COVID-19 Message to students from Anne Chapdelaine

November 18, 2020

Dear Wildcats and your families,

I join President Doran in expressing pride in our students for sharing and accepting the responsibility of helping to keep each other healthy over these past months. We are grateful to our Wildcats for wearing their masks, maintaining social distance, and getting tested regularly. Thanks to our collective efforts, the rate of COVID-19 cases on campus has stayed far below the average being experienced at other institutions.

But we also recognize that many external factors are out of our control. With the surge in cases across the northeast, and with new state mandates prohibiting travel, we have decided to move all classes to remote learning and close our residence halls as of the Thanksgiving break through the end of this semester.

What this means to you

Classes: Starting Monday, November 30, all classes that are currently running as face-to-face and/or hybrid, campus-based courses will be delivered completely online through the end of the Fall 2020 semester.

All classes that are currently running online will proceed as scheduled with no interruption.

Residence Halls: Effective November 25th, at 9 am, our residence halls will be closed. Students currently living in the residence halls will be asked to leave campus by that date and time and not return to campus after the Thanksgiving break. When departing from campus, students should make sure to bring everything they need with them. Although you may leave personal belongings safely in your room during the winter break, students will not be allowed to return to campus until the Spring 2021 semester.

Students who have already left for break may not have taken everything they need for this extended time. Students needing to retrieve additional belongings will have an opportunity to do so by making arrangements in advance with the office of residential life by emailing residencelife@baypath.edu.

For students who will no longer be living on campus: please know that residence hall keys must be returned before you leave. Be on the lookout for additional information from residence life regarding key collection.

Students not permitted to live in residence halls during this period will receive a credit on their student account based upon the number of board days cancelled.

Students with significant extenuating circumstances that prevent them from returning home as of Nov. 25th can apply to remain in housing by filling out the application to remain in residency by no later than Friday 11/20/2020. Students who are approved to remain in housing will be required to move into Wright Hall effective November 25th, by 10 am. Please note that the dining hall will be closed as of Tuesday evening Nov. 24th but the kitchen in Wright Hall will be available for use. More information to follow.

Student IDs: ID access will be turned off for all commuter and residential students as of Wednesday, November 25th.

COVID-19 testing: Bay Path strongly encourages students to get tested on Monday 11/23 or Tuesday 11/24, prior to leaving campus, regardless of when their last COVID-19 test was. This way families may feel a little safer knowing their loved ones are returning home with a negative test.

Please utilize the testing schedule found on the Welcome tab of the My Bay Path portal to access the registration calendar and schedule your test.

Student and prospective student events: with the decision to close the residence halls and move classes online, a number of related decisions have been made. All scheduled on ground or community fall events will be cancelled or delivered virtually when possible. Campus tours will still be available for prospective students and their families, with protocols in place as outlined in the email sent earlier this week.

We believe these actions provide the best path forward for our University’s return to in-person learning and on-campus living in the spring semester. We will look forward to welcoming students back on Sunday, January 17, 2021.

For those of us who celebrate, Thanksgiving will most likely look very different this year with perhaps only a few close family members around the table instead of the gobs of extended family and friends many of us are used to. I look forward to visiting with extended family virtually and am choosing to be thankful that we live in a time where such things are even possible. I wish you, your families, and friends the very best. May we all look to find things to be grateful for this year, in spite of its difficulties. Together, we can help lift each other up!

Thank You,

Dean Anne
Anne Chapdelaine
Dean of Students and Director of Persistence