime beauty with the many students asking for those tethers to campus.

I’ll host another webinar-style presentation next week, this time for alumni and parents. I’ll remind them–and you!–to stay current by checking our coronavirus hub for the latest developments on campus. These include last week’s announcement of our pro-rata room and board credits plus paying student workers for the second half of the semester, even with most of our students unable to continue their work remotely. It turns out that many parents have not yet received this good news from their students. :)

In the context of all of us connecting in myriad and new ways, I see this as a time when we are bringing more ‘Haverford’ to the world. Your kindness to yourself and to others in the face of fear and uncertainty speaks volumes about our collective grace and fortitude. Your honesty about your struggles and grief, and your openness to others’ difficulties, can deepen connections that otherwise might not have even been made.

While there is so much that we do not know and cannot know right now, this much is sure: the students, faculty, and staff of Haverford College are meeting and will continue to meet the challenges before us. Thanks, as always, for all you do. It is a privilege to live and work with you.

With gratitude,
Wendy

Friends:

I know I have been in touch frequently over the past two weeks during this enormously unusual time–unusual perhaps in human history, and certainly in each of our lives. Today I first wish to say that I hope that you and yours are doing well, all things considered. And yet even as I say that, I know that some of us have not yet found a semblance of balance, and some of us fear not being able to ground ourselves in these ever-changing conditions. Some of us have family members who have died of COVID-19. Some of us have family members or friends ill with COVID-19, and some of us are at great risk to become ill. The list of tough scenarios expands to include so many. I hope that those of us who are able will lean into knowing and “seeing” this diversity of experiences. Our realities are complex, and the variation in our lived experiences these past weeks can be overwhelming in its breadth, while also overwhelming for each individual. I offer my undying gratitude to those of you who have the capacity to share your compassion and your care toward one another, and I offer my empathy and recognition to all who are struggling.

As we transition together into what we hope is a steadier “new normal” for the remainder of the semester, I plan to keep in touch with you all by email each Thursday, starting today. You can count on hearing from me, as part of my effort to keep us all connected.

While there’s no way for us to have the same springtime-at-Haverford experience that we’re used to, I have been uplifted and inspired by seeing students, faculty, and staff putting their hearts and minds into doing all they can to maintain and support our community through the COVID-19 crisis.

Thanks to everyone’s tremendous efforts, we find ourselves in an incredibly fortunate position right now, where teaching and learning continue–albeit very differently–as does the critical work of the College, with all of our workers still being paid, whether they are able to work or not. I greatly appreciate the hard work that is making this possible, from the individuals working at home under challenging circumstances (childcare, technological barriers, loved ones or themselves at risk, students doing their best to learn, faculty doing their best to teach, and the sheer struggle that daily life can represent right now), to those who have had to reinvent the way Haverford works in their areas, to those few who are still on campus keeping our resident students healthy and the physical plant safe for the community’s eventual return. I am amazed and energized by all of you, and I hope you will take a moment to appreciate your own role in keeping our community safe and strong.

With the College’s mission intact, and teaching, learning, and core operations continuing, I know many of you are starting to think about what lies ahead this semester. How can we feel community from afar? How can we talk about and learn from what’s happening around us? How can we support people in need? (And what will happen to Pinwheel Day??*) I am so heartened by the creative ideas and proposals that are beginning to flow around these questions, as friends turn adversity into opportunity and stay centered by trying out new ways to create community. So I encourage you all to keep talking to one another, whatever the medium: try a virtual meeting, keep your club or organization going, or just “meet up” for lunch with a few peers now and then. As one example, I am going to host tomorrow’s previously scheduled All-Staff Meeting as a Zoom webinar–a first. Wish me luck! And Wendy’s Worner (now Wendy’s Wirtual Worner) will also happen by Zoom tomorrow.

Many community members are also starting to think ahead to the summer. What will be possible? Will that job or internship still happen? Will students be able to stay on campus? To travel? The short answer is that we do not and cannot know yet. But we know everyone needs to start planning, and so the College is working to be able to provide an update about international summer programs by April 1, and about domestic summer programs (including campus programs and housing) by April 8. We might not have total clarity by those dates, but we will try to provide guidance in order for everyone to begin making plans.

For those of you who have questions about what the “new normal” this spring means for you, please refer to our growing online COVID crisis resources. If those don’t have the answer, please be in touch–students with their dean, faculty with their department chair or provost, and staff with their supervisor or Human Resources colleagues. Feel free to drop me a line at president@haverford.edu, or reach out to our ombuds, Steve Watter, who like so many of us remains “on duty” from home. And remember that some of us will have a hard time taking the initiative to reach out for help, so please, when time allows, take a moment to reach out to students and colleagues you have not heard from lately.

Thank you for all you are doing. It matters.

Take care, and stay safe.

With gratitude,
Wendy

P.S. *I have been told by those in contact with the Pinwheel Day Secret Squirrels that COVID-19 is not going to prevent this wonderful tradition from happening, if in a new and different way!

Friends:

As we all rise to the challenge posed by COVID-19 and the resulting upheaval to so much in our lives, I’d like to share multiple updates regarding the path forward for us at Haverford.

Though we had planned (and hoped!) to resume on-campus learning on April 6th, it is now clear that we must complete the semester remotely and will not be able to hold on-campus Commencement as originally planned. We take these regrettable but essential steps in order to safeguard the extended Haverford community while contributing to global efforts to stem transmission of the virus for the benefit of all.

This decision comes after extensive consultation with students, faculty, and staff here at the College and in concert with leadership at Bryn Mawr College and Swarthmore College, with whom our plans align. We believe that these steps comply with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s order of Thursday, March 19 regarding business closures.

A number of key points flow from this development, and our shared path forward comes as each of us navigates daily uncertainty and formidable challenge. Please know that you have my empathy and support. Just a short time ago, none of us anticipated the heartbreak of not gathering with beloved classmates for Commencement in May, or the deprivations of a 14-day quarantine, or the high anxiety of working from home while in isolation with young children, or the stress of competing with siblings for technology access, or the worry about a loved one with Covid-19 or who risks becoming severely ill from the new coronavirus. In this unfamiliar terrain I find strength in connecting with others, and take comfort in their kindness and concern.

Remote Learning To Continue
Faculty and students are moving forward in inspiring ways.

• • Students and faculty will complete their courses, the College will award credit, and our seniors will graduate.
• Students will continue to learn via synchronous and asynchronous means through the end of the semester. Thank you to our innovative and creative faculty; thank you to our flexible and engaged students. Though the courses will likely be modified, they will continue to offer intellectually engaging and rigorous explorations of their fields of study.
• Tech support is available through the ProDesk; these IITS troubleshooters can help with issues relating to College computing and provide guidance regarding more general concerns, such as free or discount wifi services nationwide.
• Please contact your dean if you would like to learn more about financial support and the availability of technology resources (such as laptops).
• The Educational Policy Committee, informed by faculty and student feedback, is considering a possible pass/fail option for spring 2020 courses. We will announce details in the very near future.

Student Life, and Remaining on Campus
I want to reiterate and underscore our commitment to helping our students at this extraordinary time. Everyone in the Haverford family the world over has you in their thoughts and hearts.

