March 17, 2021
Dear Members of the Holy Cross Community,
As we mark a full year of the pandemic, I imagine that many of you have been reflecting on the past twelve months. Today, I want to look forward to the fall. I am happy to announce that we are planning for a return to fully in-person classes and on-campus activities for the fall semester.
We have arrived at this plan based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as our local medical advisors. The federal government currently predicts that all adults in the country will have access to the COVID vaccine by this summer, so we anticipate that the majority of our faculty and staff as well as adults in our local community will have been vaccinated by the fall. Locally, in Massachusetts and in Worcester, we are seeing transmission rates dropping and easing of restrictions. And while pandemics are never fully predictable, based on current projections, we anticipate that we will not need to socially distance in the fall and therefore will be able to resume our regular in-person classes and activities.
The health and safety of our campus community will remain our priority. As we plan for the next academic year, we will continue to monitor the progress of the vaccine rollout and the impact of new variants of the virus. Our planning will be informed by guidance from the CDC, state and local departments of health, and our Holy Cross medical advisors.
It has been a long year, and I am so pleased to be planning for us to resume normal campus operations in the fall. For our seniors, we are looking forward to an in-person Commencement later this spring and welcoming you to our alumni family. In the meantime, we must all continue to remain vigilant and follow health and safety guidelines. We will continue to share our progress this semester as well as our plans for the fall via regular email updates.
Thank you all for your continued flexibility and creativity this year. I am so proud of all that we have accomplished together and the sacrifices you have all made to keep each other, and our local community, safe. You have truly demonstrated what it means to be for and with others.
Sincerely,
Philip L. Boroughs, S.J.
President