Dear Birmingham-Southern Community,

It is hard to believe that we are just a few weeks away from the end of academic year 2021, a year we will never forget. We all should be very proud of how this community has come together to preserve the Birmingham-Southern personalized academic experience while adhering to complicated protocols to keep our community safe. As I write to you today, more than 62% of our campus has had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

As we look to the fall, we reaffirm our commitment to the safety and well-being of our community. Because this pandemic is not completely predictable, we will continue to be agile in adapting to whatever comes our way. Notwithstanding, our expectation is a return to “normalcy.”

100% in person classes
This past year, about 70% of our classes were entirely face to face. For fall 2021, we are planning for all classes to be in person. While we have learned how to communicate and teach virtually, and while we have new tools to educate and will continue to use them, we appreciate now more than ever the value of the transfer of knowledge through the medium of personal relationships developed through personal contact. Our classes will be filled with students and faculty. Whether or not we wear masks and maintain social distance in our classrooms will depend on the level of immunity in our community.

Standard Academic Calendar
On Thursday, August 19, we will open the college with our faculty and staff assembly. On Friday, August 20, orientation starts for new students. Our first day of classes for the fall term will be Wednesday, August 25. Fall break will be from October 14-17. Homecoming will be the following weekend, October 22-24. We will break for Thanksgiving and our final day of exams will be December 9. The 2021-2022 calendar is located here.

Athletics
We are grateful to have been able to have all of our athletes compete starting in December. We are fortunate to have contact-traced zero cases of Coronavirus to athletic practices or competitions. Following strict protocols in practices as well as in matches, our athletes earned the right to compete. Next year, we expect our athletic seasons to revert to normal with football, men’s and women’s soccer, cross country, and volleyball competing in fall. The protocols our athletes will follow in practice and competition will reflect the level of immunity on our campus. The protocols that we will follow as spectators to these events will reflect the level of immunity on our campus as well as the positivity rate in Jefferson County and the State of Alabama.

Travel
We expect to return to domestic travel for conferences and educational opportunities in the fall for students, faculty and staff. International travel will likely depend on the countries our students, faculty, and staff want to visit as well as the programs that will support these visits. I hope that we will be able to travel internationally in the fall, but I expect that our freedom to travel will vary.

Social Life
We expect social life to be in-person with larger gatherings and fewer restrictions. We expect Greek recruitment to be in-person, as in prior years. It is too early to say whether or not there will be additional protocols relative to a pre-pandemic social life. As with all of our precautions, what we do will depend on the level of immunity of our campus.

Visitors
The safety and health of our students, faculty, and staff is our top priority. Our ability to control the spread of the virus in our community is far easier if we limit the number of guests we invite in. We expect to allow visitors to athletic, arts, and cultural events as we have had in prior years. We expect that we will be able to welcome parents and family members on move-in day. While we may have COVID-19 protocols once on campus, such as social distancing at large events, we want to do everything possible to bring family and friends back to the Hilltop.

Summer School
As in most years, many of our summer classes are online. With the introduction of the Accelerated Data Science Program on campus as well as other face-to-face classes, COVID-19 protocols will remain in place for those who take classes and/or live on campus.

We expect that for everyone who is not fully vaccinated (two weeks past their second dose), mandatory weekly testing will continue. If someone who is not fully vaccinated is exposed, mandatory quarantining will continue. Both protocols are likely to exist in the fall. Other protocols might be loosened as early as May 24. We are working through a full review of these protocols and will publish them by the end of April.

What could limit or change our plans?
For the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19, our destiny is largely in our control. If we are all vaccinated, we will be able to eliminate most, if not all, of our protocols. The further we are from 100%, the more stringent our protocols will need to be. At our current vaccination of 62% for the campus, we are not close to a normal environment. This past week, we offered vaccinations to our entire community. For those who did not take us up on this offer, there are plenty of places around campus administering vaccines every day. If you need information on where to get a vaccination, resources are located here.

It is possible that Jefferson County could have a massive outbreak that would cause us to implement protocols such as limiting guests. It is possible that such an outbreak could be caused by a new variant of the virus. Regardless of these possibilities, a vaccinated campus is a far safer campus and therefore, a campus of fewer restrictions.

I am excited about the last few weeks of this spring term as we start to have more social gatherings. These weeks will give us all a taste of what the fall can be like. As we think about returning to the Hilltop at the end of August, we should imagine of doing so without any restrictions and how liberating that will be. It is up to us as the BSC community to make that happen.

Forward, Ever!

Daniel B. Coleman
President