• A relatively small number of students had been granted permission to stay on campus during what we thought would be a temporary period of remote learning. Any student in that group who wishes to remain on campus through the end of the semester may do so but must first notify their dean of their plans. (Please note that while the College has every intention of maintaining this residential option for students who need it, we would be obligated to comply with any future public health directives that might limit how many students we are able to accommodate, or where they might be accommodated, such as in the case of a COVID-19 outbreak on campus or related health emergency.) If travel home and/or remaining on campus presents a financial hardship, you should let your dean know.
• The current limited access to campus facilities and basic support services shall continue, though particulars of the on-campus experience could change in the event that there is a COVID-19 outbreak here at Haverford.
• Our original plan to resume on-campus learning in April means that most students will need to return to campus at some point in order to move their belongings out of College residences. Because we want to avoid the stress associated with harsh timelines for move-out, we’ll soon announce an orderly and systematic plan for enabling students to return to campus for their things, one consistent with community efforts to practice social distancing and that therefore incorporates a relatively extended time period for the pickup schedule. Students who have remained on campus but now plan to leave will be best-served by taking their belongings with them. If you are already off-campus, please do not return to move out during the next two weeks: health officials are asking us to limit movement, and those of us on campus are focusing on myriad changes that affect so many community members. Our friends in Residence Life will be in touch.
• As before, the campus remains ‘open’ in the sense that some students are permitted to remain in their rooms, with essential services provided by limited numbers of staff members cleared to work on campus. However, we strongly discourage a return to campus at this time, even to meet up briefly with friends, because physical proximity increases risk to ourselves and, indeed, to all humanity. We each have the power to help arrest the disease, and reducing in-person connectedness is an essential part of doing so.
• The College’s 14,000+ alums are friends that current students just haven’t met yet. They would welcome the chance to advance your career interests, and virtually all of them have lived and worked through economic downturns. This week, we again invited them to help with career mentoring and networking via the new CCPA ‘Haverford Connect’ website. Please check it out.

Working at Haverford
The College’s Department of Human Resources has developed an extensive website that aims to answer questions faculty, staff, and student workers may have about the many operational changes that are impacting your work experience.

• Please bookmark their special web page and make it your initial and regular go-to for news and information. While we expect to push out community emails at least once a week (and possibly more often), not every development will result in an email.
• Don’t hesitate to contact HR leadership with suggestions for material that should be included or issues that should be addressed on that site. We thank you for your ideas!
• We remain supportive of student workers, and this extends to wanting the HR website to address students’ questions and concerns–so don’t be shy about asking HR about adding helpful detail.
• You may have noticed new limits on public access to campus. No doubt this is disappointing to those in the surrounding community who see Haverford as an inspiring, restorative, and restful place in their lives; it’s certainly a disappointment for me, as I find great joy in making friends with dog-walkers and nature-lovers as we take in the spectacular beauty of our arboretum home. However, as we have explained on social media and elsewhere, we regret this necessary step and hope it can be short-lived. It does not affect students, faculty, staff, and approved vendor access, all of which must pass through the Lancaster Avenue entrance to campus until further notice.

Room and Board Charges
Haverford is developing a formula for returning a portion of room and board charges. We will be sharing details of that soon and thank you for your patience in this regard.

Staying Healthy
There have been no identified cases of COVID-19 among those living and/or working on campus.

• Your health and well-being continue to be our top priority. Nothing matters more.
• Students experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 infection (cough, fever, shortness of breath) should contact Haverford Health Services via the HaverHealth portal or by calling (610) 896-1089; faculty and staff should contact their healthcare provider and supervisor (staff) or the provost (faculty). Please do not report for work if you feel unwell.
• Students coming to Health Services should ring the front door bell for admission; your OneCard will not unlock the door at this time.
• Our best defense against infection remains the practice of social distancing coupled with good hygiene: please wash your hands for 20 seconds, and sneeze (or cough) into the crook of your elbow.

A Look Ahead
The decision to extend remote learning through the end of the semester affects several marquee events here at Haverford, starting with Commencement.

• I am greatly saddened that we will not be able to hold on-campus Commencement this spring for the Class of 2020. Our seniors, who have come so far and worked so hard deserve a celebration of their achievements and the opportunity to join in community. That is why I am working with student, faculty, and staff leadership on possible alternatives for marking their graduation and saluting the tremendous Class of 2020. We will be in touch with families and friends of members of the Class of 2020 about the path forward; meanwhile, I invite students to contact Franklyn Cantor ’12, chair of our Commencement Committee, and/or their class representatives to Commencement Committee (Luke Aylward ’20, Emily Lin ’20, and Emily Shutman ’20) with ideas and suggestions for honoring our newest alums through innovative modes and/or at future dates.
• Alumni Weekend 2020 is being cancelled, though we plan to invite ‘reunion Fords’ to campus this year. Details to come from our Office of Alumni and Parent Relations.
• With so much uncertainty, we cannot predict how summer at Haverford–which normally hums with research, internships, and camps–will unfold. Students should proceed with planning in concert with relevant faculty and staff members; our Office of Conferences and Events will post the HCA housing application and provide news and information on their site.

I hope that this update has anticipated your questions, though no doubt many remain unaddressed. I anticipate that most days will bring new issues requiring engagement and response. We need to get this right at each step along the way, and your collaboration is vital to our continued success. So please don’t hesitate to ask questions, propose solutions, and pass along concerns. In many cases, those closest to an issue–your professors and work supervisors–are best-positioned to initiate and implement a response. But please know that our whole community including members of our Senior Staff are also eager to partner and help.

Our online coronavirus hub is the go-to for information and resources. We update it regularly with vital information regarding workplace policies and procedures, as well as health and wellness information. It also includes a running inventory of official communications to date.

Like many of you, I feel moved by the ways, large and small, that this crisis is affecting our lives. And I am also quite certain that the Haverford community can meet–and overcome–the challenges before us, and I am awestruck by your dedication to the College and to the principles for which it stands. Thank you so much for all you bring to our community, as together, we continue to educate our inspiring, talented students through the liberal arts.

I would like to close, for now, thinking of how each of us can make a difference in the course of events.

Let’s persist in staying connected, even as we respond to society’s need for each of us to practice physical isolation.

Let’s bring humanity, compassion, and inclusivity to all we do, including recognizing that many if not all of us are struggling with unexpected challenges.

Let’s show generosity toward every person, starting with those most at risk for becoming seriously ill or dying from this disease. Done in the framework of acting toward the greater good, seemingly self-centered acts–such as maintaining safe distances with others and adopting virtual modes of connection–become actions that help safeguard humanity.

Let’s let our lives speak of trust, concern, and respect. You inspire people like me to want to join this community, a community we sustain through shared values that transcend borders and create connection.

With gratitude,
Wendy Raymond
President

Friends,

We are now three weeks into classes, and are starting to receive the results of our most recent round of COVID-19 screening tests to all students who access campus, whether on-campus residents or commuter students, which were administered starting this Monday. We learned today that two students living on campus tested positive out of our first batch of 385 results. Both students are isolated, asymptomatic, and doing well. We have undertaken contact tracing to identify close contacts, who are being evaluated and quarantined as necessary; there are a total of five student close contacts, no staff, and no faculty. We have received 1 of 4 results of these individuals’ test results. We expect the rest to come in by Monday.  We are taking a conservative approach, as we had planned, by requiring quarantine for these students as well. Impacted students have the support of a HEART team member who will serve as their primary point of contact as they navigate this new experience. The HEART team is a resource to all students seeking additional support, guidance and advocacy as they navigate the fall semester (in person or remotely). Please email kwilcox@haverford.edu for more information.

We expected COVID-19 student cases in our planning, and we are prepared for this. It is clear that students’ - and all of our - attention to masking, distancing, and our other health and safety protocols, while not fully eliminating close contacts, has significantly reduced the potential transmission of the virus in these cases. We do not feel that these cases represent a threat to the community and have no plans for changing mitigation levels at this time: we remain at Level 1.

We do not plan to announce individual positive COVID cases on an ongoing basis, but because these are our first student cases, I wanted to notify you directly. You will now see these two active cases reflected in our dashboard alongside the resulting positivity rate for this screening interval. New data will be added to the dashboard twice per week, generally each Tuesday and Friday.

I thank you all for your ongoing commitment to keeping our community healthy by looking out for one another and adhering to our safety protocols.

Sincerely,

Joyce Bylander, Dean of the College

Friends,

Congratulations to everyone for a great beginning, our first Friday of the semester!  After months of preparation, we are off to a good start.

We’d like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to all our faculty colleagues who reinvented their courses for our current reality, to our students who have leapt into this adapted learning environment with great energy and flexibility, and to our staff whose creativity and dedication have enabled us to continue to deliver a Haverford education in this unprecedented environment. We recognize that it has not been easy, and that the challenges of this pandemic continue to be felt by so many within and beyond the Haverford community.

