March 11, 2020
Thank you for your continued support as we diligently work to protect our students.
We are postponing our week-long trip to Nashville (originally scheduled for April 24th – 28th). We will be in touch at a later date about rescheduling it.
We will wait to make a decision regarding Family Weekend and will notify you as soon as one is made.
Effective immediately, we are implementing a non-emergency travel restriction, air or otherwise; this includes all visits to campus. As always, these are your students, so if you choose to have your student home for an indefinite stay, we respect and support your decision.
As you know, many of our students are in populations of risk, including those over sixty and those with chronic medical conditions. We thank you for your assistance in our effort of prevention.
Sincerely,
John D. Stewart II, M.D.
March 10, 2020
We thank you for the support each of you has expressed over our recent decisions.
Unrelated, and with unfortunate timing, we have a main water line that is blocked and requires urgent repair. This will require us turning water off for roughly 48 hours (hopefully less!) to half of our campus (which includes all of our male residence halls and 3 of our female residence halls). We have reported to and met all codes and provision requirements for both the fire department and the health department. Rest assured that during this time, we will have an ample supply of drinking water available and will provide students with access to restrooms and constant opportunities to maintain their hygiene.
Since we last notified you of our schedule changes, we have been planning replacement activities to ensure that our students are as happy as ever. Further, we have made the additional decision to pause our off-campus vocational program, while providing on-campus opportunities for those students interested. In addition, we are providing educational opportunities in and out of the classroom on social distancing and maintaining proper hygiene.
Per the CDC’s recommendations and federal guidelines, we continue to recommend judicious travel, both air and otherwise, with particular attention to our students with pre-existing medical conditions.
While it has always been recommended, it is now essential that you notify us in advance of coming to campus. We ask that if you are preparing to come on our campus, please monitor your own health before doing so, just as we are requesting the same of our employees.
We remain focused on preventing anything from compromising our students’ health.
Sincerely,
John D. Stewart II, M.D.
March 9, 2020
In an effort to protect our precious students, we are going to provide ALL of our students’ activities and events ON CAMPUS for the next few weeks. This includes, but is not limited to the following off-campus trips: town trips, movie trips, swimming, religious services, bowling, choral performances, class trips, Town & Country, and Sunshine Club.
We will NOT be attending the SOKY basketball tournament scheduled for Friday- Sunday, March 13th -15th in Louisville, Kentucky. We will be replacing this with an on-campus basketball tournament.
We will keep you informed as to our future decisions for the Nashville trip and Family Weekend.
Given that current guidelines are changing daily, there are no current air travel bans. However, we encourage you to consider limiting your student’s travel plans, just as we may be required to follow state and federal guidelines.
Some families have inquired about preemptively having their student home, while each of you will have different feelings towards this ongoing situation, we want you to know that we respect and support whatever you may decide.
This is changing on a daily basis. As more is learned and we learn from national and local authorities, we will keep you informed through updating this site. As always, should you have more specific questions, please contact your student’s correspondent or any of us.
At this point, prevention is our priority.
Sincerely,
John D. Stewart, M.D.