Health Alert Update February 1, 2021

I welcome you, once again, to the Spring 2021 semester at AUA. Though the Fall 2020 semester was a difficult one for us as we lost loved ones to the tragic Artsakh War and COVID-19 pandemic, we were resilient and made significant gains. Academically, our first online semester was successful as both students and faculty members navigated adversity to complete their courses and continue their educational journeys. We stepped up our knowledge and abilities in online pedagogy and course delivery, and kept the University running in the face of many obstacles. Your extraordinary efforts made this possible.Thank you all for your continued dedication to our University.

As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, we will continue to look for solutions that will enable us to expand co-curricular, extra-curricular, and hopefully curricular activities on campus. Our Working Group on a Post-Pandemic Return to Campus, composed of representatives of the executive team, operations, academic deans, program chairs, faculty members, student affairs, and students, has already had its first meeting. We are finding solutions by collecting international best practices in pandemic-safe behaviors and contextualizing them for our University. We greatly look forward to making our way back to face-to-face courses and activities, with continued reduction of infection rates through responsible behavior, new vaccines, and improved testing methods.

We are deeply committed to a face-to-face education at the American University of Armenia. We believe that face-to-face classroom instruction is the absolute best practice in transferring knowledge, soft skills, and networking abilities to our students. We are also equally committed to the safety of our community and the health of our students and their families. In this effort, we will work to ensure that our activities at AUA will not maintain or expand the transmission of this dreadful disease that has already cost too many lives.