Group Gatherings and Events: Approach for Fall 2021
A message from Stephanie Browner, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs; Tokumbo Shobowale, Executive Vice President for Business and Operations; and Anne Adriance, Senior Vice President for Marketing and Business Development
To all NYC Faculty and Staff
We write to share important updates and further clarification regarding The New School’s approach to scheduling for group gatherings, events, and public programs for the Fall 2021 semester.
Gathering together in person on campus is an important part of community life at The New School. It provides opportunities to connect in unique and meaningful ways with each other and with ideas, and with a place that is for us an intellectual and creative home. We are encouraged by the increase in the number of people vaccinated and the decline in new cases of COVID-19, and are looking forward to resuming in-person, on-campus course instruction in the fall.
For the fall semester, the University is prioritizing the use of all on-campus space for course-specific instruction only. This means that all other forms of in-person gatherings, including events, public programs, university-sponsored student gatherings, and town halls, whether for internal or external audiences, will continue to be implemented in the online/virtual-only format for the duration of the fall semester. Although, of course, we will continue to monitor the health and safety situation and adapt as necessary.
Course-related events, defined as those that require student participation as part of the course, may be held in-person pending approval of the request and availability of space on campus. In select cases, the university may approve a request for a non-course related event with an internal audience, though those rare exceptions will be only for select, high-level university priority initiatives.
Also important to note are changes to the university’s room scheduling operations. For the Fall 2021 semester:
- All “public program/event spaces” will be recategorized as “university classrooms.” This includes all conference rooms and spaces that have been previously managed locally within colleges or other administrative units.
- If you want to make a space request for a course-related event, please contact your point person on this list here.
- Requests for space should not be entered directly into 25Live. There will be no “rounds” process for Fall 2021.
- The Public Programs team is no longer the contact for scheduling spaces, including spaces that have traditionally been known as public program/event spaces.
- The COVID Coordination Group will be the point people for determining protocols and processes for any approved on-campus events.
The return to campus this fall for in-person classes is an important step in a positive direction. We will be developing plans for incrementally allowing in-person gatherings and events on-campus and very much look forward to the day when we can come together again for these experiences. For now, we appreciate your cooperation.