UPDATE: March 19, 2020
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s order closing all non-life sustaining businesses in the state poses additional complications for Wilson College’s plans to provide remote instruction. Therefore, the College will extend spring break until March 30, 2020.
Updated March 20, 2020
Dear Families of Wilson Students,
The Wilson College leadership team has been meeting daily, sometimes multiple times a day, to plan and prepare for the continued operation of the College during this very uncertain time. As many of you now know, Governor Wolf’s most recent order threw us a ‘curveball’ and poses a few new challenges for our plans to offer remote instruction. But, we are working through them and with an additional week of preparation and our tremendous faculty’s help, I am confident we will be ready to resume remote classes by March 30.
This most recent order has now also required that we discontinue move-out of the residence halls until further notice. This decision is intended to further limit the volume of people traveling through the state and potentially spreading the coronavirus. Only residential students with a specific need, that is considered an emergency, may be granted access to their dorm rooms for a short period of time to retrieve medication and personal health items, books and course materials, electronic devices for educational purposes, and/or important personal documents. These will be considered on a case-by-case basis only, and to obtain permission, your residential student must either email our director of residential life, Ryan Coll at ryan.coll@wilson.edu or email me at Marybeth.williams@wilson.edu.
Below are a few more decisions senior college leadership reached this morning.
• Spring II classes for online graduate programs and TOP will begin March 23 as originally scheduled. All other classes will resume March 30 via remote instruction, including some undergraduate physical education classes running for Spring II. No coursework will occur physically on campus.
• Academic Affairs is working on a modified academic calendar to address advising, registration and the last day to withdraw. April 10, 2020, Good Friday, will be considered a class day for students and faculty. There are no plans to extend the spring semester at this time. (We want to limit the impact to the summer session as much as possible.) Our Dean of Faculty, Elissa Heil, will work directly with faculty on how to make-up the missed instruction time.
• A decision regarding Commencement will be shared by March 31. Likewise, a decision regarding Reunion 2020 will be shared by April 6.
• Until further notice, window service at the campus post office will only be available Monday and Thursday each week, from 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Please encourage your students to check their college email and the Wilson Portal often for updates. This is an unprecedented time. Please know we areworking diligently through some of the finer details and will communicate them when available. Make sure to bookmark the College’s webpage on COVID-19. It has many helpful resources, and soon will have additional details on topics mentioned above in a robust Q&A section, tips on preventative measures, and much more. It will also include the most up-to-date information on college operations.
If you have questions, please reach out to me via email, and I will respond with answers as I am able.
Take care, and stay well!
Dean Mary Beth
Mary Beth Williams, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Development
& Dean of Students
marybeth.williams@wilson.edu
