3/19 Status of BUSM
To: BUSM Students, Faculty, Staff and Alumni
From: Karen Antman, MD, BUMC Provost and BUSM Dean
Re: 3/19 Status of BUSM
Date: March 19, 2020
As we complete our first week of virtual education and research, I want to thank all of our faculty, staff and students for their collaborative and collegial teamwork in rising to the occasion. Particular kudos go to our IT team for getting us up to speed on previously unfamiliar platforms that support our virtual instructional, academic and administrative work, and to our students for their strength, resilience and commitment to their education – especially those who are completing their requirements for graduation in a few months. Students have been joining together to help each other, especially those serving on the wards, by volunteering to run errands or providing childcare.
Our academic medical center is now truly working on the frontlines of medicine and science. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve and we are adapting to almost daily changes. Our physician faculty are already caring for increasing numbers of presumed coronavirus patients after several weeks of intense planning. Our teachers are providing their course material online. Deans are assessing each student’s curriculum requirements to ensure their successful progression toward their degrees. GMS has many students preparing to defend their dissertations in the coming weeks that have been moved to an online format with digital signatures.
Labs have implemented protocols for social distancing, minimizing the number of individuals in their labs at any given time, developed best practices to ensure the safety of lab personnel and to preserve the integrity of their experiments. NEIDL and other faculty are ramping up COVID-19 research.
We thank our Facilities team for ramping up cleaning the School and Medical Campus classrooms, restrooms and buildings. We have taken a number of large classrooms off line so that cleaning can be concentrated on the remaining spaces.
Thank you, all, for your commitment to our shared mission to meet these challenges. Please send suggestions or issues to BUSMDean@bu.edu.
Please check the BUMC and BU websites for the latest University information regarding COVID-19.