Dear Friends,
This is the first of what I hope will be brief regular messages from me to share some of the ways our University is faring during this pandemic. We are all dealing with uncertainty and anxiety right now, but as we make our way together over the coming weeks and months, I’m confident we will be a stronger and more resilient community.
I took a solitary walk on the River Campus last week, on a sunny early spring day. Normally, a day like this would bring everyone outside, and the Eastman Quad would be filled with music and Frisbees, people studying in groups, or friends lounging next to each other in hammocks strung up between two trees. But as I walked, I encountered no one. It was as if I was in a ghost town; it was unsettling and sad.
Over the years, I have experienced the peace that descends on a campus, during Winter or Spring Break or right after Commencement, when students have departed for other locations. But the stillness and emptiness I sensed during this walk was a different experience entirely. It caused me to think about where everyone was, and to wonder how they were doing wherever they were spending this isolating time. My first thought was to hope everyone is well and safe – our community is now dispersed around the world in different home environments, with a range of personal and family responsibilities added to the normal routine of school assignments, teaching, and work. My second thought was to wish that we could all be together again, sooner rather than later.
Despite the stillness, I know our campus is still active: students are learning; teachers are teaching; staff are adjusting to the challenges of remote work. We have 800 students who remain on campus—both international and domestic students who could not return home. These students are practicing social distancing, too, and taking all their classes online. I know for them, being away from family and friends is particularly difficult.
And the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) is getting busier by the day. Truly, our brave and dedicated doctors and nurses, lab techs and pharmacists, administrators and other URMC staff deserve our sincere thanks and support. The daily morning briefings I receive on the progress of COVID-19 in the region are sobering, and I am so grateful for our URMC team. They are our heroes.
I am thinking of them, and I am thinking of all of you. I will write again soon, but until then, take care of yourself and please stay in touch — virtually, of course — with us on the web and social media.
Most of all, be well,
Sarah