Dear Members of the Campus Community,
As we near the end of another extraordinary week, I write to express my profound appreciation for all that you have achieved in these early weeks of the semester. Our classes are up and running. Our faculty and students are fully engaged. Our staff members continue their heroic work to support our campus community—both here in Tacoma and beyond.
As colleges across the country struggle with operational decisions and outbreaks of COVID-19, we are fortunate to be currently without any identified cases on our campus since the beginning of the semester. We’ve seen a tremendous response from the campus community in adhering to community health protocols and are deeply appreciative of the good work that continues to mitigate risk and keep our campus safe. We had strong participation in our first mass testing dates, and we’ve also begun regular surveillance testing of students on campus. Please look for additional information from Counseling, Health and Wellness Services (CHWS) and Human Resources about upcoming testing opportunities.
The past two weeks have been especially challenging as we’ve dealt with unprecedented levels of smoke from regional fires. We know that some members of our community who live on the West Coast have been personally affected by damage to their homes or the towns in which they live and the stress of living in such uncertain times. Please know that we have resources to support you through CHWS, the employee assistance program, and more. We are a community. This is what we do.
I will reach out next week with more information on activities that are underway to plan for the spring semester, including the development of an online dashboard to help monitor COVID-19 on our campus. Meanwhile, the air quality and weather conditions seem to be improving here in Tacoma, and I send my very best wishes to each of you for a safe and healthy weekend.
Sincerely,
Isiaah
Isiaah Crawford, Ph.D. | President.