July 31, 2020
Dear Students and Families,
Greetings from Gonzaga, and I hope you are doing well as this week (and the month of July) rapidly comes to its conclusion. Together with this email I am sending you an important document: the Student Arrival and Return to Gonzaga Guide. Please take the time to look through this document; it has a lot of important information which we want to make sure you have, and are aware of, as you make plans for the Fall Semester.
As I shared in my message of July 28th, the fact that we are operating in the context of a virulent pandemic cannot be denied or ignored. New and ongoing restrictions are in place and active, and this does not make the task of returning to campus a simple one. That being said, we have been in constant dialogue with our partners at Spokane Regional Health District – as well as with partners at the state and national levels – to lean on expert counsel and identify ways that we can provide an optimal student experience in the face of COVID-19.
I’m sure all of you are wondering what the student experience will look like at Gonzaga in the Fall. While many programs and services may look a bit different in their delivery, there will be a wide array of opportunities for students to get support and build community in healthy ways, both virtually and in-person. For the most up-to-date information and answers to your questions, visit our Zag On website.
Heads’ Up: Request for Action - Plans for Fall Response Form
Early next week, you will receive a link to a form that will ask you to communicate your responses to a set of questions regarding your plans for Fall 2020 semester. This form will ask you to provide us with information about whether you wish to participate in coursework on-campus or via remote technology, as well as information pertaining to campus housing. It is critical that you complete this survey immediately upon receipt to ensure that we have an accurate picture of all of our students’ plans for return to campus this fall. Please engage with us if we can be helpful in answering questions, but please do respond in a timely manner so that we can make plans in accord with your own.
We have developed a list of the Top 10 Things You Need To Know about campus life this Fall, compiled by our Vice Provost for Student Affairs, Dr. Kent Porterfield. Hopefully this will be a helpful distillation of some of the key points contained within the longer Guide. Thank you for your continued engagement in this significant process, and know that we are here for you.
Sincerely yours,
Thayne M. McCulloh, D.Phil.
President