February 12, 2021

Dear CSU Community—Students, Parents, Faculty, and Staff,

Throughout the uncertainties of the past year, Colorado State University has been a certainty—continuing to educate students, conduct research, engage with our communities, and improve lives. And like many of you, we are eagerly looking ahead to a brighter future.

In Fall 2021, CSU invites our new and returning students to join us on our campuses for a rigorous, rewarding in-person academic experience.

For our newest students, we will offer engaging, small-size seminars and community-building activities in residence halls. We know that COVID disrupted your junior and senior years of high school and we are leveraging our talented faculty, dedicated staff, and extensive university resources to make sure you start your college career at CSU feeling connected, both to your academic journey and our Ram family.

For students returning to CSU in the fall, we are working creatively and collaboratively to offer you in-person learning experiences, from labs and studio classes to senior seminars and experiential learning opportunities. We will also continue to offer you the flexibility of taking some courses as hybrid or online, taught by faculty who have access to new classroom technologies and training in remote teaching strategies. In 2020, you rose to the challenge of mastering these new modalities, and we know that some of you want to keep learning this way. We will offer you multiple learning options!

All students coming to CSU campuses can feel confident that our classrooms are arranged according to physical distancing guidelines, with hygienic supply stations and posted public health protocols. This fall we will also continue our extremely successful messaging that Rams Take Care of Rams by observing and reinforcing all current Larimer County public health protocols. We will continue to offer you the exceptional academic experience you expect from CSU while maintaining a healthy public environment.

During our Fall 2021 in-person semester, we are committed to keeping our university community healthy and well. 

I am proud to remind you all that CSU conducted a successful Fall 2020 semester in which approximately two-thirds of our courses had an in-person component. We are on track to the same success this Spring, and we plan to offer the majority of our courses as in-person learning experiences in Fall 2021. Our COVID response has been nothing short of extraordinary and we will utilize the same expertise and energy that has brought us this far to shape a healthy campus environment in Fall 2021.

How we keep our CSU community healthy:

• The Pandemic Preparedness Team, led by campus experts in public health and organizational management, directs our COVID response.
• We partner with state and county health officials to determine the appropriate public health precautions to implement on our campuses.
• We use our innovative and incredibly effective wastewater testing protocol to monitor residence halls, campus buildings and areas next to campus with high-density student housing.
• We use a saliva screening developed by our own CSU researchers, paired with nasal swab testing, to test our community members rapidly and regularly.
• Our contact tracers work across the university and with public health officials to identify individuals who may have been exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 and take the appropriate steps.
• Our nationally recognized infectious disease research experts closely monitor the pandemic, including new variants of the virus, and consult with public health experts on their findings.
• As the COVID-19 vaccine distribution continues, we will work with local and national health officials to adjust our public health protocols appropriately to follow best practices.

In the coming months, we will share more detailed information about Fall 2021—including how the COVID vaccine will impact our semester—as soon as we have it. I know that significant uncertainty remains for all of us. What I can promise you is that CSU will remain a certainty, offering a stalwart, sustaining community to all our students, faculty, and staff.

Warmly,

Joyce