LHU President, Robert Pignatello, answered questions from Professor Sharon Stringer’s Writing for the Mass Media class over Zoom concerning the university and COVID-19 on Monday.
Pignatello expressed the difficulty of adjusting from spending time with students, faculty, and staff daily to working from home.
“We need to practice the physical distancing, that’s really important,” said Pignatello, “but we need to stay connected socially.”
Celebrations and events are postponed or cancelled at the university. Senior students who planned to graduate on May 9 asked questions about graduation, while athletes asked questions about the annual talent celebration. Pignatello announced that LHU is planning a virtual celebration to recognize the graduating seniors and that Lock Haven intends to have an in-person commencement ceremony when able. LHU athletes will have a virtual sports award ceremony planned for the end of this month.
The student activities office is offering virtual activities like trivia Tuesday to connect with students. Pignatello reminded students that LHU’s Haven Cupboard is available to students that live on-campus and off-campus.
Pignatello believes that the return to business-as-usual will be incremental. He said, “We’re not going to be going from red light to green light. We’re probably going to go from red light to yellow light, in terms of getting back to regular activities.”
Pignatello said that less than 25 students remain on campus due to extenuating circumstances. He said that the staff is staying in constant contact with those individuals to ensure their personal and academic needs are taken care of. Students staying in Evergreen Commons have the option to get out of their lease without financial penalty to go home to their families. Many international students went home once they learned that classes would be remote.
The president said that LHU will remain flexible for students in need of living arrangements during the summer and fall. The University will consider how to support students with extenuating circumstances.
The university also recently announced the option to change from letter grades to the satisfactory and unsatisfactory option. Stringer said, “[Students] could identify to which course [they] want [to apply] the satisfactory or unsatisfactory.”
There are eight positive COVID-19 cases in Clinton County. No cases have been identified on-campus. However, the university is working towards preventing potential infections with people on campus.
Pignatello said, “Just like we have been doing from the very beginning, we’ve been following the advice of the government, the guidelines, the advice of the experts, and will continue to follow that going into the future. We can all speculate what that will look like, but we’re going to continue to do things that are in best interest of the health and safety of our students and what the experts are recommending for us to be safe.”
