Good Morning:

First, I want to share with you the great news that all of our students and colleagues who were exposed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak at Life Care Center of Kirkland are out of self-quarantine, and doing well. I’m incredibly thankful that they are all doing well.

As you know, on Monday evening, Governor Inslee issued a statewide order to “Stay Home, Stay Healthy,” March 25 through April 6. In his order, he outlined who and what was considered essential during this time. I thought it would be helpful if I outlined the specifics, as they relate to higher education, and more specifically, LWTech.

LWTech will continue to serve students online during this this two week period. As you know, students and faculty are currently on a much deserved spring break.

Faculty return on April 6. Spring quarter classes will start April 7, with all classes online for the first week. Starting the second week, some classes will stay online for the remainder of the quarter, some will be hybrid with the on-campus portion occurring later in the quarter, and some classes some will be held on campus starting on April 13 with social distancing, per the Governor’s executive order. We will communicate this plan to all students in the coming days, and of course, please remain flexible as the situation could change.

Also, with the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy order,” there will not be in-person testing until after April 6. We know this will impact some of our programs. We will have more information about this in the coming days. If you need to submit any documents to admissions, registration, financial aid, or workforce development, we have secure online document upload options. Just let us know, and we can talk you through the process over the phone. You can reach our Student Services team at (425) 739-8104.

I know this is continues to be an incredibly stressful time for our college community. Not only are you having to make adjustments at work, you’re also making adjustments at home. Even with all of this change, the robust work of the college continues. So many of you have been working diligently to prepare for Spring quarter as we are starting to shift to how we work and deliver online instruction beginning April 7.

Our teams in Instruction and Student Services have been incredibly creative and innovative with designing equitable ways for our students to move to online instruction, and advising, for Spring quarter. We are also looking at how to move the normal business of the college to an online/remote format, including scheduling a Zoom All-Staff meeting once Spring quarter gets underway, and the team in Institutional Research is working on getting out this year’s employee survey. We will have more on both of those activities and others soon.

Our community of belonging is strong, and we are resilient. I, along with Executive Cabinet are here for you, and as I’ve said before, we have your backs, and the Board of Trustees stands firmly in support of our college. Thank you for your patience as we, together, create an equitable learning and working environment for our students, and each other.

Finally, I’d like to thank Dr. Aparna Sen and Dr. Lauren Cline for gathering and delivering a substantial PPE donation from our Nursing program to EvergreenHealth yesterday. As you know there is a tremendous shortage. I’m so grateful that we were able to do this for our hospital and industry partner.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me, any time. My next college-wide communication will be next week, unless there are new developments, in which case I will update you immediately.

Stay well, take care of yourselves, and each other,

Amy

Dr. Amy Morrison

President, Lake Washington Institute of Technology