Today marks the final President’s Corner email of the semester, and I want to take a moment and express how proud I am of the campus community for its dedication and hard work throughout a challenging fall. In August, I started this weekly communication – along with a weekly social media town hall – to keep you informed about how the pandemic was affecting our campus. We didn’t know how the next several months would progress. We knew we had a good plan, and we had faith that our community would follow that plan.

And you did! Because of your support, our COVID-19 numbers remained manageable every week. As of today, we have one faculty member, 13 staff members and 11 students testing positive for the virus.

The winter holiday is about to begin for many of you. This is a time for some much-needed rest, but please remain vigilant. This pandemic continues to rage across our country, so I’m asking you to avoid the temptation of attending holiday parties and large family gatherings. This winter break, please continue wearing your masks, washing your hands and maintaining an appropriate social distance from others.  

Unfortunately, the growing number of COVID-19 cases caused us to cancel in-person commencement ceremonies this week, but we will host four virtual commencement ceremonies tomorrow to honor our fall graduates. These ceremonies will be streamed on the OVC Digital Network at the times listed below:

• 9 a.m., College of Arts and Letters and College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
• 11 a.m., College of Behavioral and Health Sciences’ Health and Human Performance, Psychological Sciences and Counseling, and Nursing majors and graduates who are General Studies majors.
• 1 p.m., College of Business and College of Behavioral and Health Sciences’ Criminal Justice, Leadership and Organizational Administration, Political Science, Public Management, Sociology and Social Work majors.
• 3 p.m., Eriksson College of Education and APSU’s liberal arts associate degree graduates.

If you miss one of the ceremonies, they will be made available on the APSU-TV YouTube page and the University's Facebook page.

During my social media town hall yesterday, I also discussed registration and the upcoming spring semester. If you missed that event, you can watch it below.

Town Hall with Interim President Whiteside - December 9, 2020

Thank you again for your commitment to Austin Peay this semester. I appreciate all that you've done and I wish you a safe, happy and healthy holiday season.

Dannelle Whiteside

Interim President