Sharing more details on undergrad plans for fall 2021

This message was originally sent to employees by Feridun, Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor.

• Faculties have completed initial planning for undergraduate courses for fall  
• You can now view every faculty’s current plan for undergraduate plans online 
• Graduate students can expect to hear more information on Fall plans in the coming weeks 

At last week’s Town Hall, we let you know that the academic plans for fall 2021 were starting to come together. Today, we are letting you know what each faculty is planning for September as we begin a transition back to more in person experiences for all of us.

Faculties have planned to deliver much more in-person learning than we have done at any point in the pandemic to date. We have published plans for undergraduate courses on the COVID-19 information website. It is our intention to keep expanding in-person experiences throughout this academic year, as public health conditions allow.

Today, we’re letting incoming and current undergraduate students know more about the fall term to help them plan for the term. We are writing to undergraduate students today. We’ll be updating graduate students in the coming weeks as we further our academic planning.

In developing these plans, these principles have guided our planning:

• We have planned to offer as many in-person classes as possible with any required physical distancing and gathering-size restrictions to maintain safety.
• Classrooms will be scheduled at 50 per cent of normal room capacity based on our current expectations of the public health guidelines for the fall.
• We will stay prepared to reduce in-person delivery to meet any alternate public health restrictions.
• We will work to ensure that  students who are unable to come to campus to learn in the fall have options to progress toward completion of their program. Academic advisors will be available to help students consider the options available to them.
• Fall-term courses will finish the way they start. If a course starts online, it will remain online until the end of term and will not transition to in-person. If a course starts in person, it will remain in person unless public health requirements dictate a move to online.  

Above all, we are guided by the need to protect your health and wellbeing. Whatever the conditions in September, we will be ready to adapt these plans to the public health requirements of the moment.

These plans are not the end of our work to prepare for the fall term. Leaders are working together on plans to ensure that we can support expanded in-person campus experiences for students, researchers and other employees. As they have been throughout the pandemic, services including our Campus Housing, Food Services, The Centre, Health Services, Counselling Services, and Athletics will continue to operate and expand their in-person supports for student and employees.

You can expect to hear over the summer months whether you will be in the first stages of return to campus working or if you will transition back to on campus working later in the academic year. 

Based on your frequently asked questions at the recent town hall, we have shared some answers about our fall plans on the COVID-19 information website. Please continue to check in on the website for more information in the coming weeks. If you have further questions, please email coronavirus@uwaterloo.ca or discuss with your supervisor.

As the days pass and more people get vaccinated, we can all share a growing sense of optimism that we can see the end of pandemic restrictions. Please, take the first opportunity you get to get a vaccine and encourage others to do the same. The sooner we are all immunized, the closer we can get to “normal.” Thank you, again, for your perseverance and commitment throughout the pandemic.