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Earlier today, Chancellor Cantor shared the message below with the university community. Please see below for additional information on our plans for Fall 2021!
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Dear Rutgers University – Newark returning and admitted students, Following the recent message from President Holloway with the great news about Rutgers’ path to Fall 2021, I write to share a vision of what we think that path will look like for students at Rutgers-Newark. We are eagerly looking forward to a predominantly in-person experience, with all students on campus in Fall 2021 fully vaccinated (with limited authorized exemptions for medical or religious reasons), faculty and staff members vaccinated to the greatest degree possible, a robust COVID-19 testing program, and social distancing and cleaning protocols in place. We have teams of people working to gear back up so we can be together with you in every aspect of what we do, from academics and advising to student support services, residential and student life, and athletics and recreation. Of course, our return to campus plans may need to change based on factors like the progress of the pandemic and guidance from governmental authorities. There is a lot going on right now to get us to where we want to be and a lot to do, but we could not be happier at the thought of having you here on campus. We have put together a sketch of some of the major areas of campus life for Fall 2021, which are summarized below. You’ll see that returning students can find answers to their questions in all the usual places and new students have a number of opportunities coming up to begin forging connections with us and with each other The ties that bind our communities together may have been stretched over the past year, but we know that the tight-knit Rutgers-Newark community is more than ready to bounce back. Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones in the weeks ahead, do what you need to do to stay healthy and safe, and we will see you in the fall! Cordially, Nancy Cantor Chancellor Rutgers University – Newark Fall 2021 Plan Academic Plan We are confident that instruction for Fall 2021 will be primarily face-to-face, expecting that public health guidance will continue to evolve toward greater openness. We are working in close partnership with the deans, and they with their faculties and staffs, to plan for in-person delivery of courses, similar to how it was pre-pandemic. Some class sections with a large number of students will be delivered in a hybrid modality or will continue to be delivered remotely. Moving forward, we anticipate that our regular, in-person, experience will be complemented by the refined solutions that we have been developing for remote support. For instance, the RU-N Student Technology LaunchPad, which has been helping students meet their technology needs successfully, will continue to offer its robust set of supports. Faculty members will continue to find an equally robust support system through the Rutgers Technology and Learning Services and the array of opportunities offered through Rutgers-Newark’s P3 Collaboratory (Pedagogy, Professional Development, and Publicly Engaged Scholarship). Office of Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions We are excited to announce that the Office of Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions plans to begin offering on-campus tours in early May 2021. All on-campus tours are planned for small groups, following social distancing guidelines, and requiring face coverings for all participants; details will be available in the coming weeks and published on the Rutgers University-Newark Admissions website. Students and families can continue to access virtual campus tours via the Rutgers University-Newark Admissions website. We plan to transition to welcoming more students and families via in-person appointments in mid-July 2021, with appointments made through an online calendar to be published on the Rutgers University-Newark Admissions website. We will continue to offer a number of virtual events and appointments through the remainder of the Spring and Summer 2021 including the Admitted Student Day 2021 events. New students will be able to sign up for Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR) after formally accepting the offer of admission. Convocation 2021 We eagerly anticipate welcoming our new incoming first-year and transfer students at our Virtual Convocation on Monday, August 23, 2021. New undergraduate students will receive more information on Convocation 2021 during SOAR and should look for regular updates via email and text messages. Student Academic Support For Fall 2021, a combination of in-person and remote academic advising and tutoring services will be available. All in-person appointments will require advance scheduling and will occur in accordance with the university’s safety measures, such as wearing face coverings and abiding by social distancing guidelines. In addition to in-person appointments, we will continue to offer remote tutoring and academic advising, which has proven effective, with students reporting satisfaction with one-to-one tutoring sessions, and with their virtual meetings with advising offices. Remote or in-person appointments can be made through the Navigate-Student mobile app or RUN4Success. General questions also can be addressed to individual school contacts as needed.
