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Announcement of Precautionary Dormitory Closure

March 12th, 2020


March 12, 2020


Dear Lyndon Institute Community:

To say that the situation involving the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus is rapidly evolving is an understatement at best.  In response, LI’s administrative team is in frequent discussion about how to best protect the welfare of our students and staff.  Our goal has been, and will continue to be, proactive rather than reactive.

In the last 24 hours, a series of events has prompted us to consider taking other steps toward safeguarding the welfare of our students.  First, the World Health Organization formally declared the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus a pandemic.  While some health and policy experts have said that use of this language is mostly symbolic, it does underscore the seriousness of the rapid spread of this disease.

Second, President Trump has announced that the United States will soon prohibit travel to the United States from most of Europe for non-US citizens.  We are concerned that other nations might do the same, meaning that many of our international students would not be able to travel home during this decree.

We have very carefully considered both our options and our responsibilities.  In the end, we have made the extremely difficult decision to send all of our residential students home and close our dormitories for the time being.  We expect that by Tuesday, March 17, all residential students will have left Lyndon Institute and returned home.  We are also hopeful that should this crisis subside before the official end of the school year, our residential students will be able to return to campus and rejoin our community.  In the meantime, we will provide our residential students with the ability to continue their studies via distance learning.

Again, this is a very difficult decision for us and we recognize the pain and anxiety that this will likely cause.  In the end, however, our ultimate responsibility is to protect the well-being of our students.  While this is a difficult decision, we also believe it is the right decision.


Sincerely,

Twiladawn Perry
Head of School

Posted in the category Front Page.

Comments

Leah Benedict
4 years, 5 days ago
Good work