Dear IMSA Community,

I hope all of you are having a wonderful day. We have a new President and Vice-President in a historic election. And we have for the first time in our history, an African-American female Vice-President. Now we can begin 2021!

I am writing to you today to provide an update on our repopulation plans. Today, the Board of Trustees authorized me to make the decision to open the IMSA campus if and when it is safe to do so. The criteria for opening the campus continues to be and has expanded to (in italics):

  1. The entire state reaches Phase 4 of Restore IL
  2. Existence (and wide availability) of treatment and or a vaccine
  3. Wide availability of rapid testing for IMSA students and staff, including faculty

Positivity rates are decreasing and the new Administration has a plan to accelerate vaccination distribution. In Illinois, teachers are a part of the Phase 1B of the Illinois vaccine distribution plan. We have confirmed that this includes all IMSA staff.

There is at minimum a 30-40 day window required to prepare the Academy for students after the decision to return to campus is made. This health crisis continues to evolve and this information may change rapidly as warranted. 

As we move forward, it is critically important that we continue to follow public health recommendations to suppress the spread of the virus until vaccines are ready for widespread distribution. Please continue to safeguard yourselves and employ the mitigation measures, so that positivity rates continue to decrease and it becomes safe for us to return to campus.


Be safe and well,

José M. Torres, Ph.D.
President