When I find myself facing trying times, either personally or professionally, I return to the wisdom passed down to our 2019 graduates by retired Army SSG Travis Mills: “You can’t control your situation, but you can always control your attitude.”

 

With every day it becomes increasingly clear that our mobilization to combat COVID-19 goes well beyond Unity College. It goes well beyond higher education, our region, or our nation. Everyone in the world is facing this challenge together, no matter what industry we work in or where we live. This is a global pandemic unlike any in modern times. 

 

These are days when, frankly, we all have more questions than answers. The situation is changing hour by hour. Of course, that uncertainty makes all of us – students, staff, and faculty alike – feel uneasy. As SSG Mills said, we cannot control this situation. We can, however, choose how we move forward. As I see it, we have two paths before us: we can adapt to the situation at hand and move forward with clear purpose, or we can freeze in place and lose control of our destiny. Standing still is not the Unity College way. Like our students, we learn and adapt. When faced with obstacles, we overcome them. We relearn and readapt if necessary. But we do not give up. Our mission and the students we serve are far too important for us to do that.

 

Guided by recommendations from federal, state, and professional organizations, we have been working hard to address this evolving situation by instituting changes to campus practices. Currently there are no suspected cases on our campus, but we recognize that conditions are changing rapidly, and we are not immune to the spread of this virus. In the interest of the health and safety of our students and employees, we have transitioned to remote instruction and co-curricular activities for our Residential Flagship Campus . These measures are in place until further notice. Our COVID-19 webpage provides updates as needed.

 

Every student has been assigned a staff liaison to assist with logistical considerations and other concerns until we resume normal operations. We are committed to ensuring that our students earn the academic credits they are pursuing and can graduate without delay.

 

In a world of uncertainty, it is reassuring to know positive attitudes remain prevalent. In fact, recently a foundation who currently supports us programmatically sent us a significant unsolicited gift to help us with any unanticipated interruptions in revenue from COVID-19. We are sincerely appreciative of their generosity and thought others might have the same desire. If you’d like to express your support, please visit us online . In the meantime, we continue to adapt and move forward with positive attitudes. I hope the same for you.

 

In Unity,

 

Dr. Melik Peter Khoury

President, Unity College