End of Week Update from Dean Slaughter
March 13, 2020
Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,
As this consequential week for Tuck and for our world draws to a close, I wanted to share with you a message I sent to our first- and second-year students today as part of a new weekly Friday communication.
I also want to thank each and every member of the Tuck community for their flexibility and commitment this past week. I look forward to us all working together to help achieve our mission in the days and weeks ahead.
Matt
Dear Students,
To say that a lot has happened since many of you departed Tuck for spring break a week ago today would be an understatement. During the break thus far, each day at Tuck has brought unprecedented questions and challenges for our school and our daily lives as we confront the COVID-19 pandemic.
I write today with an update on some of the steps that Tuck faculty and staff have been taking to ensure the continuity of your Tuck education and the health of our community. This is the first of what I intend to be a weekly Friday communication to help keep you – our MBA student community – apprised of our work and our progress.
This week was marked by a number of major announcements from both Tuck and Dartmouth concerning plans for the spring term, impacts of travel restrictions, and forthcoming events.
To help ensure that you can always access important information, today we have launched a new COVID-19 website to serve as a source for Tuck-specific COVID-19 news and information. Included on this site is the latest guidance from Dartmouth as well as details on events and visiting campus. Here you will also find an archive of all community-wide announcements from Tuck and Dartmouth.
To give you a sense of the activity happening on campus this week, below are a few examples of our work today, Friday.
- This morning and afternoon, Deans Joe Hall and Brian Tomlin led our spring-term Tuck faculty in two productive training sessions on remote learning approaches via Zoom to demonstrate its capabilities and work through ways it will support our pedagogical aspirations.
- Dean Sally Jaeger and our MBA Program Office colleagues are working to establish contact with those traveling internationally; today, they are supporting the return to the United States of some students from countries with Level 2 or Level 3 travel warnings.
- This morning the Deans’ Office hosted a meeting with staff (via Zoom and socially distanced in-person conversation in Georgiopoulos) to discuss different ways they can support our most important educational priorities – the delivery of our core and elective courses and the co-curricular and career activities so vital to learning at Tuck.
These are indeed unprecedented times. But they are also the times when wise, decisive leadership is needed most. As we prepare to learn together in new ways, I look forward to us all working together to live our mission even more fully in the days and weeks ahead.
Thanks very much. Take good care this weekend.
Matthew J. Slaughter
Dean of the Tuck School of Business
Dartmouth has formed a high-level task force to plan for and manage possible disruptions related to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, monitor federal and state recommendations, implement guidance, and communicate with our community.