Ready to Return: President Cost's Message for the Fall

Welcome to all the members of the Dolphin family. Welcome back for an update on where things stand at your University.

You know, every few weeks, dating back to March, we've been trying to keep you posted on what's it like as we prepare this campus for your arrival come August.

We've been working with world-class health care experts like the Mayo Clinic to put together a plan to bring you safely back to this campus or, for many of you, for the first time. The faculty, the staff, the students and their families, we're going to welcome you all back here when it's safe to do so.

We continue to work inside the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control, and, as we put all of our thinking together, now we want to share with you what's it going to look like to live here, to learn here, to eat here, to gather here.

Let's share a glimpse of what we think the fall is going to be like for you.

Your health and personal safety come first. Everything we do is centered around that. Here's the key: You have to put safety first, too.
Returning to our campus this fall means we each have a personal responsibility to guard our health and the health of others. If we're going to live and learn and work together this fall, we all must do our part.

There's three very important concepts that we all have to sign onto. We have to agree this is going to be the backbone of our behavior.
First: social distancing. It works. We're going to give each other respect and give each other six feet, at least.

Second of all, hand washing. Personal hand hygiene is powerful when it comes to controlling the transmission of this virus.
And third, the wearing of cloth face coverings. Wearing a cloth face covering may reduce the risk of transmitting this virus down to just 3%, and, when you add in physical distancing, you cut your risk even further.

There will be plenty of times to take off your mask. We want you to get outside as much as possible, where you can spread out, enjoy the fresh air. We're adding and expanding many of our outdoor seating areas for this reason, with more tables, more benches, Adirondack chairs, shade sails and even hammocks on campus. We have hundreds of sunny days a year here in Jacksonville, so we encourage you to meet and eat and work and study outdoors.

Come this fall, we're committed to offering as much in-person instruction in your classrooms as possible, just as it's always been. To do that, you'll need to wear face coverings in the classroom, and you're going to need to maintain a safe distance from each other. Some coursework will be online when that's possible or when it's necessary.

One of the most important things we can do for your safety is clean and sanitize all the physical spaces where you're gonna live, where you're going to study, where you're gonna eat, where you're going to gather, and we have the best in the business. We've hired Aramark to do all that, to double and triple clean everything.

While you've been gone this summer and to prepare for your arrival in the fall, we're installing more sanitizing stations and stocking up on supplies for classrooms and workspaces. We're going to ask everyone to do their part in keeping their own personal spaces clean this fall, as well.

We understand a big part of your collegiate experience is when you get together and eat, your dining options. We've made a lot of changes and upgraded and added functionality so you'll have more choices of dining. We've expanded our hours. We're adding outdoor culinary stations for you. Outdoor seating, more grab-and-go options, meal kits for those of you who can cook at home, and new locations that will accept your card swipes. We've also eliminated self-serve options so we can go full service for you.

For now, in line with all of the guidance all around the country, at all major universities like ours, there's going to be a limit on how we gather together. In other words, no more than ten at a time in any one place. In fact, virtual meetings are going to be strongly recommended. And, as much as we all love to cheer on our great Division I student athletes here, at least for the beginning of the semester, they're going to be competing without spectators in the stands.

So relative to this fall, you have our commitment we're going to continue to communicate with you regularly on everything that's happening. It's a fluid situation. We're staying very closely connected to public health guidelines, so please regularly check in with ju.edu. Stay connected with us, and reach out to any of the contacts that you have on our website with any questions that you have.

So I hope you'll agree there's lots of reasons for excitement for your arrival here on our campus this fall.

We've been working hard to get ready. We want you to be safe and healthy when you get here.

There's a couple things that are important for us all to remember come the fall, because things are changing. We need to be flexible. A sense of shared personal responsibility. Respect for other people is going to matter on this campus. What you do is going to affect my health, and what I do is going to affect your health, and we're in this together.

And two things for sure: social distancing works. We're gonna ask you to practice that on campus for the good of all your classmates. And another thing: masks. Masks are gonna be part of all of our lives, so I say: you stay safe and healthy there. We'll do the same. We'll see you in the fall.