Appalachian Connections
April 2020

Message from Chancellor Sheri Everts

Thank you for your many expressions of understanding and encouragement as we work to protect the health and safety of our students and continue to advance our academic mission. It seems nearly each day brings new updates associated with COVID-19. In particular, on-campus housing and dining refunds have been a top concern among students and their families, and we were very pleased to be able to communicate the specific details about the processing of these refunds yesterday, which you can read in full here. Thank you for your patience as we worked to find answers to this and other important questions. As this complicated situation continues to unfold, we will continue providing regular updates to campus, as well as to families. These communications are posted here.

With our first two weeks of online instruction complete, we are seeing faculty, staff and students working diligently to transition from in-person instruction and experiences to online platforms, and to share ideas for how the Appalachian Community can make the most out of time away from campus. For instance, Appalachian’s student-run media have begun producing content remotely, and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts has created free, themed bundles of art supplies complete with instructions. We are documenting these and other stories of the Appalachian Community’s resilience and innovation in a series called “Mountaineers moving mountains” on the Appalachian Today news and events website. We want to hear the stories of your students as well! Please share them with us via email at stories@appstate.edu.

Our Mountaineer Emergency Fund continues to see great demand from students who have lost jobs or who are experiencing significant hardship because of COVID-19. With the fund just over 10 days old, we have already seen in excess of 600 applications for assistance from students who face major obstacles in order to finish the final weeks of this semester. If you are in a position to give to this fund, please consider doing so.

I thank all of you who have shared your stories with me, contributed to the Mountaineer Emergency Fund, and engaged with us via social media and in other ways. On behalf of our entire faculty and staff, I acknowledge these connections are even more meaningful given the physical and social distance, and the challenges we continue to face.

We all value our Appalachian families near and far, and are thinking of you every day.