Chancellor Mo Dehghani provides the following update on Missouri S&T plans:

Distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

As we enter the seventh week of the fall semester, I continue to be very grateful for the diligence of our students, faculty and staff in taking all of the measures needed to keep our campus a safe and productive environment for learning, living and working in the midst of a pandemic that shows no signs of abating. I thank our students in particular for setting the example for other colleges and universities across the country. It is impressive how the great majority of our students are taking seriously the threat of the coronavirus and taking personal responsibility to keep our campus safe.

To date we have only 13 active cases of COVID-19 among our student population, and no hospitalizations. Furthermore, none of the reported cases have originated from classroom or lab activity; most originated from small gatherings, such as study groups, and our Student Health Services staff and Dr. Dennis Goodman, our chief medical officer, have done a remarkable job of contact tracing and quarantining contacts to further minimize the threat of spread.

Thanks to this diligence and our relatively low number of cases, I am very pleased to report today that we are continuing with our plans to complete this semester with our mix of on-campus, hybrid and online courses. Of course, we also continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 as we move into cooler weather and the onset of flu and cold season. To help us stay the course for this semester, I am encouraging our students to consider getting an influenza vaccine as soon as possible. They can do so by making an appointment at Student Health Services by calling 573-341-4284, or, if they prefer, by contacting their health care provider.

While I remain hopeful and optimistic about our ability to complete this semester as planned, please know that based on our steadfast principle of safety first, we stand ready to move all courses fully online if the need arises. We will never compromise the safety of our campus and community regardless of any other consideration.

For those of you who are parents of a Fall 2020 graduate, I want to let you know that we will announce our plans for the December commencement soon.

I encourage all of you to continue to check our website, coronavirus.mst.edu, for the latest information about our response to COVID-19.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Mo Dehghani
Chancellor