Dear School of Professional Studies Students,

We hope you continue to stay healthy and well. Earlier today you received an email from President Christina Paxson regarding Brown’s modified plans for the Fall 2020 semester. The president shared that Brown will take a phased approach to bringing students back for the fall term in light of the shifting public health conditions of the global pandemic.

I write to share that our plans for residential sessions remain unchanged. All executive students will be given the option to participate in residential sessions remotely if they do not feel comfortable traveling and participating in person. We will continue to monitor conditions in Rhode Island and restrictions on travel to and from the state to determine if we need to make any adjustments.

Because our plans are based on current public health guidance, please be aware that they could shift as the University continues to closely monitor how the pandemic is evolving across the region and around the country. A commitment to the health and well-being of our community continues to drive all of our decisions.

In this message, I have provided some logistical details to provide you with guidance as you plan for your program. Additional information also is available on our website.

Travel

For students who will be traveling to Providence, we recommend that you secure proof of a negative COVID-19 test (within 72 hours before travel). If you are unable to secure a COVID-19 test prior to your travel to Rhode Island, you will undergo testing at a facility run by Brown’s contracted vendor and self-quarantine until you receive your results. Regardless of prior testing, students will be in Brown’s testing pool while participating in on-campus courses. Brown is planning to conduct twice weekly routine testing among asymptomatic students in the testing pool who will be in campus facilities.

Testing will begin the week of August 24 in the OMAC (Olney Margolies Athletic Center) where there is ample space to accommodate the large number of students and employees who will need to be tested. All Brown community members who are authorized to be on campus and therefore subject to mandatory testing will receive information about how to enroll and schedule their baseline test, and further tests thereafter.

Housing & Meals

Brown has leased a block of hotel rooms for executive students to limit our dispersal in the Providence community. The School of Professional Studies will provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for all students to minimize exposure in local restaurants and hotel dining areas.

Facilities and Health Protocols

The School of Professional Studies executive education facility at 225 Dyer St. is well positioned to support face-to-face instruction. Our spacious classrooms and common spaces have the capacity to accommodate students for coursework and dining with adequate social distancing. Individual classes of executive students have 20-35 students, and classrooms in 225 Dyer are large enough to house these students with 6-foot distancing.

Executive education students will remain at 225 Dyer, separate from other campus facilities, in order to minimize contact between these students and the larger campus population.

We have created a webpage that includes more details about our approach to safely holding residential sessions at 225 Dyer St. We will update this page regularly with new information. We encourage you to read through the webpage and check back often for updates.

To ensure the safety and wellness of our community, all students, as well as faculty and staff, must follow the University’s COVID-19 Campus Safety Policy, which encompasses all teaching, research, learning, work and other activities that are authorized to take place at Brown. For general information about Brown’s response to the pandemic, continue to visit Healthy.Brown.edu.

We look forward to seeing you here in Providence this fall.

Sincerely,
Leah