Dear Students and Families,
We are eager to welcome you to campus this fall and are working closely with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to keep your health and wellbeing at the center of our preparations. As was announced on Jan. 13, 2021 USF is planning for a mostly in-person fall semester, with students residing in residence halls, including Lone Mountain East, which is set to open in August.
To open safely, USF is reviewing current COVID-19 testing procedures, contact tracing protocols, and safety measures, including face coverings, physical distancing, hygiene practices, and vaccinations to name a few. Classes, residence halls, and dining facilities have been set up to best protect students, faculty, and staff. This includes reducing the capacity of many of our classrooms and eliminating triples in our on-campus housing. While we cannot predict with certainty what USF will look like in the months ahead, we have made informed plans, are in regular communication with local public health officials and other experts, and are prepared to adjust and pivot as necessary based on the course of the pandemic, the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, and guidance from local public health officials.
We have several tools that will help us remain safe and healthy while resuming the in-person campus experience. Classrooms have been reconfigured to meet physical distancing requirements, and capacities for the rooms have been adjusted in our course scheduling systems. An expanded schedule has been created for fall 2021 to allow courses that would normally meet during congested times to meet earlier in the morning, later in the evenings, or on Saturdays. These temporary changes to the schedule will allow us to both reduce foot traffic that would impact offices and provide more options for identifying space for in-person courses.
We have also invested in new HyFlex (hybrid-flexible) classrooms, portable equipment, and faculty training initiatives. In some courses, faculty will be using other forms of hybrid instruction, including cohorts, which will allow different groups of students to join classes in-person on specific days, while participating remotely (either synchronously or asynchronously) on other days.
You will receive additional communication in the coming months to help you prepare for fall 2021. More information and updates about reopening, COVID guidance, and keeping our community safe can be found on the USF Together section of myUSF. I hope you will reference it often to get answers to your questions and help with your planning.
We are looking forward to seeing you this fall.
Julie Orio
Vice President of Student Life