This fall we have about 1000 students living and studying on campus, about 100 students commuting from nearby, and 200 more living and studying remotely. More than 60% of our faculty are conducting at least some portion of their work with students in person, and 70% of our staff are regularly working on campus. Slightly more than half of our courses are being offered entirely remotely, with just under half offering an in-person component on campus. 

We continue to have zero cases of COVID-19 among our students living or studying on campus. We have one active employee case; that individual is self-isolated at home and recovering well. Two prior employee cases similarly included full recoveries at home, with no spread on campus. These numbers reflect the great care and commitment everyone physically present in the Haverford community has taken to keep the virus at bay through our individual actions, which together are allowing us to be together on campus this fall. Thank you. For all of our students and colleagues participating from afar, we miss seeing you in person but are so grateful that technology enables you to play your equally important part in this historic academic year.

As we look ahead, we are pleased to share that Bryn Mawr is planning to return to “Level 1” on Monday, September 14, absent any new developments. With Bryn Mawr at Level 1, BiCo students may move back and forth between campuses for classes and in general, subject to any individual student's quarantine status. Blue Bus service will be available, and social visits will be guided by each campus's guest policy, which will allow one Bi-Co guest per student in the dorms. (A guest is defined as a student who is enrolled in in-person classes at either Haverford or Bryn Mawr. No other guests are permitted.) Group gatherings in a dorm room are not permitted. Other information about Level 1 at Bryn Mawr can be found on the Bryn Mawr COVID information page.

We encourage everyone to have a relaxing and safe weekend.

Joyce Bylander, Dean of the College

Linda Strong-Leek, Provost

Dear Students,

As you know, many Haverford students have returned to campus for the fall semester and are expecting to be here until we break for Thanksgiving, at which time we all plan to finish the semester remotely. However, as we begin our fall semester in a world that is ever more uncertain, we need to prepare for meeting challenges that may come our way. We know it’s possible that COVID-19 will force us to greatly reduce the numbers of students on campus at any time, but of course, other unforeseeable crises are also possible, even as we all work together to ensure the safety of our whole community.  

Therefore, we are asking you to consider in advance how you will handle your housing situation if Haverford needs students to evacuate quickly before Thanksgiving break, and to share those plans with us on the attached form. Where would you go? Could you get there in a situation in which you are unable to use airlines or public transportation? Where could you live and study safely? What kinds of plans could facilitate your ability to finish the semester in a secure environment elsewhere? You will receive a link to a Qualtrics survey to submit this information.

For a small number of students, remaining on campus at Haverford through the end of finals period will be possible, barring local, state or federal guidance to fully close campus residences. Students whose homes are outside the US, or who would experience a great negative impact, whose safety (physical, mental/emotional, sexual, or financial) would be at risk if they returned home, or for whom the barriers of technology or required caregiving responsibilities at home or in another place are insurmountable, may be able to ensure in advance that they can stay in Haverford housing even if most of the community needs to evacuate. If this describes you, please include on the form a brief explanation for why staying on campus best ensures your ability to live and study safely.

This request form will also cover the period from Thanksgiving break through December 19th (the end of finals). If you anticipate a need to remain on campus over winter break, you must complete the winter break housing request form that Residential Life will send out mid-semester. If you have already received an email asking you to confirm your need for housing in the event of closure - this includes all F-1 students on campus fall 2020, as well as the majority of students who were approved to remain on campus in spring 2020 - you will receive a different Qualtrics survey.

As you know from prior communications, students residing on-campus saw a 25% reduction in their billed room and board (full meal plan options) charge for the Fall semester of $2,132, assuming on-campus students would depart on or about November 20. Students who apply and are approved to remain on-campus through December 19 will see a single charge applied to their bill on November 20. This $2,132 comprehensive charge is not separable between room and board and all students remaining on-campus will be provided both room and a full (traditional) Board plan for this approximately 4-week period. Financial aid will be provided consistent with the student’s expected family contribution aligned with the adjusted cost of attendance.   

If the situation allows, there may also be a possibility that some seniors whose thesis or capstone work depends on on-campus facilities would be approved to remain on campus until the Thanksgiving break even if the majority of students needed to return home. If this is possible, such students would be approved by the Provost’s Office, based on the recommendation of their departments or programs - remaining on campus for thesis or capstone work is not a reason that would be approved through this committee or form. 

In any case, please submit your responses via your Qualtrics survey link by September 1st, 2020; you can review the questions in advance of submission and you will receive the link to the Qualtrics survey shortly. Your submission will be reviewed by a committee comprised of Kathleen Abels, Joyce Bylander, Katrina Glanzer, Barbara Hall, and Ahyana King. If you are requesting to stay on campus until December 19, 2020, we will respond to you within two weeks of your submission of the form. We assure you that the college will do everything we can to help you plan amid the uncertainties that this semester inherently brings.

Sincerely,

Joyce Bylander

Dean of the College

Dear Students,

We write with joy and concern. Joy because you are coming back! It has been wonderful to see you as you checked in or as you walk around and sit on campus. Most of you are socially distancing, wearing your masks. We hope those of you who are back are frequently washing your hands, checking symptoms daily and keeping a contact journal.

It is so good to have you back!

So where is the concern? I’m sure you are aware of the many colleges and universities that have already attempted in-person openings. You are also likely aware of those schools that have had to close, send students home and switch to a totally remote learning environment even before they got started. Many of these schools’ carefully planned returns have been thwarted by the actions of a few students. Some of these schools had students in fraternities and sororities throw parties that led to COVID infections of dozens or hundreds of students. Other schools had unaffiliated students crowd under tents or into local bars or in off-campus houses. They met the same result: immediate spikes in COVID infections and an end to the in-person year.

We are writing to you because we don’t want that to happen at Haverford. Already we are concerned about the behavior of some Fords. Already we hear that some students who will live off-campus this fall are coming onto campus at night without going through our careful testing and quarantine protocol. We are concerned about individuals who are not taking room quarantine seriously. We hear rumors that off-campus parties are being planned. We hope these rumors prove false.  I hope you can see that these behaviors are worrisome and if continued will lead to COVID infection on our campus and in our community. This behavior has the potential to shut us down before we even begin. At this point, we have ample examples of how not to return to campus.

Let’s write a different story together. When you decided to return to campus, you agreed that you would live up to our Community Engagement principles and our Expectations document (both attached). We encouraged you to stay home if you didn’t think you could do that. For those of you who are back, I’m sure it is good to see your friends. But I remind you that you have come from all over the country and all over the world. You have traveled to get here. You have come from places where the virus is out of control. Everyone has come from a place where there is COVID-19. Please follow our guidelines. Please take the 14-day quarantine period seriously. Failure to do so risks your health and the health of this community, and will eliminate any chance of us being together on campus this fall.

I ask you to be honest with yourself: if you think you might be willing to make an exception for yourself, or for your friends, it is time for you to let us know that you will be studying remotely.

We are hoping that you are coming back to help us build something special together. We hope that you plan to work as hard as we have to keep this community safe. Please know that we are prepared to act should it be clear to us that you did not come to safely join this community this fall and to uphold our shared commitment to health and safety. We are prepared to ban any off-campus student from coming on campus. We are prepared to require any on-campus student who does not intend to be safe to depart. This pandemic is real. More than 170,000 real people have died in the United States alone. Those people are not statistics. They belonged to someone.

If you are serious about wanting to have an in-person semester, you will correct any problem behavior that has already happened. You will redouble your efforts to be safe. You will expect and ask the same of your friends—and in so doing be part of building a culture in which we can all thrive. 

We have been so happy to see the campus come alive. We have been so happy to see individuals we know. We have been excited to see new faces-even though they are masked! We want to be able to continue to welcome you back and to move into this semester determined to get to November.

Joyce  Bylander
Interim Dean of the College

Wendy Raymond
President

All students are expected to arrive on campus on their designated date and at their designated time. Any student who comes to campus on a date or during a time for which they are not signed up will be asked to leave and return when they are expected to do so. Any student en route to campus who experiences travel issues outside of their control (i.e. car breakdown, cancelled flight) should email hc-reslife@haverford.edu as soon as they are able to do so. 

