An update on the fall semester

Some readers may already have seen the announcement from Dean Kyte regarding the fall semester. The core news is that fall 2020 at Fletcher will be conducted remotely. The full announcement is available here.

It’s understandable that this will come as a welcome piece of concrete information to some, a disappointment to others, and for nearly everyone (us included) will involve a wide range of emotions. There will also naturally be a lot of questions in the wake of this news, which I won’t attempt to answer here. I encourage readers to keep these FAQs handy as a starting point; there’s a lot of helpful information contained therein, and they’ll be updated as details emerge on some of the points that remain undetermined.

This is obviously a big change for everyone. There’s a lot of excitement, though, too, around the innovations coming in the fall. Several timely new courses will be offered, including The Pandemic as Contemporary History and Civil Resistance. There will also be expanded schedule flexibility with the semester unfolding in two sessions; in each session, some courses will be offered in intensive 7-week blocks, while others will stay with the more traditional semester-long format. Students will be able to choose how many courses to take at a time according to their own preferences and circumstances while still completing a standard four-course semester. Remote instruction will also allow integration of a wider variety of global practitioners and scholars into the virtual classroom who otherwise would be unable to visit Fletcher in person.

Uncertainty about the future will be a fact of all our lives for a long time to come, but we’re happy to be able to talk more specifically about the coming semester. As always, our office is available to answer any questions readers may have, and we’ll look forward to being in touch with you.