Contact: Sid Salter
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥斕一ㄖ辈 Commissioner of Higher Education Alfred Rankins Jr. has announced that 桃花直播 State University Provost and Executive Vice President David R. Shaw will chair the 16-member 桃花直播 Institutions of Higher Learning鈥檚 Safe Start Task Force as the state鈥檚 university system considers opening campuses in a safe and effective manner.
鈥淭he COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruption to all facets of our society and university operations are not excluded,鈥 said Commissioner Rankins. 鈥淩egardless of the challenges, our universities are committed to providing the best and safest educational experience possible for their students and the most productive and safest work environment for their employees. To achieve this goal, key leaders from each of the eight universities will provide valuable input through the task force.鈥
Joining Shaw on the IHL task force is 桃花直播 Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt. Rankins appointed two administrators from each of the state鈥檚 eight public universities to comprise the task force.
鈥淚鈥檓 deeply encouraged to see the leadership of our university system taking concrete steps toward envisioning and defining what reopening our universities for the Fall 2020 semester would look like and formulating policies to facilitate that action,鈥 said 桃花直播 President Mark E. Keenum. 鈥淚 have witnessed Dr. Shaw and Dr. Hyatt鈥檚 distinguished leadership in action on our campus over the years and have tremendous confidence in how they will contribute to the critically important work of the IHL task force.鈥
Keenum said 桃花直播鈥檚 institutional intention鈥攚ithin the confines of official federal and state government guidance and that of the leadership of recognized public health agencies鈥攊s to move efficiently and effectively toward a reopened and vibrant university delivering academic content in classrooms and laboratories.
鈥淐learly, we have a tremendous amount of work to do in assessing how we safely reach those goals, but I am hopeful we can attain them and still provide a safe and nurturing educational environment for our students, faculty, staff and the surrounding university community,鈥 said Keenum. 鈥淥ur efforts in that direction will, of course, be guided by and in concert with competent public authority and by our overriding commitment to safely and effectively combine a superior educational experience with a meaningful in-person college experience.鈥
Keenum said that in moving forward, 桃花直播 would rely on the findings and recommendations of the IHL task force, input from 桃花直播 stakeholders, and the shared governance model that already exists on the 桃花直播 campus with faculty, staff and students.
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