Return to Pre-COVID In-Person Operations and Community Building

As we approach the start of a new academic year, we hope you all have had an opportunity to re-charge over the summer months.

Our theme for the coming year will be “Building Community,” and we are asking all of our faculty and staff to think about ways that you can contribute to the UW Tacoma community — both individually and as a team. Everything we do matters and has a positive impact on community, from the seemingly small things like offering a kind word or helping a student, to the larger scale things like gatherings and celebrations.

Your presence on our campus matters, not just for our students, but for us. This community matters, and we can build it one interaction at a time.

We are returning to pre-pandemic operations as an in-person institution. While our classes and services have all benefitted from an expansion of access through remote delivery, we remain committed to a robust in-person experience for our students because we know that this is what best serves their needs. Studies from the Brown Center on Education Policy and the MIT Teaching & Learning Lab have shown that students learning remotely feel “less connected to both their peers and instructors,” and that the act of showing students that they belong is how we can positively impact their sense of belonging and purpose.

We are encouraging all schools and units to hold in-person meetings and to be purposeful about your community-building efforts. When teleworking, you must remain accessible to students and your colleagues. Offices will have in-person access Monday-Friday during regular business hours.

Thank you to each of you for everything you have done over the past three years to keep our campus moving forward. We are excited for our future and look forward to seeing all of you in September.