Ryan Yu

Faculty voted to move the start of spring semester classes from Feb. 3 to Feb. 15 during a meeting held on Dec. 15. Eighty-seven percent of the faculty, or 161 members, voted in favor of the motion, while 24 members voted against.

As classes for the fall semester draw to an end this week, the college has seen a last-minute spike in positive tests for Covid-19, with six active cases as of Nov. 18, spanning three students, two staff members and one faculty member. In response, the college has reinstated strict health and safety guidelines that it had previously eased along with instituting new ones, including the cancellation of in-person events, restricted access to buildings outside of one’s residence hall and limiting gatherings to a maximum of three people.

On Nov. 2, Director of International Student Engagement Hanna Bliss announced in a newsletter for the Center for International Student Engagement (CISE) that the college will establish an Office of Immigration Services (OIS), effective at the start of the coming spring semester.

With many students living far away from the college due to remote learning conditions, a number of them have found their daily schedules drastically transformed by time zone differences. Since most classes take place in time slots similar to previous semesters, these students have often found themselves needing to stay awake late into the night to attend their classes and sleeping throughout the day instead.

President Biddy Martin, joined by members of her senior staff, hosted two Zoom forums to gauge student feedback on the fall semester, one for on-campus students on Sept. 30 and the other for remote students on Oct. 1. Among the highlights of the forums include the opening of more social spaces and residence halls to non-residents, students requesting more lenient Covid rule restrictions and updates on spring plans.

Over the past two weeks, the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) has reported over 100 positive Covid cases, all but two of whom are students living off campus, according to the UMass Covid-19 Dashboard. As of Oct. 6, UMass has reported 124 cumulative positive cases since Aug. 6, when data was first reported.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled a proposed rule on Sept. 24 that would modify visa regulations for international students on F-1 status, limiting the duration of their visas to two years for students from 59 countries and four years for students elsewhere before they’re required to apply for renewal, among other changes.

Over 130 members of the college community gathered over Zoom on Sept. 19 to commemorate the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg H’91. One of the most publicly esteemed justices in U.S. history and only the second female justice on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg passed away from complications due to pancreatic cancer on Sept. 18 at the age of 87.

In a communication to staff and faculty on Sept. 14, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Kevin Weinman announced that the Board of Trustees had approved a budget proposal for the current fiscal year (FY21), spanning from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

For the past three months, the college has set forth careful, calculated planning for the precarious experiment that began last week: bringing the 937 students from across the pandemic-stricken country to live and learn on campus.