Inspired by those we serve
Western Carolina University provides our students with a high quality education and preparation
for responsible citizenship in a changing world. Our core values embrace excellent teaching,
scholarship, and service; collaboration with and respect for our communities; free and open
interchange of ideas; cultural diversity and equal opportunity; responsible stewardship and
organizational effectiveness; and environmental sustainability.
The recent global developments around COVID (Coronavirus) 19 have tested our capacity to
deliver on our promises and taken on new significance for higher education generally, and WCU,
specifically. Safety and health concerns have generated stringent protocols to mitigate the
spread of the virus and half way through the 2020 spring semester more than 2,400 sections of
courses at WCU transitioned from face-to-face to online, or remote, teaching. These are
extraordinary times and while the challenges we experienced to accommodate such a sudden
and far-reaching action are real, the commitment to student success by our faculty and staff are
as strong and persistent as ever and remains a cornerstone of our campus culture.
Thank you for your tireless work on behalf of our students. Their voices, and those whom they
reach, are the evidence of our labor!
Intent
As we continue to offer summer courses and programs remotely, we are actively planning for
the fall 2020 semester. We anticipate that we will be operating in a multimodal instructional
arrangement with faculty flexibility, student success, staff support, and multiple pedagogical and
logistical realities as our guides. This plan provides a roadmap to address current uncertainties in
as nimble and responsive a way as possible, while adhering to common pedagogical standards
and teaching excellence, quality staff engagement, and preserving to the degree circumstances
allow, the valuable face-to-face components of our residential programs.