With the health and safety of students, faculty and staff as its top priority, Eastern Mennonite University continues to respond to COVID-19. The university joins area universities and colleges and K-12 districts in Virginia that have taken unprecedented steps in hopes of slowing the spread of the virus.
In the last few days, the main campus of EMU has requested that students return home unless they request special permission to stay on campus. Instruction has moved online until at least April 3, with the possibility of extending that date.
EMU Lancaster, a non-residential site in Pennsylvania, also moved to online classes this week for the remainder of the semester.
Our hope is that with these measures we will reduce the number of potential infections among the campus community.
The latest actions and other updates can be viewed at www.emu.edu/coronavirus.
Among the resources offered on this webpage is a prayer written by Carmen Schrock-Hurst, instructor in the Bible and religion department. It’s been shared widely on social media and we offer it here as a source of calm in a rapidly changing world.
In the coming days, we’ll share more news from the EMU community. All of us are enduring disruption to our normal routines and holding concern for family and loved ones, among other challenges. In response, we’ve already seen extraordinary compassion and empathy in our interactions across campus, but also in the ways that students, faculty and staff are making connections through a variety of digital communication options (we humans are creative!).
For now, though, we are focusing on the care for our families and the broader community, knowing these are good decisions as world citizens, too.
May we all be granted grace, wisdom and patience as we help each other through this new challenge.