Letter from the Provost: September 16, 2020

Dear U of A Parents:

I hope you and your families are staying safe as we soldier on through this fall semester. We thank you for your help in reinforcing important health and safety measures to our students. We hope they understand the important role they play in keeping our campus community safe.  Please continue to encourage students to get tested if they experience COVID-19 related symptoms or have come into close contact with someone who tested positive. Pat Walker Health Center offers testing and will provide individualized support and guidance to students.

While we continue to monitor the situation closely, we will be ending our temporary event suspension this Friday and will revert to our previous event policy, which still requires an approval process to ensure that each event meets all the appropriate social distancing and health and safety guidelines of the university, the Arkansas Department of Health and the state. We will make adjustments as needed moving forward as the situation evolves.

I also want to make you aware of the Remote Learning Feedback module in Blackboard to help our students as they navigate a new learning environment. The goal of this form is to find students who are in distress due to issues with remote learning and help resolve those issues as quickly as possible. As I’ve stressed in previous communications, remote learning can be a dynamic and engaging mode of learning, but there are bound to be struggles in any learning format, and we want to reduce barriers to ensure students’ academic progress is not disrupted.

Also, you may be interested in reading about some of the Parent Resources we’re providing to help students transition from high school to college. And our Student Resources provide tips on writing, studying, time management, handling stress and self-care.

Please know that we are doing everything we can to ensure our students have the best possible college experience during these difficult times.

Sincerely,

Charles F. Robinson

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs

Professor of History