Email Update from Joe Keegan

March 20, 2020

Greetings to you all,

On behalf of all of us at North Country Community College, I want to extend our warmest regards to you and yours and I hope this finds you all healthy and well. As I trust you know, our greatest strength is our North Country community. Students find that the faculty and staff are kind and compassionate, care about them as students and as individuals, and help them navigate through College and prepare for their future. It often feels like we are part of a large extended family.

Yesterday, the Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), Kristina Johnson, expressed a similar sentiment and commitment on behalf of SUNY. Dr. Johnson and her team have been working tirelessly in front and behind the scenes to help our students and campus community find our way through this novel coronavirus pandemic. I encourage you all to read her letter to you.

North Country Community College shares with SUNY that the number one priority is the safety and well-being of our students and campus community. That is why we sought out and took guidance from our Governor, SUNY and regional health partners on how best to protect against and prevent the spread of COVID-19. You are all too aware of those steps that include extending our spring break, limiting access to campus, moving to online learning and encouraging our residential students to return home, where possible.

While necessary, these steps also have created disruptions for you. We are committed to helping you find the success you are working toward. Classes will resume, students will graduate, and new opportunities for learning will arise for us all.  I have faith in you and in us that we will find our way through this together.

Many questions remain that we just don’t have the answer to yet but are working on. Those include:

• whether ceremonies such as commencement, nursing pinnings and awards recognitions will go forward as planned.
• specifics on how room, board and activity fees will be credited – this is forthcoming.

As with so much associated with this crisis, we ask that you be patient as we work our way through all of these and more. We will be in touch as we know more.

Finally, the most important thing we can do is to support and care for another. In the 52 years of our existence, there have been many crises which we have weathered. Together, we will weather this one too. Stay well, take good care of yourself and your loved ones. I look forward to the day when we can all be together again.

Joe