College of Charleston President Andrew T. Hsu shared the following message with faculty and staff on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021:
Dear Faculty and Staff,
You have heard me say several times during this pandemic that we, as an institution, will pivot when we need to pivot.
In that light, at the request of our Faculty Speaker Simon Lewis, we will make a very slight pivot in rescheduling our meeting time for the town hall next week for faculty and staff, and we will hold it on Monday, August 16 in two sessions in order to better accommodate everyone’s schedules as they prepare for the start of the semester.
Later today, we plan to release more information regarding our COVID-19 mitigation policies, procedures and expectations for the fall semester. The town halls on Monday will allow us to go over the fall semester plan in more detail and address any other questions or concerns you may have.
After this past Wednesday night’s students/families virtual town hall meeting, Faculty Speaker Simon Lewis suggested that we change the time and also hold the town hall for faculty and staff in a hybrid format – having both an in-person and a virtual component using the Microsoft Teams platform. I very much liked his idea, so we will shift to accommodate that recommendation.
Therefore, we will hold two sessions: one at 10:00 a.m. and another at 4:00 p.m., Monday, August 16.
The other slight modification that we will make to the format is to use the webinar function (rather than the “live event” format as in previous town halls). This change will allow questions to be asked live and for some follow-up discussion. This format is also more aligned with a traditional Zoom-style meeting than our town halls have been in the past.
Due to ongoing training seminars in preparation for the fall semester being held in that space, the seating in the Stern Ballroom will be limited to the room’s current set-up (approximately 100 people) on a first-come, first-served basis. For those accessing the town hall remotely (CofC credentials required), please use one of the Microsoft Teams links below.
As we have done with all of our virtual town hall meetings, recordings of the town halls will be made available on the Back on the Bricks website later in the week.
- Session #1:
https://go.cofc.edu/faculty-staff-1
- Session #2:
https://go.cofc.edu/faculty-staff-2
NOTE: These links will not be live until the time of the event.
Special Reminder: for those of you who are able to attend in person in the Stern Ballroom, I encourage you to wear a face covering.
As always, I appreciate your flexibility in this last-minute schedule change, and I hope to see many of you in person or on the screen on Monday!
Best,
Andrew
Andrew T. Hsu, Ph.D.
President
College of Charleston