• Anyone coming to campus must enter through the Lancaster Avenue entrance (main entrance) of campus. Once on campus, all students, families, and friends must wear a face-covering at all times, inside and outside the buildings. 
• Signs will direct all vehicles to the South Lot (South Parking Lot on our campus map). From the South Lot, families/friends should remain with the vehicle, and students should make their way to the Health Services building (Morris Health Services on our campus map). * Students arriving on Sunday, August 16 should go directly to the GIAC first, not Health Services. 
• Once at the Health Services building, students will receive their COVID-19 screening - the screening will be very brief. Health Services has been in and will be in touch with students who will need various quarantines. All students will receive a stamp to verify that they have been to Health Services, which is required before picking up their room key. 
  • If you have questions about the quarantine, or whether or not you need one, please refer to the Health and Wellness FAQs sent out by Dean Bylander on August 7th. If you have additional questions, please email hc-healthservices@haverford.edu. Please do not email quarantine questions to Residential Life.
• From the Health Services building, students will be directed to the GIAC (Douglas B. Gardner Integrated Athletic Center on our campus map) to pick up their room key. Students must enter from the East side of the building (between the GIAC and the Whitehead Campus Center). Students will verify their Health Services visit with their stamp and receive their room key. The process of key pick-up is very brief. From the GIAC, students may go to their designated residence hall.
  • First year students who registered for their OneCard will receive that in addition to their key. For students who have not yet registered for their OneCard, please see the email Dean Katrina Glanzer sent out on July 28th. Students must register for their OneCard at least 48 hours prior to your arrival. First year students who do not register for their OneCard prior to their arrival must go to Campus Safety - also in the GIAC -  after getting their room key. Masks must be worn while taking the picture for the OneCard at Campus Safety.
  • Before arrival to campus, all students should verify that their emergency contact information in BIONIC is correct. Prior to getting their room key, students will be asked if their cell phone number and provider/carrier is correct; it cannot be edited at that time. Students must sign into BIONIC to make any changes. 
• Once students get to their residence hall, they will have the remainder of their 2-hour block to bring their belongings to their room. 
  • Hand carts are available for check-out from Central Services (hc-centralservices@haverford.edu) in the Whitehead Campus Center.
  • Only one adult may assist students in bringing items to their room at a time. The other adult must stay with the vehicle.
  • Everyone must be wearing a face-covering at all times.
  • Be mindful of others around you, and stay as distant as possible. Please do not linger in hallways, stairwells, or doorways.
  • Use hand sanitizer and wash hands frequently.
  • LIFTFAR-eligible students who had items stored in the HCA garages over the summer should follow the procedures outlined in the email sent to them on July 3rd. Please keep in mind that due to the overwhelming amount of boxes needing to be stored, overflow may have caused boxes to be stored in the garages directly to the right or left of the assigned garage - please make sure to check.
  • Students who used College Butler or Ultimate College Storage (UPS) should be in contact with the company directly about retrieving their items. Please do not assume how or when items are being delivered, students must individually be in contact with the company. All logistics will be through College Butler or Ultimate College Storage (UPS), not Residential Life.
  • Please refer back to the “Fall 2020 Move-in FAQ” for more information regarding move-in.
• After the 2-hour time block, students must say good-bye to their guests and remain in their rooms, or outside on the grounds. Students, after having been screened by Health Services, are now in quarantine (campus or room) and should not leave campus for at least 2 weeks. Any items students need should be procured before coming to campus, or should be ordered online and delivered. Moving forward, students are highly encouraged to order groceries and other items online and have them delivered to campus.

Questions about a campus address, packages, or deliveries should be directed to Central Services at hc-centralservices@haverford.edu.

Dear Students,

It’s me again. I am writing today to draw your attention to two documents. One is the Health and Wellness FAQ’s and the second is an Expectations document.  These two documents answer many questions you have had and set out our expectations for your behavior as you return to Haverford.

But first I want to clear up a misunderstanding that I believe may be in the community. While speaking with some students last  Friday evening, I learned that the “gatherings of 25” that has been mentioned in some of our documents has been greatly misinterpreted. I apologize for any confusion that may have been caused, but I want to make sure you understand where that number comes from and what it actually means. It DOES NOT MEAN that 25 is the acceptable size of parties or gatherings held by students in any house, apartment, or off-campus residence. For it is not.

The number ‘25’ was derived from the carefully measured, socially distanced utilization model of our largest on-campus social spaces. As conditions across the country have deteriorated, the space capacities have been adjusted. The new upper limit is 15.  Founders Hall, Zubrow Commons, or one of the several tents that will be placed outside and reservable through EMS—and these spaces ONLY—can hold gatherings of up to 15 people, provided of course that all other health protocols including masking and keeping 6’ of distance are followed. The College has measured all spaces on campus: classrooms, offices, auditoriums, the Library, the Dining Center, and reservable open spaces typically used for large gatherings.  A maximum occupancy has been set for each of these spaces that follows the guidelines of the CDC and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for safe occupancy in this pandemic. EMS has been programmed to provide you with the new maximum number of occupants for all reservable spaces on campus.

As we get closer to our planned opening, I do not want there to be any misunderstandings about how we must conduct ourselves to manage this pandemic. It will require each of us to commit to behaving in ways that minimize risk for ourselves AND for every member of our community. We are asking you to return to campus for in-person study only if you can make that commitment.

While we are clarifying things, let’s talk about pods and family units. This language has been used interchangeably to describe groups who share living units or close associations during this pandemic. There is nothing magical about these collectives. What makes them unique is that the members of such groups make a commitment to each other to be especially mindful about the activities they engage in outside of the group. This commitment to manage and monitor one’s own behavior so as not to unnecessarily increase the exposure of members of your group to the coronavirus is what makes you a pod or family unit.  Since you are arriving from all over the country and the world, it is still important that you maintain masking. In fact, in speaking with our health experts last week, they recommended that students remain masked except when they are bathing, brushing their teeth, eating, or alone in their room, and that is our expectation of you and your fellow students no matter whether you are in a ‘pod’ or not.

It is important to note all the ways that actual family units have been one of the superspreading vectors in this pandemic. So, if you want to consider yourself a pod or “family unit”, you will be even more careful of your comings and goings outside the group.

It is important for each of you to continue to pay attention to this unfolding situation and to continue to determine if you are able and willing to share the risk of living in community at Haverford College this fall. Students should contact their dean if they have questions about leaves or switching to remote learning, up until the start of the semester. As we prepare for your return, we have done and are doing all in our power to create as safe an environment as possible. We are planning for the potential that there will be cases of COVID-19 on campus. We must be prepared with both quarantine and isolation spaces for that highly likely situation. We remain hopeful that nothing in our external environment requires our full campus to go remote.

Why are we still pushing forward? We still believe that we can experience many strengths of assembling in community that will benefit not only those on campus but those joining us remotely, and that our students, faculty, and staff are committed to using proven health and safety measures for campus living and learning.

I genuinely believe that you can and will rise to what may be the greatest challenge of your lives, to date. What I hope we will know when we pass through this is that our sense of connection has been deepened by what we have been willing to take on to create a sense of community in this most disconnected time. I hope that our compassion and resilience grow as we manage this difficult time. Whether you are present on campus or joining us remotely, I hope that we will be able to create moments of connection where we will all feel that we are making history together.

Be Well, Stay Safe.

Dean Bylander

Haverford College, like many of its peer institutions, has made the decision to cancel all competition for the first semester of the '20 -'21 year. We realize that cancelling sport competition for the first semester is not the decision you had hoped to hear, even if not unexpected. We admire, appreciate and respect your dedication and commitment to being a student-athlete at Haverford – this is no easy task. Please know that Haverford has taken unprecedented steps to support the health and safety of our community as classes resume on September 8 and while this was an extremely difficult decision, it was made after much deliberation and with your and the rest of our community's safety as the number one priority.