Graduate students are invited to contact the Graduate School-Newark for additional information on academic support offerings. Dana Library We can’t wait to welcome you to the newly renovated Dana Library, featuring a new, iconic entrance from the quad and a fully built-out third floor (which had been undeveloped for decades) that is home to the P3 Collaboratory, Graduate School, and the Office of Global Initiatives and Experiential Learning. In Fall 2021, Dana Library plans to be open to the Rutgers-Newark community Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed on the weekends. Building access would be restricted to card access along with visitor sign-in procedures as required by the university. The computer labs and open study spaces for undergraduate and graduate students would be available for use, but group study rooms will be closed as they do not allow for adequate social distancing. Patrons will continue to access physical collection through our Click & Collect and home delivery services by placing holds on materials through QuickSearch and scheduling appointments for pick up. Reference and instruction services will continue to occur online. The Institute of Jazz Studies and RU-N Archives will be accessible online and by appointment only in-person. Occupancy of the library will be monitored by security personnel and library staff to ensure that state indoor occupancy guidelines are followed.
Graduate Students are encouraged to contact your program's designated Subject Matter Librarian for additional resources! Registration Registration guidelines for returning students are available on the Registrar’s website, including the timetable for registration, which is generally dependent on the number of degree credits already earned. The Fall 2021 Schedule of Classes becomes available on Monday, April 5th. Details can be found on the registration schedule. One Stop Offices The One Stop Office (Financial Aid, Student Accounting, Cashiering, Registrar and University ID) plans to transition to welcoming more students with in-person appointments in mid-July 2021. We plan for all in-person appointments to occur in small groups, follow social distancing guidelines, and require face coverings for all. Students can request in-person appointments through an online calendar. Offices will continue to provide virtual counter appointments through the Fall 2021 semester. The online calendar for in-person appointments and virtual counter appointments reflecting the changes will be updated and published by mid-June on the myRUN site. Students are strongly encouraged to use the myRUN support portal that was launched in early January 2021. For the remainder of the Spring 2021 and the beginning of Summer 2021, students are strongly encouraged to check myRUN website on regular basis for updates on in-person and virtual counter appointments. Students can continue to access a number of resources online that include myRutgers—with important resources such as their enrollment dashboard and the myGuest portal—as well as their Financial Aid Award Letter, Term Bills , Rutgers University-Newark Schedule of Classes, Webreg, and Transcript Requests. Residence Life and Dining Services During Fall 2021, we plan to increase our on-campus housing capacity to at least 75%, while remaining within health and safety guidelines. This includes all residence halls being open, including the new Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) at 48 New Street. Students in residence halls will live in double and single rooms; some rooms will continue to be reserved in the event that students need to isolate if they test positive for COVID-19. Periodic testing will still be required for residential students in the Fall 2021, on a schedule that will be announced. Students will be expected to adhere to campus health and safety protocols as we move toward increased in-person gatherings. Housing applications for Fall 2021 will be accepted as of mid-April 2021; separate notification will be sent to all students when the fall application is available to be completed online. We plan to offer dining services exclusively in the Paul Robeson Campus Center Cafeteria while Stonsby Commons serves as a vaccination site for the Rutgers-Newark community. A diversified choice of full meals and snacks is planned throughout the day, as well as grab-and-go, and carry-out. We are excited to debut meal kits for students who need a complete meal on the go, as well as mobile ordering at two campus Starbucks locations—in the Paul Robeson Campus Center and the new location at Rutgers Business School, 1 Washington Street. Student Life We will welcome new students with the Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR) program, which will run from April through August 2021. We are planning this fall’s Weeks of Welcome events to be in person and virtual in order to comfortably accommodate and welcome our new students. We plan to open the school year with small in-person events and activities for students sponsored by student organizations, Greek Life, and our student governing associations. Both in-person and virtual services are planned for Student Life, Community Standards, International Student Services, the Intercultural Resource Center, Veteran Affairs and Career Development. Additionally, given the robust student participation in activities during the 2020-21 academic year, we will continue to offer virtual campus activities in order to remain accessible to students who are engaging in remote or hybrid classes, or for whom remote attendance is more convenient. We plan to make the Paul Robeson Campus Center, in addition to Dana Library, available for study and meeting space, with appropriate distancing protocols in place. Student Health, the Counseling Center, and Disability Services will continue to offer in-person and virtual services to accommodate the needs of RU-N students. Students will continue to be able to use the Fitness Center in the Golden Dome by reservation in the fall and fall sports will resume as planned.