July 1, 2020
Dear Colleagues,
Greetings. I hope that this missive finds you in good health and eager to return to your studies. I am writing to provide you with some details for the Divinity School following the announcement by President Salovey and Provost Strobel earlier today. I will provide new material and repeat some of what I said in earlier communications so you have the basic details that you need in one document. I am going to proceed in chronological order to make it easy to locate information. Please read this letter carefully in its entirety.
Key Decisions and Dates
As President Salovey and Provost Strobel announced, we will have some in-person instruction this fall. The Divinity School has released its fall course schedule: this includes seven courses that are in-person/hybrid courses; all other courses will be online. We will be making use of the Zoom virtual conferencing platform, which enables high-quality synchronous engagement. You can find the course schedule on our Registrar’s Office page.
Yale is planning to enter Research Phase 2 on July 20th and Research Phase 3 on August 24th. These dates and the steps necessary to reach them are in keeping with the guidelines issued by the State of Connecticut. The major change for us on July 20th is that Divinity library collections will be available for scanning and circulation by that date. We will formally reopen the Quad on August 24th, which means that students, staff, and faculty will again have access. The faculty and staff are currently working from home and will continue to do so through the summer. If you need to contact a member of the faculty, you can find their email address in the faculty directory. If you need to contact a member of the staff, please send them an email. You will find a staff directory here.
We have given incoming students until July 10th to defer. If you feel that you must take a leave of absence for reasons related to COVID-19, we will accept a leave application until the same date, July 10th. We set this date because we need to have a reliable estimate of the number of students so that we can plan our courses and activities for the fall semester. Please contact Jennifer Herdt, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, if you have questions about a leave or wish to request one (jennifer.herdt@yale.edu).
Residence in New Haven
Life on the Quad will not be typical this fall. We must all follow social distancing requirements. This means that everyone on the Quad will be expected to wear a face covering both when inside and outside unless they are in their own private office alone. It also means that we will need to make a serious effort to maintain six feet between one another. We have set up the Quad to enhance social distancing. You will find signage that limits elevator and restroom use to a single person. Where hallways are narrow, we will only permit one person at a time to pass through.
These requirements mean that we will not be able to gather in large numbers as we would in a normal year. Jeanne Peloso, Associate Dean for Student Affairs, has done a remarkable job of facilitating student organizations during COVID-19. She will communicate details about student groups and social events. There will be some advantages. We hope to keep the Old Common Room (a very comfortable place to sit and read) open for longer hours since it will not be used nightly by the School and other groups.
We are still in the process of making a final determination about Marquand Chapel services. We have an expert who is helping us determine whether it is safe to sing together. She is working with the School of Music as well. We are waiting for a final report. If it is deemed safe, we could have a couple of small and short services in Marquand each day (Monday-Friday). If not, we will have online programming. The most reasonable assumption is that we will have online chapel services. We will have a new Associate Dean for Marquand Chapel this fall, Awet Andemicael. She is spending the summer completing her Ph.D. dissertation but plans to join us at the beginning of the fall semester. Emilie Casey continues to serve as the Director of Marquand Chapel. Emilie and Awet will send out information about Marquand when we have firm decisions.
Yale has imposed strict limits for any visitors on campus this fall; however, we can have virtual visitors. This means that guest lectures will be online. We will offer several of these and will advertise each of them with three announcements in our normal routine.
Our Divinity School apartments are at 100% occupancy. If you are moving in, I urge you to come well before the beginning of class: returning students may move in beginning July 27th. If you elect not to return to campus this fall and need to cancel your lease, your deposit will be refunded. The deadline to cancel a lease is August 1st. Please remember that the cancellation is for the entire year; you cannot cancel for a single semester. There is great demand for affordable housing. We cannot leave an apartment empty when students are looking for a place to live. If you come in the spring semester, we will be happy to offer you an apartment if one is available. If you have a question about housing, please contact Kathy Antos in Administration and Operations (katherine.antos@yale.edu).
We will not be able to open our Refectory this fall. We are negotiating with Yale Dining to create options. We are trying to develop a system that would include a grab-and-carry meal (three varieties for each meal) and Eli bucks that would allow you to eat at a Yale venue that is open for service. We will provide additional information as soon as we have a firm agreement.
If you elect to remain outside of New Haven, please keep in mind that you will need to have a reliable Internet connection. If you are in residence in our apartments or come to the Quad, you will be able to use Yale’s wi-fi system.
