Welcome to Fall 2020
Dear Brooklyn College students,
Whether you are a new student or a returning student, you are part of the Brooklyn College family. Our family includes incredibly hard-working staff and faculty who are deeply committed to your academic success. Despite the unprecedented circumstances that accompany this new academic year, we want to ensure that you have a rewarding educational experience.
Classes at Brooklyn College this fall will be overwhelmingly online. Hundreds of staff and faculty at the College have been working all summer to be able to bring you a remote experience that offers you strong, accessible coursework, builds on our sense of community, and keeps you on track to graduation. For faculty, our Center for Teaching and Learning has offered training, workshops, and resources to enrich our online pedagogy.
For students, we have developed a new online orientation. If you are a new student, all seven categories of orientation videos will be very useful to you. If you are a continuing student, you can focus on making the most of this semester with the video and materials about successful remote learning. If you have questions about anything, please consult our virtual front desk, where you can get the phone numbers and email addresses of the appropriate staff members who can answer your questions and help you succeed.
We have prioritized safety in everything we have done to prepare for this fall. Working together to ensure that we can fulfill our educational mission and put the safety of our students, staff and faculty first, we developed a comprehensive Campus Reentry Plan (pdf). Because safety is our highest priority, access to the campus is and will continue to be strictly controlled.
We do not have open access to campus this semester. We want to thank our essential staff who worked on campus this summer and will continue to do so this fall to ensure that its critical technology, engineering, and facilities-related functions operate throughout the pandemic. Almost all other staff worked from home this summer, and will continue to do so this fall. For students, for now, before you come to campus, you must have a specifically scheduled appointment to get staples from the Food Pantry, to check out a computer device on loan, or for some other specific, authorized, and scheduled reason. In coursework, only students in designated hybrid classes will be allowed on campus and only for the scheduled times that those courses are authorized to be held onsite. Faculty members teaching hybrid courses will share applicable dates and procedures with their students.
The pandemic has impacted each one of us in different ways, and many members of our campus community experienced a very painful spring and summer. At Brooklyn College, we want to be here for you, and hopefully help fall be a better season. The college offers free, confidential personal counseling services for students. If you are facing financial challenges, please speak with staff in our Financial Aid Office who stand ready to help. Additionally, we offer emergency grants through our Immigrant Student Success Office and The Carroll and Milton Petrie Student Emergency Grant Fund program. Our Vice President for Student Affairs Ron Jackson will be sharing additional resources with you tomorrow.
In general, we are bringing Brooklyn College to you this semester. Stay home; stay safe. If you go out, please wear a mask. I know this new way of teaching, learning, and working is going to be challenging, but you will receive an excellent college education in a safe, engaged, and rewarding way this semester.
By supporting one another, we will create a successful fall 2020 semester together.
Yours sincerely,
Michelle J. Anderson
President, Brooklyn College