- Joyce Bylander, Interim Dean of the College
- Wendy Smith, Director of Athletics

Dear Students and Parents:

Per President Raymond’s June 8, 2020 email to students, faculty and staff, Haverford College will resume in-person instruction for the Fall semester, barring any upsurge of COVID-19 infection or government limitation, on September 8, 2020, which is expected to be the first day of class.

You recently received a mailing which included two letters and a brochure announcing A.W.G. Dewars tuition insurance plan for the 2020/2021 academic year.

One letter indicated that the College would begin the Fall 2020 term on August 31. That is an incorrect date. We have moved the start of Fall 2020 to September 8, as referenced above. We are sorry for any confusion regarding the start of instruction.

The Dewars plan will remain open for enrollment until September 7, 2020. You may contact A.W.G. Dewar, Inc., at (617)774-1555 or www.collegerefund.com for more information or to apply.

Further, within the next few weeks, the Dean of the College’s office will be sending additional communication regarding dates involving the return to campus, along with other important information about the Fall semester. Please be sure to lookout for that correspondence, as well.

I wish you a safe and restful summer.

Best Regards,

Terri Albertson
Assistant Vice President for Finance and Controller

Friends,

We'd like to update you on the question of whether students will be permitted to return to campus this summer for activities such as research opportunities and the College's hosting of summer camps.

With continuing concerns about the spread of COVID-19, all on-campus student summer research opportunities and camps have been cancelled. This decision required extensive analysis and careful consideration, and is not taken lightly. We deeply regret the loss of these opportunities for our students, faculty, staff, and extended community and hope that the many students and faculty who are engaging in remote research have productive and rewarding experiences.

We continue in our unwavering focus on returning to campus for in-person instruction for the fall 2020 semester.

Fran Blase, provost
Martha Denney, dean of the College

Greetings, friends,

In conjunction with President Wendy Raymond’s invitation to the full community to animate our capacities to work against racism and the structural inequities that both feed into and flourish through racist violence, through the coming month, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life will be offering the following opportunities for community members to come together:

• On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00-noon EST, the OMA will have open office hours for students to share concerns, questions, insights, and ideas
• On Fridays from 11:00-noon EST, the OMA and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life will co-host re.ACT Community Conversations which are open to all Haverford community members.
  • This Friday’s conversation will focus on foundational questions for us as community members, organizers, and activists: Who and what do we want to be to one another? What do we want our society to look like? What are we not paying enough attention to? Where do we want to go next?
  • We are expanding the framework for this conversation to have intentional time as follows:
    • 10:00 a.m. EST for Black Students, Faculty, and Staff
    • 10:30 a.m. EST for Students, Faculty, and Staff of Color
    • 11:00 a.m. EST for the entire Haverford Community
  • Come when you can, leave when you will.
• On Wednesdays at 4:15 the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life continues to hold weekly meetings for Quaker worship open to all.

Please let any of us know of any questions, concerns, or ideas that you have; we look forward to continuing to work in ongoing collaboration as we move through this extraordinarily challenging passage, with eyes and spirit focused on opportunities to strengthen the community and our individual and collective capacities for transformation.

Ben Hughes, Director of Programming for Diversity and Community Engagement and Associate Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs

Walter Hjelt Sullivan, Director of Quaker Affairs and of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life

Theresa Tensuan, Dean for Diversity and Community Engagement and Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs

Hello all,

Thank you for your patience as we, and many College partners, have worked to create a move out plan that would keep you, and those on campus, as safe as possible. While we understand move out may not be ideal, we hope that the move out options can help relieve some of the anxiety around gathering/storing your belongings. Again, your continued understanding was, and is, appreciated. If you did not have the opportunity to choose a move out option in our last survey, now is the time to choose, or otherwise finalize what you would like done with your belongings.

Move Out/Storing Schedule:

• June 5th - June 14th: Students return to campus to pack their belongings
  • Students must sign up for a date and time slot via their student service portal (www.haverford.edu/housing). Sign ups will open on Friday, May 22 and close on Monday, June 1. Sign up requests via email will not be accepted.
  • There will be four, 3-hour time slots for which to sign up:
    • 6am-9am and 9am-12pm - HCA residents only
    • 12pm-3pm and 3pm-6pm - Non-HCA residents only
    • Time slots will be capped to ensure the safety of students, their family/friends, and those who are still residing/working on campus.
  • Students may not bring more than TWO adults with them to help pack belongings. Please fill out this form so that we know who is coming to campus. Students who are having friends or family come to campus on their behalf should also use the form above to share those names.
  • Students should plan to bring their own moving supplies with them.
  • Trash bags will be available in the Fieldhouse. Trash bags should be left on the curb outside of the residence hall - do not leave trash or trash bags in rooms, hallways, bathrooms, or public spaces.
  • Everyone coming to campus must wear an appropriate face covering at all times while on campus. Anyone with a fever or other COVID-related symptoms should not come to campus.
  • Students will not be permitted to return to campus and/or enter the residence halls without a scheduled appointment. No exceptions.
  • Students and their friends/family should enter campus from the main entrance, off Lancaster Avenue. All other entrances into campus will be closed.
  • Students are expected to travel back to campus with their OneCard and room key in order to access their building/room.

• June 15th - June 21st: Storage companies will be on campus to pack/store non-LIFTFAR student belongings
  • Students can choose the services of two, College-approved storage companies: Ultimate College Storage or The College Butler.
  • Companies coming to campus will be practicing appropriate safety protocols.
  • Companies can use a video-conference option to aid in packing (i.e. for students in a shared space). Students can discuss this option further with the company they choose.
  • All costs and fees associated with packing and storing are the responsibility of the student.
  • Students who inquired about grant monies will be contacted individually.

• June 22nd - June 26th: A student move-out crew will pack and store LIFTFAR-eligible student rooms and store on campus
  • The student crew will be practicing appropriate safety protocols.
  • The student crew can use a video-conference option to aid in packing (i.e. for students in a shared space).
  • During this week, students will be informed where on campus their items will be stored so that they can retrieve them in the fall.

Fieldhouse Operations for Students Returning to Campus June 5th - June 14th

Pick-Up - Students will be able to get the following items in the Fieldhouse on the day they arrive to campus:

• Packages/mail
• Trash bags
• Belongings from other spaces on campus

Drop-Off - Students will be able to drop off the following items in the Fieldhouse:

• Room key (failure to return the key will result in a charge; if a student forgets to drop off their key while on campus, they may mail it before June 26th - see details in the FAQs below)
• Textbooks, library materials, bookstore materials
• Mini-fridges (for any student who wishes to donate it)

In addition to the information above, please see the FAQs below:

• What are the associated costs with packing and storing from either of the moving companies? Exact costs will need to be discussed with the moving company students choose to use.

• Can I leave my belongings in my room over the summer? Due to the stringent cleaning required for COVID-19, all belongings must be removed from all student rooms.

• If I plan to come to campus to pack my own belongings, can I come at some other time other than June 5th - June 14th? In order to minimize the number of people on campus at one time, minimize cross-contamination between those who live and do not live on campus, and prepare for summer/fall housing, all students who plan to come to campus must do so during those dates, or arrange to have items packed and stored.

• What if I want to come to campus and pack some of my items, but also have some items packed/stored by one of the moving companies? Students can do both. Students will need to schedule a time to come to campus as well as schedule a time with one of the moving companies.

• Can I have one of the moving companies pack my items and then either pick them up, or have someone else pick them up, from campus? If a student would like their items packed and picked up, they will need to call one of the companies and discuss this arrangement.

• How should I get any mail or packages that are still on campus? Students with mail and/or packages should email Central Services (hc-centralservices) to make arrangements. Please include in the email whether or not you'll be on campus to gather your belongings so the appropriate arrangements can be made.

• I have belongings in other buildings on campus, how do I get those items? Students with items from other, non-residential buildings need to fill out this form. Student-athletes will be permitted to access the GIAC locker rooms and equipment rooms during their scheduled time slot. Questions can be directed to Melynda Link in the Athletics Department. Items from other buildings will be kept in the Fieldhouse for students to collect.

• I have belongings in another person's room, how do I get those items? Students will need to discuss with their peers how to transfer/store those items. Students will not be allowed in another student's room while on campus.

