Dear Campus Community:
As we officially welcome Spring later this weekend, the question on everyone’s mind is – What will fall be like at NKU?
Well I am excited to share with you that in Fall 2021, NKU will be….”back to the future”... to a reimagined U! Our students will enjoy an enhanced experience, which will include in-person learning, residence halls at capacity, and campus events and activities that engage them and the community in ways we have come to expect. Our university will have the vibrancy that we yearn for, but with a renewed sense of how we support our students.
As we focus on the fall semester, it cannot simply be a return to the way things were in 2019. NKU is constantly evolving as a university, and we will take the lessons learned from the pandemic and use them to advance the university’s vision. One of the most valuable lessons is adapting to meet each student where they are. Our fall courses will include various modes of delivery – in-person, hybrid and online - to provide greater flexibility and options for diverse learners. We will use what we have learned about their changing needs and expectations, to create an even more responsive and supportive experience for them. We will have a renewed focus on providing a tech-enhanced, coordinated academic and social support network, so we significantly boost retention, persistence and graduation rates and close equity gaps.
The pandemic has taken a toll on all of us, but we must seize the opportunity to review and evaluate the NKU experience with a fresh perspective. NKU’s agility and propensity for innovation means we can accelerate the change our university needs, to become a more student-ready, regionally engaged institution, and I am excited by the possibilities.
More details of Fall 2021 plans will be announced in the following months, and contingency plans will be developed in case the spread of COVID-19 worsens.
As we look ahead to the fall semester, I want to take a moment and acknowledge all the hard work that has taken place over the past year. Our campus community has been diligently following the Norse Nine to keep our COVID rates low. The world will open up again, but we must remain vigilant. I ask you to be mindful of the potential to spread the virus. Even if you are vaccinated, the person next to you might not be. NKU will continue to follow the CDC and Kentucky guidelines, so we can safely reinvigorate our campus this fall.
I look forward to seeing Norse Nation back in action very soon!
Sincerely,
Ashish Vaidya
