Wake Washington COVID-19 Update

This message was sent on March 13.

Dear Wake Washington Students and Families,

We know you’ve been anxiously awaiting a decision on the Wake Washington program. Through this process, we appreciated the messages from you indicating your support of the program and keeping it up and running if at all possible. It has been our greatest desire to do just that.

After careful evaluation and with the health, safety, and wellbeing of our students as our foremost priority, the University has made the difficult decision to suspend the Spring 2020 Wake Washington program (classes, internships and activities) for the foreseeable future, and to resume classes remotely on March 23, in concurrence with the campus class plan. Any students currently in the apartments for Spring Break are required to vacate their apartments by March 22 at 5:00 pm. Students may be able to continue their internships, remotely or in person, but this will be independent of the Wake Washington program and will be at the discretion of the internship provider.

This decision has been informed by the following recent developments:

• Wake Forest’s decision to suspend all in-person classes and limit campus operations, until further notice. See letter from President Hatch.
• The World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of the 2019 novel coronavirus as a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
• Rapidly developing measures by world governments to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus.
• The University’s decision from earlier today to suspend immediately all Spring 2020 WFU-sponsored semester Study Abroad programs (classes and activities), and to complete the remainder of the term remotely.
• Conversations with internship providers which indicate that many offices anticipate closing for an indefinite period of time, and not all employers have remote working options for interns for a variety of reasons.
• An expectation that much of the city will experience shutdowns, including offices, local schools, venues, and museums, and possibly some public transportation. Many of these closings have already begun.

Wake Washington Housing
Wake Washington housing will close March 22 at 5:00 pm to all students. If students are in the apartment now, we encourage them to make plans as soon as possible to vacate the apartments. If students plan to move out permanently, they will need to fulfill the proper move-out procedures established by Wake Washington. Students may also choose to leave their non-essential belongings until another date, but no later than the previously scheduled move-out date of May 6 at 5:00 p.m.
While we do not encourage travel to D.C. at this time, students who are not in D.C now may request to retrieve their belongings and move out of the apartments at any point, by fulfilling the proper move-out procedures established by Wake Washington. Students should NOT return to D.C. now if coming from abroad or an infected area of the US as per CDC travel advisory link. If students have left essential items in their apartment needed for class, Wake Washington staff can pack those items up and ship them to students until they are ready to fully move out.

Final move-out for all students will be the previously scheduled deadline of May 6 at 5:00 pm.

Wake Washington Classes
All classes and conversations will resume remotely on March 23. The Wake Washington Center will be closed to students for all classes, activities and meetings.

Dr. Harriger will remain in D.C. and in her Wake Washington housing, and will be using the remote teaching facilities at the Wake Washington Center. We will try to ensure all scheduled speakers and panelists will participate in our remote classes. Dr. Harriger will be in touch soon regarding class schedules and plans.

Dr. Harriger will have remote office hours and be available to all students regardless of location.

Wake Washington Internships
All Wake Washington internships will be canceled effectively immediately; however, students have the option of continuing in their internship independently, at the discretion and approval of their supervisor.

Jennifer Richwine will alert all internship providers of this decision, and will encourage them to offer to extend the internship remotely, as appropriate, if the student desires to continue. Students should wait to communicate with their internship providers until Jennifer has emailed the providers and copied the students.

The 6 credits and grade for the internship related work will be determined by the internship work done to this point, the weekly journals to date, the Friday activities to date, any future remote Friday activities we are able to schedule, and the research paper draft and final paper. Dr. Harriger will be in touch with further information.

Jennifer will be available to all Wake Washington students for the remainder of the semester and beyond, for remote consultations on the current internships, future internships, jobs, career advice, alumni connections, etc.

Friday Activities
All Friday in-person tours and visits have been suspended. However, we will work with speakers already planned for Fridays, as appropriate, to offer talks and conversations remotely.

***Student Decisions***
It is important that you let us know your travel and housing situation as soon as possible, including the essentials you need shipped to you. You can let us know your plans here.

We understand this situation is causing considerable anxiety and is challenging everyone to work collectively to respond to these unforeseen circumstances. Visit the WFU COVID-19 website for additional information on WFU’s response.

Please do not hesitate to contact either one of us with any questions. We are both available as needed, and our contact information is below.

Jennifer Richwine
richwijl@wfu.edu
336.391.2642 (cell)
336.391.4050 (office)

Katy Harriger
harriger@wfu.edu
336.407.6786 (cell)