• What if I don't move out or pack/store my belongings during June? Students who fail to move out or pack/store their belongings by June 26th will have their belongings packed and stored by a third-party provider. All costs associated with this process will be charged to the student's account.

• How do I return my room key if I've already moved off campus, or forget to return it while I'm on campus? Keys must be returned to campus by June 26th or a charge will be placed on the student account. Students can mail their keys (a sturdy envelope is preferred, or that the key be wrapped in paper, so the key does not rip the envelope in transit) with their name and room number written on a piece of paper to:

Facilities Management
RE: Key Return
Haverford College
370 Lancaster Avenue
Haverford, PA 19041

We hope this email can serve as a resource for everything you need concerning move out. As a reminder, if you plan to come to campus to pack your own belongings, or if you are having someone come to campus on your behalf, or if you have items in another non-residential building, you must fill out this form so that you will be allowed onto campus.

If you have questions about something not covered in this email, please contact us at hc-reslife@haverford.edu.

The Office of Residential Life

Nathan Diehl
Associate Dean of the College
Dean of Residential and Community Life

Dear Seniors,

As you're in the final stages of completing your coursework, I'm writing with an update on behalf of Commencement Committee. I'd also like to add a personal note, sharing my disappointment and sadness that we can't convene in-person as we had planned to celebrate your accomplishments and successes. We will do our very best to still make this graduation moment celebratory and special for you, your families, and your communities, even in these circumstances.

Thank you for your thorough responses to the survey sent out last week. The many responses helped inform our discussions and frame our priorities as we move forward with plans for both the virtual celebration and in-person Commencement in 2021.

The virtual celebration will take place on May 30, with live video beginning at 1:00 p.m. EDT. We regret that this cannot be sooner, but this later date is necessary to accommodate the extended deadlines for senior work, and the corresponding deadlines for faculty and staff to submit senior grades/select prize and honors recipients. In addition to the live video, which we expect will run approximately a half hour, there will be a range of web content released at 1:00 p.m. that celebrates and recognizes the accomplishments of the class. More information (along with invitations to submit reflections, content for feature on Instagram, and more) will follow this week.

We are also working on a process for mailing diplomas, along with caps, tassels, and a few other special mementos, with the hope that these packages will reach most (if not all) of you by May 30.

We will be following up on this message with a note to family and friends, whose email addresses you submitted to receive Commencement information. Please let me (or any of the senior representatives on Commencement Committee, cc'ed on this note) know if you have any further questions. Thank you, and I wish you the best as you finish up.

Best,

Franklyn

Franklyn Cantor '12
Special Assistant to the President

Dear Haverford Students,

Greetings from your friends in the Dean's Office, and more generally from Haverford - the campus is becoming more springlike every day, but it still looks sad and lonely without all of you here. (However, rumor has it that there may be a virtual Pinwheel Day in the offing!) I write to remind you of some of the resources available to you, and to bring to your attention some clarifications of information previously shared.

1. Grading policy
Many of you had questions about the temporary grading policy adopted by EPC for this semester; you can see a useful FAQ here.

2. Financial Information
Some of you also had questions about the message that I sent on behalf of our CFO, Mitch Wein, last Friday. We'd like to clarify and elaborate on two of the specific items. First, if you worked on campus in multiple positions during the first half of the Spring semester, the one-time payment "stipend" you will receive, if you are not continuing to work, is the aggregate total of the amount earned from all of the Haverford positions. Second, the minimum room and board credit (of $500) is calculated individually for both room and for board. So if you participated in either the Traditional or Black Squirrel plan, and if you resided on-campus, the minimum refund credit would be no less than $1,000.

Please reach out to hc-payroll@haverford.edu with questions about work on campus, and to
hc-studentaccounts@haverford.edu with questions about refunds. Your parents and/or guardians may also have questions about these issues, so please do forward them this update and the on-campus contact information as appropriate.

I also want to stress that students who have financial concerns that impact their ability to complete their work this semester should not hesitate to be in touch with their deans. Here is a summary of the LIFTFAR program to which eligible students can apply, but even if you are not LIFTFAR-eligible or believe you have maxed out, please be in touch with your dean. This is an important time to seek help in negotiating your personal circumstances and your ability to thrive as best you can academically, and we are eager to be of service if we can.

3. Processes in Progress
As you know, the College is looking into the best way to reunite you with any belongings you may have left at Haverford, and the Office of Residential Life sent you a survey about this recently. Please bear in mind that our ability to have anyone come back to campus at this point is extremely limited, and this is likely to continue through the month of April. Central Services is also developing a form through which you can request that packages that have arrived for you in the mailroom here be forwarded on to your current location; this should be available shortly.

And as you already know, pre-registration, major declaration and room draw processes have been delayed; please be sure to read carefully any communications you receive on the timing of those processes.

4. Resources

Student Health and Learning Resources
You@Haverford provides personalized and confidential resources for all students. The platform has incredibly useful Covid-19 resources for students and is updated daily. Topics include tips for virtual learning, managing stress and anxiety, and supporting loved ones.

Counseling and Psychological Services
CAPS is available to students (virtually). Students should continue to submit a form to request counseling or email hc-caps@haverford.edu.

Health Services
Students can speak to a practitioner from 10-2 (M-F) by calling (610) 896-1089. The after- hours nurse-on-call service can also be reached at the same number outside of these operating hours.

Health Advocates
If students are struggling to navigate resources or supports (on or off campus), please contact
hc-healthadvocate@haverford.edu

The Office of Academic Resources
The physical office is closed, but the OAR staff will be available online for any academic coaching needs. Please feel free to email staff individually or use this link.

The Writing Center
The Writing Center continues to offer its services online; please use this link to make a virtual appointment.

The Marilou Allen Office for Service and Community Collaborations
Here is a link for students to sign up for the OSCC mailing list and stay connected.

The Center for Career and Professional Advising
Read CCPA's blog for a reminder of their remote services. They are holding their appointments and events virtually. Learn about fellowships by watching the Fellowship 101 Video Series.

Religious and Spiritual Life
All-community Worship will be held Wednesday, April 1, 4:15 – 5:15pm and continue weekly on Wednesdays, until May 7, 2020 (https://haverford.zoom.us/j/207611639).

All are welcome, no particular experience required, just an interest to be together in community and compassion.

International Student Support
Updates from ICE for F-1 students can be found here.

IITS
IITS can best be contacted through the ProDesk: prodesk@haverford.edu; a great deal of useful information is also available here.

If any of you have trouble accessing and/or affording internet resources, we are poised to help. Please contact the ProDesk with any specific questions, but below are some resources you may find helpful as you try and find options that work for you in your current location: links here and here.

In closing, on this last day of a very strange month of March, I send you all of our very best wishes from the Haverford campus, which misses you deeply!

Take good care of yourselves and your loved ones,

Martha

Martha J. Denney
Dean of the College

Dear Haverfordians:

I write to share some practical information that students and families may have been contemplating in this time of uncertainty and hope this letter provides a helpful update on various topics. The COVID-19-related health crisis confronting our communities, locally, nationally and globally, has caused significant disruptions and anxiety around the world. Please know that Haverford remains committed to its mission and to our shared values through good times and bad. Our concern is first and foremost for your well-being, health and safety, that of your families, neighbors, and friends, near and far, and that of our Haverford community, students, faculty, and staff.

The College also wants to remain true to its values in developing a plan to provide financial support for student employment, a return of monies paid for room and board, and, we hope, a helpful resource regarding your student health insurance, if you are covered through the College’s Student Health Insurance Program.

Student Employment
The College is aware that many of you have worked at various positions on campus during the school year and will no longer be able to do so. Further, many of you had assumed a portion of your earnings as necessary income for self-help and work study expectations for educational expenses. If you had a Spring 2020 Haverford position and are unable to continue working remotely for the College (which is true for the great majority of you), we will be providing an allowance in lieu of foregone earnings for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester. Only a limited number of student positions have been designated for remote work for the remainder of the semester, and your supervisor will contact you if your position is in that category.

