For all of us at Transylvania, the rapidly changing nature of the COVID-19 situation has placed much added emphasis on ensuring the health and safety of our university community. There is no higher priority.
We know that many important decisions will have to be made over the next few days and weeks. We also know that information on COVID-19 and how our local, state and federal authorities are responding to it is changing almost by the hour.
Our administration is meeting daily to monitor developments, and we are regularly issuing updates related to this health situation. Today we want to provide an update to you on where we are now and what resources are available to students, faculty, staff and our community.
- On Monday, March 16, we issued guidance to our federal work study students. In accordance with updated Department of Education guidelines, we will be able to continue to pay them their normal work study earnings while they are away from campus.
- Our Office of Housing and Residence Life has been working closely with students who need to retrieve items from their residence halls and with students who have been approved to remain on campus for the duration of our alternate schedule. Take-out food service is available from Bon Appétit for those on campus.
- Last week, our Office of Global and Intercultural Engagement helped facilitate the immediate return of our students who were studying abroad this semester and wished to return home. Students studying in Europe and Asia have now returned to their permanent residences in the U.S.
- In order to reduce the number of staff members on campus, we are encouraging as many employees as possible to work remotely or on rotational schedules to facilitate social distancing. Meetings, including the final interviews for our vice president for academic affairs, are taking place online.
- Since early February, we have provided updates on Transylvania’s response on the 1780 blog. You’ll find those updates at www.transy.edu/health-alert. Beginning today, we have a Frequently Asked Questions page that will include information that has already been distributed via email and online.
Please know that we will continue to provide updates on university activities and decisions in the days and weeks ahead and ask that you continue to monitor your email and our online resources for what is happening at Transylvania.