If you are an international student and have questions, please contact the Office of International Students and Scholars. Their FAQ for Newly Admitted Students has updated information on visa issues and travel concerns. There is important information on this site that I strongly urge you to read.
Pre-Registration
August 17-19 is pre-registration for returning students for the fall semester. New students will have pre-registration August 19-21. This will give you an opportunity to take classes that you may have deferred in earlier years in your program. Jennifer Herdt, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, or Lisa Huck, our Registrar, will be in touch with you about specifics. Please wait for their communication(s). Faculty will be available for advising during the week of August 17-21. Please contact Lisa Huck if you have questions (lisabeth.huck@yale.edu).
The Divinity Bookstore will have reduced hours this fall, but it will be open. Hours will be posted. I encourage you to purchase your texts from the bookstore, which makes an effort to match online prices. The bookstore is there for your convenience and is a place where you can browse when you need a break. Even if you are not physically present, you may order textbooks online and have them shipped directly to you. You will receive information on when and how to order books before the beginning of the semester.
Classes
August 31 is the first day of class. As I announced in my earlier note, classes will meet without a break through the Friday before Thanksgiving (November 20th). We will take the Thanksgiving week off as a fall recess (November 23-27). The next two weeks will be reading weeks (November 30-December 11); faculty will provide guidelines in their syllabi. It is an ideal time to write papers. The last week of the semester will be finals week (December 14-18). All work must be submitted by December 18th.
All courses will have a synchronous dimension. Learning should not only be vertical between faculty and students but horizontal among students. We are capping course enrollment at 19 with the exception of some large introductory courses; discussion sections, including preaching sections, will be capped at an even smaller number to further facilitate discussion. This means that if you are living in a different time zone, you will need to keep the time of the class in mind. While this can be a challenge, it is doable; many of us routinely meet with people in Asia, Australia, Europe, Israel, and other parts of the world. Faculty will provide details in their syllabi.
Health Concerns
All of these decisions have been made with everyone’s health foremost in mind. Let me highlight some of the steps that President Salovey and Provost Strobel detailed in their announcement.
Arrival
If you are arriving from abroad or from states with a high level of COVID-19, you will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days. Please keep this in mind when you make your travel plans. A current list of the states that are on the list can be found on Connecticut’s travel advisory webpage.
Community Compact
All students are required to review, sign, and follow the Yale Community Compact, which describes social distancing, viral testing, and health and hygiene guidelines.
Mandatory Training
Everyone is required to complete online safety training prior to arriving on campus. You will find information about that program on this page, under “Mandatory training for everyone returning to campus.” The purpose of this requirement and the preceding requirement is to create an atmosphere in which we conduct ourselves as responsibly as possible during the pandemic. There has been an upsurge in COVID-19 cases in the U.S., largely as a result of a failure to follow social distancing guidelines. We all have to act responsibly if we are to limit the spread of this virus.
Mandatory Screenings
All students are required to participate in Yale’s COVID-19 screening program, which is free. There will be a huge testing load the week of August 24-28. The Office of Student Affairs will be collecting data on your anticipated arrival in New Haven in order to stagger the screenings. You will receive a survey to complete in mid-July.
If you test positive, you will be asked to self-isolate (whether you live in our apartments or off-campus housing) until a health-care provider informs you that it is safe to return to campus.
Enhanced Cleaning
As President Salovey and Provost Strobel announced, there will be enhanced cleaning in Yale buildings. We will close and lock some classrooms to make it possible for the cleaning staff to concentrate on cleaning and disinfecting public areas.
Travel
We ask you not to travel once you arrive in New Haven unless it is an emergency. We are trying to limit exposure. The goal is to begin with a COVID-free community at Yale and to keep it as COVID-free as possible.
We will undoubtedly need to make some adjustments as conditions change. There are many people working very hard to adjust. Faculty are taking two-week training courses in how to teach effective and engaging courses in a virtual format. The staff have completely reworked traditional programming. People throughout the University are working long hours to provide the necessary face coverings and cleaning supplies, set up the testing facilities, arrange for contact tracing capacities, and adjust facilities to make them as safe as possible. In short, we are creating an educational environment that will offer first-rate instruction with as much community life as possible. We are doing all of this while keeping health as the first priority. While 2020-2021 will not be a normal year, it will be a meaningful year. I look forward to seeing you this fall on the Quad.
Best wishes,
Greg Sterling
Gregory E. Sterling
The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean
Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament
Yale Divinity School