Repopulating the campus and weighing into the TO General Plan

Dear Students, Staff, and Faculty,
 
Next week marks the one-year anniversary of when Cal Lutheran students, faculty, and staff were sent home to study and work. Few, if any, of us imagined that vast numbers of our community would largely “stay put” for the next year. But so it has been. Finally, however, we are starting to see how and when increased activity on campus will once again be commonplace. Just this week Alameda County, home to PLTS, moved into the Red Tier, and, fingers crossed, we expect Ventura County to move into the same tier next week. If that happens, Ryan Van Ommeren will send a COVID-19 update next week that details what the move to the Red Tier means for work, study, campus visits, and more. Please continue to check our KNOW website as well.
 
Part of our repopulation plan calls for having as many faculty, staff, and students vaccinated this spring as possible. Currently, all Cal Lutheran employees, including student workers, are eligible to receive the vaccine as members of the education sector. Students who work in many other sectors can also receive it now, and those with certain health conditions will become eligible on Monday. For details on eligible groups in California, click here. To make an appointment in Ventura County, click here. With the addition of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, many appointments have been available throughout the county this week. I encourage everyone to become vaccinated at their earliest opportunity.
 
As we look forward to spending more time not only at Cal Lutheran but also in the surrounding community, please consider providing input to the City of Thousand Oaks as part of the process involved in updating its general plan. All of us who are living, working, or attending school in Thousand Oaks have been invited to review the alternatives and submit a survey on this website. This process will guide the city’s growth and development plan as it relates to land use, housing, transportation, environmental justice, arts and culture, and more. To shape how the plan is conceived, the city is seeking feedback on the “Land Use Alternatives.” These are maps that present a variety of opportunities for the city's future in terms of residential, mixed-use, commercial, and industrial development. The deadline to complete this survey is Monday. If you miss this deadline, there will be another survey available in April. Public participation is the heart of the general plan. It is critical that the plan be based on input from the entire community, including our students. So again, please visit the site, and make your opinion known.
 
Back within the Cal Lutheran community, I want to thank all of you who are contributing to many of our short-term plans (outdoor instruction plans, intercollegiate practice and competition plans, commencement activities, and the like) and/or to our emerging long-term plans (shared governance, institutional differentiation, the core curriculum, and so on). The shape and feel of our future is largely in our collective hands. I hope many of you will be constructive collaborators who help ensure our future is as bright as it can be. 

Lori E. Varlotta, Ph.D.
President