Registration for the Spring 2021
semester begins in less than two weeks. I know that this has been a challenging semester for students, faculty and staff. On top of the uncertainty of the pandemic comes the uncertainty of the outcome of national elections. Anxieties, understandably, are running high.
Students, as you are considering your choices for the spring, you and your families will want to know what to expect for the next semester. This communication is designed to provide you with an update on our plans for the spring, which are still in development.
This communication is the first of what will be a series of reports on our progress.
Let me start with a few
observations about finances. First, the composite tuition and fee discount of 14 percent will remain in place for the spring. As you recall, the College also provided scholarship aid this semester to each and every currently enrolled Spelman student with demonstrated financial need. That aid will continue as well.
Second, our planning in a pandemic, that is now once again surging, will be governed by the same three principles that guided us this fall:
1. The health and safety
of our students and the Spelman workforce
2. Our ability to provide academic excellence
3. The fiscal sustainability of the College
As was the case for this fall, Spelman has assembled a task force led by our provost, Sharon Davies, and our chief financial officer, Dawn Alston. The task force is composed of 50 members of the Spelman community including students, faculty, staff, recent alumnae and senior administrators.
The Task Force will consider five options.
We have organized the 50-member task force into five different working groups.
The working groups are considering the following.
This semester the task force is assisted in our deliberations by Kara Garretson, the infectious control response senior epidemiologist for Morehouse School of Medicine and the Atlanta University Center Consortium. Ms. Garretson will focus on various infection control health-related conditions, especially COVID-19. In addition, she will act as public/campus community health specialist, identifying student
physical and mental health and wellness needs and devising ways to meet them. Prior to joining MSM, she spent three years with the Fulton County Department of Health. There she established Fulton’s first three testing sites and assisted with development of policies, procedures and training modules standardized across all sites. She also designed dashboards for surveillance and led prevention and health education workshops.
Our timeline for completing the work of the task force is by mid-November and is contingent upon our close collaboration and coordination with other member campuses of the AUCC.
Please know that we are working as expeditiously as possible to provide the safest path forward for an excellent academic experience.
Until then, be well and keep the faith.
Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D. President, Spelman
College
Office of the President Phone: 404-270-5001 Fax: 404-270-5010 presidentsoffice@spelman.edu https://www.spelman.edu/
