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Good day everyone. My name is Father Jim
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Greenfield,
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I am the president here at DeSales
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University, and i'm delighted to be
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joined by another
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president. This is Joe Fremont, he is a
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senior here
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in an accounting and finance major, and
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he's also the Executive President
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of the Student Government Association. So
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the two of us are here to
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kind of share with you some thoughts
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that we have as we prepare to return to
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campus
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for the spring semester, 2021,
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and i'd like to underscore that I'm
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sharing this message with all of our
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students,
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and their parents, and their families,
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because we're all in this together. So
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i have five points that I like to share,
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and Joe and I discussed these beforehand,
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and
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the first of the points is the
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excitement that we have
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to welcome everyone back. February 1st
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begins this semester, and May 12th,
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Wednesday, is the last day of classes.
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That's 15 weeks of living and learning
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and recreating and
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praying and socializing. All those things
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we're going to do during those 15 weeks,
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and of course the culmination, Joseph iIm
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sure you're happy about this,
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is may 22nd and 23rd, our graduation
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commencement weekend. We know we're going
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to do something that weekend, we're not
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sure
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how we're doing it, we just have to see
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how this virus plays out.
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As we know this is one thing we can't
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control, so stay tuned for that.
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The second of the five points—we want to
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celebrate everything that went well
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during last semester.
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We were able to remain on campus, we had
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a few issues there at the end, there were
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some parties that were not
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sanctioned and some folks didn't follow
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some of the Salesian Solidarity
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guidelines, but
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for the most part we were incredibly
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successful,
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and i want to thank all of our students
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for that. It took a lot of energy and a
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lot of work,
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and i'm really proud of all of you. The
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third point—
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what do we learn from last semester? And
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this is what I wanted to make sure we
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remember, the Salesian Solidarity Pledge,
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that we want to take this seriously. The
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other day Dr. Jerry Joyce,
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the executive vice president here at the
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university, issued
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an email to all students and faculty.
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It was called a Return to Campus Guide for
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2021.
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And there's plenty of guidelines
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to remind us
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what we need to do and be about during
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this next semester.
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But, I just want to remind everyone that
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there's going to be testing.
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So to come back to campus, whether you're
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a resident or commuter,
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we're going to ask for you to test
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negative. We're going to do
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some surveillance testing, 10 of our
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population each week.
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So we're very excited that we can offer
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that, but we also want to remind everyone
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about the visitation policy and
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social gathering policies, that if you
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don't comply with them,
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we're going to be very serious about
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asking you
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to go home. Because non-compliance this
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year with our Salesian Solidarity Pledge
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is going to result in that. Last
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semester we were still learning about
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how to enforce it,
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and we thought that as we come back
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to campus this semester,
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we need to put more teeth into that
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pledge. So
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again I want to make sure that everyone
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knows how respectful I am
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of you and your commitment, but if you
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can't comply,
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we're going to ask that you go home to
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keep yourself safe,
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and keep everyone else safe. The fourth
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point is a reminder
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that mask wearing is so essential,
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hand washing, self monitoring ,and social
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distance.
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That's the thing that we want to
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continue to reinforce for everyone. So
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we're going to ask you to engage in
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those behaviors.
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And the fifth point—there's light at the
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end of the tunnel. As we know, if we
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comply with the CDC,
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we're looking forward to the mass
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distribution of vaccines.
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Some of our faculty and staff are
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already getting them as we take this,
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and we're hoping to roll out some kind
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of policy working with one of our local
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health networks here.
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But there is light at the end of the
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tunnel, and again I
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can't wait to welcome everyone back for
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the 2021 semester.
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We're going to have a great time. Go
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bulldogs! I want to turn it over to the
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other president.
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It's our responsibility, as students, to
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make sure that DeSales is a healthy
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and safe place to be.
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So wear your masks, remain socially
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distant, and wash those hands.
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We can do this! Well everyone, as Joseph
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just reminded us,
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we got this bulldogs! And as we said last
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semester, and we're going to do this
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semester, our mantra is
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"we are ready for anything so bring it on."
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Looking forward to having a great
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semester.
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See you soon!
