As part of their efforts to guide students’ safe return to in-person classes, FIU Business faculty and staff gathered February 16 to review the impact of the past year of remote and hybrid learning and discuss plans for more in-person opportunities in the fall 2021 semester.

“We must not walk away from this mission of understanding how to help those students,” said Joanne Li, dean of the College of Business, said at the meeting.

The HyFlex Town Hall, which enabled some employees to attend in-person and others to attend virtually, was the first all-school in-person meeting for faculty and staff since the pandemic began. It was held in the same way HyFlex classes have been held since last fall.

At the event, 37 attended in person, with social distancing, face masks and various safety measures in place, and another 249 did so remotely. During an intermission, many faculty and staff members who haven’t seen each other outside of a webcam and video conferences since the pandemic started, were able to mingle and reconnect (also with social distancing and face coverings).

During the meeting, college leadership shared information about the upcoming summer and fall semesters. They noted that the summer A and C semesters will likely have limited fully remote classes, while the fall and summer B terms will be in-person, hybrid or online.

Leadership also shared information on enrollment. William Hardin, associate dean of the Chapman Graduate School said the graduate programs posted double digit enrollment increases.

“Everyone’s trying to be innovative, but we have a competitive advantage – high quality faculty and staff that know how to run these programs,” he said.