Covid-19

Friday Update Regarding Covid-19

THIS POST IS A REPUBLISHED VERSION OF AN EMAIL COMMUNICATION SENT BY AUP PRESIDENT CELESTE M. SCHENCK ON MARCH 13, 2020, ABOUT COVID-19 AND AUP'S RESPONSE. IT IS PART OF OUR SAFETY & SECURITY BLOG THAT ROUNDS UP ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND UPDATES FOR OUR COMMUNITY.

Dear AUP Students,

As we approach the weekend after this momentous week, I wish each of you a few days of rest and recuperation. I have spoken to many of you over the past week, and I know that some of you, especially seniors, are feeling something akin to grief at the thought of your semester being up-ended and your plans for your final months in classes you love and with friends you cherish held in abeyance. The same is true for visiting students who came to AUP for the year, and for all our stalwart degree-seeking students. Please know that it is perfectly normal to feel sad or stressed at what we in our community, but also people all over the world, are experiencing. We feel it too: your teachers, AUP staff members who work with you daily, and leadership. It is difficult for us to close our physical campus to students. Nonetheless, it is through our cooperation and solidarity with health advisories that the development of Covid-19 will ultimately be reduced. I remind again you to wash your hands assiduously, to practice social distancing, and to reduce participation in large groups. That is how we can all contribute to keeping our elders and the most vulnerable safe.   

Many AUP students have chosen to remain in France and to continue learning from their apartments and rented chambres, and we are getting organized to support those who have both academically and emotionally. We’ll shortly be assigning students staying in Paris to a staff mentor, who will reach out frequently to you in groups during this period to connect you to others and to us. We are inventing new ways of maintaining our sense of community through a host of online means.

I want to share a few additional key points with you. Please read the following carefully:

  1. In order to participate in remote learning as of Wednesday, March 18, and whether you decide to stay in Paris or return home, you must fill out the Remote Learning Request form so we can keep track of your decision and inform your professors.
  2. In compliance with President Macron’s decision to close all universities, your AUP ID card will be temporarily deactivated starting Saturday, March 14, at 22:00 and until campus reopens. Please don’t hesitate to come to campus today or tomorrow to take care of any essential business before campus closes.
  3. If you need information about closing bank accounts, canceling phone plans, and accessing mail and packages, please consult this FAQ, which we update regularly. Reach out to Student Development for further support as necessary (studentdevelopmentataup.edu).

Please know that we intend to reopen our campus as soon as we are given the green light to do so. If we cannot gather in Paris for graduation, we will create a way to celebrate it together online. For you who have already gone home or will be doing so soon, count on us to guide and accompany you by remote means right through to the end of the semester, and to keep you apprised of developments in France.

It is AUP’s mission – in the memorable words of our founder – to educate you to "transcend the bounds of narrow nationalisms," reaching across cultural borders with generosity and courage in an effort to find dignified solutions to the most pressing issues of our time. We believe fervently that it is an international education such as ours that will prepare the next generation of leaders to work across cultures in order to better address and resolve issues such as the global Covid-19 situation. Whether you have been enrolled in this institution for one semester, or you’ve been a longstanding member of our learning community, you are a citizen of the world as much as of your country. We must practice responsible global citizenship during this challenging time as much, if not more, than ever.

Our communications to students and families will resume on Monday after we all take this weekend to rest. Each of you knows how to reach us in case of emergency.

Yours,

Celeste Schenck