Letters from the Chancellor

Dear students, faculty and staff,

I’m writing to share my gratitude, admiration and congratulations to the entire team that is managing the administration of COVID-19 vaccines on our campus. We worked closely with the MS State of Department of Health and the IHL to acquire vaccine doses to administer to our employees. Those efforts came to fruition last Friday and Saturday as nearly 500 members of our campus community began receiving first doses at the Tad Smith Coliseum. And, with Mississippi announcing today that they are currently offering COVID-19 immunizations to persons 16 and older, I encourage everyone to get a vaccine at their earliest convenience through any of the available vaccination sites for which they are eligible.

An operation of this magnitude does not happen overnight. The planning for this project has been in the works since December, when we launched our Vaccine Distribution and Administration Task Force. I’m tremendously grateful to Provost Noel Wilkin, Dean David Allen and all of the task force members for providing valuable leadership.

I also want to recognize several others including Dr. Lauren Bloodworth, clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice; Dr. Sandy Bentley, director of Pharmacy Health Services; Dr. Sam Payton, director for research, assessment & planning; and Alex Langhart, director of University Health Services. I’m grateful to these servant leaders for how they assist our community through all their work and expertise on the vaccination site.

We’ve heard from many of you about the professionalism and smoothness of the whole process. A big part of that is due to the behind-the-scenes work by Drs. Bloodworth, Bentley and Payton. Responsible for the coordination and logistics among other things, Dr. Bloodworth is to be commended for the execution and efficiency of the site. As you can imagine, the vaccine process and requirements are intricate and complex, and we’re grateful to Dr. Bentley for navigating those details skillfully. I want to thank Dr. Payton for building and managing the appointment platform. Her attention to detail and trouble-shooting skills are outstanding. I also want to recognize Alex Langhart for his continued leadership and invaluable expertise to our overall COVID-19 response including the vaccine rollout.

And, of course, we could not have accomplished any of this without the army of enthusiastic, dedicated and skilled volunteers of pharmacy students, residents and faculty as well as other healthcare professionals. A big thanks also to the numerous administrators and staff who contributed time and expertise across a number of areas.

Standing up this vaccination site gets to the heart of our commitment to protect the health of our community. It also aligns with our mission as an institution of higher education. We have the talent and expertise at the ready in our School of Pharmacy and across our campus. This project gave our students and residents a fantastic opportunity to hone their skills in a clinical setting.

We remain focused on our goals of getting vaccines in arms so that no doses go unused and vaccinating as many people on our campus as we can. The hard work of this team drew lots of praise and attention, including a story from Fox13 News. Kudos to the entire team for handling this with confidence, proficiency, professionalism and caring.

I’m so proud to be a member of this remarkable university community, and I hope that you will join me in thanking all of those in our campus community who are working diligently to keep us safe.

With gratitude,

Glenn F. Boyce
Chancellor

Dear faculty, staff and graduate students,

Paul Caffera will resume his responsibilities as the University Ombuds, effective immediately. I look forward to him once again serving the UM community.

I want to thank William W. Berry III, Montague Professor of Law in the University of Mississippi School of Law, for his service as Acting University Ombuds since December.

As I shared in a previous message, the university is committed to maintaining this important function on our campus as a neutral, independent and informal place to seek assistance voluntarily to bring forth and resolve campus-related concerns.

Sincerely,

Glenn F. Boyce

Dear students, faculty and staff,

In light of the new state and local orders issued this week, we have reviewed our guidance and protocols and are issuing the following updates.

The university will continue to require all people to wear a cloth face covering or mask for the rest of the Spring 2021 semester in classroom settings and office settings. In addition, masks continue to be required while traversing public spaces in residence halls, dining facilities, the Student Union, Campus Rec, retail spaces and other on-campus facilities. We continue to promote good hand hygiene and distancing protocols for indoor spaces.

In outdoor areas of campus, social distancing of at least six feet continues to be strongly recommended as well as wearing a mask when you cannot maintain distance unless the protocols for the outdoor venue differ.

The implications of the orders for off-campus student events will be forthcoming and will be communicated directly to Registered Student Organizations.

Our community has done a tremendous job of adopting and adhering to our university protocols to limit spread of the virus, and those protocols continue to work effectively. We look forward to getting vaccines on campus to administer to faculty, staff and students, which may offer future opportunities to reevaluate our approach.

Sincerely,

Glenn F. Boyce
Chancellor

Feb. 26, 2021

Dear students, faculty and staff,

We have seen a return this semester of much of the vibrancy and vitality for which our campus is beloved and so well-known.

As we look ahead, priority registration for Fall 2021 begins on April 12. We will offer the Fall 2021 semester as a full in-person, campus experience. We will continue to monitor the health and safety of our campus community and adapt if necessary to government orders and public health guidance.

The growing adoption and distribution of multiple vaccines against the COVID-19 virus enables us to plan for a full resumption of in-person classes for Fall 2021 and fully return our campus to pre-COVID-19 operations. As we remain committed to doing all we can to operate similar to Fall 2019, we will monitor the distribution of the vaccine closely as well as other relevant indicators.

While we do not have an update yet regarding summer session and intersession, we are working on that now and hope to have an update for you soon. As we shared earlier, we look forward to hosting the Class of 2021 and Class of 2020 for in-person Commencement ceremonies on consecutive weekends in early May. Full details about Commencement can be found here.

Thank you again for all of your efforts and contributions to our campus community, and for your continued commitment to keeping our campus safe and healthy. Like you, I’m very excited and looking forward to returning fully to the academic, operational and campus atmosphere that we all know and cherish. We will continue to share updates, and I encourage you to monitor our COVID-19 website for more information.

Sincerely,

Glenn F. Boyce
Chancellor