Since approximately fifty percent of the semester passed at the point the academic program became virtual, Haverford will be paying you an amount that is equal to what you earned from your campus job(s) in the first half of the spring semester. This support will be provided as an additional one-time payment, or “stipend.” We are planning to process these one-time payments through student payroll in April. For the very few students continuing to work Haverford jobs this semester, your earnings will be calculated based on the hours you actually work during this second half of the semester, and you should discuss with your supervisor what to do if your earnings for hours worked during this period are less than the pay you might have otherwise received. Questions related to student payroll can be emailed to hc-payroll@haverford.edu.

Room and Board
Room: The College will credit a pro-rata amount (approximately one-half) of the funds you paid for residing on campus (room costs) for the spring semester. For the portion of the spring semester that you were not permitted to reside in College housing due to the enactment of safety protocols related to trying to slow the spread of the coronavirus, these funds will be returned to you as a credit on your student account, prorated based on a family’s contribution to the cost of attendance.

Board: Similarly, for students enrolled in a full meal plan (e.g. the Black Squirrel or the Traditional Plan), the College will provide a proportional credit for the amount paid by the student for the spring semester. For students enrolled in a Block Meal plan, those meals will not expire next year and are retained on your OneCard for the fall semester of 2020 and thereafter. Graduating seniors will receive a pro-rata refund of the amount of unused meals relative to the amount purchased, and at the same rate per meal as was paid by the student.

In sum, for all students who left campus, a prorated portion of the charges related to the spring’s room and board (non-Block plans) costs will be credited to you on a basis that is in proportion to your family’s contribution relative to the College’s published cost of attendance. We have also established a minimum room and board (R&B) credit amount of $500 for all students who departed campus.

Student employment support referenced above would be provided in addition to R&B credit.

Credits and Refund Process: Credits for both R&B will be applied to student accounts within the next two weeks. If the adjustment creates a credit balance on your account, you may request a refund. Refunds may be requested by sending an email to hc-studentaccounts@haverford.edu. If you do not request a refund, we will maintain the credit balance on your account and apply it to future charges, except as follows: graduating students and/or any student who received Federal Financial Aid will automatically receive a check based upon the calculation outlined above and do not need to request a refund.

Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP)
For students enrolled in the College’s Student Health Insurance Plan, our https://www.firststudent.com/school_page/haverford-college/home-haverford-college/ site has useful information and will likely address many of the questions you may have.

Other Topics
Some individuals have inquired about donating refunded monies. While that is quite a generous thought and sincerely appreciated, it is a separate process. If you would like to learn more, please contact Diane Wilder via email at dwilder@haverford.edu or https://www.haverford.edu/giving.

We wish you the very best and invite you to send all questions to hc-studentaccounts@haverford.edu. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Wein
Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance, Treasurer

Dear Haverford Students,

I write on behalf of EPC (the Educational Policy Committee) to share the temporary grading policy of Haverford College for Spring 2020, which you will see below. Also included are the policies adopted by Bryn Mawr College and Swarthmore College.

With all best wishes,

Martha

Martha J. Denney
Dean of the College

Haverford College
Temporary Grading Policy
Spring 2020

For all courses taught during Spring 2020, the expectation is that instructors will determine a final numerical grade for all students, but the recorded grade will either be Pass or Fail. Although P/F will be the default value on students’ transcripts, students also have the option to uncover a P grade (for the numerical grade) in any of their courses, up until September 4, 2020. These default P grades will not count toward any of the four that students are allowed to take during their matriculation at Haverford. Furthermore, the option to uncover a P grade can be exercised only once for a given course; students will not be allowed to reverse this decision once it has been made. For this reason, students should carefully consider their decision and seek guidance from their faculty advisor in advance.

Under this grading policy, a P grade is defined as a numerical grade corresponding to 1.0 - 4.0, and an F grade as 0.0. All P grades will count toward a student's major, minor, concentration requirements as well as courses satisfying either a General Education requirement or prerequisite for another course. While P grades will not affect a student’s GPA, numerical grades will be factored into one’s GPA as is true under our current policy.

Although instructors are expected to determine numerical grades for their courses, and to make a good faith effort to do so, there are exigent circumstances (e.g., the instruction of courses in the second half of spring semester; those involving a practicum, lab, or studio component; or extraordinary personal circumstances) that may prevent a faculty member from doing so. After consultation with their students, instructors are allowed to decide to grade any of their courses in a strict Pass/Fail format by a deadline of April 6. A P grade in any such courses may count toward a student’s program or graduation requirements.

Bryn Mawr College
Temporary Grading Policy
Spring 2020

Undergraduate students will be allowed to choose to take one or more of their courses Cr/NC in the spring of 2020, with a deadline of the end of the exam period to decide which courses will be Cr/NC. There will be no limit to the number of Cr/NC courses a student may take this semester, and these would not count as any of the 4 that students are allowed to elect over their four years. If a student elects to take a course Cr/NC and the underlying grade is a merit grade, then the course can count towards the major.

In addition, instructors will be allowed to decide and announce by April 1 that they will be grading one or more of their undergraduate courses Pass / Fail (where Pass = 1.0 - 4.0 and Fail = 0.0). If the professor elects to teach a course pass/fail, a student may count it towards the major or towards a graduation requirement as long as the student earns a Pass.

Swarthmore College
Temporary Grading Policy
Spring 2020

On the recommendation of the Curriculum Committee and the Council on Educational Policy and with the approval of the President and the Provost, the College has moved to a Credit/No Credit (CR/NC) semester for all students, with the option of uncovering grades at the semester’s conclusion.

This is a modification of a current Swarthmore policy for Credit/No Credit work. Grades for all courses completed during the Spring 2020 semester will be recorded as CR/NC and will not count against the four credits students may optionally elect as CR/NC after the first semester of students’ first year. This includes all courses completed at other institutions and for other programs that were pre-approved by the Office of Off-Campus Study.

Modeled on our current policy for first semester-first year students, faculty will award letter grades that will remain unseen on the transcript. As the grades come in, students (and faculty) will be able to see them, but they will be converted to CR or NC on the official transcript unless the student opts out of the CR/NC policy and wishes to have some or all of the grades uncovered.

The handling of D grades and NC grades: After the first semester of the first year, a student who chooses to take a course CR/NC and yet who earns any version of a grade of D (D+, D, or D-) will earn degree credit but forfeit the ability to have the grade covered. For this Spring 2020 semester, however, all grades of D- and above will remain covered unless a student chooses to uncover them. A course earning NC (No credit) will receive NC on the transcript and not receive degree credit.

Uncovering the CR/NC: Faculty will still award grades, but the default grades for students will be to receive either a CR or a NC. Once grades are turned in, students will have the opportunity to uncover any of their courses' grades from this semester for their official transcript. Students (except spring semester graduating seniors) will have until the end of the second week of the following semester to uncover their grades; for spring semester graduating seniors, the deadline to uncover the underlying shadow letter grade is the Tuesday prior to commencement.

Dear Haverford Students,

t's been a week since I last wrote to you as a group, and to all of us here on campus that week feels like a lifetime. So much has changed on the COVID-19 landscape, and so much is still changing and unknown. I am writing to update you on a few issues that the College is working on, and that I know are of importance to you.

First, within the next few days a decision will be made on the rest of the semester and whether it will be conducted online. I realize that you have been patiently awaiting an update so that you can plan, and I am as eager as you are to see this overarching issue resolved.

Second, please know that the College, specifically the Educational Policy Committee, is working on the complex issue of how courses this semester will be graded. The details of their determination will be communicated as soon as possible

Third, many of you have asked about the potential return of room and board charges for this semester. This, too is an issue being actively discussed, with news to come shortly.

Fourth, many of you are concerned about lost wages from work that you would have done on campus. The College is developing a strategy for financial support for impacted students, and will apprise you of the specifics once they have been established.

Finally, with regard to online work, we understand that some of you may have trouble accessing and/or affording internet resources. Please contact the ProDesk at IITS with any specific questions, but below are some resources you may find helpful as you try and find options that work for you in your current location.

