Announcements

Dear Penn Community, With heavy hearts, we write to share that Tolamariam Nemomsa ’24, a student in the College, passed away this week in his off-campus residence. He was 21. From an early age, Tola, as he was known, was passionate about community health, specifically issues affecting his home state of Colorado. Committed to learning more about disparities in health care, he had the honor of being selected as a Pre-Health Scholar at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

We are grateful to every member of the Penn community who has come together to help us get through this latest phase of the COVID pandemic. We will return to in-person classes as scheduled on Monday (January 24). On that day, we will also resume the hybrid work plan for staff that first went into effect last year.

We hope that all of you had a good Winter Break, and we are excited to welcome you back to the spring semester. While the current circumstances may not be what any of us would prefer, we are determined to sustain our core university missions. We know that we can count on every member of our community to be part of this effort, as we all navigate together this challenging phase of the pandemic. 

As we wish you all a joyful and healthy holiday break, we write to update you on our plans to start the new semester in a way that ensures the safest and most fulsome Penn educational experience.

Penn will now require all eligible students, faculty, postdocs, and staff to receive a COVID-19 booster shot by January 31.

In May, our esteemed colleague and dear friend Wendell Pritchett announced that he would be taking a leave of absence from his duties as Provost to tend to some significant health challenges. I am very pleased to report that Wendell is healthy again and that he is eager to return to campus in January, which is very good news for all of us who treasure his friendship and value the extraordinary work he has done for Penn.

We are extremely grateful for the extraordinary efforts of every member of our community as we navigated a very unusual, yet exciting and inspiring, fall semester. With our return from Thanksgiving Break and as we head into the final weeks of the semester, we know there are concerns about the new Omicron variant. We want you to know that we are working closely with Penn Medicine and our public health experts to monitor and respond to this situation as it evolves.

A message of gratitude, and an update on Penn’s hybrid work program and extended winter break.

Penn has made its Climate and Sustainability Action Plan goals a top priority, while recognizing that the plans must be dynamic and adaptable to keep pace with the rapidly evolving challenges of climate change.

We write today to share our contingency plans for a possible SEPTA service disruption, which could begin as early as Monday, November 1. This work stoppage would impact the City Transit Division of SEPTA, which includes bus, trolley, Market-Frankford Line, and Broad Street subway services. Regional Rail, Customized Community Transportation, the Norristown High-Speed Line, and Trolleys 101 and 102 would continue to run.