[MUSIC PLAYING]
ROBERT ZIMMER: In recent months, the University
of Chicago community has risen to meet a challenge
without modern precedent.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected all facets
of our society, our campus community, and each of us
as individuals.
Now we look forward to welcoming as much of our community
as possible back to campus for the autumn quarter guided
by the university's academic missions and values
and in close collaboration with public health experts
and the University of Chicago Medicine.
Our approach is also informed by federal, state, and city public
health guidance.
Our return to campus will require the commitment
of our entire community as we rise
to a new aspect of the pandemic challenge.
I am grateful that you are part of this effort
and pleased to share this overview of the university's
plans for the autumn quarter, including the health
and well-being practices we are implementing
to help keep our campus safe and build
a culture of collective responsibility
around the public health issues that we confront.
KA YEE C. LEE: For those of you who are already
part of our community, I know that being away from campus
for the past several months has likely been difficult.
If you are new to the university,
I'm sure this is an unexpected way
to start your experience here.
We have been working diligently to create an environment that
prioritizes our health and safety while fostering
the intellectual, cultural, and social life of our university.
Everyone who returns to campus will
be required to complete a brief training
and uphold the UChicago Health Pact, a reflection
of our collective responsibility and obligation
to care for each other and protect our community's health
and safety.
The pact includes wearing a face covering on campus,
maintaining appropriate distance from one another at workspaces,
self-monitoring daily for symptoms of COVID-19,
washing hands frequently, adhering
to quarantining requirements and more.
We plan to hold in-person and remote classes
for autumn quarter, allowing us to bring back
as many members of our community as possible while adhering
to public health guidance around social distancing
and other measures designed in an effort
to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Most classes will include a remote component.
Some will be conducted fully remotely.
And others will include a combination
of in-person and remote instructions and discussion.
For in-person classes, we have reconfigured classroom spaces
to facilitate social distancing.
We will also implement new cleaning and ventilation
protocols in accordance with federal, state, and city public
health guidance.
The last week of instruction for the autumn quarter
as well as reading and finals periods
will take place fully remotely to help minimize
the chance of an increase in COVID-19
cases between Thanksgiving and the end of the quarter.
To promote a safe living environment,
occupancy for residence halls will be significantly lower.
And dining halls will have reduced seating capacity
and focus on takeaway meals.
We know that formal and informal gatherings
are an important part of university life.
Gatherings on campus will be limited
based on guidance from the city of Chicago
and state of Illinois as well as university-specific factors
such as overall density of the campus at a given time.
We are committed to facilitating meetings, performances,
exhibits, social activities, and other events
in our adapted environment in straight accordance
with our health and safety requirements.
We'll share more soon about student activities, UChicago
arts, athletics, and other programs in autumn quarter.
Our research community has already
begun the process of bringing researchers back to campus.
In the first phase of this process, which began June 15,
we have been encouraged by the early implementation
of health and safety measures.
As we monitor COVID-19 trends in the region
and move to the next phases of recovery
in Chicago and Illinois, we will consider
moving into the next phases of the gradual expansion
of on-campus research.
For the time being, any research that can be done remotely
should continue to be done so.
Workplaces will use the same strategies including
mandatory face coverings, reduced density, required
social distancing, and enhanced cleaning and sanitation
as those implemented across the university.
Since remote works serve as a critical element
for maintaining the appropriate density of people in university
spaces, many people will continue
to work remotely or follow a combination
of remote and in-person work.
For everyone returning to campus,
it will be important that we remain vigilant yet flexible
to adapt to new ways of learning, teaching,
researching, and working within the new health and safety
protocols.
Rigorously examining issues and solving hard challenges
are what we do best at this university.
I'm confident we'll prove that once again as we confront
the pandemic and the changes it has brought to our lives
and to our campus.
EMILY LANDON: The COVID-19 global pandemic
has created challenges for all of us,
none greater than that faced by hospitals.
Here at the University of Chicago Medicine,
we've assembled a team of experts
to help us address the challenges of taking care
of sick patients and protecting vulnerable health care workers.
In the process, we've learned some amazing and valuable
lessons about how to protect people from COVID-19.
And we're going to use those tools
that we've identified here to help everyone across the campus
to be safer.
In partnership with our public health organizations, the CDC,
and experts at the hospital, as well as
the experts at the university, we
are preparing to bring many of you back to campus as safely
as we can.
We know that no single intervention
is going to be sufficient to help protect us.
And that's why we plan to stack together multiple interventions
in order to knit together a safety net that will protect us
as best we can.
Universal masking will be absolutely essential and more
distance with decreased density of human beings and a lot more
space between you in classrooms and mandatory testing
for people living and working in residence halls.
We know that we can't control everything, especially
things that happen off campus.
And we know that some people will get sick.
We're prepared for that.
And we have a wonderful partnership between Student
Health Services and the University
of Chicago Medicine, a world-class hospital
right here on campus.
The one thing we know about COVID-19
is that we don't know everything yet.
And we expect there to be changes.
The recommendations, guidelines, and the way
that things operate on campus will
adjust and be flexible to any new information or changes
in the epidemiology.
But we know that together, we can do this.
ROBERT ZIMMER: As we move forward,
we must always keep in mind the values that
are foundational to the University of Chicago--
rigorous, ongoing, intellectual challenge
in all our educational and research work,
open discourse and the interaction and free expression
of multiple perspectives, embracing
the diversity of our community, and seriousness
of intellectual purpose.
Fulfilling our highest aspirations
in our education and research pursuits
have long been made possible through the University
of Chicago community's commitment and resolve.
For our unique and extraordinary intellectual environment
to flourish during this pandemic,
we must all honor a new set of obligations
and demonstrate a shared commitment
to helping prevent the spread of COVID-19.
It is a privilege for me to join you in this effort.
I am confident that we will not only preserve and even
strengthen what is distinctive about the University
of Chicago, but also find new ways to demonstrate
our dedication to our enduring values and to one another.