March 4, 2022
Dear Students,
As is often the case, the winter term has flown by even faster than our summer and fall terms. Thank you each for your contributions to the Tuck community over the past term and for continuing to embrace practices that have helped to keep our community healthy and safe.
Looking ahead, spring term is always a special time at Tuck. For second-year students it is the last term for the entire class to be together before dispersing across the world as wise, decisive business leaders. For first-year students, it is a time to deepen interests and invest in the unique opportunities available to you during your Tuck MBA experience.
In the coming weeks, the College will be communicating more about COVID protocols for the spring term, but as you depart to enjoy your well-deserved spring break, I write to highlight a few operational changes at Tuck that you can anticipate upon return.
Starting Spring Term 2022, the process for requesting Zoom access to class will change. Details about the new system will be made available before the start of classes, but the gist is that students will need to request Zoom access each day before a set deadline. Requests will then be reviewed by MBAPO staff in consultation with Dean Jaeger and myself and approved or declined before classes begin at 8:30 a.m. The only requests which will be approved are those embodying the following two COVID-specific public health concerns: a positive test result, or exhibiting symptoms and actively seeking a test result. Requests related to formal accommodations will be reviewed and managed separately through the MBAPO and Deans’ Office.
Consistent with Dartmouth guidance, there will be no need for those who are a close contact of a positive case to abstain from in-person classes if up-to-date on vaccinations and not exhibiting symptoms themselves. From March 21 through March 23—when students are participating in PCR arrival testing—awaiting results of a PCR arrival test will be an approved COVID public health concern that allows Zoom access.
You should expect that some spring term faculty will no longer be projecting student Zoom participants to the large screens in classrooms and some faculty may treat student Zoom participants as passive observers in order to more fully focus on the in-person students. Zoom has enabled teaching and learning continuity the last two years, but the Tuck MBA program is at its core a residential, in-person learning experience. At this phase in the pandemic, the necessity of mass Zoom use has faded. We are maintaining the option only for when it is truly needed to support our community’s health and wellbeing.
Students who cannot attend class in-person for any other reason may be able to watch a session recording if the faculty member is recording their sessions and grants access to those recordings. This is up to the discretion of each individual Tuck faculty member. As has been the case for decades, if you know you will need to miss a class for personal travel, recruiting, a family engagement or the like, you should communicate with your faculty members accordingly.
We look forward to welcoming you back to a spring term that is both exciting and invigorating. It will pass quickly so let’s be sure to help one another make the most of it. Please take care, have fun and be safe this spring break.
Joe Hall
Senior Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning