St. John’s College, Santa Fe has anchored our academic planning around two overarching principles: the health and well-being of everyone in our community—students, tutors, staff, and our local community—and the integrity of the St. John’s academic Program. These plans have been developed to pivot along with the changing health and safety conditions in and guidelines for the state of New Mexico and Santa Fe county. This planning is reflected in our campus health and safety guidelines and alert system. Please familiarize yourself with the dashboard, as it informs our approach to the on-campus and in-person experience.
On March 16, President Roosevelt updated students on our campus shift from an orange alert level to a yellow alert level. This shift allows the college to offer more access to campus and classes starting on March 29. Details on how these shifts will affect academics at St. John’s can be found at our new academics update page. Please note that our overall approach to academics, which is summarized below, remains relevant throughout the spring.
For students who prefer in-person classes—whether you are living on campus or off campus—there may be a range of academic offerings, and your flexibility will be essential to having a positive experience. Many of your in-person classes could be hybrid, in either or both of two ways: the first way combines students in the classroom with students who are remote; the second way combines days that are in the classroom and days that are remote. Some classes could be fully in person, and these classes could happen in classrooms or outdoors. And many, even most, of your classes may remain online.
Why is there likely to be so much variation in our class offerings? There are a number of factors to balance, and these factors include: the number of students and tutors who request in-person classes; the status of state-mandated room occupancy restrictions; the quality of ventilation in individual classrooms and buildings; the vicissitudes of weather and outdoor temperatures; pedagogical considerations for individual classes and groups; infection spread within our own community; testing and contact tracing turnaround times; and our commitment to following our own data-driven health and safety metrics and guidelines.
In addition to being flexible around the minutiae of what the in-person class experience will look like, students should also be adaptable to larger shifts happening along the timeline of the semester. For example, the public health situation could require us to begin the semester online and to delay in-person residence and classes. In fact, we currently project that the first two weeks of the semester will be conducted exclusively online because of quarantine expectations. In addition, once the semester is underway, a worsening of the public health situation could cause us to pause in-person instruction for a length of time while continuing on-campus residential life. On the other hand, dramatic improvements in the health situation—including possible rapid vaccine deployment—could allow us to expand our in-person and hybrid options later in the semester. And it is also possible, in a worst-case scenario, that public health conditions do not improve to a point that an on-campus spring semester is possible.
Regardless of the many possibilities, we will monitor conditions continuously and are committed to making the changes necessary to balance our desire to learn together in a community with the necessity of caring for the health and safety of everyone in our community.
For those of you who prefer to continue with online/remote learning, the full academic schedule will be available and fully supported. However, some of your current online classes may become hybrid classes, with some students participating remotely and some participating in the classroom.
For the sake of protecting the health and well-being of all members of the community, many undergraduate classes will continue online. Some classes may be conducted in a hybrid format: the students and tutor will meet in person, but some students will join the class remotely on a rotating basis; technology will allow all students, present and remote, to view one another. Some classes may be offered entirely in person, and these classes could be offered indoors, outdoors, or under tents as weather permits. For students residing on or near campus, we expect that most laboratories will have the opportunity to conduct some practica in person. Seminars, because of size and duration, will likely remain fully online until all or most state restrictions are lifted. In-person classes will be equally available to on-campus students as to off-campus students, though off-campus students may experience decreased accessibility if worsening conditions or changes in state regulations require limiting access to campus.
Most, and perhaps all, Graduate Institute classes in both degree programs, will remain online. If the distribution of student and faculty requests, as well as other conditions, permit it, some classes may be in person; Liberal Arts tutorials are the most likely to be in person. We will also consider hybrid classes if the graduate student survey results and student requests indicate an interest in that modality. Graduate Institute preceptorials will be conducted exclusively online, so that all preceptorials will be available to all graduate students. Given current projections, Eastern Classics students should expect classes to remain online. The associate dean will consider all student and tutor input, together with all other comprehensive factors and conditions governing our spring opening.
Academic life at the college consists of far more than work in the classroom. Throughout the pandemic, we have worked to make it possible for students and tutors to meet for one-on-one conversations online. For students returning to campus, improving health conditions may provide the opportunity for some individual in-person meetings with tutors, as long as participation is voluntary and all observe social distancing and masking rules.
More broadly, these opportunities may include paper conferences, paper advising, seminar orals, Don Rags, and casual conversations. However, students and tutors will continue to be free to request that any of these meetings, formal or informal, be held online.
During periods where the college is at low to stable alert levels, the library will be open for borrowing books and may be open for limited capacity study and limited hours. Other study spaces such as the coffee shop and some classrooms may also be available during these times so long as the community acts in accordance with campus rules regarding distancing, masking, reservation systems, and the maximum occupancy limits.
Because the number of people that we can bring together in a single space will likely remain limited throughout the spring, lectures and question periods (and other large gatherings) will, for the foreseeable future, continue to be online. The format for celebratory or ceremonial occasions, such as commencement week activities, will be decided closer to the events and subject to all the same factors guiding our campus opening and activities.
Please note that we will make modest changes to the 2021 Spring academic calendar with a view to mitigating risk of transmission of COVID-19 while classes are in session.
For students remaining fully online—and for all other students during those periods when they or their classes are online (or they are remote and attending a hybrid classroom)—all of the expectations, policies, and protocols in place for the 2020 Fall semester remain in place. It is especially important that all students continue to meet the minimum technology requirements and attendance and participation expectations that are currently in place. Please review the relevant pages from our 2020 Fall FAQs and the Student Handbook.
The college will continue to provide remote/online access to a full range of academic support and assistance, as well as access to all staff, administrators, offices, and student services. Please see the 2020 Fall FAQs and the weekly calendar, the Ephemera, for more information.
If you have questions about the spring semester, classes, or academic events and policies, please contact the Dean’s Office, Assistant Dean Michael Golluber, or Dean Walter Sterling at 505-984-6070 or santafe.deansoffice(at)sjc.edu. If you have questions about registration and related deadlines and policies, please contact the Office of the Registrar at santafe.registrar(at)sjc.edu. Please see more information on services provided by the Registrar.
If you have questions about Graduate Institute classes or academic events and policies, please contact the Office of the Graduate Institute or Associate Dean Ned Walpin at 505-984-6050 or santafe.gioffice(at)sjc.edu.
