July 14: Update from President Nowaczyk

Jul 14, 2021 9:30 AM

I hope your summer is going well. There is much going on at the university. Here is an update on several items:

Federal Aid to Students

We have a plan in place to provide another round of federal assistance to our new and continuing students through Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF)/American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding. Student “unmet need” and “expected family contribution” are two factors that will be used, along with federal guidelines, to make these awards. Letters and awards to registered, continuing students will be going out shortly. Letters to families of incoming students will describe the process for awards but no awards will be made to incoming students until the census date in September to conform with federal policy and regulations.

Fall Semester

Thank you to those employees who participated in last week’s virtual coffee hour and/or Monday’s faculty feedback session. I will be hosting a session for students today at 3 p.m. (View the recorded event on YouTube.). I am working with the reopening and recovery team and others on campus to provide additional answers to questions raised at the events. Look for the first set of responses later this week or early next week with a follow-up on some of the questions that may require some additional research. Several, if not many, of the questions posed are being raised and debated across colleges and universities across the nation. As has been the case for the past 18 months, the environment changes and our knowledge base continue to evolve. The main driving principles in our decision-making process are to provide a safe residential campus environment and to follow the available scientific advice in making those decisions.

Vaccination Compliance

The rationale for using the August 1 date for everyone to provide evidence of compliance (either uploading vaccination information or filing an exemption request) is based on knowing that it takes two full weeks to be fully vaccinated after receiving the last shot. That would give us an August 15 date to ensure full vaccination. While we won’t start classes until August 30, increased activity on campus for fall will begin on August 16.

I hope everyone continues to be safe,

Ronald Nowaczyk, PhD
President
Frostburg State University