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https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/are-there-government-programs-to-help-me-get-internet-service

https://www.consumerreports.org/internet-providers/isps-respond-to-coronavirus-raise-speeds-suspend-data-caps-keep-america-connected-pledge/

We are thinking of you all the time, and wish we had been able to share more specific information with you before now. But we are confident that many issues will be clarified in the very near future, and we appreciate your forbearance as we work through them with Haverforidan thoroughness, and under challenging circumstances, given local restrictions on gathering in workplaces, including Haverford. All of us in the Dean's Office would be happy to hear from you by email at any point, of course!

With trust, concern, respect - and gratitude! - during these difficult times.

Martha

Martha J. Denney
Dean of the College

Dear Haverford Students,

This is not the email I thought I would be sending today, but then nothing in this process has been predictable! I know it is stressful for all of us, and we are trying to make the best possible decisions and plans under difficult circumstances. Please do take the time to read this email thoroughly.

Today the Governor of Pennsylvania ordered that schools and many other facilities in Montgomery County, in which we are located, be required to close for at least two weeks, beginning tomorrow, due to a high incidence of COVID-19 in the area. We initially thought that Haverford College might have to close as well, but that does not appear to be the case at this time. Nevertheless, the fact that we are located in a vulnerable, high-density, high-traffic location for COVID-19 with a concerning number of cases has meant that we need to - and you need to - rethink some of our plans and assumptions.

We are still planning to offer online instruction until April 6 and are hopeful that we can revert to in-person instruction thereafter. However, with regard to students' ability to stay on campus during this period, the picture has changed considerably and I will be approving far fewer requests than I had hoped. This is for a number of reasons: 1) you are arguably better off elsewhere, even if there is COVID-19 in your home area, so the "hot spot" criteria is no longer determinative; 2) we are not allowing any requests in which your rationale is pursuing jobs or placements off-campus, as we need to avoid that kind of movement to and from campus, and 3) with the expectation that staff presence on campus will be more limited than expected, our ability to provide you with services is diminished. We do not anticipate that you will have access to labs and academic and administrative buildings, including the library and the fitness center.

We will understand if you had planned to come to campus this weekend to retrieve items and are no longer comfortable doing so. We will allow you to come to campus as previously described, but are ready to work with you if there are items you need and you now prefer to stay away. We cannot promise that we will be able to send you your items within a specific time frame, but will do what we can as things evolve.

As I indicated in a previous email, all F-1 visa holders may stay on campus if they wish. However, given this new situation in our area, more may want to leave the country than had previously planned. We will work with you to the best of our ability to preserve your status during your time away, and will not move at this point to withdraw you and terminate your enrollment status. However, we still remain very concerned about your ability to re-enter in April if we resume in-person instruction, since travel restrictions to the US have clearly been an option that the current federal administration is willing to exercise; where these may be imposed and in what time frame are unpredictable moving forward. A more detailed email to international students will follow tomorrow, but I encourage you to begin to think this decision through carefully.

I suspect that my emails to date around COVID-19 have sounded unwelcoming, and I plead guilty to that charge - I am trying to tell you in the strongest possible way that I want you to be off-campus for your own safety and that of your families and communities, if at all possible. We have no cases of COVID-19 on our campus now, so you can feel comfortable about going home even if there are vulnerable family members there. If you wait a few weeks and COVID-19 hits Haverford, that will no longer be the case, and your options may be severely limited if we can no longer house you on campus because of an outbreak. That sounds dire, but it is a possible scenario that you need to consider. Haverford College is not a space that is somehow protected from COVID-19 as we have valued staff members and others who constitute part of our community and we are an open campus, so I do not want you to feel a false sense of security as you envision staying here.

So forgive another long and depressing email, but I want you all to make the best possible decisions with the information we have at this time. No matter where you are, what your internet access is, where your books have ended up, the Haverford faculty will work with you toward the best possible semester under these conditions. Your professors will be reaching out to you next week to understand your situations and to assess how they can best conduct the most inclusive courses possible, so please do not despair if you think your circumstances will prevent your success. We are all in this together.

And let me reiterate, finally, that if financial concerns are preventing you from going home, wherever that may be, please be in touch your dean, as we have resources available to help you. That should be the least of your worries as you weigh options and make difficult decisions.

With all best wishes,

Martha

Martha J. Denney
Dean of the College

Dear Students,

This will be a lengthy email as it addresses many issues and questions, so please take the time to read through it.

First, thanks for your patience and your understanding while Haverford - and every other institution! - works through the details of our response to COVID-19. Please keep in mind that your health and that of others is paramount in all of our decisions.

I want to underscore the fact that our best avenue to help dampen the spread of COVID-19 is to have as few of our students on campus as possible. Therefore, only students with very specific circumstances may remain on campus, if they are already here, or return, if they have spent Spring Break elsewhere; those circumstances are detailed below. If a specific financial determination - the cost of transportation - is the only thing preventing you from returning to your home if you are currently on campus, that is not a sufficient reason in itself for us to allow you to remain, and we will work with you to provide financial support (this includes LIFTFAR-eligible students). Please understand that this is in your own best interest as well as the interest of the rest of the Haverford community, as the fewer individuals we have on campus, the less risk there is for everyone. If you did not specify financial concerns to your dean already, please let them know that you would like to/are able to return home but need help with finances.They will work with you to make the necessary arrangements.

Please know that you are not required to return to campus to retrieve your belongings! You are permitted to do so this weekend if that is feasible, but we will do our best to help you get access to any materials you might need to complete your coursework. The processes by which that will be accomplished are still being formulated, and the faculty and academic support personnel here at Haverford are committed to developing the materials and mechanisms needed for students in a variety of contexts. If you want to return briefly to campus and retrieve your belongings before this Sunday evening, March 15, you can do so without notifying anyone. Thereafter, you MUST notify your dean so that you can be given access to your room. *Special note: if you have medications and/or laptops containing ongoing course work (notes, papers) in your room, please let me know this directly.

Like Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges and many of our other Centennial Conference peers, we anticipate that as of March 15, we will not be hosting athletic events or sending our teams to events on other campuses, at least for the duration of the three-week period we have outlined. Members of athletic teams currently traveling and scheduled to return to campus will need to leave this weekend, unless they meet any of the criteria described below. Athletic participation will thus not be a reason to stay on campus

The College will be working to develop a plan to compensate student workers for earnings that they were relying on for financial aid purposes, so expectations for your campus job are not a reason to remain on campus. We do understand that finances are a source of worry to a number of you and want you to know that the College is attending to this consideration..

Many of you have already contacted your deans requesting permission to stay; if you have not addressed your eligibility to remain as detailed below, please follow up with an additional explanation. If you are already on campus and will not be permitted to stay, we will require you to depart before Wednesday, March 18. I will make every effort to let you know of my decision on your case before the end of the day on Friday, March 13.

Any of the following are grounds to request to stay on campus:

1. You hold an F-1 visa and are currently on campus and do not wish to return home, or are currently in transit in a third country and do wish to return.

2. You cannot return to your home country due to its risk level as outlined by the State Department/CDC (3 and 4).

3. You cannot return to your domestic or international locality as it is currently a hot spot of confirmed cases (please note that your state having declared a State of Emergency is not a sufficient threshold).

4. You do not have a stable home to which you can return (and this is already known to your dean).

5. You are currently experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.

Some students have expressed a desire to stay on campus because they have elderly or ill relatives at home. While this concern is commendable, the time to return home is now, unless you are symptomatic. If you are not, you currently do not pose a risk to those family members, but if you were to stay at Haverford and contract the virus at some later point, you would be. Your best contribution to your family's health would be to return home now.

Thank you again for your help in keeping yourselves and each other safe and healthy. This is a challenging time for all of us, and I am grateful for the understanding and resiliency you have shown to date. It is heart-breaking for us in the Dean's Office to encourage you to stay away from Haverford, but we all have to accept the need for these measures, for our own safety as well as that of those around us.

In gratitude (as well as trust, respect and concern!),

Martha

Martha J. Denney
Dean of the College