allow faculty and staff to work remotely; and NGUprays, an initiative to gather faculty and staff volunteers to pray for incoming students. The university also announced a new Cybersecurity degree program, and launched the Textbook Butler Service in partnership with Tree of Life Bookstores to provide students with more affordable textbooks and course material solutions. During the fall semester, NGU dedicated two renovated buildings: Neves Hall, which houses the Office of Student Services, including NGUcentral; and the repurposed Tuttle Clinic, providing a central base of operation for Information Technology Ser- vices. Amidst the unusual year, the university started the NGUleads program, which offers a year-long leadership development program to provide enhanced professional development training for faculty and staff. Along with these campus activities, NGU completed its 10-year accreditation process with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges through a virtual visit from a SACSCOC team.
After concluding the Spring 2020 semester remotely, Commencement for spring graduates was postponed. Graduates were given opportunities to partic- ipate in a ceremony during Homecoming in October, or during the December Commencement in Turner Chapel or the May 2021 Commencement at Younts Stadium. Those three events, along with a graduation drive-through event in May 2020, provided opportunities for graduates and their families to celebrate their academic achievements.
While summer school was offered remotely in 2020, the university began plan- ning for the Fall 2021 semester, in hopes of bringing students back to campus for the regular scheduled academic calendar, which included fall and spring breaks.
The university began the fall semester on time, with a continuing commitment to protect the health of its students. Over the summer, the NGU Clinic was opened on the south edge of the campus and the university employed a campus nurse to serve the campus community. The COVID-19 Response Team worked collectively to review and strengthen protocols to ensure safety procedures were established and communicated clearly.
President Fant said that the decision to continue with a regular academic sched- ule with normal breaks and holidays was affirmed by mental health experts, and by data that showed only minor upticks of campus cases following holidays. The university continued to monitor the larger Greenville and South Carolina statis- tics. If the number of cases showed a marked increase for students in a specific club, sports team or musical group, NGU officials would address the issue by suspending meetings or activities for those groups. That vigilance helped limit large outbreaks in student groups, and allowed the university to stay on track to complete the academic year on time.
“The challenges that come with being a student-athlete are character-building.”
In April, the university announced through a joint message from the university President and the COVID-19 Response Team that the university planned to
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