Remaining Guided by Our Mission
At St. Thomas, we strive every day to live our values as a university inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition. Our mission is to educate students to be morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely, and work skillfully to advance the common good. During this time of crisis, we believe that even though we are separated by physical space, we truly are together at heart when we continue to serve our common good. Starting this summer, we begin the process of gradually welcoming our community back to campus, and we look forward to hosting students in-person again in the fall. See our COVID-19 Preparedness Plan for more details.
As this is a time for unity, we remind our community that we cannot let the COVID-19 pandemic drive us apart by sowing fear and discrimination. We can never allow our fears to assign blame for this – or any – situation to any individual or group of people based on their skin color, race, ethnicity or country of origin. If you feel you have been the target of discrimination, please report it using our online reporting system.
See you soon, Tommies. In the meantime, stay strong and healthy.
Latest message from University Leadership (from June 23, 2020)
Dear St. Thomas faculty, staff, and students,
Today I am pleased to share with you our completed St. Thomas COVID-19 Preparedness Plan. This plan applies to all members of our community – students, faculty, staff and campus visitors – and will guide how we safely reopen campus. The first phases of the plan will be implemented immediately.
While we have shown remarkable resilience in continuing our work while apart, I am excited to welcome our campus back together and experience the energy and personal connection that opening campus and being together will bring. This plan will help us provide that opportunity in a safe manner.
For six weeks, we have been diligently preparing St. Thomas to welcome our community back to campus to safely live, work, learn, worship, dine, and compete. While we certainly cannot control the COVID-19 virus, I am confident that our plan, which includes recommendations gathered from stakeholders both on and off campus, will help protect the health and safety of the university community as we conduct the essential work of educating our St. Thomas students.
The success of this plan requires both changes in campus operations and behavior change from our community members. I urge you to read details in the plan about our enhanced cleaning protocols, new sanitizing stations, dining services changes, residence hall protocols, self-screening expectations and more. COVID-19 testing is currently in place at the Center for Well-Being, and we are creating additional testing capacity on campus, as well as setting up a team for contact tracing. All of these efforts, if embraced and followed, will help us respond to and contain the virus.
Read the remainder of the message here
St. Thomas Responds
Serving our common good is more important now than ever. Whether it is rallying behind our students experiencing financial hardship, providing critical supplies for our health-care workers on the front lines, or advocating on behalf of our student teachers, the St. Thomas community is banding together to make a difference. Visit our Newsroom to see stories about our community members in action to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.