| Dear SMU Faculty, Staff and Students,After six weeks of online classes and stay-at-home orders, I continue to be proud of the many ways the SMU community is demonstrating innovation amid dramatic changes brought by COVID-19. By now you may have seen our plans to continue to have a majority of campus employees remain working from home until May 18 and returning to campus by June 1. We also intend to be open this fall. To that end, I have appointed a Task Force for a Healthy Opening Fall 2020, charged with the important mission of bringing our students, faculty and staff back to campus safely while ensuring high-quality instruction, academic rigor, meaningful research and campus engagement – all of which exemplify the SMU experience. Here are a few more examples of how the SMU community continues to embody our World Changing spirit. You can find these and other stories on this site.When an Italian piano company invited Fazioli-owners to submit videos of performances, Meadows’ Carol Leone, professor and chair of piano studies, responded with this inspiring performance of Scarlatti’s Sonata in G Major, K14. More than 200 people signed in for the free webinar targeted to small business owners offered by Cox’s Caruth Institute of Entrepreneurship, “The Realities of the SBA Assistance Program.” SMU Libraries had 196 chats, 677 email consultations and 187 zoom or phone calls from March 16 to April 16. They are here to assist you. George Finney, OIT chief security officer, created this imaginative cybersecurity guide to working at home. Religious studies associate professor Jill DeTemple is on research leave this semester, but she invited former students to join a weekly COVID-19 Zoom chat. She discussed the importance of courage and care to create community in an online classroom in this op-ed she co-wrote for Inside Higher Ed. Simmons reading specialists have developed resources to help the youngest readers, and those who are teaching them at home. SMU alum Hubert Zajicek, M.B.A. ’06, a doctor and founder and CEO of Health Wildcatters incubator, helped create the Health Hacking Crisis Network to find quick solutions to problems like the face mask shortage among healthcare workers. Yoga, Zumba, Pilates? Find recorded and online fitness classes offered by Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports. We’ve had welcome glimpses on campus of students and their families moving belongings out of the Residential Commons, carefully choreographed by RLSH to maintain social distancing. But our focus is on the future, and we are evaluating various scenarios to return our community to campus in a safe and effective way. Meanwhile, keep up the wonderful work. Each of you is an inspiration to me. Please continue to share your stories with news@smu.edu. Sincerely, R. Gerald Turner SMU President |
