Dear campus community:

As announced on Friday, November 6, Gallaudet will remain primarily online for the spring semester. We plan to welcome more students to campus, and may offer some face-to-face classes.

However, we are making one important change to the spring semester schedule. The University Faculty Senate voted unanimously to move spring break to April 5 to 9, 2021 from the previously scheduled dates, March 15 to 19, 2021.

Both the Gallaudet Staff Council (GSC) and the Organization for Equity for Staff of Color (OESOC) expressed health and safety concerns for our essential employees — those valued members of our community who come to work every day — and residential students, if they were to return after spring break. They noted that residential students who go home next week for fall break will not return to campus, and suggested that we adopt a similar approach for the spring semester. The best way to achieve this goal was to move spring break closer to the end of the semester.

The Public Health and Safety (PHaS) Strand and the Academic Continuity and Accessibility Task Force (ACATF), along with our student leadership groups, agreed that it would be best to change the dates for spring break. Residential students who leave for spring break cannot return for the rest of the semester; they will finish the remainder of the semester remotely. Our staff and faculty will work together to plan events and activities during spring break for students who remain on campus.

The new spring break dates coincide with the spring break dates for several public school systems in the metropolitan Washington area. This is an added bonus for faculty, staff, and students who have school-age children.

We appreciate the concerns raised by our community, and we are confident that this resolution is consistent with the rigorous health and safety measures that have carried us this far. Questions should be directed to me at Contact.

Sincerely,

Carl Pramuk
Associate Dean
Student Center Programs and Services