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| Message from the Dean | March 16, 2021 |
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President O'Brien's and Provost Kloppenberg's message below about Santa Clara University's plans to begin instruction in person this coming fall applies to JST. Thus, JST is planning to return to in-person teaching and on-campus work by all faculty and staff next fall. This planning comes with some conditions. First, we have an on-line option for our MTS degree; we will plan to offer the on-line course options needed by students in this program. Second, our plans will at all times be subject to the regulations and orders of the City of Berkeley, the County of Alameda, and the State of California. If the public authorities allow us to operate in person (as we hope that they will do), we will operate in person. The public authorities, however, have not yet made that decision. Since we plan at this point to resume in-person instruction in the fall, we anticipate that JST will offer enough in-person classes for international students (new and/or continuing) with Initial immigration records to be eligible to enter the U.S. for the fall semester. We anticipate that continuing students with Active immigration records will need to return to the U.S. for in-person instruction in the Fall. JST will continue to work with the International Students and Scholars office of Santa Clara University to update all international students regarding the immigration implications of our plans for the fall semester. For detailed information on immigration considerations relating to COVID-19, please see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page or contact Santa Clara University's International Students and Scholars in Global Engagement at iss@scu.edu. As Fr. O'Brien and Provost Kloppenberg say below, we still have many details to settle in our planning. As we settle them, the persons and offices responsible for those details at JST will inform you of these decisions. The planning for a return to our classrooms, offices, and chapel is happy, if heavy, work. I thank all of you who are and will be working on such plans. Our prayer and reflection might lead us to approach in diverse ways the mystery of God's relationship to this pandemic. As we minister to and with those who have survived and as we pray for those who have succumbed, we can join with each other to praise the good Lord for his gift of life and for the prospect of an end to the horrible scourge that COVID 19 has been. May Christ bring us soon to share that song with each other face to face!
In our Lord, Joe Mueller, S.J.
______________________________ Dear Bronco Families, As Spring begins this week and we prepare for Easter and Passover, the wisteria is blooming on campus and hope abounds. We write today with our plans for fall 2021, which begins for our undergraduate students on September 20. As our region makes steady progress in suppressing the virus, we are pleased to announce our intent to fully return to campus with on-campus residential housing, campus activities and in-person classes for our undergraduate students. We are also preparing for our graduate programs to resume many in-person classes, with some classes continuing in hybrid or remote format, depending on the modality of a program before Covid and to address students’ needs. Our projections and planning are informed by:
While there is much work to be done in the coming months, we once again turn to our core guiding principles that have consistently anchored our decision-making since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) protect the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff, and (2) offer a rigorous, transformational education in the long tradition of Jesuit education. In addition, we will work to accommodate any students whose health or immigration status does not allow them to return to our campuses in the fall. We are hard at work on reopening our campuses and are putting our full energy into welcoming our community back, and we will share information regularly as our planning evolves. Hopefully this news gives you— as it does us—some encouragement after a very difficult year. Faithful to the Jesuit tradition, we need to properly honor our losses and reflect on our personal and communal experiences in order to discern their meaning. This will take time, so we must be gentle with ourselves and one another. In the coming days, we look forward to seeing many of our students move into residence halls —many living on campus for the first time— as our phased campus reopening is underway in Santa Clara. Please know we are deeply grateful for how all of you have met this moment together, with generosity and clarity of conviction, and always rooted in our mission. Finally, we thank you for your continued vigilance and adherence to safety measures. We pray that you stay safe and healthy in the coming months. Take care and God bless, Kevin F. O’Brien, S.J. Lisa A. Kloppenberg
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| Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University |
1735 Le Roy Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709 |