Stephen F. Austin State University

Dear SFA Students:

I hope this note finds you healthy and safe. I know this has been a challenging and uncertain semester. Yet, every day I see so many Lumberjack students, faculty and staff demonstrating the teamwork, compassion and volunteerism that makes this community so great. Lumberjacks truly show grit, grace and gratitude. For all your hard work, patience and understanding during this difficult time, we sincerely thank you.

As we are now nearing the end of the spring semester, SFA is looking forward to, and planning for, the future. Currently, we are evaluating options for how we will operate in the fall, especially from a teaching and learning perspective. We understand that your lives have been altered and each of you have varying levels of concern and financial situations that may have changed during the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, we are currently working on a Lumberjack Flex Model that will appeal to the wide variety of students, their learning styles, price sensitivities, and geographic locations. This model also will be sensitive to the fact that a resurgence of COVID-19 could occur, and if so, we will be prepared to mitigate its impact on teaching and learning. We hope to have this Lumberjack Flex Model developed and vetted as early as possible this summer. We will share this model with you as soon as we can.

Even though our nation will be facing COVID-19 for the foreseeable future, we must maintain operations of SFA, especially the teaching and learning process. You may be hearing many scenarios across the country for opening of higher education institutions, so let me be clear: We will start fall semester classes on the published calendar date.

We are working hard to determine how to reopen campus, what safety measures will be put in place and what specifically the Lumberjack Flex Model will look like as far as course delivery. We expect to announce the university plans for the fall semester by the end of June. This will allow students to prepare for the fall term and faculty to develop their classes to best serve our students. This date will also provide time to reopen facilities, integrate new learning technologies, and prepare to implement new health and safety practices and policies.

Stay safe, stay healthy and take care!

Sincerely,

Dr. G.

Scott A. Gordon President

P.S. Don’t forget about SUMMER WITH SFA – www.sfasu.edu/summer