Dear UMW Parents, Family Members, and Guardians,
Hello from Mary Washington! I wanted to share with you the information sent to residential students this afternoon about our revised process to retrieve belongings (see below). As the message notes, we consulted and received guidelines from state public health officials to allow for individual students to retrieve belongings if they so choose; students may also wait to pick up their belongings, and we will follow up later with you about that process.
I also want to inform you that Mary Washington has had two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our employee community; the campus messages are on the UMW COVID website. Both affected members are staff members, and neither works with Residence Life and Housing. The Virginia Department of Health has followed up with notification and guidance to those who had direct contact with these two individuals. We are monitoring their progress closely and sending them our best.
A few weeks into this pandemic, our students are missing campus and one another. We also miss them terribly. Thinking of our students, I dusted off one of my favorite videos from 2016. We asked students to recount their experiences and to give advice to new Eagles about transition to UMW. Here it is.
Several of my colleagues have been talking about how we can help you, our families, support our students. I have included some articles below. In the remote learning environment, students are benefiting right now from structure, physical exercise, and meaningful activities. But most of all, they value social connection. All of us do. We have loved hearing stories of our students playing games virtually with one another, for instance, and doing online yoga. For more messages of support, I wanted you to see the wonderful video of a virtual campus tour made by our Men’s Lacrosse coach, Drew Delaney. In addition, this video from Gregg Stull, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, is remarkable in exemplifying the faculty and staff’s love and support for our community.
What has been working in your homes or, if your student does not live with you, what have you heard from them? Feel free to send me an email with a response or with any questions or comments. Your insight helps us tremendously.
Sending warm thoughts your way,
Juliette Landphair, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
University of Mary Washington
(540) 654-1062
jlandpha@umw.edu
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